tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73021997140852833882024-02-20T04:40:53.466-08:00Amber and Tim's World Travel BlogFollow Amber and Tim on their world traveling adventures. Country count: 32Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16180488436856916476noreply@blogger.comBlogger137125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302199714085283388.post-86071036493544777942014-08-06T22:41:00.000-07:002017-02-05T21:33:23.550-08:00New Travel Hacking Site - Free Globetrot<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Amber and I are back in Alaska for the summer, working... In my spare time I've started writing a travel hacking blog that shares tips for traveling the world on a budget. I talk about ways to collect miles and points with credit card sign ups and other creative methods. If it is something you are interested in, check it out and follow the blog.<br />
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<a href="http://www.freeglobetrot.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">freeglobetrot.com</span></a></div>
<a href="http://www.hypersmash.com/hostgator/" id="ot324">more info</a>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16180488436856916476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302199714085283388.post-18577323684847472082014-04-03T19:32:00.001-07:002014-04-03T19:32:28.217-07:00Santiago, Chile<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Amber: We had a lot of fun in Santiago. Tim and I had a couple days to explore before Tim's folks joined us for three weeks of traveling throughout Chili and Argentina. Tim booked us at a nice hostel and we got to experience our second ever in a shared room. Our first was in San Pedro de Atacama. Considering we have traveled three winters as budget vagabonds, we have been really spoiled as we found that in most countries its just as affordable to stay the two of us in a twin room as it is to rent two bunks in a shared dorm room. Not so in Chili! Housing is pretty pricey compared to what we are used to, so we finally broke down and stayed in dorms. We were very fortunate, both places were quiet and clean with no creeper dorm mates. And it came with a kitchen, so more cooking in for us! The food is expensive in Chili, and we had not had much luck finding local dishes we loved. <br />
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Considering Santiago is a really big city, I really liked it. The public transit system is clean and efficient and in the University district we were staying in, the walking streets, shops and wine cafes were very nice. The streets were lined with big oak trees, and parks were everywhere. We climbed up two hills that had been turned into parks in the two days we waited for Robin and Valerie to join us. We had lost about 10 pounds each during our first part of our trip in Peru and into Chili, so we did our last bit of exercise before the Chilean and Argentine wine tasting began!<br />
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Tim: We arrived in Santiago two days before my parents were to arrive. Santiago is a city of over 7 million people. We were happy to find a very efficient public transportation system that included a good network of subways. The airport is located 20 kilometers from the downtown of the city so we opted for a bus that dropped us off at the subway line that would take us into the downtown area. <br />
The subway brought us to within 300 meters of our hostel called Poker Hostel. Our hostel was located in a very chic area near the Catholic University. There were many pleasant cafes and restaurants within 100 meters of our hostel.<br />
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Our first day in Santiago we checked out the Santa Lucia hill just 200 meters from our hostel. The hill is a park with a beautiful fountain and stair case. There are several pathways that lead up to the top lookout which gives excellent views of the surrounding city with the backdrop of the Andes Mountains.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16180488436856916476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302199714085283388.post-59803101514674956402014-04-02T14:44:00.000-07:002014-04-02T14:44:11.295-07:00Northern Chile - San Pedro de Atacama<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Tim: We arrived in Chile with only 14 days to reach Santiago in time to meet up with my parents. Our original plan was to bus the entire Northern portion of the country. Our friend Jess was also traveling in South America and was currently in Bolivia not to far from us. If we were able to stay a few more days in Northern Chile we would be able to meet up with Jess and her friend Tammy in San Pedro de Atacama, the most popular tourist attraction in Northern Chile. This meant that we would not have sufficient time to bus so we would need to fly.<br />
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We were able to use some of our free mileage to catch a flight from nearby Calama to Santiago saving us some 21 hours of bus rides. Yeah!<br />
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Looking for a deal I found a good rate on a rental car for our 5 day stay in San Pedro de Atacama. First we had to bus from Iquique to Calama, then take a taxi to the airport so we could pick up our rental car then drive 1 1/2 hours to San Pedro. I paid for the cheapest smallest rental car that was available, but on arrival we were upgraded to a midsize 4 door, 4x4, diesel Nissan pickup truck. We were happy for the upgrade. It took a few minutes to get use to driving again as I had not drive in almost two months since leaving the US.<br />
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We had two days in San Pedro de Atacama before our friend Jess arrived. Our first day we visited some ancient petraglyphs and what was called the rainbow valley. The valley was so named because of the different colors of the rocks because of different salt concentrations. The area is absolutely a desert. It was very very dry with cool weather in the morning turning to blazing hot by mid afternoon.<br />
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It turned out to be a good thing we got upgraded to the 4x4 truck. Many of the side roads we traveled on were in ill repair and very bumpy.<br />
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On our second day we lounged around our guesthouse till late afternoon in hopes the temperatures would cool off. We jumped in the truck and headed for Laguna Cejar. This small lake more like a pond is located just 15 kilometers from town following a dirt road into the middle of the salt flats of San Pedro de Atacama. We arrived at the pool and paid the $2.50 USD entrance fee. The pool is one of the only lakes that you are allowed to swim in. The lake just 70 meters across is similar in salinity to the Dead Sea. This makes it impossible to drown.<br />
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I usually sink in swimming pools, but the water was so salty that I could cross my arms and legs and the top of my shoulders and head would still be completely out of the water. It was actually difficult to swim with your belly down and you could not use your legs to kick because doing so would force your head into the water. You do not want to put your head into the water because the water is too salty.<br />
The water was quite cold and after 15 minutes in the water you need to get out and warm yourself in the sun. Once you dry in the sun it is as few you covered yourself in table salt and you can bruss off layers of dried salt from your skin.<br />
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The next afternoon Jess and Tammy arrived after a long day of busing from the Uni Salt Flats of Bolivia. The chose a hostel down the street from our place. We had planned a trip to the Valle de Luna for the afternoon. The Valle de Luna is the biggest attraction in the area. It is a desolate landscape that is compared to the surface of the moon. NASA even tested out moon rovers here. We got a little lost trying to navigate into the valley. The scenery was very beautiful.<br />
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Amber: San Pedro de Atacama was so pretty! And so unlike anything I've ever seen. I kept telling Tim that if anyone wanted to make a really convincing movie on how I imagined Hell, this would be the place. Hot and dry and you will die if you some how get stranded. From it being so hot and dry. <br />
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We had a great time exploring the desert. We walked on salt flats, saw ancient petroglifs, crazy green, pink, black and crystallized-brown-mud mountains, floated in a salt pool, hiked through crazy salt tunnels, got up at four am to see geysers that have the highest elevation in the world, and boiled beans for over ten hours. As it turns out, for beans, you never ever add salt to them until they are done cooking. We learned this the hard way, and went hungry for most of two meals and made our hostel host hate us for the amount of gas we burned boiling them trying get them to soften up. Lesson learned! LOL.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16180488436856916476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302199714085283388.post-28476598019789627712014-04-02T14:43:00.003-07:002014-04-02T14:43:56.698-07:00Northern Chile - Iquique<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Tim: After four days in Arica, we boarded a bus for Iquique. The bust trip took longer than expected because of road construction that stopped us to different times. The trip took almost 7 hours. We arrive in Iquique in the late afternoon. Iquique is much larger and more developed than Arica. The beach front was canvassed with high-rise condos and five star hotels. There was even a large casino 50 meters from the beach.<br />
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We stayed at the Raddison Iquique for free using points from one of our many credit cards. The hotel was very nice and located right on the beach. Our room had a beautiful view overlooking the water. The only downside was its location on the outskirts of town which made it necessary to hire a taxi to get to the middle of town. We enjoyed to relaxing days by the beach. Ate at a good sushi restaurant and went to the cinema and watched a movie.<br />
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The terrain of Iquique is similar to the Miraflores District in Lima because the city is located at sea level on the beach. Immediately behind the city are towering sand cliffs that climb 300 meters before leveling off. This makes the backdrop of the city not very pretty, but the sandy beaches were very nice.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16180488436856916476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302199714085283388.post-30053151215329382152014-04-02T13:15:00.001-07:002014-04-02T13:31:36.888-07:00Northern Chile - Arica<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Tim: We crossed into Arica, Chile from Tacna, Peru without issue. The process was simple. We jumped on a collectivo (shared taxi) for about $10 USD each. The driver drove us an 3 other people to the Peruvian boarder crossing, then continued on to the Chilean boarder crossing before dropping us off at the main bus station in Arica. Arica is on the beach; the area is very arid and sandy with very few trees or plants of any kind.<br />
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Our guest house was called Hostel Sunny Days. It was owned by an older man from New Zealand who was very friendly and accommodating. The cost of hostels is much more expensive in Chile than it was in Peru. The most we ever paid for a room in Peru was around $30 USD. Our first night in Chile cost $40 USD. Even with the additional expensive the property was nicer than most we stayed at in Peru. The complimentary breakfast was very good. The free breakfast in Peru was often simple bread with margarine and jam along with tea or coffee.<br />
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Our guesthouse provided free use of boogie boards which Amber and I used for two days. We enjoyed the beach which was fairly undeveloped.<br />
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Chile is two hours ahead of Peru even though the two countries are about on the same longitude. Chile is even an hour ahead of Bolivia which is significantly more to the east. As a result it doesn't get light in Arica till 8 am and sunset was not until 8 PM. This made for some nice evening strolls. This also put the heat of the day at around 5 PM. We enjoyed the beach so much that we both got pretty bad sunburn.<br />
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One of our days in Arica we chose to go on a tour of the distant Lauca National Park. The highlight was a beautifully formed snowy volcano with a lovely high altitude lake at the base. The drive took us from 0 feet to over 15,000 feet in 4 hours.<br />
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Our original plan was to stay in Arica only one or two nights, but we ended up staying for 4 nights. We liked the well equipped kitchen at the hostel that allowed us to cook for ourselves from the local market. Produce was cheap so we bought lots of avocado and mango. We even made delicious fajitas to evenings in a row.<br />
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Amber: Tim and I loved our 45 days in Peru, but we were excited to experience another South American country; Chili! And after retiring my passport and getting a brand new one for this trip, I was excited to get more stamps in my new, shiny, very empty passport! After being inland a lot in Peru, we enjoyed the sun and water in Erika, perhaps too much! Both of us should have known better considering how very sunburned we got our first day of buggy boarding. It was just too nice to be in the ocean, and we were having too much fun!<br />
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The tour to the Lauca National Park was a day long bus ride with many stops at very touristy road side shops. Everyone but Tim and I were delighted to purchase Llama wool hats, alpaca sweaters, and other nick nacks. We had seen our fill in Peru, and really just wanted to get to the beautiful park. We finally arrived, and after viewing the absolutely gorgeous snow capped volcano perched right next to a crystal blue lake for about 30 minutes (calendar page for sure for my silly yearly calendar!!) our tour boarded back onto our bus, and we drove back to Erica. Wish we could have skipped all the stops and gone hiking, but oh well. The photos were amazing!!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16180488436856916476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302199714085283388.post-48152320106729781572014-03-02T07:58:00.001-08:002014-03-02T07:58:27.271-08:00Huaraz and the Cordillera Blanca<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Tim: Amber and I made a quick return to Lima after our time in the Amazon and continued on directly to Huaraz. From the Lima airport we took a short cab ride to the Plaza Norte Terminal for a comfortable 8 hour bus ride to Huaraz. We arrived in Huaraz at 10 PM. We already had reservations at a nearby Hotel.<br />
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The Cordillera Blanca Mountain range is the second highest mountain range in the world after the Himalayas with many mountains over 6000 meters. The city of Huaraz sits at 3000 meters above sea level.<br />
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We visited Huaraz at the rainiest time of year. In our 7 days there, it rained during 6 of them. The climbing season in the Cordillera Blanca is concentrated in the winter months of the Southern Hemisphere when temperatures are a little bit colder, but much less precipitation.<br />
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The cloud cover was so dense most of the time that we got limited views of the top of the mountains. Having said that, the area is beautiful! And because many of the mountain valleys are lightly populated, this makes for mountains and valleys that are much more accessible than those found in Alaska. Although multi day treks are popular in the Cordillera Blancas, we opted for only day hikes because of the persistent rain. We did three beautiful days hikes into high mountain valleys with the peak of the hikes ending at beautiful mountain lakes. All of our hikes topped out at around 4500 meters (almost 15,000 ft).<br />
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Our first hike lead us to a magnificent glacier fed lake with crystal blue water surrounded by jagged 6000 meter peaks and hanging glaciers. Unfortunately, the cloud cover didn't make for the best photos, but it was still a very pleasant experience.<br />
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Amber and I seem to do fairly well at high altitude. During our climbs were definitely got short of breath near the top. For the first few days at high altitudes, I usually take a few ibuprofen to avoid the headaches. We spoke with a Swedish couple who were also staying at our hotel. They had done the same day hike that we had done, but the young Swedish man experience acute altitude sickness including profuse vomiting during the hike. I felt fortunate that neither Amber and I have experienced those symptoms.<br />
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On our last day in Huaraz we planned another day hike to Laguna Awuac. What we thought was to be a 2 hour leisurely hike was actually a strenuous 4 hour uphill hike of over 1200 meters. We were fortunate as our last day also had the best weather we had had during our time in Huaraz with no rain. There was still a lot of cloud cover so the photos just couldn't do the scenery justice.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16180488436856916476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302199714085283388.post-82321182911062890542014-03-01T06:07:00.000-08:002014-03-01T06:07:00.999-08:00Iquitos and the Peruvian Amazon<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Tim: We spent two days relaxing in the San Isidro District
of Lima at the Radisson Hotel which we stayed at for free using some of our
credit card points. It was nice to stay a few nights at a comfortable five star
hotel. We were able to get plane tickets on LAN airlines for free as well from
points we accumulated form another credit card. It was a short 1 ½ hour flight
to Iquitos. Iquitos is said to be the largest city in the world not connected
by road. With more than 500,000 people, Iquitos sits along the Amazon River in
Northern Peru. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We arrived in Iquitos by 9 in the morning. There are few
cars and trucks in Iquitos, mostly just 3 wheeled moto bikes. The moto bike
ride to our hotel took 15 minutes. We booked a budget hotel near the Belen
Mercado. Our hotel’s proximity to the market made for some awful smells at
times because refuse collection was less than satisfactory. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The brother and law of the owner of our hotel offered to
give us a tour of the Belen Mercado on our second morning. The tour was an experience.
The market came from the edge of the river up to higher ground in the city. We
saw all sorts of dead animals for sale including monkey, turtle, alligator,
Guinea pig, lots of weird looking fish, plus random chicken parts, pork heads,
etc.. Overall the area was a filthy
slum, one of the dirtiest places we have ever visited. As a result of the filth
there were hundreds of black vultures looking for meat scraps. We were happy when the tour was over and
promptly went back to our room and took a shower.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We had a total of eight days in Iquitos before our return
flight to Lima. We arranged for a 5 night 6 day tour of the Amazon jungle with
a local guide who was recommend to us by a British man that we met on the
street. We were happy for the referral from another foreigner as we had heard
of less than positive experiences by some travelers. <o:p></o:p><br />
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One of the more memorable parts of the Amazon trip was the
Piranha fishing. Several times we just pulled over to an eddy or side stream to
fish for Piranha. Our fishing poles consisted of 6 foot long sticks with about
6 foot of line. Our setup also included a 4 inch long wire leader to avoid your
fishing line getting bitten off by the Piranhas. The stories about Piranha’s
teeth are no joke. Even the small ones under 6 inches long have incredibly
powerful jaws and razor sharp teeth. You have to be really careful when removing
the hook from the Piranha’s mouth to
avoid getting a junk taken out of your finger.<o:p></o:p></div>
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One of the best Piranha fishing spots we found was right off
of the bank of the river where we were camped for a night. In that one location
I caught 4 Piranhas and Amber caught 3. In total I caught 7 Piranhas. We even
ate them bony little fish for dinner.<o:p></o:p><br />
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During our fourth day our second guide Ori spotted a Sloth
on a tree. We pulled over on the side of the river and got out of our boat. The
sloth was about 15 feet up the tree. It seemed to be asleep, and didn’t seem to
notice us. Until…. Max climbed the tree with the machete and cut the branch
down that also held the sloth. The branch and the sloth fell fortunately into
soft tall grass. I don’t think the sloth was harmed too much. Max promptly went
over and grabbed the sloth from behind under the arm pits. The sloth made some
very quiet hissing noises which didn’t seem like much of a defense mechanism.
Both Amber and I got to hold the sloth which was pretty cool. Apparently the
locals will kill a sloth if they find it for food. Our guides said that they
were actually helping the sloth by returning it to a tree further from the edge
of the river and further from view. While we were holding the sloth, Ori went
further into the woods to look for a better tree to put the sloth in. He
returned minutes later with another sloth. The first sloth was a female, and
the second sloth was a smaller male which was likely an offspring. After a few
minutes, our guides put the sloths back into separate trees, but not before
offering to keep one of the sloths in the boat with us until we were done
looking at. We declined.<o:p></o:p><br />
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We were both surprised by the number of fresh water dolphins
present in the Amazon river and smaller tributaries. During our trip we say
more dolphins than I can remember to count. There are two varieties: a pink
dolphin, and a grey dolphin. The pink dolphins are larger than the grey
dolphins. On several occasions we were able to drift our boat down the river
and watch as pods of dolphins swam in close proximity to us.<o:p></o:p><br />
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Another interesting experience was our giant Iguana
spotting. Our guide Ori spotted a large Iguana high up in a tree along the
river. We pulled our boat over to the side of the river underneath the tree
where the Iguana was resting. Our second guide Max climbed the tree after the
Iguana. I the leaves in the tree were very dense and it was hard to see the
Iguana in the tree. Our guides explained that the Iguana would likely jump from
the tree into the water went Max got close. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The Iguana did jump from the tree, only it missed the water
by a few feet and landed in our boat almost on top of me. In fact one of his
back claws scraped my pant leg as he fell. What happened next last for only
about 2 seconds. The huge Iguana looked at me, and I looked at the Iguana still
in shock. The Iguana immediately bolted over the side of the boat and was gone
never to be seen by us again. It really was a big Iguana and probably weighed
15 pounds. <o:p></o:p></div>
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During one of our jungle hikes we spotted two Amazonian
River Otters in a small stream. When they saw us, they quickly ran to hide
deeper in the jungle. It was great to see them if only for a moment. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I think our expectations were a little too high for our trip.
Our goals was to try to see lots of animals, but the area we were taken to was
surprisingly quite populated and since the rivers act as the main
transportation system most of the people live right along the edge of the
river. If you really want a chance to see more rare animals you have to venture
out to one of the national preserves.<o:p></o:p></div>
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On our last days while making our way back to Iquitos, be
stopped at a small village to return some camping supplies. As we pulled up to
the village in our boat we saw a villager pulling a dead anaconda that had
gotten tangled in the farmers fishing net. The dead anaconda appeared to have a
fairly large animal dead in its stomach. From the size of the bulge it looked
to be a monkey or a sloth. The anaconda was about 7 foot long. Apparently, they
do not have any monetary value so the farmer just through the carcass into the
main river for the Piranhas to feast on.<o:p></o:p><br />
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On the downside, we ended up returning to Iquitos a day earlier than we had originally planned because I had gotten sick likely do to the untreated water we were served. For anyone considering this kind of trip, the mosquitoes were awful. During our 5 day trip Amber and I went through an entire bottle of 100% Deet bug dope.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16180488436856916476noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302199714085283388.post-62313117284246381392014-02-20T19:56:00.002-08:002014-02-20T19:56:30.310-08:00The Islas Bellestas, Peru<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.299999237060547px;">Amber: The Islas Ballestas, otherwise known as The Poor Mans Galapagos, was a Peruvian highlight. We arrived in the small, seaside town of Paracas, checked into our hostel and walked to the beach. The late afternoon sun wasn't too hot so we grabbed a few Pilsen beer (very similar to a glorified PBR) and sat on the small United blanket I had borrowed for life, and watched the local children play soccer with a beat up, semi deflated ball. It was very nice to be on the beach!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.299999237060547px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.299999237060547px;">The next morning we woke up early and joined the fifty other passengers going on our tour to the Islas Ballesras via speed boat. The Islas are a big business for Paracas and the dock was teeming with hundreds of tourists being herded along the assembly line of necessary paperwork, park passes, and being organized into boats. We actually managed to get a nice seat at the front of the boat. Our first stop was a huge Candelabra geoglyph. It predates the Spanish arrival in the 1500's, so another thought was that it was supposed to be a cactus. </span><br />
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<br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.299999237060547px;">There were thousands of red and white, HUGE jelly fish between the mainland and the small scattered islands. They were very pretty, but growing up in Kodiak, Alaska on a fishing boat, I had no desire to fall into the water and test how strong their sting was.</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oMb_PyxMTLo/UwbLrxsFK8I/AAAAAAAAEjc/cQiWB73wHLs/s1600/IMG_5328.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oMb_PyxMTLo/UwbLrxsFK8I/AAAAAAAAEjc/cQiWB73wHLs/s1600/IMG_5328.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.299999237060547px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.299999237060547px;">We arrived at the Islas after about seventeen minutes and immediately noticed the strong, pungent oder of seabird guano. There were thousands of birds sitting on the rock islands or circling in the sky. We had been warned to wear a hat to protect against an occasional dropping!! There were Peruvian Boobies, pelicans, cormorants, by the thousands, and we even saw a scattering of Humboldt penguins. Who needs to go to Antarctica and freeze when for $15 you can go to the Islas Ballestas?! </span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Le_2i8iRarA/UwbOHedxW0I/AAAAAAAAEj0/rT5f98TTrg0/s1600/IMG_5395.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Le_2i8iRarA/UwbOHedxW0I/AAAAAAAAEj0/rT5f98TTrg0/s1600/IMG_5395.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.299999237060547px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21.299999237060547px;">There were thousands of sea lions lined up along the more accessible rocks and shore line. Aside from the loner males sunning themselves on the outskirts, the masses of fat, huge sea lion males were constantly roaring and lunging at one another. The females and young pups did their best to stay out of the way while the males were all either fighting or covered with fresh battle wounds. Three were so many of them! We wondered when they had time to eat. I took hundreds of photos, they were amazing animals!! We had such a great time we even considered going a second time! </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16180488436856916476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302199714085283388.post-69118620642372075502014-02-09T13:00:00.001-08:002014-02-09T13:00:29.115-08:00Flying over the Nazca Lines, Peru<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Amber: Tim and I were both excited to fly over the Nazca lines. No one really knows why or how exactly they were made. Obviously, the sun baked rocks were removed piled to the side, hence exposing darker rocks beneath. But there are numerous speculations as to how the images are so proportionate (and large). Some images are over 200 m long. Some suggest aliens. Others, a prehistoric hot air balloon. The lines are in the middle of an extremely hot, dry desert. The currently most popular belief is that they were used to worship sun and rain gods. They date from pre-Christ to just before the Inca rule. Either way, they are really cool.<br />
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We had booked a thirty minute flight over the lines for two in the afternoon. It was a hot, windy day. I was a little nervous as my sister had flown over the Nazca lines a few weeks prior and had gotten extremely ill while doing all the spins over the figures. There were about 13 distinct Nazca figures we would be viewing. First we would circle on the right side of the plane, and then again, on the left to ensure everyone saw and had an opportunity for a photo. So a minimum of 26 turns in 30 minutes. I made sure I found my little doggie bag in the seat pocket in front of me, just in case. <br />
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We were in a 206, so a small, single engine plane both Tim and I have had lots of experience flying in back home in Alaska. Due to several plane crashes in the past, Nazca now mandates that each flight has two pilots. We had a young man as our primary pilot, and the second was a young Peruvian woman. She discussed the images while the man circled them. <br />
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We took off with five of us total in the plane and headed directly for the lines. A 50 meter killer whale was the first image and about three minutes from the run way. It was so cool! The plane circled with the image just below the wing tip. There was a little turbulence along with the steep spiral, but we had good pilots. I was only a little nervous, and not motion sick at all. The Nazca lines were just far too amazing! <br />
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This is an astronaut </div>
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A humming bird</div>
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This was either a bird or perhaps a baby dinosaur</div>
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My favorite, the monkey</div>
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A spider</div>
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A condor</div>
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Hands</div>
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A big parrot, you can see his head here</div>
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We flew in the middle of the day, so the sun washed out a little of the definition. Also, the images are very old. I was so sad when our 30 minutes were up, I literally could have flown for hours over the images. They were so fascinating! We targeted 13 images, as does every flight I believe, some of witch the photos didn't turn out well enough to post, but there were hundreds of images all over the desert. They were a little less grand, or a little less defined, so the pilots just flew over them, but they were amazing. </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16180488436856916476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302199714085283388.post-1582772770955989392014-02-08T12:48:00.004-08:002014-02-08T12:48:53.107-08:00Camana, Peru<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Amber: Tim and I decided it was time for the beach after our week in Arequipa and climbing Mt Misti. We were excited for waves, sand, sun, and most importantly, an elevation of sea level. I had run my first marathon last August, and climbing Mt Misti was by far more tiring. Tim and I both agreed that the climb was possibly the most exhausting thing we have done our adult life. Fighting for each breath can be exceptionally tiring!! Our lungs actually didn't hurt after our climb, and aside from some tired feet, my body wasn't too sore considering we had summited a 19,100' tall volcano. <br />
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The small town of Camana is about five kilometers from 'the beach'. We arrived by bus and took about an hour to find a hotel. We changed into shorts and our swim wear and headed out in search of lunch and the 'combie' to the beach. Our lunch consisted of ceviche. Lots of ceviche. Ceviche is small pieces of fish (or seafood) that has been 'cooked' in lime juice. It is quite good, and coastal Peru is famous for it. We had tried it in Arequipa, but at a local market and I wanted to try it again. I ordered an 'individual' order of ceviche, while Tim got a mixed plate of both fried fish, calamari, and octopus. His, as it turns out, also came with ceviche, so we had mountains of it. We easily could have shared one of the dishes we had ordered. The first several bites were good, but by the time we finished, I don't think either of us wanted to see any more ceviche for a very long time. <br />
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Our bellies full of lime soaked raw fish, we boarded the 'combie'. The combie is a small, worn out bus that takes you to the beach, once every seat is full, and basically, all the standing room, too. It was 1 sole each for us to ride the five miles to the beach, so about 0.27 USD. We arrived at the beach and walked along the sandy shore, ever so happy to be on the ocean. <br />
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Peru is a giant desert to the all to the west of the Andes. The whole bus ride from Arequipa to Camana, I kept thinking about how we would die if our bus broke down. It is so dry! And hot! At Camana, the sun baked sand dunes dump into the ocean. The tawny brown hills turn a dark gray as the ocean touches it, so the beach wasn't exactly post card pretty, but it was surprisingly clean. About 2,000 Peruvians lined the beach under umbrellas. We walked about a mile along the shore. The ocean is extremely cold! The locals loved playing in the surf, but for us, even being from Alaska, it was a little chilly with a bit too much of a strong under tow. We got our toes wet, then found an umbrella and decided to relax with a cold beer. <br />
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The next day we returned to the beach for more relaxation. Tim went for a 5 mile run while I relaxed and read my book. Theft is supposed to be pretty bad at Camana, so I volunteered to say and watch our things while Tim was healthy. The beach goes on for miles, so he had a great run before returning and jumping into the ocean. I was a little to confident in my tanning ability, and absolutely cooked myself while I happily stretched out and read my book. <br />
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After the beach, we were happy to board our air coned bus and sleep a little on the seven hour bus ride to Nazca. We were able to book our flight over the Nazca lines the evening we arrived at our guest house. <br />
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We didn't get any pictures of the beach, sorry! <br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16180488436856916476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302199714085283388.post-61190374493121762832014-02-06T13:25:00.002-08:002014-02-06T13:25:47.736-08:00Climbing El Misti Volcano (5822 m)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Tim: After a busy first two weeks in Peru with friends and
family, Amber and I were ready to stay in the same place for a few days. We
opted to brush up on our Spanish speaking skills with a week of Spanish classes
in Arequipa. We went to class for four hours per day from nine in the morning
till one in the afternoon. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Amber and I both had private classes with two different
instructors each. All of our instructors we very good, and I learned how much
Spanish I have yet to learn. <o:p></o:p></div>
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After five days of Spanish lessons, Amber and I were ready
for some more adventure. El Misti is a dormant volcano overlooking the city of
Arequipa. At 19,100 feet (5822 meters), El Misti is a very tall mountain. Its
elevation is almost as tall as Mount Kilimanjaro (19,341 ft.), Africa’s tallest
mountain. El Misti is still shorter than Alaska’s Mt. McKinely at 20,322 ft.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We were able to arrange a guided tour for Saturday morning.
The cost was just $85 USD per person. This included all the need gear such as a
tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, gators, ice axe, etc… After getting equipped at the guiding
company’s headquarters we set off in a lifted 1984 Suburban. A four wheel drive
vehicle with high ground clearance is required to make the approach to the
starting point of El Misti hike. The access road was narrow and frequently
washed out by past rainfall. After a bumpy 30 minute ride on the dirt road, we
reached the trail starting point. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Our hike would begin at 11,316 ft (3450 meters). We had been
acclimated to the elevation in Arequipa of 7,661 ft. (2335 m) for the last
week. Gaining more than 1000 m. already made it harder to breath.<o:p></o:p></div>
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For the past several days, I had been experiencing some
intestinal discomfort. I began taking antibiotics the morning of our hike as my
condition was worsening. The terrain was surprisingly very desert like. Most of
the plants were brown from lack of water even though this time of year the
summer is the raining season for Peru. The terrain reminded me of arid parts of
Arizona. There were no trees and only small brush covering the arid ground. It
was also very hot. The rocks absorb the suns heat and radiate it back at you.
When we began our hike it was close to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. As we slowing
ascended the temperature cooled and there was a slight breeze. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Before setting out, Amber and I put a wad of coca leaves
into our mouths to chew on. Coca leaves have alkaloids that help combat the
effects of altitude sickness. I would chew a couple of mouth fulls each day.
The coca leaves look similar to tea leaves. They are dried. To use properly,
you take 25 or so leaves and place them along your gum on one side of your
mouth and slowly chew. You do swallow your saliva. After 20 minutes or so, your
gum goes slightly numb. If you want to the effect to be stronger you can also
chew the coca leaves with calcium bicarbonate. The calcium bicarbonate is often
included with a small bag of coca leaves. It comes in the form of a small grey
chalky like stone. It is brittle so you can break off a small pebble size piece
and wrap it in the coca leaves before putting it in your mouth. The feeling is
very subtle. Something like the feeling you would get from the caffeine in a
regular cup of coffee.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Our pace was slow. Our guide led the way for our group of
five. This included our guide, Amber and I, and local Peruvian man named Tito,
as well as a young Peruvian woman who was a receptionist at the tour company we
booked with. Her name was Mariam. We
hiked for five hours the first day, beginning at 10:30 AM until 3:30 PM. The
base camp was at 4300 m. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We ate dinner at 5:30 PM. Dinner included a Ramon soup with
queso followed by an unpleasant dish of spaghetti pasta, one table spoon of
tomato paste, and canned tuna. I was unable to eat much of it. Amber and I
brought local dark chocolate to share with the group.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We went to bed in our tent at 7:00 PM. Our hike the next
morning would begin at 2:00 AM in the dark.<o:p></o:p></div>
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1:00 AM the next morning came soon. In the darkness we
stumble around to put our gear together. We were able to leave our larger pack
at the base camp and only carry water, snacks, and our ice axe for the second
day’s hike. The helped a lot as the gear that was provided was very heavy. We
also had to carry 5 liters of water each the first day. This morning we only
need to carry 1.5 liters each. We slowly ascended the mountain with baby steps
that seem almost ridiculously slow. <o:p></o:p></div>
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This slow pace was all our lungs and heart could muster. We
would take a break about every 45 minutes. Mariam was much slower than the rest
of our group and lagged behind much of the climb. This was her first attempt of
El Misti or any tall mountain. <o:p></o:p></div>
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After we reached 17,000 feet, the thinning air became more
noticeable. Talking became difficult because of the need for heavy breathing.
This kind of heavy breathing was different from other physical exertion. After
only 4 or 5 steps I would be completely out of breath. If I continued dizziness
and nausea would follow and you would feel like you were going to pass out. I
started to force myself to use heavy breathing. I would quickly inhale and
exhale also lifting my shoulders on each breath to help lift my rib cage as
well as focus on deep breathing with my diaphragm to maximize my lung volume.
At rest the average person breaths 12-15 times per minute. I was breathing about
50 times per minute with each breath like I had just broken the surface of the
water after holding my breath for a minute. The sound of my gasps was audible
to my climbing companions. When I focused on these deep breathing techniques I
was able to walk slowly without getting dizzy.
The energy it took to breath was far greater than the energy my legs
needed to walk as a pace was a snail’s pace. My breathing was the same as if I was trying
to hyperventilate myself at sea level. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Within several hours of this breathing I could feel the
fatigue in my intercostals and diaphragm. It was light enough by 5:00 AM so
that we no longer needed our headlamps. It was not until 6 hours into our climb
that morning that we could finally see the peak. At this point Mariam had
fallen way behind the rest of our group. We continued on without her. We were
not sure if she would be able to make the ascent. We were close enough to the
peak that Amber and I knew we would make the summit. The coldest part of the
climb was at 4 in the morning. The sun was still not up, and our elevation was
increasing. The temperature was around 30 degrees Fahrenheit with a 20 mph
wind. We were wearing all the warm clothing we had.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There was almost no snow. When we first had arrived in
Arequipa we could see that the summit of El Misti had some snow accumulation at
the very summit, but over the past week almost all of it had melted away.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The last hour of the climb was the slowest. We could see the
summit just a few hundred meters away, but we were struggling so hard to breathe
that we could only muster a few shuffled steps before needing to rest. We
reached the summit at 8:00 AM. The summit is marked with a 4 meter tall iron
cross that has been on the peak since the early 1900s. I’m glad I didn’t have to help carry it up
there. The sun was up and the temperatures getting warmer. We rested on the
summit for an hour. It was sometime before Mariam became visible slowing
climbing up the ridge below us. We were happy to see that she had continued.
She reached the summit 45 minutes behind the rest of us. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We had apparently carried our ice axes the whole time for
the sole purpose of getting photographs with them at the peak because there was
no snow or ice that need picking anywhere along our climb. We took many photos
and gazed and the beautiful view. There are several other very tall mountains
nearby including Chanchani (6075 meters). <o:p></o:p></div>
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We began our descent at 9:00 AM. We would take a different
route down much of the mountain. The trail up El Misti followed the more rocky
areas providing traction, but the way down the mountain followed the ginormous
scree field. The scree was actually more like volcanic sand. It was black with
very few large rocks or stones making the terrain ideal for a quick decent. We
were able run/ski down the side of the mountain. The sand covered our ankles as
we slid down the mountain at a rapid pace. The scree field lasted until almost
our base camp. We were able to descend 1200 meters in less than 45 minutes.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Once we reached base camp we back our sleeping bags and
tents, repacked our large backpacks and set off again down more scree that
lasted for another 600 meters. The last 5 kilometers we had to hike out. It was
very hot and we were exhausted. The suburban waiting for us at the end of the
trail was a pleasant site. We had made it! I think that this will likely be the
tallest mountain that we ever climb, but it was an awesome experience.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16180488436856916476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302199714085283388.post-84572659775378561562014-02-05T11:02:00.002-08:002014-02-05T11:02:42.322-08:00Colca Canyon Trekking<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Tim: The bus ride from Puno to Arequipa took almost 7 hours. We arrived into Arequipa early in the evening. Because there were six of us in our group we took two taxis to our guesthouse. We found some dinner and I nice Peruvian steakhouse then returned to our Guesthouse for some sleep.<br />
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We also arranged for a 3 day two night tour of Colca Canyon said to be the second deepest canyon in the world. The deepest canyon in the world is also located in Peru, but not as accessible as Colca Canyon.<br />
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Our tour would begin at 8 in the morning. We would take a small our bus to Chivay, the gateway village to Colca Canyon. On the way we would visit a vicuna reserve, and the lookout of the volcanoes where the road reaches an elevation of 4910 meters or 16,104 feet. This would be the highest any of our group had ever been.<br />
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Vicunas are similar to llamas. Apparently there are four distinct animals in camel family in Peru. They are: llamas, alpacas, vicunas, and guanacos. Llamas and alpacas are domesticated while vicunas and guanacos are wild. We were able to see many vicunas along the road.<br />
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We reached Chivay in the early afternoon and ate lunch at the recommended Peruvian buffet restaurant. The food was pretty good. Amber was not feeling well at this point and took a nap while the rest joined the tour group for an outing to the hot springs nearby.<br />
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The road to the hotsprings was a very bumpy narrow dirt road. It was also raining a fair bit. I noted that in the USA we would never drive a two axel two wheel drive bus down such a road.<br />
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The hot springs were lacking. There were only two pools for us to use and they water was not very clean and not very hot. We enjoyed ourselves any way for an hour before climbing the hillside in the rain back to our tour bus.<br />
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About halfway back to Chivay, our driver cut a steep corner to sharp and ground out the back of the bus in the muddy dirt road. Everyone had to get off the bus. Once we looked at what happened we realized the bus was pretty stuck and risked tearing the back of the bus off.<br />
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Everyone seemed to have an idea of how to get the bus unstuck. Other vehicles came up the road behind us, but the bus was blocking the entire roadway so no vehicles could pass until our bus was free. The woman gathered up hill of the bus while the men collected large flat rocks to but under the low side tires that were high centered. This was complicated by the rain which made the roadway very muddy. After 30 minutes of work, the bus driver was able to pull out of the ditch. When we re-boarded the bus everyone's shoes an sandals were covered in mud and made a mess of the bus floor.<br />
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For dinner we went to a restaurant that included cultural dancing. Everyone sat at on both sides of long tables and watched the show. Above us on the wall there was the carcass of a wild cat in a basket nailed to the wall. The wild cat was barely recognizable as a cat only by the texture of the fur and one shriveled up pay that was hanging out of the wicker basket. It did not even appear to be stuffed or taxidermied. It was as if someone killed a wild cat then threw the carcass in the basket on the wall to shrivel up. I tried asking the guide why it was there, but he didn't have an explanation.<br />
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The cultural dancing was done by one man an one woman. In Chivay, the traditional dress of the men is similar to that of the woman. The men wear colorful dresses. We were told that this tradition started in colonial times when marriages were arranged by the parents for the purpose of increasing the standing of the family. As a result men would have to disguise themselves as women in order to court woman in secret.<br />
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Several of the dances included whippings, The man would whip the woman with a cloth strap that would make a whip snap noise. Then this would be repeated with the woman whipping the man. On of the dances included the man trying to look under the woman's skirt and being smitten. Also man had to try to forceful pick up the woman over his shoulder and run away with her. It was an interesting experience.<br />
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Amber: The next morning we woke up bright and early, had a traditional Peruvian breakfast of jam and bread, and met up with our tour van to head towards Colca Canyon. It was still fairly misty out, so our guide was not particularly optimistic about us sighting Condors. We had booked a hike into the canyon, while the rest of our bus were turning around at the condor viewing spot. When it was clear that none were to be seen, Jerami, Eloise, Dwight, Heather, Tim and I were loaded onto a smaller van and transported to the trail head a few kilometers down the mountain. Heather had accidentally forgotten her rain coat in the van, but a second group of hikers were able to pull over at our original bus, pick it up for her, and deliver it to us at the trail head. We had strict instructions to bring lots of water, and it was at this point that I realized that one of my water bottles had rolled out of the side of my pack, and it too was still somewhere on our bus. Thankfully, Tim shared some of his water.<br />
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The deep canyon was filled with fog, so we could not see how far down the steep walls went as we hiked down our trail. We were all happy to be outside, hiking in the beautiful canyon regardless. As we went deeper, some of the fog lifted, and we actually spotted a condor! He was not particularly big, only about 6' wingspan. Adult male condor's can grow to having a 10' wing span. He soared above us and dissapeared into some of the caves that peppered the canyon wall. We saw two different condors, both about the same size, as we hiked down. The closest we got was about 20 meters from them as they soared up the thermals, letting the up drafts lift them out of the canyon. <br />
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We finally reached the river that cuts through Colca Canyon. We had to cross a surprisingly sturdy hanging bridge, and scurry along a very narrow, very high up, steep trail to make our destination for lunch. Only foot traffic and mules (and the occasional cow) make the trail to the small village that perches just up from the river, but we were provided with alpaca, rice, and local avocados for lunch. Not too filling, but pretty tasty, considering. We hiked on, and a light rain started. The trail took us up to a second village, a small, dirty town made of crumbling brick houses and rusted tin roofs, before dipping back down to the river. This bridge was a lot less sturdy, and Tim of course thought it would be fun the bounce on the bridge, just to make sure that I was terrified as I climbed across the river, some 50' below.<br />
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We arrived at our camp by about four. Little bungalow shacks waited for us. It was a little chilly, but the six of us Alaskan's could not resist the beautiful swimming pool. It was cold and refreshing, and we all decided we deserved a beer for our long days hike! <br />
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The next morning, we were awoken at four in the morning to make the dark, steep climb back to the top. Breakfast was not to be provided, or coffee either, until we reached the top of the canyon. Talk about motivation! It was supposed to take three hours, but we made the climb in two and a half. Dwight had kindly brought, and shared, Laura bars, hence, we all survived. It was a steep hike, but a beautiful, clear morning. The view of the canyon, as we climbed up, and once we reached the top, was amazing!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16180488436856916476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302199714085283388.post-4205157820109201882014-01-29T15:02:00.001-08:002014-01-29T15:10:27.225-08:00Lake Titicaca, Peru<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Amber: After Machu Picchu, (and Tim proposing!!; what a perfect place to be proposed to by my best friend! Of course I said yes, and gave him numerous kisses as an affirmation!) we all agreed that no Inca ruin would compare, (really, its so amazing, will any set of ruins ever?) so said farewell to the Sacred Valley and headed south to Lake Titicaca. We had a short lay over in Cuzco before our night bus, and were caught in a surprise hail storm. We were walking along the street one moment, and the next, huge rain drops began to fall. Within moments, the rain had turned to heavy hail, and the wind had picked up. Dwight thankfully found that the entrance to our destination was literally a doorway away from where we were huddled beneath an awning. The streets filled with hail, which must have stopped some of the street drains, as when the hail turned back to rain, the street filled with rivers of water and slush and almost spilled over onto the sidewalk. It was quiet the show, complete with thunder and lightening! <br />
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After a night bus to Puno, the small, dirty town on the edge of Lake Titicaca, we arrived with no real set plan. We wanted to see the highest navigable lake in the world, and the famous reed islands, and that's about all we knew. Within an hour, however, we booked a night stay on one of the Eros Islands for all six Alaskans. We thought it would be a more authentic view of how the local Eros people lived, as opposed to taking just a day tour and only stopping at the islands that sell their art work.<br />
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The Eros Islands are made completely from floating rafts of reeds. Multiple times a year the locals harvest more reeds and lay them down on top of the old reeds. The original base of the islands are the reeds roots, cut from the lake bed much like sod, and sown together to make the desirable sized island. (The island we stayed on was a couple hundred meters long, and probably twenty meters across). Then reeds are piled flat, in opposite directions to make a sturdy foundation, and while they are only about a meter high, are several meters deep. The islands do float, so the locals anchor them to the lake floor. Our host explained to us that if a big wind picked up, the reed island could drift across the lake to the shores of Bolivia. As they had no passports, it could present quite the problem! <br />
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The reeds are actually very soft, so doesn't take long for them to decay, especially the ones exposed to the lake water. They must be continually harvested and placed throughout the island. All the time. They pick up their houses, lay the reeds, put down their houses. I though mowing my lawn was a lot of work.<br />
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About three to four families live per 'island,' and everything is made of reeds. Their houses, their boats, their yards. Now, there are wooden frames to their homes, but those too are walled and roofed with reeds. And we were picked up form Puno in a small fiberglass boat, complete with an engine.<br />
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We weren't sure what to expect from our stay at Isla Khantati. We had chosen it due to a small blip in Lonely Planet, and just as the book said, "Mama" Cristina was very charming! The cabins were clean, complete with hot water bottles at the foot of your bed at night and a mountain of thick blankets, and the food was surprisingly delicious. We were later told that Cristina has traveled throughout South America, Europe and the United States to learn about hospitality, food sanitation and preparation, and first aid. There were even hot water showers (solar), and an eco toilet. We went on a little excision in a traditional reed catamaran to collect fish from a net, but I think my favorite was when we got to play dress up in the local cloths. Eloise, Heather and I looked adorable!!<br />
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There was an adorable cat that loved to be held and pet that followed us around during our stay. She would purr while we relaxed on our little patios or hammocks, scratching her ears or holding her in our laps. When we had first arrived, our host had told us something, that was lost in translation, when Heather picked her up. Because of his concern, we asked if it was okay that we hold the cat. He seemed to shrug it off, and Jerami, Eloise, Heather, Dwight, Tim and I all enjoyed giving her attention. And then....! Heather came walking very calmly yet quickly over to Tim and I, asking where Mama Cristina was. There was a tick firmly attached to Heather's belly! She found Mama Cristina, and Mama Cristina calmly plucked the tick out with a pair of tweezers. Poor Heather!!! Happily, she didn't die of tick bite (ha ha), and the cat stopped getting picked up!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16180488436856916476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302199714085283388.post-13962045097908562462014-01-27T19:09:00.000-08:002014-01-27T19:09:12.068-08:00Machu Picchu Part 2: Climbing Wayna Picchu<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Tim: After getting an amazing view of the Machu Picchu ruins from the guard house, we moved on to the Inca Bridge. This involved a 15 minute hike away from the main site. The trail to the Inca bridge was at times vary narrow an exposed along a sheer cliff dropping off thousands of feet. Once we reached the bridge we had an awesome view of a very narrow bridge (4 split logs 8 feet long) spanning a narrow gap in the trail placed along a rock cliff. Apparently, a tourist died when they slipped and fell of the bridge, so tourists are no longer able to walk over the bridge. There was a fence barrier blocking are approach to the bridge some 25 meters out.<br />
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We hiked back to the main ruins. The site was still fairly foggy so we opted to begin our climb of Wayna Picchu the mountain on the opposite side of the ruins as the guard house and much taller. The hike took us about 45 minutes to reach the top. Because all of the hikers are let through the gate at the same time there is a little bit of a traffic jam hiking up. Some portions of the trail are very very steep with stone steps that are more like stone ladders.<br />
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We were almost to the very top when we reach a part of the path that led through a narrow cave. I went through first. The cave path was short enough that we were not able to stand and I was crouched down on my haunches. Amber followed behind me. The wind was at our back pushing through the cave. Once our eyes adjusted to the dim light, Amber saw that I was crouching next to a fresh pile of human feces recently deposited in the narrow cave. It was about the same time that the putrid smell also reached my nose. The cave was not more than one meter across at its widest point.<br />
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Amber in a state of alarm yelled at me to hurry up and get out of the cave. The exit of the cave was much smaller than the area we had been in. It required that we be in a push up position and walk our hands out of the exit. It took some effort to exit the cave. The whole time I was exiting, Amber was yelling at me to go faster. All four of us had to pass through the cave. It was not a pleasant experience, but we all laughed when it was over. Once on Wayna Picchu there are no restrooms, and because it is so steep and jungle like it is hard to leave the path. Someone just had to go, even if it was a very poor choice of locations.<br />
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Once we were all out of the cave it was a short jaunt to the very top. We stopped and rested for a while looking at the amazing views of Machu Picchu. We started our descent of Wayna Picchu. There were some very steep exposed sections. Heather was moving slower than Amber and me. Just below the summit Amber and I stepped off the main path on to one of the many terraces overlooking Machu Picchu to wait for the rest of our group. I took the brief opportunity to ask Amber to marry me! I even gave her a ring. She said yes with lots of "really?" and "are you serious." A few minutes later Heather and Dwight rejoined us, and we told them the news.<br />
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I had tried to get a ring in Anchorage, but was not able to get one set in time before we left. I got a simple ring in Aguas Calientes before we left for Machu Picchu. I did know Amber's ring size so I had to put one of her rings on my pinky finger and see how far it would go down my finger to estimate Amber's ring size.<br />
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The day was one of the most amazing in my life!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16180488436856916476noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302199714085283388.post-34279211198137903182014-01-26T06:13:00.000-08:002014-01-26T06:13:04.317-08:00Machu Picchu, Peru Part 1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Amber: Peru has been amazing! I have been so excited to come to South America, especially Peru. Ever since we were little kids, my sister Heather and I have dreamed about going to Machu Picchu. It's the most visited ruin in South America, possibly the world, so we obviously aren't the only ones that share this dream. During the high season, May through September, 2,500 people arrive daily. Thankfully, January is the low season, so the masses would be far fewer. <br />
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When we arrived in Cuzco, we booked the train from Ollantaytambo to Auguas Calientes as well as our ticket to Machu Picchu and up the dramatic peak Wayna Picchu. Only 400 tickets are sold daily to Wayna Picchu. 200 people climb up at seven am, and another 200 at ten am. To summit Wayna Picchu, it is a very steep, narrow set of stone stairs up and down, so only so many fit at one time. We opted for the second time slot as we wanted time to get the classic post card view; a dramatic sunrise pictures from the Guard Tower that over looks Machu Picchu, Wayna Picchu dramatically poised behind the ruins. <br />
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As we booked our tickets, we were told that due to high rains, a large land slide had totaled the road going up. Not just covered the trail, but taken out a chunk of the road. The only way to reach Machu Picchu was to climb an hour and a half straight up through the jungle. Being as we had opted to not actually hike the Inca Trail, I was already voting for the short climb. I was rather horrified as an American couple in their late 40-early 50's stood in line at the ticket counter and after much debate opted to not see Machu Picchu due to the bus not being available. They appeared to be in decent shape. Hike slow! Had they not flown all the way to Peru to see Machu Picchu? Heather, Dwight, Tim and I were pretty sure it was a decision that they would regret for the rest of their lives.<br />
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There are six of us Alaskans traveling in Peru together. Due to the Machu Picchu web sight having a glitch that we couldn't seem to work out, Tim, Heather, Dwight and I were unable to book our tickets to Machu Picchu while in Alaska. During the high season, we would have arrived in Cuzco and been completely out of luck. Thankfully, there were still many tickets available for Machu Picchu as it was rainy January, but Wayna Picchu was sold out for the day our friends Jerami and Eloise had miraculously been able to book while still in Alaska. In addition, while trying to book the tickets while we were in Cuzco, we had received a text from Jerami saying that their flight form Alaska had been delayed, so they weren't sure when they would actually be reaching Cuzco. Tim, Heather, Dwight and I opted to book a day later and make the climb up Wayna PIcchu. <br />
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The train ride from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calentes was beautiful! The sun shone as we followed the river Rio Urubamba as it wound through the jungle, past Inca ruins, and under steep, dramatically high mountains. It was definitely a good idea to do during the daylight hours. It was breath taking.<br />
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After a restless night sleep in a small, noisy hostel in Aguas Calentes, it was time to climb Machu Picchu! We got up at 4:30am. Stepping out of our room, I could hear rain. Heavy rain! It was pouring out! We dressed in shorts, water proof hiking shoes, and capline tees, under our rain coats. Fingers crossed that the sun would break through the clouds, we had a hurried breakfast of bread and jam, and stepped outside. <br />
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The rain had cleared to a light drizzle. It was warm. We hiked through the small town of Aguas Calentes and up we went. It was a steep, hard climb. We were still not used to the altitude and it was hard to catch your breath in the humid, steep jungle. Finally, after about an hour and a half of huffing and puffing, we reached the top and were able to go through security, Heather pulled her huge Nikon camera out of her back pack, and we were at the ruins! We found the trail to the Guard House, and waited for the sun to brighten the ruins. It was beautiful without the sun, but boy did it just pop when the sun came out! If I could have picked in my head the picture of Machu Picchu that I wanted, it would have been the one I got (see the first photo in the post). Wayna Picchu shrouded in mist, Machu Picchu in bright sunrise lighting. My trip to Machu Picchu was complete, the rest was all bonus as far as I was concerned. And boy did I get a surprise bonus!!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16180488436856916476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302199714085283388.post-38783942453493685972014-01-25T19:38:00.001-08:002014-01-25T19:38:40.129-08:00Second Day of touring the Sacred Valley<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Tim: Our friends Jerami and Eloise joined us from Anchorage last night bringing our Alaskan group to six. Their first day we relaxed with a few sights around the city of Cusco. The next morning after Jerami and Eloise arrived we arrange for a private van tour of more sights in the Sacred Valley.<br />
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Our tour would take us from Cusco to Ollantaytambo (the village where we would board the train bound for Machu Picchu). Along the way we would stop at several sights in the Sacred Valley including: Sacsayhuaman Chinchero, Moray, and Salinas. The village of Ollantaytambo also has very impressive ruins of an Inca fort overlooking the village.<br />
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Sacsayhuaman overlooks the city of Cusco and was our first stop. It is an Incan fortress with some of the most amazing stone architecture in the world. Some of the stones are more than 28 feet tall and perfectly carved to fit the rock next to it. Some of the stones weigh more than 120 tons making them some of the largest carved stones that were ever moved in human history. Pondering what it took to move and carve stones of that magnitude with only simple tools and no wheel is mind boggling.<br />
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Moray is a large setting of circular Incan terraces built into a natural depression in the mountains. The Incans are thought to have used this area as a trial area for different plants as the average temperature changed several degrees depending on the level. It was definitely and impressive site.<br />
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The next stop was the salt terraces of Salineras. These are man made terraces built to collect mineral salt deposits from a natural hot spring that contains very high levels of salt in the water. The water is diverted into hundreds of small terraced pools. Once the water evaporates, a layer caked salt is left. The salt is mostly used for animal salt licks. It is an amazing place to see that seems almost unearthly.<br />
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Our tour van dropped us off in the village of Ollantaytambo. After checking into our hotel, it wasnt hard to find the Incan ruins as they overlooked the village just a few hundred meters from the village central square. These were the must impressive Incan ruins we have seen yet. This was also the site where the Incan King fled to escape invading Spaniard Conquistadors. There was a fierce battle here that marked one of the few Incan victories against the Spaniards.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16180488436856916476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302199714085283388.post-76142420055141068492014-01-16T04:47:00.000-08:002014-01-16T04:47:20.813-08:00First Day in Cusco and the Sacred Valley<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Tim: We are on a tight travel schedule. After just one full day in Lima we left for Cusco. Our flight left at 6:00 AM. We were up at 3:40 AM to get to the airport on time. The flight was a short 1 1/2 hours. It took two attempts to make the landing because of cloud cover. Most of the flights into Cusco are in the morning because weather conditions are such that often flights cannot land later in the day.<br />
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Cusco is at 11,000 feet above sea level and altitude sickness is a concern if you arrive here from sea level the same day (which we did). All of the guest houses provide coca tea which is suppose to help combat the effects of altitude sickness. I have about four cups every morning. For the most part none of the four of us have experienced any acute side effects except for the occasional huffing and puffing when hiking up an incline.<br />
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After arriving in Cusco at 7:30 AM, we got settled at our guest house, Mama Samona Guest House. We really like it here. Our room with a bathroom cost $27 USD a night. Only one room was ready when we arrived so the four of us (Amber, Heather, Dwight, and I) stashed our back and set out to make arrangements for Machu Picchu. This required that we make train arrangements to get to Aguas Calientes the village below Machu Picchu. The only transportation available to get into Aquas Calientes is by train, and the train company has a monopoly. </div>
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Once we had arranged the train tickets we went to book our entrance tickets to Machu Picchu to include hiking Hyna Picchu, the mountain next to Machu Picchu wich allows for the amazing view overlooking the whole site.<br />
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Although we were all tired from our early morning wake up, we arranged for a day tour in a private taxi of several sites in the sacred valley right outside of Cusco. Our first stop were the ruins at Pisac. The weather was very pleasant around 68 degrees with light clouds. The amount of sunlight made for great photos. The site at Pisac was mostly empty. There were only about 8 other tourists at Pisac so we had the huge site to ourselves. We opted for a guide as well.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16180488436856916476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302199714085283388.post-88414448773292403062014-01-15T05:20:00.001-08:002014-01-15T05:20:38.014-08:0021 Hours Later: We Made it to Lima, Peru<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Amber and I had just 25 hours in Anchorage after returning from our climbing trip to Joshua Tree before getting back on a plane bound for Lima, Peru. Our routing took us from Anchorage to Denver to Toronto, Canada, and finally Lima. The Toronto to Lima section was obviously the longest leg, about an eight hour flight. Traveling long hours is never particularly fun, but it manageable.<br />
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We arrived in Lima at 1:30 AM. We had already arranged for our Guesthouse to send a car to pick us up. We found our driver holding a sign with our name on it in the arrivals area. A 25 minute ride and we reached our Guest House in the Miraflores District. The streets were surprisingly deserted at 2:00 AM considering Lima is a city of more than eight million people.<br />
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We slept in till 9:30 the next morning; had the simple complimentary breakfast provided by our guest house. Our guest house called Open Guesthouse was $26 USD per night with a shared bathroom located adjacent to our room.<br />
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For the day we opted to take the advice of our guidebook and do a walking tour of the historical area of downtown Lima. We negotiated for a taxi to the origin of our walking tour. We visited several Catholic churches including the Iglesia de la Merced and La Catedral de Lima. The highlight of the walking tour was our visit to the Monasterio de San Francisco. The Monastery had bone filled catacombs that are estimated to hold more than 25,000 bodies. The area had been excavated a archaeologists had piled the skulls and other large bones in orderly piles. Kind of an eerie experience. Sorry they would not allow any photos.<br />
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We waited for almost an hour in the blazing sun for the changing of the guard at the Palacio de Gobierno (Presidential Palace) along the Plaza de Armas. The event was suppose to happen at noon, but it look like something else was going on as there was a large group of people standing in front of the palace with police everywhere. The police had shut down the entire Plaza de Armas to vehicle traffic. After acquiring sunburn from to long in the sun we continued our walking tour without seeing the changing of the guard.<br />
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Our taxi ride back to our guest house in the late afternoon took a while as traffic was gridlocked. Also our taxi driver did not know where our guest house was even though we were able to provide an address and a map with the location of our guest house pointed out. We eventually made it back and took a nap to help us get of the jet lag. After waking up at 8:30 PM we prepared to head out to find some dinner when Heather (Amber's sister) and Dwight (Heather's boyfriend) walked in having just returned from a two day tour of the Nazca Lines and other site near Lima. The four of us are set to meet up with our friends Jerami and Eloise once we reach Cusco.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16180488436856916476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302199714085283388.post-71029059108534870892014-01-13T20:53:00.003-08:002014-01-13T20:53:59.305-08:00Rock Climbing in Joshua Tree National Park - California<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Tim: We are back! After nine months off from posting in our
travel blog, we are traveling again. This year our travels will take us to
Peru, Chile, and Argentina. We opted to begin our international travels with a
short trip to California for rock climbing in Joshua Tree National Park with
friends.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We left Anchorage on January 2 after an enjoyable New Year’s
in Anchorage. We took a direct flight from Anchorage to Los Angeles. Our rock
climbing trip was for eight days. We picked up our rental car and drove to my
Great Uncle and Aunt’s home outside of LA. We enjoyed a nice couple of days
visiting before driving further east to Joshua Tree. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We arrived at the park late in the evening. We were joining a large group of friends
mostly from Anchorage. There were about 20 friends staying at the Hidden Valley
Campground in Joshua Tree National Park. The Campground is set in a beautiful
location in the park a midst white piles of giant boulders. There are many great
rock climbing options within easy walking distance of the campground so there
is no need to drive a car. There was also no cell reception in the campground.
Even in our international travels we rarely go more than a couple of days
without being “connected”. It was nice to have a break from technology and just
enjoy climbing, friends, and a beautiful setting. <o:p></o:p><br />
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Amber and I are not particularly experienced rock climbers.
We trained for one month at the indoor Alaska Rock Gym in Anchorage in advance
of this trip. We have may more experienced rock climber friends who did all of
the lead climbing. Amber and I always climbed with a top rope. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Overall, we had a great experience, and there will
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16180488436856916476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302199714085283388.post-47319760158134185062013-03-14T19:34:00.001-07:002013-03-14T19:34:41.358-07:00Bangkok, Thailand, to Anchorage, Alaska<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Amber: We made it back to Anchorage, Alaska! We had a wonderful five and a half months. We started in Munich, German, and rented a car and road tripped through Austria, Italy, Greece, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Croatia, Slovenia, and back to Germany. Of that time, we spent a month in Italy, three weeks in Greece, and two weeks in Croatia. Each country was beautiful and we wished we had way more time (and money) to spend in all of Europe! Tim's parents met up with us in Italy, as well as our friend Sarah and her Aunt Jane (and her fabulous friend, Kim). We all ate a lot of amazing food and drank a lot of delicious wine. My sister finally met up with us and we had great twin time in Italy and Greece! And ate more food and drank more wine! It started to snow in Europe, so Tim and I returned our car to Munich after driving a total of 8,000 km. Tim and I then flew from Germany to Istanbul, Turkey, explored for a few days, then flew to and visited Dubai, UAE. We were in the "Middle East" and it was awesome!!<br />
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We finally made it back to SE Asia when we flew from Dubai to Jakarta, Indonesia. We spent a month in Indonesia, and that was no where near enough time. We then traveled for six weeks with our friends Justin and Ciara, spending a month in Myanmar and two weeks with them in Thailand. Tim and I finished our trip beach hopping in Thailand for two weeks. We returned to Bangkok to enjoy some cheap shopping, spa time, and meet up with our friend Rico, and our friend Melissa (who was in a 2 week whirlwind tour of Thailand with her friend Cailin). We ate at Chinatown one last time. We went to the Sky Bar, where the Hang Over Two was filmed and drank really expensive cocktails. We drank buckets on Khao Saun Road. Finally, it was time for us to fly home. We booked a ticket using air miles, costing us a total of $75 total due to taxes, and flew from Bangkok, Thailand to Shanghai, China, then to Tokyo, Japan, finally reaching US soil in Seattle, Washington, and after a little over 30 hours, landed in Anchorage, Alaska!!!!!!!!!!!!! <br />
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It was an amazing 5.5 months. We both missed our family and friends, but the new experiences and new friends we made were fantastic. We will be home in Alaska for the summer. There is no place more beautiful and no where else either of us would rather spend our summer. Tim plans on managing a remote mining camp for the summer. I'm hoping to get some remote work as well, or may stay in town and play a lot with my sister. We will be heading to South America come winter. We hope that our friends will join us in Peru when we visit Machu Picchu. We will go to Mendoza for the wine festival with Tim's parents. From there, there are so many amazing options in South America that we don't really know where to start. We've started practicing Spanish! Tim graduates with his MBA in April (I'm so proud of him!), so that means next winter, you will be hearing a lot more from him! <br />
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Thank you all so much for reading our blog!! <br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16180488436856916476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302199714085283388.post-80159865322306101322013-03-14T18:00:00.002-07:002013-03-14T18:00:12.620-07:00Koh Phi Phi Don and Koh Phi Phi Leh<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Amber: We left the peace and quiet of Railay Beach and took a boat over Koh Phi Phi. There are actually two islands that go by Koh Phi Phi. Koh Phi Phi Don is inhabited, while its beautiful neighbor is famous for "The Beach" being filmed on its ever so popular Maya Bay, Koh Phi Phi Leh. We got off the ferry and were bombarded by people trying to get us to stay at their guest house. There were ample accommodations on Koh Phi Phi! Everyone was advertising 800 baht, about $24, for their most basic of housing. There are a lot of pricey resorts on Koh Phi Phi, and while they were amazing looking, they were well above our budget at 3,600 baht. We had just payed 400 baht in Tonsai, so were a little sticker shocked with the jump in price. We finally booked a ocean view bungalow at 800 baht and were marched from the pier, through the small town, and to the other side of the island. The white sand bay we were led to was beautiful! The little, rickety bungalow, however, was not. Tim almost broke through the porch as he went in. A mattress sat on the floor and a mosquito net hung limply from the ceiling. We were not impressed.<br />
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We finally found a much nicer room a few hundred yards away from the beach. Tim was able to barter the owner down to 700 baht a night, and we were happy. Koh Phi Phi has such a fun party scene. The bars literally have their dance floor on the beach. So when the tide comes in, you are dancing in the ocean. It was fun. We had a few beers and walked along the beach that was lined with bars. Each bar had an amazing sound system, so while vacationers jumped flaming jump ropes, played flaming limbo, and jumped through flaming loops, others danced in the surf. Tim and I mostly watched the crowd and laughed at all the drunken shenaganigans.<br />
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We were almost at the end of our five and a half month long trip, so splurged and booked a $150 for three dives, diving trip. We were so excited! The diving in Koh Phi Phi was supposed to be amazing. The first dive sight we went to was a wreck dive. We took a small boat away from the island for about an hour and a half. When we got to our dive sight, we were in pretty sharp, 3' swell. Rocking side to side as the captain had us broadside to the waves, I started to worry about getting sick under water. Uh oh! The current was strong, so we were instructed to jump off the stern, then swim towards the bow and take the anchor line down. The current was very strong! I was out of breath by the time I made i to the bow line. Knowing it would be calmer under water, our dive leader told us to go down. We clung to the anchor line as the visibility was incredibly poor and the current was so strong. We finally made it to the wreck. The visibility and the current did not improve. Tim and I constantly bumped into each other as we were afraid to get too far away from one another and get lost. The boat had been on the ocean floor for 15 years, so we had been warned to not touch it as it could collapse. Sea urchins lined the boat's deck. I was terrified! I burned through my air quickly (I'm pretty sure I was in panic mode the whole dive), and was happy to go back to the surface. I was shaking when we got out of the water. Being 90' below the surface, unable to see and constantly being knocked into an old, rotten boat, was not my favorite. <br />
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We waited an hour and were told we would be going back down in the same area. I had been secretly hoping that they would realize that it was far too rough and therefor move. No such luck. We dropped in right next to a big rock pinnacle that jetted out of the water. The rock pile that the boat we had previously dove had wrecked on. The sea was noticeably calmer, and the water bright turquoise. We were under maybe a minute when we saw a sea snake. Clown fish, box fish and puffer fish were everywhere! Our guide almost bumped into a leopard shark before she spotted him, quietly laying on the sea floor. Seven feet long, he didn't seem to have a care in the world as we swam by! The current was pretty much gone, and the visibility was amazing. It was one of my favorite dives. We finally had to come up, and were settling onto the upper deck for some sun when we realized our boat was driving away with still two divers left in the water. I ran down and told our dive leader. She didn't believe me!! Finally, I was able to convince the captain to turn around and rescue the stranded divers. How horrible! <br />
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Our last dive of the day we drove back to Koh Phi Phi Leh. The boat backed up to the huge cliff wall that rose up out of the sea. The visibility was again amazing. Swimming along the cliff face and viewing it from under water was beautiful. We saw nudibranches and sea turtles. It was such a pretty, peaceful dive! A perfect last dive for our trip.<br />
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We enjoyed laying out in the sun pretty much every day we were on Koh Phi Phi. We layered on the SPF30 and would last about an hour or two. The bay was shallow, so we would either be on the white sand beach or wade out into the ocean. It was heaven! I didn't want to leave. <br />
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We took a snorkeling long boat tour of Koh Phi Phi Leh and even beached on Maya Beach. The islands are truly spectacular. The water and sand are just breath taking. We love Thailand!!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16180488436856916476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302199714085283388.post-21905046726905913752013-03-03T01:38:00.001-08:002013-03-03T01:38:35.366-08:00Reilay Beach and Tonsai, Thailand<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Amber: Reilay Beach has been on the top of my list of places to visit in all of SE Asia since we began planning our trip in 2011. The tall limestone cliffs that jet out of turquoise water, surrounding picture perfect white sand beaches, are breath taking. The rock climbing in the area is supposed to be spectacular. On one of his previous visits to Thailand, Tim had visited for a few days and had raved about how amazing it was. I knew I wanted to go! Last year, with our six country sprint of SE Asia for four months, we accomplished visiting Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Singapore. While we did pass through Thailand three times, we didn't make it far enough south in Thailand to visit Reilay Beach. This time around, it was on our we-will-go list.<br />
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We said goodbye to Justin and Ciara, after six weeks of traveling with them, on Koh Tao. They were heading north to Bangkok to meet up with our friend Rico, before flying back to the States. Tim and I got a ferry, bus, long tail ticket to Reilay beach. The boat ride was extremely crowded leaving Koh Tao. The number of foreigners surging to and from the little island was amazing. The ferry unloaded just as many people as it picked up, at least 500 passengers, and they aren't the only means to get to the island. And this is daily! Their economy must be booming. At our boat to bus transfer, the wind picked up. Tim and I were sitting in the small bus station when a huge rain and wind storm hit. A large group of Chinese tourists were trying to board a bus, and their luggage went flying in the gusts. Women were screaming as they ran through the sheets of rain to get into the bus. Our bus arrived finally, and we ran through the rain to get onboard. A huge strike of lightening hit a tower right next to us. We were already safely on board, so laughed at a black dog that started running for cover. The poor dog ran down the road our bus was taking for a long, long time!<br />
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We ended up spending a night in Krabi Town, and got up early to take a long tail boat out to Reilay. The long tails only go when they dem they have enough passengers. The two of us was not enough! Finally, four more people had signed up, so we were ready to go. It took us about an hour on the long tail to get to Reilay beach. It was raining when we arrived. The limestone karsts were beautiful! One of the passengers got excited about a particularly pretty photo opportunity and shifted to the far side of the long tail. We were in a three foot swell from the stern, and the weight shift caused the long, narrow vessel to start to plunge to the left dramatically. Tim jumped to the other side of the boat, balancing it again. The boat driver slowed the engine and yelled at the eager photographer; "easy man!" A flipped long tail would have been an interesting way to arrive in Reilay!<br />
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We made it to Reilay, safe and sound. The white sand beach and limestone cliffs were just as beautiful as I imagined them to be. Tim's class was at ten am, so we trekked through the rain in search of lodging before giving up and finding Tim a computer lab. Leaving our bags with Tim, I decided to hike over to Tonsai, the hippy climber town on the beach next to Reilay. Reilay was pricy! The lodging options appeared to be really expensive resorts. That were beautiful, but well over our price range. So, along the beach, over the rocks and through the jungle I went to Tonsai. I found the small trail that wound over the cliff that separated the two beaches with out much difficulty. It took me about twenty minutes before I reached the other beach. Rock climbers were strung up all over the cliff faces. How fun! It made me wish I had some form of muscle in my arms so I could shimmy up the cliffs, too! <br />
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The town of Tonsai was not the most impressive first impression. I walked along the beach, but there were only a few bars, so took a muddy trail up into the jungle. I price checked four different options before returning to Reilay. No one was full, so I wasn't worried about booking a place. They were all pretty rough, little shacks with mosquito nets. I felt like a spoiled princess when I went back to Tim, telling him I didn't like Tonsai. It was dirty and the lodging was expensive for what you got. Tim laughed at me, and we hiked back to Tonsai and booked a little bungalow. It was nothing special, but it did have a tin roof, so when it rained, it sounded really cool. And the bamboo walls, though not particularly sturdy, kept the monkeys out. The mosquito net did a pretty good job keeping the bugs out, too! <br />
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We did make the mistake of buying banana bread and bringing it back to our room with us, not one night, but two! The first night, I had left the banana bread in Tim's back pack and left it on the floor of our bungalow, not thinking we were in the middle of the jungle. A little animal ate a big hole through Tim's back pack and ate a large chunk of our bread. Not learning our lesson, we bought an even bigger loaf of banana bread and brought it into our room again, this time, protected high up on a shelf in its plastic case. Tim and I fell asleep, thinking we had outsmarted our little menace. Oh no! This time, the little monster climbed into our shack and kept us up all night, trying to get into our bread. We were stubborn and refused to put the banana bread outside. With a head lamp, we defended our banana bread! One teny little mouse was doing his best to get to his prize. We were successful in keeping him from eating our banana bread, but the next morning, we sleepily asked ourselves if a half a loaf of banana bread was worth a whole nights rest.<br />
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Tonsai and Reilay turned out to be as fun and as beautiful as I had imagined them to be. Tim and I rented a kayak two different days. Kayaking around all the near by little islands was fun, and Tim likes to paddle trough all the gauntlets and caves as much as I do! The tide rises and falls rapidly, so it was always different. We beached at a little secluded white sand cove and looked for sea shells. We found these amazing little snails and collected a plastic coke bottle full of them. We promised each other we will make a cool project out of them. We spent two different days collecting them, so we better! <br />
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Renting climbing gear is extremely expensive, and both Tim and I are pretty darn weak right now, so we never did go climbing. Food and drinks are definitely island prices, so pricy, but we did walk down to the beach and enjoy the surf and stars, sipping on a beer or Sangsom and coke. Sipping on a drink by moonlight, beach side, is hard to beat! One night at dusk, we heard a woman scream. Everyone moved out to the beach and stared at the 500' cliff that looms over the bars of Tonsai Beach. We walked out and joined the crowd. What were they looking at? Finally we saw; a man on the top of the cliff jumped off! He free fell for about a second, then pulled his shoot and floated to the beach. A second man waited a few minutes, and then also jumped off the cliff. It was amazing watching his tiny body arch off the cliff and then with a woosh, pull his shoot. As it turns out, the first scream we heard was a woman that lead the base jumpers. Awesome!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16180488436856916476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302199714085283388.post-23779263303843622322013-03-02T00:43:00.000-08:002013-03-02T00:43:34.128-08:00Koh Tao, Thailand<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Amber: Tim and I love Koh Tao. It is a tropical paradise island with the cheapest diving in the world for us. We got our Open Water SCUBA at Bans Dive resort last year, and as a result, we get a discount every dive. Score! Our good friend and dive instructor Fai lives on Koh Tao. Justin actually met Fai over six years ago in Bangkok as a Couch Surfer on her couch. She moved to Koh Tao and became a SCUBA instructor, and Justin visits her every year when he comes to Thailand. She has now taught Justin, our travel buddies Joe and Rico, Tim and I how to SCUBA dive, not to mention hundreds of others. She is great; I have never met anyone that is more fun, but can make me feel more comfortable in the water. With us going to Koh Tao, Ciara was next on her list!<br />
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This was Tim's and my third time at Koh Tao. Fai booked Tim, Justin, Ciara and I a VIP bus from Bangkok and we had the most amazing reclining chairs on the 8 hour bus ride to Chumpon, the ferry port that connects Koh Tao with the rest of the world. It was so comfortable that even Tim fell asleep. The luxury stopped in Chumpon, however. We were supposed to be on the fast boat, a beautiful catamaran that takes an hour and a half to arrive on the island. There had been a mix up at the ticket counter, however, and the four of us were booked on the slow boat. This boat is old, stinks of diesel, and over booked. And takes about three hours. We all tried to sleep through the fumes, but it gave Ciara a headache. The deck was already crowded with people trying to escape the cabin, but we were able to climb past them. For some lucky reason, no one had taken the bow, so we were happy to soak up a little early morning sun and hang our feet over the side. There were flying fish that darted out of the water and glided across the waves about twenty meters before crashing back into the ocean. <br />
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Unfortunately, a group of very intoxicated French hippies found us. It was eight in the morning, and they were all still going strong from the night before. They were smashed. They kept on standing up and mooning each other, to the point the captain had to stop the boat to get them to sit back down. One fell onto Justin and spilled his beer all over Justin's camera bag. Not wanting to start an altercation, Justin yelled at them then we moved further up the bow. We all stewed as they made asses of themselves. Finally, we made it to Koh Tao, and we were happy to get away from them. <br />
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Because of the mix up on the boats, we arrived in Koh Tao behind schedule. Tim needed to be in a computer lab at ten in the morning. He and two others were presenting to his entire MBA class via adobe connect. It was about ten twenty when the taxi finally dropped us off at Bans. Poor Tim! I could tell he was silently seething. We all found Fai, who was working in reception to help out Bans, said hello quickly, and Tim ran to find the nearest computer lab. As it turns out, a different group presented before Tim's group was up, so he didn't miss a thing and was able to present as if nothing had happened. <br />
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Bans was fully booked, and Fai was extremely busy. Justin, Ciara and I went in search of a guest house. The number of tourist in Koh Tao has increased dramatically! A lot of the guest houses we have stayed at in previous visits were full. Those that weren't completely booked had increased their pricing by almost double. We finally found two rooms at the same place. The woman that owned the place was a bit strange. When asking to see the room before committing to staying, Justin also asked if there was wifi available. She became agitated and shouted "do you want to see room, or do you want wifi???" Um, both? It was the cheapest room we had found, and they were nice, so despite the host being extremely cranky, we booked with her. <br />
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It was Valentines Day the day we arrived, so Tim and I had dinner at a nice Italian restaurant, just the two of us. We had baked brie, wine, and pasta. It was delicious! We got a banana chocolate pancake from a street vendor for desert, my favorite. Afterwards we walked down to the ocean and light a Chinese lantern while standing in the surf. Tim can be so romantic! We met back up with the gang after and had some beers at a beach side bar. It was such a fun evening!<br />
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We spent eight days on Koh Tao. It is so fun there, it is hard for us to leave! Fai was finally able to take a day off, so the five of us drove motor scooters over to Shark bay, rented snorkel gear, and swam with black tipped sharks. Tim and I had gone last year, and it was amazing. Ciara is very scared of the water, but after completing her SCUBA course, was feeling a bit more confident. The day we went, there was some chop coming into Shark bay. The water was cloudy, and there was talk of going back. No! We had to see sharks! We decided to stay in the water and go out into the bay a little further. The visibility cleared. And a big shark swam by! Well, he was at least four feet long, and that seems really big when you are swimming two meters above. The sharks pretty much did their own thing while the four of us trailed after them on the surface. They are awesome. We swam for about forty five minutes and were able to swim with at least four different black tipped sharks. It was fun. Afterwards, we went to a calmer beach (with no sharks!) and played in the water on a beautiful white sand beach and soaked up the vitamin D. <br />
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We spent a lot of time just relaxing on Koh Tao. Thailand is a perfect way for one to wrap up a five and a half month long trip, as if traveling were hard! Sitting on white sand beaches, playing in warm, picture perfect turquoise water, eating really good food, enjoying great company, Koh Tao spoils you. We did manage to dive four times, which is always amazing. We went to Chumpon Pinnacle, where we saw the whale shark last year, but no whale sharks were to be found. It was Ciara's first time going below 18 m, Fai took her down to 30m to give her her deep water certificate. Having gotten our deep water last year, and gone on many 30m dives since, we all went with, and had fun swimming around. All the cool stuff is deep, you just can't dwell on the fact that you are swimming 90' below the surface.<br />
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We were nearing the end of our dive, and moving up the pinnacle, when I felt my weight belt shift. Uh oh! The buckle had come undone. Two of my four weights slipped off and sank beneath me. Trying to not shoot to the surface, I let the air out of my BCD. It didn't help much. I was surfacing. All I could think was "Oh no, I'm going to get the Benz" and "Damn, now I can't go on our second dive". I surfaced, and did a mental check. Did I have pain anywhere? No, so that was good. I looked in the water beneath me. Where were my friends? Oh, still at about 18 m, swimming along. They finally looked up. I waved, letting them know I was okay. They did their 3 min stop at 3 meters to, ahem, prevent getting the Benz, and finally joined me at the surface. I was fine to go on the second dive, and we had fun swimming through under water caves and looking at all the pretty marine life in Koh Tao. <br />
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The next day, Tim and I signed up for two more dives. Fai was not able to lead us, so we went with Chris, a gentleman from England that was on holiday at Koh Tao. Once upon a time, he was a dive instructor at Bans, and while he was back, they let him dive for free, so long as he occasionally took fun divers like us. The first dive was an old battle ship that had been sunk by Bans to be a wreck dive. At 30 m, the old battleship was eery in the poor visibility. We swam around the boat and even stood on its deck. The second dive was also poor visibility, but we did see clown fish, (Nemo!), so that was fun. Chris let us use his underwater camera. I so want one for the next time we go diving. Guess it's time for me to go home so I can afford one!<br />
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If anyone is wondering where Tim went as far as blog posts... he is taking two classes and those consume all of his free computer time. So, all his fun facts are not here in the blog like they usually are. Sorry! But, while he works on his classes, I get to write about all the fun we are having. Then, when he is done with his class time, home work, and group meetings, we can go play!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16180488436856916476noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302199714085283388.post-61898206359468114702013-02-27T20:30:00.001-08:002013-02-27T22:16:21.204-08:00Chinatown, Bangkok<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Amber: One of the reasons I love to travel... the food. I try not to be too much of a foodie and write constantly about the cool stuff we eat. But, what can I say, Bangkok's Chinatown's food is worth writing about. Chinatown it's self is awesome. It is teeming with energy. Big red Chinese lanterns are draped everywhere. People crowd the streets, walking between shops, street stalls, and restaurants. Everything is so different! Shark fin soup, birds nest soup, fruits we've never seen, it's awesome (we still havn't mustered up enough courage to eat the birds nest soup, and shark fin soup... that's just wrong). The streets are still open to traffic, so it can be a bit of a challenge to cross to your next favorite place to eat. While there are lots of interesting things to shop for, we never actually go shopping, we just eat. <br />
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Tim and I have become creatures of habit in Chinatown. First we start with roasted duck served over noodles at a tiny little food stall. Perched on kids sized stools at a long street side table, crammed in with the locals, we make ourselves at home. It has to be the best duck in the world, for about $1.35. It is the only thing that they serve, so they have it nailed down to an art.<br />
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From there, we walk down the bustling street to find our favorite seafood street restaurant and fill ourselves on giant prawns. Tim is a master at ripping the head off and getting the meat out of the tail. The prawns are hot off the grill, so getting their shell, head and legs off usually ends up with me burning my fingers and I somehow end up with prawn guts on me every time. It's all worth it tho, as they are huge, and are served with the best lime chili dipping sauce. I could eat them for hours. We get the prawns with a curried chili crab, which is amazing as well. It is rich and delicious. Washed down with a big Chang, it's amazing, and we are full.<br />
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But, we keep going. There are these awesome, warm, stuffed rolls at a tiny little food stall that are to die for. They are a cross between a biscuit and a dinner roll, warmed and filled with butter and your choice of peanut butter, marmalade, chocolate, or cinnamon sugar. Having tried them all, marmalade is my favorite. For Tim, its all about the peanut butter. Really, its the melting butter that matters. And at this point, we have to stop eating or else we would burst.<br />
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We love taking our friends to Chinatown. It's a fun way to spent the evening. So far this time in Thailand, we have gone twice. The first time, Tim, Justin, Ciara and I took a ferry down the Chao Pria River and they did the circuit with us. After impressing them with the duck, Justin was able to convince us that dim sum needed to be added to the mix, so we went off in search of the best dim sim in Chinatown. Being close to Chinese New Year, it was really crowded. Being as we were in Chinatown, it was really hard to find dim sum. We were able to find the dim sum restaurant, however, and all shared a large selection. Ciara had never had dim sum, but I think she now has new favorite food group. They were tasty. <br />
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The second time we went back, it was actually Chinese New Year. Complete with the big dragon puppets, it was a special time to be in Chinatown. It was so packed with people, the streets were actually closed off to traffic. We hit up all our favorite food groups, and enjoyed the show. Unfortunately, all the photos are locked on Tim's phone, so you will just have to imagine how cool it was!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16180488436856916476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7302199714085283388.post-67482786709377740282013-02-27T00:06:00.000-08:002013-02-27T00:06:19.578-08:00Khao Yai, Thailand<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Amber: We enjoyed two nights in Bangkok before heading north to Khao Yai. Justin, Tim, Ciara and I were all thankful for Ciri on Tim's phone as we rented a car and maneuvered the chaotic, massive highways leading out of Bangkok. The city is at least 7.7 million people, and growing rapidly. Tim is a very good driver, so he was nominated to drive. Not only does one drive on the opposite side of the road as we do in Alaska, but the driver is on the other side of the car as well! Tim did great (even with three back seat drivers). Lane lines in Thailand are merely suggestions. Cars, motor scooters, busses, semis, all dance around each other in a race to get there first. While he is perfectly safe, Tim is aggressive! It is funny when we get home, he keeps up the same offensive driving; darting through traffic. It takes a few weeks for him to re-acclimate to drive like a normal person.<br />
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The car ride to Khao Yai was a little over 2 hours. Khao Yai is an over 20,000 square km park in the center of Thailand. Wild elephants, Horn bills, gibbons, tigers, sun bears, and thousands of other animals live in it's protected rain forest. We were all excited for a chance of seeing a wild elephant. There are over 250 scattered throughout the densely forested mountains. Monkeys are everywhere, as well as wild elk and little wild deer. Justin had gone twice before and been skunked both times, so we all had our fingers crossed that this was the time to find the allusive elephants and gibbons.<br />
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Our plan was to drive between different viewing platforms, hike into them, and wait out the elephants. They were our top priority. Or where the gibbons? We weren't sure, we wanted to see both. And a tiger. Maybe a little optimistic, but we were excited. The park was beautiful. Who knew that such an awesome rain forest was so close the the chaos of Bangkok? We saw Horn Bills high up in the trees on our drive into the park. A family of Pig Tail Maquas sat on the side of the road. They weren't the least bit shy. Ciara's first monkeys in the wild, complete with tiny baby monkeys! We drove into the park and searched out the different viewing platforms. There was elephant dung everywhere! The Gibbons were nearby as well, we could hear them calling to each other in the forest. <br />
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We spent two nights in Khao Yai, renting camping gear and sleeping in a busy camp ground. We drove up and down roads, hiked through the jungle, waited in viewing platforms, and stayed out so late one night that we missed dinner as the camp restaurant shut down. We had Reese's s'mores for dinner, cooked over a charcoal fire, instead. They were delicious! As we sat cross legged around the coals, Tim got a leach on his foot. It was horrible! It was a little inch worm looking thing attached between his toes. He pulled it off, and of course his foot started bleeding. That was enough for everyone to climb into our tents and say good night. Gross!<br />
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We never saw an elephant or a gibbon. We did see the biggest porcupine I have ever seen in our camp ground, as well as wild elk, the little wild deer, and a little wild cat like thing. We needed to spend more time in our camp ground and less out in the jungle, apparently! We did hear an elephant trumpet twice, and gibbons calling to each other constantly. We fed pig tail maquas potato chips and marshmallows. It was fun to have them take the food from our hands. Their hands are so neat! The big bull was scary, so we stayed in the safety of our car and fed the little cute ones from our windows. One was so brave, she climbed up onto the car and wouldn't get off. We threw food down onto the ground and started to drive away, and she jumped down, snatched it up, and bounded back onto the car. Even though we didn't find the elephants or gibbons (or the tiger!) it was still a beautiful place, and we all had a fun weekend. <br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16180488436856916476noreply@blogger.com1