Nazca, Huacachina, and Lima

The next day Liz had to head home but we stayed in Cuzco for the day and then took an overnight (15hour!! bus ride to Nazca. I think Nazca was the least exciting thing on our trip but I expected that so it was ok. We didn't take a plane tour because they're a bit expensive and have questionable safety regulations- instead we just took a bus ride out to the lookout tower....which we missed because it was so unimpressive and then had to walk back to it about a 1/4 mile along the Pan Americana which was a pretty funny site. We saw 2 of the figures, the "hands (the one in the picture)" and the "tree" and we saw part of the lizard which they built the Pan Americana right through! Seeing the lines took about 5 minutes but then we had to wait on the side of the road for about an hour until another bus picked us up haha. After we got back to the town of Nazca we took a bus to Huacachina where we went sand surfing- awesome- and stayed the evening.

The town was cute, there was a lake surrounded by palm trees in the middle.

The next day we headed to Lima, got a tour of the down town and had the most amazing seafood meal everrrrr- at what was apparently the most expensive restaurant in Lima, which out taxi driver told us as we got out of the car to go into the restaurant!! The next day Coury and Drea left early and the rest of us just killed time, walked by the beach and then headed out that night. Pretty hard to imagine that we were able to work out such an incredible trip with 7 of our best friends but it was truely a trip of a life time!!

Inca Trail!!!!!

The next morning we started the Inca Trail and honestly it was 4 days of bliss. Ok maybe bliss is strong because we were still doing an intense hike but the views were incredible, the company was awesome, and the food was out of this world!! I mean we are talking practically gourmet meals with tomato flower garnishes made from food and cooking supplies that were carried by the porters the whole time!! It was also really nice not to have to organize anything for 4 days all we had to do was keep walking:) Our first stop along the way was to have breakfast and to buy walking sticks which we were all initially opposed to but I think after the hours downhill/down stairs we were happy to have gotten them! Once we got to the staging area where all the companies were leaving from it became immediately obvious that we had picked the correct company. Our porters all had matching uniforms that were warm enough for the temperatures we would be experiencing, they had actual backpacks for the 60lbs that they had to carry, and they had tennis shoes instead of sandals like many of the other companies. Some of the other companies didn't issue the porters anything! the didn't even have backpacks to help distribute the weight they literally had tarp-like material that they wrapped around everything that they had to carry. Our porters also all traveled together and although I'm sure they would never say they had an easy job they were always smiling and joking around with each other whereas other companies weren't even walking together. I think the porter treatment was an essential part of our happiness with the trip because it would have been awful if we had to watch the porters working in terrible conditions that we essentially put them in for 4 days! Our porters were great though, literally when we got to a camp it was all set up for us, then when we left they packed it up and then RAN ahead so that they could have the next camp set up when we arrived!!

The first day we had a leisurely hike to lunch and then a pretty serious few hours of hiking straight up before we got to the dinner site. The second day we did 2 mountain passes which was pretty tough. Before lunch we hiked to Dead Woman's Pass which was the highest point of the hike at 4100. Then we headed down for about 3 hours before lunch, which I think was the worst part because the steps were huge so it took a lot more control to go down and it was just murder on our joints- thank goodness for the walking sticks, they took a little pressure off. Then after lunch we did another pass and some more downhill but this time it HAILED so that added a bit to the difficulty- luckily though everyone had brought proper rain gear so we didn't have any problems with the rain. That day we did about 12 hours of hiking! and our guides even suggested when we left at the crack of dawn that we bring our headlamps with us in case we had to do the last part of the hike that day in the dark- luckily though we managed to get in before headlamp use was necessary. The third day wasn't as long of a hike, we were at our camp for the night by early afternoon- the biggest difficulty was that we were sore from the previous day. That afternoon we were able to shower!!! so we would be squeaky clean for Machu Picchu and we went to a ruin very close to the camp site but we mostly just hung out and enjoyed all we had accomplished.


The next morning we had to get up at 4 to start the hike to Machu Picchu- we did need our head lamps for that one!! Linnea, Coury, and Andrea took it even further and got up at 3:30 so that they could run to Machu Picchu in hopes of getting tickets to climb Wayna Picchu which is the mountain next to the ruins. This was necessary because they only allow 400 people up there per day and people who do the Inca trail can't usually get to Machu Picchu early enough to get the limited tickets (it's about a 2 hour hike in the morning/a 1 hour run). The girls didn't actually end up getting the tickets but since some people who got tickets didn't climb they were able to do the climb- thankfully after all that!!!!


Machu Picchu of course was incredible but it honestly felt a little anticlimactic because we hiked for 3 days to get there but we were only there for about 5 hours so it seemed a little unbalanced but the overall experience was still unbelievable! After that we had lunch and hung out in Aguas Calientes (although we didn't go in the gross springs) and then took a train back to Cuzco that evening. That was the only night that we went out though just to a club for a few hours but we were so exhausted it didn't last too long.

Cuzco

Next we went to Cuzco- we got into Cuzco around 5 in the morning so we went to the hostel that we had booked for the next evening...but we didn't have a reservation for that night so they let us sleep in the attic on the floor for a few hours haha. We had lunch at an amazing Australian owned place called Jack's that had been my saving grace when I was last in Cuzco- I think everyone was pleased with the huge burgers after the sometimes meager servings we got in Bolivia. Next we headed up to Sacsayhauman for a horse tour of the ruins at the top of the city. There are 4 different sites that we were able to visit. First was Sacsayhauman which was the biggest of the sites, now it's only about 20% authentic because the Spaniards tour down most of it and used the stones throughout Cuzco on their homes and churches. Our guide showed us a bunch of animal forms that were made with the stones in the walls of the ruins like llamas, snakes, pumas, etc (the picture is of a llama). Some of them really seemed like they might be intentional but others seemed like a pretty big stretch and that if you looked hard enough you could make out the shapes of animals anywhere- so I guess you have to be your own judge on that one as to whether the Incans really intended to make those shapes or whether archaeologists just wanted them to have done that.

Next we got off our horses (because they weren't allowed near the sites) and took a collectivo on the road to Tambomachay, which is a ritual bath site that the Incans made out of channeling natural springs. In Spanish it's called "El Bano del Inca." Next we walked down to Pukapukara, "the red fort," which was probably a staging center for the bigger ritual sites in the area or as a stopping place for travellers. It's known as the least important of the sites...and it was haha.

Then we hopped back on the horses and finished the horse part of the tour which ended at Q'engo which means "zigzag" in Quechua. It was used for ritual sacrifices involving chicha or potential blood. It was also maybe a burial place for lesser nobles. After we got back from the ruins we went to a great dinner in the main plaza in Cuzco and then headed to bed.

Our next day in Cuzco we took it easy and did a lot of shopping. We amusingly got a picture with the "Inca" a guy who dressed up and pointed out a stone that had 12 sides- the most sides of any of the building stones in the Incan empire...and then he expected tips for pointing it out if you looked. That night we had an Inca Trail prep meeting where we got to meet our guides and the rest of our alllll female group. The meeting sufficiently scared us so we were ready to get home and get some sleep in preparation for our upcoming trek!! Unfortunately the laundromat that we had sent our clothes to hooooours earlier had a different plan so we didn't get our laundry back until 11:30 pm so after packing we didn't get to bed as early as we had hoped.

The floating islands

After that we headed to Puno which is on the Peruvian side of the lake and from there we took a tour of the floating islands which were suppppper cool! They are man-made islands made out of the roots of reeds with reeds piled on top- crazy! The island we went to had about 50 people living there 7 or 8 families. We are pretty sure building a Kappa island for retirement purposes is a must!! We also got to take a ride on one of their boats that kind of looks like it was built by the Vikings because they have dragon heads on one side- so funny!

La Paz and Isla del Sol

Then we headed back to La Paz and met Liz- she wasn't able to take off as much time as everyone else but she was there for the best parts I think. We also got to meet her cousin who lives in La Paz and she introduced us to a lovely restaurant district where we enjoyed the first night back in La Paz.

The next day we went to Tiwanacu a major site close to La Paz- it is the main city of the biggest pre-Incan culture. Later that day we also went to the witches market which was very creepy- they had llama fetuses all over the place for sale for rituals. Linnea walked into one of he stores and saw women pulling apart llama fat as an offering to pachamama, mother earth- eek!

After a day in La Paz we went to Copacabana which is on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca. We only had lunch there and then we took a boat ride to Isla del Sol where we spent the night. We also took a little side trip to Isla de la Luna, where there was an Incan temple for virgins- they used to keep them there before they sacrificed them- yikes!! The view was incredible and so was the trout but...that was pretty much it for the island.

The morning of the day that we left we did a hike from the north side of the island where we were staying to the south where there were supposed to be a"significant" archeologic site. The hike took about 4 hours- there were some truely incredible views becuase the backdrop of the lake is snow capped mountains but the water looks like deep carribean bluewater- quite the combination. However, the "archeologic site" wasn't so impressive, we saw the Sacred Rock- which we weren't able to differenciate from any other rock without guidance and there were some old Incan buildings that were falling apart...and that was it haha so the hike was definitely the highlight.

Potosi

Next we went to Potosi, which is a mining town where we were able to take a tour of the mines. It was a great experience but very intense. Physically it was almost impossible to breath because there was soooo much dust and not to mension we were at 4100m! and we had to do a lot of climbing inside the mines, including ladders that they said oh dont go on steps 1, 5, and 7 becuase they're broken haha. It was also pretty mentally trying too because we saw really young kids (as young as 13) in the mines who were working 24 hour shifts. Oh and also Josepha had a panic attack mid mine shaft haha because she's so tall and she was all claustrophobic and having a hard time breathing haha so our guide had to calm her down so we could move on. It was very interesting to hear about the mining culture which seems to be one completely of its own. They have parties in the mines and the miners also "worship" Tio the god of the underworld while they are in the mines but our guide said that outside of the mines they were all serious Catholics, which is an interesting idea.

Before we went into the mines we got coca leavs and soda to give to the miners that we saw in the mines. We only saw 2 but they were both very young, the 13 year old that we saw said that he would be working a 24 hour shift in which he might leave once to have lunch for an hour or maybe not because he had soda and coca leaves which are an appetite supressant. The second miner that we saw was showing us minerals that he had found and he pointed out lead- you should have seen Linnea's face of panic upon hearing that! We were ready to get out of there after hearing that!!


When we did get out of the mines we had a bit of fun with the dynamite that we had gotten and the Barbia our guide got for us- when our friend Dave did the mine tour they demonstrated the use of dynamite IN THE MINES but luckily we just blew up our doll outside when we were all way out of range of it! Although it was a bit trying I am really glad we did it, it was definitely eye opening!

La Paz and Uyuni

Our first destination was La Paz, there Jenni, Linnea, and I and met up with Coury and Drea who had already been there for a day. La Paz was quite nice, it was actually better than I expected, mostly because Colombians and I think all of South America is very prejudice against Bolivians so they had given us lower expectations than were warrented if they had ever actually been there. However other than a few churches there wasn't very much to see. It also isn't safe at night so we didn't experience any of the night life the first time we were in La Paz.


After that we headed to Uyuni where we met up with Kelsey and Jo (they had been traveling around northern Argentina for about 10 days since their lease was up mid-month) and did a 3 day Jeep tour of the Bolivian highlands. The first day we went to the salt flats, which are just what they sound like salt as far as the eye can see (it used to be a lake), which is pretty sureal. They're also really cool because you can take perspective pictures where you can't really tell how far apart people are because the backdrop is all the same.







Then the next two days we spent looking at lakes (some had flamingos!! I didn't know that flamingos could live in cold environments but apparently yes because it was TOTALLY freezing there!!), going through some kind of deserty landscape. During the evenings we stayed in 5 house (or less) towns with 2 hours of electricity at night and no showers haha hard to imagine our friends loving that but it was great!!

Santiago de Chile

We arrived in Santiago a few days ahead of Jo and Kelsey (our friends from college who are living in Buenos Aires) so we had a bit of time to explore the city before they arrived. As for actual site seeing in Santiago we really only went to the national museum but we spent a lot of time exploring the city center and enjoying some great food. The first night that Linnea and I were there we felt a tiny earthquake while we were at dinner- it is my first and I hope only earthquake :) If you are ever in Santiago- go to Vacas Gordas- incredible restaurant with the BEST dessert- heaven!!!

In the main plaza we watched a street show and being the gringas that we are, the comedian doing the show immediatly noticed us and included Linnea in the show!!! It was hilarious. We also met the most amazing painter in the plaza who ended up making paintings for all 4 of us!! We really enjoyed Santiago- it has a similar feel to Bogota and although it's not super exciting as a tourist it seems like it would be a pretty good place to live. We have heard though that it has a terrible pollution problem, bad enough that travelers eyes are often irritated. Luckily we were there right before Christmas so there was much less traffic as people were outside the city for the holiday.

Finally, it was the day for Jo and Kelsey to arrive. We had been out exploring in the morning and they actually beat us to the hostel. The scene when we walked in the door was priceless- screaming, crying, jumping while hugging- I think the hostel owner was a bit scared! Once we managed to calm down a bit we decided to head back over to Vacas Gordas for some drinks and dinner. We never got to the dinner part though... we initially ordered drinks and appetizers because it was only 4pm too early for dinner but as the wine and stories flowed we completely forgot to have dinner. I can't begin to explain how amazing it was to be together again, after being apart for 6 months (keep in mind we all lived together and spent every waking minute together at school) we had so much to talk about. It was one of the best nights on our whole trip for me- everything just seemed right because we were back together again!!

Guayaquil

So we were back on track- heading to Guayaquil to catch a flight to Santiago so that we could meet up with Kelsey and Jo. We were only in Guayaquil for a day but that was plenty- we weren't very impressed. It's actually pretty dirty and expensive but they did have a great boardwalk that was recently finished. AND DIET COKE. Yes, I know it's hard to believe but in a water front McDonalds (that we had to go into, I mean a water front McDonalds is just too funny to pass up) we found Diet Coke, not Coca Light, Diet Coke!! Unfortunately for Guayaquil, that was the highlight. Amusingly we also got going out tops...in a street market... in an attempt to not look so homeless when we finally met up with Jo and Kelsey- ironic. We tried them on behind a sheet that was help up for us by the woman who's stand it was and trusted each others faces to be our mirrors because the one the woman had was about 6 inches by 6 inches.

After we got our shirts we headed back to our apartment but we were stopped by a funeral parade for a past president. This was cool to see until we returned to our hostel to find that because of the funeral taxis were extremely scarce and traffic was crazy because of all the roads that had been blocked off for the procession. For a little while we were thinking we might not make our flight! Once we got there our flight was uneventful- we had finally made it to Santiago!!!

Surgery on a Shoestring

So I was having surgery in Cuenca. Now, I had the unpleasant task of calling my parents to tell them that I was having emergency surgery in Ecuador- great- although I'm sure it was more difficult to get the call than to make it!! Luckily my phone works internationally so I was able to call my mom. "Hey mom, I'm ok but could you page Dad and tell him to find a Spanish speaking general surgeon? I have to get my appendix out in Ecuador, I will call him back when the doctor gets here." Once the surgeon arrived, he was able to speak with someone at St. Agnes which was a big relief to me and I'm sure somewhat comforting for my parents.

I went into surgery that night around 7, amazingly, the surgery was done
laproscopically so I only have 2 tiny scars and my recovery was VERY quick. The surgery went well and barring the fact that I am resistant to Novocaine so when I came out of the anesthesia I could feel everything. I got to spend about an hour in recovery whimpering in extremely limited Spanish as I was ignored because the nurses probably thought I was just coming out of the anesthesia poorly. So by the time I got back upstairs to Linnea I gave her quite a scare because I came into the room sobbing in pain and exasperation. She literally checked my scars to make sure they didn't take more than expected. Linnea was able to convince the nurse that I was in pain- go figure- and I got some lovely Morphine which made the night quite pleasant.

Unfortunately, after the first night, they were not as liberal with the drugs- I only got Tylenol and antibiotics for the rest of my stay. The next two days at the hospital were uneventful, I got only nasty soup and jello and Linnea got empanadas...for every meal- it was the only thing the cafeteria had. After I got released from the hospital we had to stay in Cuenca for a few more days so that I could have a post-op appointment before continuing on. Those days were very laid back as well but I felt better everyday and I was at 100% within a week.

After my post-op we got back on a bus and headed for Guayaquil.

Hello Cuenca, Goodbye Appendix

After a night of stomach pains and shivering (duh, a fever, how did I not realize that) we decided maybe my stomach pains were gastritis so we went to the pharmacy and picked up some medicine then headed off to explore Cuenca, determined that the medicine would heal me. First we went to Parque Calderon which has their "new" cathedral, which was actually built in 1885. It was a pretty dazzling site, especially the gold structure built over the sanctuary- incredible! It also has huge blue domes which are lit up at night- beautiful although a bit out of place. We also got to see a parade on our way over to the "old" cathedral, it was a bunch of schools- some had bands, some have baton twirlers, and some were little kids dressed up as saints, priests, and angels- apparently they are very serious about their parades in Ecuador. We were told that the parade was for the baby Jesus and that they had similar parades everyday of December!

Next we went to the "old" cathedral, El Sagrario, which was built in 1557. In this cathedral we got a great tour- it was particularly interesting because even in its construction you can see the fusion of cultures, Spanish, Incan, and the local indigenous group. There were shrines built by local wealthy families that displayed some incredible old vestments. One of the shrines was particularly interesting because it was done in the Spanish style that incorporates Christian, Jewish, and Muslim symbols which is interesting and rather odd to see in Latin America. On the alter of the cathedral there were figures of the apostles- life size figures! There was also an incredible organ that took 5 people to play! There were 4 accordion things that people had to open and close to get sound, they were about a meter and a half by half a meter- huge. Then the 5th person would actually play the organ. At the moment though, it can't be played because it needs 1/2 million usd in repairs- the pipes were clearly worn and falling apart but it was impressive none the less. In the adjacent galleries they had pictures of Cuenca throughout that past century-ish.

Next, we walked to the river- Rio Tomebamba and stopped into the Museo Medico, which was a pleasant surprise. It was just a bunch of old medical equipment, medicines, and a pretty incredible collection of old medical literature. We were some of the very few Americans who had visited judging by the guest book so that was cool to see!

Next we headed to some ruins a little farther down the river, we had a lovely tour but I was having trouble focusing- I wasn't in a huge amount of pain but I was so exhausted, I could barely put one foot in front of the other. After the tour we headed to lunch at which point Linnea and I decided that I needed to go to the hospital. Luckily our Lonely Planet guide had a clinic listed so we headed there.

The clinic ended up being a medical office building but luckily there was a hospital next door!! So we went over to the hospital but were continually redirected to different places because at that point we didn't know I had appendicitis so when people asked if it was an emergency we said no. Well, saying you don't have an emergency in a latin american hospital during lunch time is no way to get seen. Finally we made our way to the emergency room and they agreed to see me despite the fact that it was lunch time :) It ended up working out well though because apparently patients don't come to the hospital during lunch time either- I was one of maybe 3 patients there!

They ran a lot of tests but I was assuming that I had some sort of parasite so when they suggested that I have an ultra sound I asked how expensive it would be first, thinking that wasn't a valuable test. Much to my surprise the ultrasound was in fact the exact test that needed to be done- I have to say it was quite a shock to hear spanish, spanish, spanish I don't understand, APENDICITIS, that's the same in Spanish.

Immediately I asked how I could fly back to the states- no time. Ok, how about Bogota, get me back to Bogota- no time. That's when it began to sink in that I was having surgery in Cuenca, Ecuador....

Banos

Banos is know for its incredible natural beauty so we decided to join a horse tour leaving from our hostel. Unfortunately it wasn't nearly as pleasant as the horse tour in San Augustine beause we spent most of the time feeling badly for the horses because we seemed to constantly be walking downhill on concrete :( In the middle we did go to a pretty waterfall that we got to climb up a bit but then we had to tourture our horses for another 2 hours after that so it wasn't super fun. Banos though is truely beautiful and it would be great to go back and spend some more time hiking and rafting there- apparently the river is awesome for rafting in June. In the evening I wasn't feeling very well so I stayed back at the hostel while Sagiv and Linnea went to the hot springs- Piscina de la Virgen- without me. It was particularly a bummer because that was our last night traveling with Sagiv and I didnt get to spend it with him.

The next morning, we headed to Cuenca by way of Riobamba which took most of the day and was one of my more unpleasant experiences because the bus ride was so bumpy and I was having stomach pains. We did go through some amazingly untouched small towsn though so it was interesting to watch the local dress change from place to place. When we got to Cuenca we checked into a hostel and then went out for dinner at a place called Cafe Eucalyptus, which was very pleasant- good food, good service, and live music- quite the unattainable trifecta in latin america. Then we headed back to the hostel to get some sleep before exploring Cuenca and heading to the Peruvian border the following day.

To the Refugio

The night was truely freezing and at some point the wind changed directions so for the second half of the night the wind was blowing through our tent. Linnea and I both woke up with a lovely suprise, Systemic Pulmonary Edema, which roughly translates into a severely puffy face due to altitude. We looked like monsters, we could have scared small children. The guy who came to tell us there was room in their Jeep up to the parking lot before the refugio said he didnt recognize us! So anyway, eventually our faces started to go down and we managed to do the fastest camp pack up ever- 20 minutes to go from eating breakfast with everything unpacked to putting our packs on the Jeep in 20, pretty amazing!

We got a ride up to the parking lot with the guys who were going to acclimate at the refugio before their summit attempt. We had originally planned on finishing our breakfast in the parking lot but when we got out we were convinced otherwise. There was nothing there, no plants, nothing- it was too high. the wind was literally strong enough to blow you over and definitely strong enough to take away what little break you had if you faced the wind. So we just started up the mountain...slowly. We only had a kilometer to hike but it took us about 45 minutes- it was that steep and high!

Finally though, we did get to the refugio, at a whopping 4890 meters, which is higher than anywhere in the continental US. And wow was it cold!! We went into the refugio to defrost and have lunch, but we didnt get to do much defrosting, it was pretty much the same temperature inside as out, just without the wind.

We saw people who had attempted the summit the previous night and after we were there for an hour or so we saw the people get back who had actually achieved the summit. They said that the time we had come up was pretty much as windy as it gets so that was amusing. We knew we were on a serious mountain and out of our element when the people around us were talking about summitting Everest, and not about how they'd like to do it but about the companies they'd used, which they liked best, etc!!! We met some other Americans in the refugio who had rented a car for the day so they let us pay their driver to take us back to the turn off to catch a bus back to Latacunga and then on to Banos.

In Banos, we stayed in Hostel Transylvania, which is the best deal we've had- $6 for a private room, hot showers, and complementary breakfast- it was amazing! We were also able to get some much needed laundary done there :)

To Cotopaxi

We left Quito for Latacunga midday and just checked into a hostel for the evening to get some rest before tackling Cotopaxi. The next morning we got up early and got on a bus heading back in the direction of Quito and got dropped off at the Cotopaxi turnoff. From there we took a collectivo up to the Laguna Limpiopungo (at 3830 meters). Along the way we stopped at the park's museum- our driver gave us the tour, just telling us about the local flora and fauna. At the museum we also so a deer and a rabbit (wow!) which suprisingly were I think the first animals we had seen while backpacking so it was pathetically exciting.

We got dropped off at the lake and the first thing that we noticed was the cold, man was it cold! Then we headed off literally into the hills, we wanted to do the hike behind the lake but there wasn't much of a trail so we pretty much made our own way- which unfortunately involved walking through a very marshy area- we were very jealous of Sagiv's waterproof boots! About 1/2 hour in we stopped and made some of Sagiv's amazing Arabian coffee with his little travel kit- it was pretty cool because all we had to do was find a clearing and sit ddown and the grasses protected us from the wind and then the temperature was quite agreeable.

After that we continued hiking and we went up this steep hill that was mayb 40 meters but it was incredibly hard- that was when we really started to notice the altitude! After that climb we got to a little plateau and it also happened to coincide with the clouds clearing in front of Cotopaxi and we got some amazing pictures! It was particularly exciting because we were told that you could be in the park for days and never get the kind of view of the volcano that we had pretty much our whole time there. After that we hiked up to basically the highest point that we could go without climbing gear so that was a lot of fun.

Then we started hiking down but instead of going all the way back down to the lake and then taking the road down to the camp site we decided to hike over another hill around the other side of the lake. Cresting it was no problem but the hike down was nasty, there was much heavier vegitation and the footing was more uncertain. As is my specialty, I managed to step in a hole and sprain my ankle. Luckily, we had our handy Israeli soldier with us who carried my bag down to the lake for me. Once we got down behind the lake, which was way bigger than we had originally thought, the terrain was a lot better so I could carry my bad. We also got to see a few fox on our hike and there were wild horses at the lake!! We hiked alongside this drainage on perhaps fresh water ditch along the lake for what seemed like forever looking for (1) the camping site and (2) some place to cross the ditch.

When we could finally see the camping site ther was no place to cross the ditch in sight and the path kept getting sketchier and harder to follow so we decided to cross it! So in the freezing cold, we took off our shoes and socks, threw them across the ditch and Sagiv carried our bags across. Then we hopped into the freezing cold knee high water, crossed the ditch, and pulled ourselves out using trees on the other side. Then we hiked another 10 or so minutes and found there was a bridge right at the camp site!

Once we got to the camp site we set up our tents and made our very late lunch- we had been hiking since 10am and we got back around 4pm. The camp site came highly recommended as having water and bathrooms which was king of funny because it had unpurified water that came form the ditch we had crossed and the "bathrooms" were hardly that. They were toilets, yes, but they didnt have seats, nor did they flush and there were no trash cans in which to throw tp. Also one had a shower curtain as a door and the other's door when closed only covered 2/3 of the doorway, so you could see straight in.

While we were there we met a group planning to summit Cotopaxi in a few days- one of teh guys was a really in shape but the other one was kind of puny and didnt seem to be in particularly good shape so that was kind of funny. Their guide was about our age and as he put it, he just followed the climbing seasons, guiding in Alaska in the summer and in Ecuador during the American winter.

After lunch we just chilled, huddled in our tent and listened to a bit of music and then promptly started fixing dinner so that we might get it in before dark- that totally didn't happen haha. After we finished up dinner we pretty much just went to bed because it was very dark and there was nothing to do. We did however get some great views of Cotopaxi in the moonlight and the stars were incredible because there was no artificial light for miles and miles. From our position the summit of Cotopaxi looked great but apparently it was a terrible night to summit- you can only summit Cotopaxi at night because the sun heats up the snow during the day and there are lots of avalanches. The summit from the refugio at the snow line is supposed to take 7-9 hours and as we would find out the next day the people who were up for that were pretty crazy!

The Saturday Market at Otovalo

We got up bright and early again to tackel the market. Unfoturnately we spent about 1/2 hour trying to get out of our hostel, the woman who worked at our hostel wasn't up yet and we were multi-padlocked in. We finally ended up knocking on the most likely door to be hers (because there were a few little shacks adjacent to the hostel, within the gate) and calling her name until she appeared. Once we managed to get out we first went to the animal market which was needless to say, an experience! the first section of this big field they used had all kinds of small animals dogs, cats, ducklings, chicks, chickens, turkeys, guinnea pigs, you name it, it was probably there. Next came the the smaller live stock animals- pis and goats- all on leashes, and then the cows and a few horses. It was very loud and smelly! I think the pigs were the loudest! It was crazy to imagine people bringing animals every week because we didn't see many people buying animals, just trying to sell them- although supply and demand dont necessarily rule business here.

After we had enough of the animal market we headed down to the famous craft market which had by 8ish taken over the city- literally all the streets were covered with vendors. It is incredible how people bring in all their goods to sell. They bring them in on their backs in huge burlap sacks and not just the goods but also the frames and walls for the stands. Its pretty crazy to see a man my size or more likely smaller carry somethign at least 6 times his width and who knows weight wise at almost a right angle!

So we spent a few hours in the market barginning. Then after we had exhausted ourselves and our wallets we grabbed a bus back to Quito. When we got off the bus though we couldn't find Sagiv- he hadn't gotten off the bus. We were standing there looking confused and white and a few people kept trying to point out the other 2 white people who had been on our bus- and the funny thing was they were sure thats who we were looking for- it had to be we were white! After about 15 minutes Sagiv reappear he had stayed on the bus because someone had taken one of his bags of souvenirs and he had stayed on to look for it more- unfortunately to no avail :(

Then we headed back to the hostel we had stayed in before and got our old room back:) That night after dinner we watched the parade to celebrate the Independence of Quito, which was crazy! It must have been about 3 hours long. The parade had high school and military bands, many of whom were accompanied by cheerleaders and/or baton twirls. There were also randomly people dressed in crazy costumes on stilts with their faces painted who yelled "Viva Quito," to which the crowd responded "Viva!" There were also beauty queens riding on floats that we still can't figure out- they were huge paper mache people- maybe local figures. The last hour was mostly other town delegations congratulating Quito- they wore traditional outfits and did local dances- they were definitely our favorites. Their stamina was incredible, some of the dances involved almost constant jumping and there were old, old people doing them! Amazing!

Laguna Cuicocha

We got up bright and early to hike around Laguna Cuicocha, which is in Reserva Ecologica Cotacachi-Cayapas (long name!). We were very excited about this hike because we had seen an amazing picture of it in the tourist information office in Quito and Sagiv had pointed at it and said, I want to go there! And the woman at the agency was like well actually its pretty close, you can go there- so we had been excited about it ever since.

We got to the lake around 7 and by 7:20 there was some significant cloud cover so we were glad that we had pulled ourselves out of bed at 5:00 instead of 5:15! The view we did get though was breath taking, definitely worth the trip! The end of the hike though wasn't along the lake though it was just down a dirt road. We did however get a few potatoes straight from the ground because we asked a farmer what he was growing.

After the hike we took a taxi back to Otovalo and then got on a bus to Laguna San Pablo. The lake was lovely but that was pretty much it, there was NOTHING there- well besides people who were literally up to my chest at their adult height. We got off the bus and walked down to a pavillion by the water which looked like it was built to be a tourist attraction but never quite got there. There were a few pontoon party boats tied up probably for tours but there wasn't anyone there. Only a waist high woman letting her coew graze there. There was a john boat-ish thing close to the land so we got on and had lunch there, looking out over the lake.

After lunch, with nothing else to see, we hopped back on the bus to the fork in the road to the water falls Peguche. It was about a 45 mintute walk to the falls which were beautiful and bigger than we orignally expected because the stream we were walking along to the falls was pretty puny. We managed to get to the falls just in time because it started raining, as always.

We hopped on a bus back to Otovalo and checked out the market a bit in order to guage prices for the next morning. I got an incredible painting of a woman with one of the traditional multi-tiered gold necklasses on. That night we had a funny experience, we went to a pizza shop for dinner and they were all out of dessert so we asked where we could go to get something sweet but there was literally no place in the entire town open for such things. Literally the place shut down at 6 pm every night.

To Otovalo

We had to say goodbye to Alissa and Lukas because they headed out for the Galapagos (so jealous) but we were also leaving Quito. We headed to Otovalo- a town a few hours from Quito that is famous for its huge Saturday market. One of the funny things that happens on buses here is that people get on to sell refreshments. They go up and down the isles putting things in people's laps to pique their interest and then they collect them again as the leave. Sometimes they are associated with the bus companies but sometimes they do it independently, sometimes they even give you their life story and tell you why you should buy from them.

We got to Otovalo in the afternoon and picked a hostel- Maria- it was honestly pretty bad, the water was luke warm (at best), they didnt have a kitchen or Internet but we did however get a tv and haha they let us put our perishables in the fridge that they sell drinks from. There was also a sign on our door that said don't leave your passport in the room, the hostel isnt responsible for it but when we asked if they had a safe to put our passports in they said no, we can leave them in our rooms- haha interesting.

For dinner we went to a restaurant that was suggested by our travel book but it was mediocre at best. We decided that if we became expats and lived in South America we would definitely open a business catoring to tourists with reliable service- we'd make out incredibly!

Mitad del Mundo

The next morning we headed to Mitad del Mundo- the middle of the world- the division between the northern and southern hemispheres. It was outrageously touristy and ridiculously priced but we still enjoyed ourselfves- it wasn't a tourist trap we weren't willing to miss. The monument is actually about 240 meters away from the real Mitad del Mundo but awesome none the less.

Next we went to Pululagua, a crater made after a volcano collapsed thousands of years ago. Now, there's a small village of about 300 people there- its beautiful, quite picturesque. We had the option of hiking down for 30 minutes and then about an houir back up but we initially thought there was a lagun there, which there wasn't, so we decided to pass and head back to see the museums at Mitad del Mundo.

Well, we got a lot more than we bargined for in those museums because instead of going to the touristy museum where they do all these tricks that can supposedly only be done on the equator- we went to the "scientific" museum because it seemed interesting and it was free :) So instead of some cool tricks that aren't real we got a diatribe against the Mitad del Mundo monument, which was apparently put in the wrong place by a French exploration and then never moved once they realized it was in the wrong spot. The "scientific" study, which funded/ was funded by this museum had located the real equator with a GPS (very difficult haha) and found that 1000 years ago the indigenous people of the area had built a monument themselves on the correct equator. It was almost a full circle of rocks with the center at teh equator and only 23 degrees of the circle was missing and that is apparently the tilt of the Earth. They were able to do this based on solstices and equinoxes which in the sky make a pattern similar to a star which is a common pattern in Andean art. Also- a fun fact- Ecuador is the only place on the equator where there are mountains.

All of that seemed relatively legitimate although not really novel but then the guy just kept going on and on about how Ecuador means equal and balanced and how the people who lived there 1000 years ago were more balanced than those who live there today because their government was perpetuating a lie by supporting a monument in teh wrong place for foreignors to come and visit. He also insisted that the globe and maps were made along the wrong axis and that they should be rotated 90 degrees- odd. A neat thing they had though was an astronomical map with both hemispheres because you can see both sets of stars from the equator. Also, all the churches in the surrounding area were built over indiginour religious sites so the churches are all along the equator. Many churches are also built over what were once sun shrines such that on high holy days the sun will be in just such as a position as to shine into churches on the faces of statues of Jesus, Mary, saints- which is pretty cool.

After that odd experience we headed back to Quito and went to a Mongolian grill for dinner- there are a lot of ethnic options in the Mariscal.

Quito

Our first stop in Quito was the tourist information office- we found a lot of incredible places we wanted to visit in Ecuador so we decided to stay longer than planned and skip Bolivia (which we thought we might get to before we realized how unpredictable traveling in South America by bus can be) on this trip.

In the afternoon we headed to Museo del Banco Central. The museum is filled with artifacts from throughout Ecuadorian history- mostly pottery and sculptures. Unfortunately the museum closed close to the time that we got there so we were a bit pressed for time- I think given the chance we would both go back. We did however have perfect timing to catch up with Alissa and Lukas- we saw them just walking down the street- too funny, that's how much we stick out!

That night we went out to a middle eastern restaurant for dinner- it was good but uneventful night :)

Ipiales and the Ecuadorian Border

We got into Ipiales mid morning and took a cab up to Santuario de las Lajas a neo-Gothic church built between 1926 adn 1944. Its connected to a bridge that spans a river. The church was built after someone saw the face of the virgin on the rock wall. The church is actually built into the rocks and the alter is where the virgin was seen. The rocks around the church are covered with plaques asking that relatives be taken to heaven or thanking God for miracles. The church was truly amazing!!

Then we headed to the Colombian/Ecuadorian border- we got through tht eColombian side easily- no line at all. Then we got to Ecuador wher the computer systems were completely down- so no one was crossing the border anywhere in Ecuador. The funny thing was they didnt announce that the computers were down, there just wasnt anyone at the computers- honestly our first thought was does the border really take lunch breaks?

We waited for 2 hours until the computers came back up. Alissa and Lukas, our American friends, hadnt come right to the border after the sanctuary because they were stocking up on Colombian coffee so they were way behind us in the line. The worst of it was when the computers started back up they allowed the line to go all the way to the door and then instead of wrapping it around the room they just locked people outside until everyone inside had been taken care of...but it was raining and they literally separated a father and son who were traveling together.

Once we got through the border we took a taxi to Tulcan and then a bus to Quito. We got into Quito around 9 and tried to go to a hostel that some other backpackers had suggested but there wasn't enough room for all 5 of us so we went to another hostel in the Mariscal district called El Taxo. Since Alissa and Lukas we so far behind us at the border they got in late that night so they stayed in the hostel we had originally agreed to meet at. Our hostel was good though, 5 beds for $5 a person with our own bathroom- the funny part though was that there were windows facing the street on one side of the shower so literally everyone could see you before the window steamed up!