Hola Los Amigos!
After a month and a half hiatus, we´re happy to be back reporting on our latest adventure - Peru. Excuse our writing, we´re struggling to figure out the keyboard here. We have been on the road for almost two weeks now, but the road has been hard and we haven´t had time to write. These weeks have taken us to one of the higher passes in the Andes but also to the low lying Amazon, two extremes only a hundred miles apart.
The trip started rather ominously. Pat woke up in NYC with a nasty cold and harbored that until the morning we woke for the Machu Picchu trek four days later. Once in Cuzco, the old Incan capital where you fly into to access Machu Picchu, Shauna seriously felt the affects of the altitude. The city sits at 11,000 feet, well above any ski base area in North America, and you do need a few days to acclimate. We drank a lot of coco tea (it helps with the altitude). Overall we were a sad sight, and we spent a majority of the first three days in Peru locked away in our hostel bedroom. Luckily our place was nice and had satellite TV, so we watched trashy movies and a lot of old Friends episodes. Cuzco is a pretty and compact city and we were able to see all the sites in our two or three hour tours each day, but mostly we just slept. Apparently Cuzco is a really fun party town, but you wouldn´t have known that by looking at us. We knew the trek was going to be gruelling so we played it better safe then sorry. We needed every minute of those three days.
We left for our five day trek at 5am, busing and then trucking it for five hours before finally starting on foot. Our guides Aldo and Danny were demanding but understanding. We grew to respect them immensely. Each of the four days leading up to Machu Picchu were brutal in their own way. Day one was long, steep, mostly wet, and extremely cold. It ended at about 13,500 feet at the foot of the beautiful Mount Salkantay, reaching over 20,500 feet. One kid from Philly, straight out of college, needed to ride a horse the last couple hours, getting a fairly bad case of altitude sickness. He couldn´t eat anything and threw up most of the night. His hands turned blue and we were all concerned for more than a few hours. He didn´t ever fully recover, but that first day was the worst. As we had gear for the entire six week trip in our bags, we didn´t have a lot of cold weather clothing. We had just enough to survive. Thankfully the tents and sleeping bags provided were warm, and we were able to get a decent sleep. The second day was also tough, at first continuing up to about 15,400 feet, before descending steeply for over 4,000 feet into the high rainforest. We got soaked to the bone, but at least it was warm rain, unlike the day before. Day three we got a bit of a reprieve as it dried out and the trail was mostly flat, but that didn´t last long. Day four might have been the worst because we thought the hardest was behind us, and our mindsets weren´t prepared. The morning was spent climbing steeply for 3,000 feet only to descend almost 4,000 feet in the afternoon. We trekked about 40 miles in those first four days. Although exhausted, we felt a huge sense of accomplishment when it was all over. The task was mostly done and we saw some absolutely breathtaking scenery. We went from moutain prairies to high altitude glaciers to high rainforest. It is a trip within our trip we will never forget. We definitely recommend this to anyone who is able. Our group was thirteen and all were frendly. We all encouraged each other when things got really tough. We celebrated the night before Machu Picchu, as we were rewarded with a bed in a hostel and Peru was playing a World Cup 2014 qualifier against Chile. We had a few beers and stayed up until the late hour of 8:30 (we were in bed by 7:30 the other nights as we were up by 5:30 each morning).
The last day was what most tourists in Peru come for - Machu Picchu. We were up at 4:30 to catch the first bus up to the incredible fifteenth century Incan site. Sitting at almost 8,000 feet, the world heritage site has a breathtaking and truly unbelievable setting among the mountains and cloud forest. Litterally in the clouds until 8am, the ruins seem to magically appear in front of your face as you walk along a 500 year-old street looking down a cliff. We had a three hour tour given by our guide, Aldo, and when things finally did clear Machu Picchu sprawled out before you in all its glory. Words cannot explain its beauty, and our pictures certainly will not do it justice. After the tour we climbed another steep 1,000 feet atop Huanupicchu to look down upon Machu Picchu. Perched literally on top of a tiny boulder with nothing but cliff on all sides, you realize what an engineering and architectual feat Machu Picchu is. The Incans carved out the cliff to make this small city, home to about 1,000 of the most important Incans, the king´s family and high priests. The Incan Empire was young (less than a 100 years) but powerful, stretching from Ecuador to Chile, the Pacific Ocean to Bolivia. On the way up, the empire was halted in its tracks by the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadors in the 1530s (shortly after Chris Columbus´ famous sojourn to Hispaniola). Around this time Machu Picchu was mysteriously abandoned and the Spanish never found it. There are several theories for why, but many believe it was to protect the sacred ground. Anything the Spanish saw they destroyed, erecting churches with the same stone the Incan temples were made of. Lost to most everyone over the next 400 years, an American archaeologist rediscovered the ruins in 1911. One hundred years later, it is by far South America´s most popular tourist destination, and for good reason.
After five very full days we slowly made our way back to Cuzco for a day and a half of recovery time. Again we needed every minute. We Skyped Shuana´s parents and they told us we looked like shit. After thirty-six hours we were in as different a place from Cuzco as one could be. A thirty minute plane ride brought us down 10,000 feet and we were in the middle of the Amazon. A two hour boat ride took us into the Tambopata Reserve, where our rustic lodge (the Explorer´s Inn) at least provided us with good food and a bed, if no electricity. We spent three days taking in the jungle. It was every bit as hot and humid as one would expect from the Amazon. You would sweat just taking a step. We enjoyed the experience once acclimated to the humidity. We walked through the primary rainforest each day, taking in exotic bird after exotic bird. Macaws, parrots, and tucans were all over the place. The trees and plant life were indescribable. The growth is so thick, you can´t see more than a few feet in any direction. There are so many amazing trees and plants with a variety of human uses. There are Rubber Trees native to the Amazon that give us rubber, obviously. Rubber is so essential to our lives now, and taking a piece of its bark and feeling its elasticity is a trip. There are garlic trees that when you take a piece of its bark it literally tastes exactly like a garlic clove. There are fruit trees and medicinal plants of more varieties than I can name. The most impressive tree, however, has to be the Walking Palm. This tree is amazing. It´s a palm and is tall and has huge leaves, but as the tree approaches the ground (about eight feet before the earth), it splinters off into dozens of smaller shoots. The shoots grow and die as the tree looks for new sunlight as the competition around it becomes more fierce. It can literally walk up to twenty feet a year in search of the perfect spot! Even having seen the thing we are still in disbelief of its abilities. The sounds of the jungle were spactacular as well. At 4:30am the Red Howler Monkey greeted us with its, well, howling. To us it sounded like death coming for you. Our twenty-two year old guide Ivan was very knowledgeable. He was able to spot the slightest sign of wildlife and point it out to us once we were quiet. One time we were out on a night walk and he saw something. We back tracked about ten paces and he told us to turn off our flashlights and stand ¨very still¨. The next thing we knew his flashlight was on and the biggest spider we have ever seen was at our feet. Bigger than Pat´s hand, the ¨Chicken Spider¨ is bigger than a turantula (which we also saw twenty minutes later). We also took a ten mile hike to an oxbow lake (a lake formed when a large river changes course and leaves a body of water in its place) to see the Giant Otter, native to this area of the Amazon. They are the largest otters on the planet (seven feet long), and a family of elevan lives in the lake by our lodge. We were extemely fortunate (we better have been waking up at 4am in the dark to find them) to get an up close encounter. We got in a canoe and paddled towards their calls, and within minutes the group approached us to mark their territory. We thought they were being inquisitive and friendly, but it was most definitely a warning to keep off their turf. The experience was amazing. We also took a night boat down the river to find caiman, a crocadilian related to the crocodile and alligator. The river too was impressive. It was strong, fast and wide, and this was a small tributary according to the locals. At one point the water level raised five feet in an hour, apparently due to rainfall hundreds of miles away. All of the activities were memorable, but we had to rest in between. It was just so damn humid. Of course it would rain a lot too. We took three naps a day. Between the heat and the sounds of the jungle (not to mention waking up at 4am every morning), it was impossible not to sleep when you weren´t looking for wildlife.
In the last two weeks we couldn´t have experienced two more different places in such a short amount of time. We trekked through the second highest mountain range in the world and hiked through the largest and most imporant rainforest in the world. That´s pretty cool stuff. Next we go even higher than Cuzco to the highest navigatable lake in the world, Lake Titicaca. After hanging out with the locals on a remote island there, we´re off to Arequipa and the deepest canyons in the world, some over double the depth of the Grand Canyon. Peru is an incredible place. Thanks for continuing to follow our crazy adventures.
Until next time,
S&P
After a month and a half hiatus, we´re happy to be back reporting on our latest adventure - Peru. Excuse our writing, we´re struggling to figure out the keyboard here. We have been on the road for almost two weeks now, but the road has been hard and we haven´t had time to write. These weeks have taken us to one of the higher passes in the Andes but also to the low lying Amazon, two extremes only a hundred miles apart.
The trip started rather ominously. Pat woke up in NYC with a nasty cold and harbored that until the morning we woke for the Machu Picchu trek four days later. Once in Cuzco, the old Incan capital where you fly into to access Machu Picchu, Shauna seriously felt the affects of the altitude. The city sits at 11,000 feet, well above any ski base area in North America, and you do need a few days to acclimate. We drank a lot of coco tea (it helps with the altitude). Overall we were a sad sight, and we spent a majority of the first three days in Peru locked away in our hostel bedroom. Luckily our place was nice and had satellite TV, so we watched trashy movies and a lot of old Friends episodes. Cuzco is a pretty and compact city and we were able to see all the sites in our two or three hour tours each day, but mostly we just slept. Apparently Cuzco is a really fun party town, but you wouldn´t have known that by looking at us. We knew the trek was going to be gruelling so we played it better safe then sorry. We needed every minute of those three days.
We left for our five day trek at 5am, busing and then trucking it for five hours before finally starting on foot. Our guides Aldo and Danny were demanding but understanding. We grew to respect them immensely. Each of the four days leading up to Machu Picchu were brutal in their own way. Day one was long, steep, mostly wet, and extremely cold. It ended at about 13,500 feet at the foot of the beautiful Mount Salkantay, reaching over 20,500 feet. One kid from Philly, straight out of college, needed to ride a horse the last couple hours, getting a fairly bad case of altitude sickness. He couldn´t eat anything and threw up most of the night. His hands turned blue and we were all concerned for more than a few hours. He didn´t ever fully recover, but that first day was the worst. As we had gear for the entire six week trip in our bags, we didn´t have a lot of cold weather clothing. We had just enough to survive. Thankfully the tents and sleeping bags provided were warm, and we were able to get a decent sleep. The second day was also tough, at first continuing up to about 15,400 feet, before descending steeply for over 4,000 feet into the high rainforest. We got soaked to the bone, but at least it was warm rain, unlike the day before. Day three we got a bit of a reprieve as it dried out and the trail was mostly flat, but that didn´t last long. Day four might have been the worst because we thought the hardest was behind us, and our mindsets weren´t prepared. The morning was spent climbing steeply for 3,000 feet only to descend almost 4,000 feet in the afternoon. We trekked about 40 miles in those first four days. Although exhausted, we felt a huge sense of accomplishment when it was all over. The task was mostly done and we saw some absolutely breathtaking scenery. We went from moutain prairies to high altitude glaciers to high rainforest. It is a trip within our trip we will never forget. We definitely recommend this to anyone who is able. Our group was thirteen and all were frendly. We all encouraged each other when things got really tough. We celebrated the night before Machu Picchu, as we were rewarded with a bed in a hostel and Peru was playing a World Cup 2014 qualifier against Chile. We had a few beers and stayed up until the late hour of 8:30 (we were in bed by 7:30 the other nights as we were up by 5:30 each morning).
The last day was what most tourists in Peru come for - Machu Picchu. We were up at 4:30 to catch the first bus up to the incredible fifteenth century Incan site. Sitting at almost 8,000 feet, the world heritage site has a breathtaking and truly unbelievable setting among the mountains and cloud forest. Litterally in the clouds until 8am, the ruins seem to magically appear in front of your face as you walk along a 500 year-old street looking down a cliff. We had a three hour tour given by our guide, Aldo, and when things finally did clear Machu Picchu sprawled out before you in all its glory. Words cannot explain its beauty, and our pictures certainly will not do it justice. After the tour we climbed another steep 1,000 feet atop Huanupicchu to look down upon Machu Picchu. Perched literally on top of a tiny boulder with nothing but cliff on all sides, you realize what an engineering and architectual feat Machu Picchu is. The Incans carved out the cliff to make this small city, home to about 1,000 of the most important Incans, the king´s family and high priests. The Incan Empire was young (less than a 100 years) but powerful, stretching from Ecuador to Chile, the Pacific Ocean to Bolivia. On the way up, the empire was halted in its tracks by the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadors in the 1530s (shortly after Chris Columbus´ famous sojourn to Hispaniola). Around this time Machu Picchu was mysteriously abandoned and the Spanish never found it. There are several theories for why, but many believe it was to protect the sacred ground. Anything the Spanish saw they destroyed, erecting churches with the same stone the Incan temples were made of. Lost to most everyone over the next 400 years, an American archaeologist rediscovered the ruins in 1911. One hundred years later, it is by far South America´s most popular tourist destination, and for good reason.
After five very full days we slowly made our way back to Cuzco for a day and a half of recovery time. Again we needed every minute. We Skyped Shuana´s parents and they told us we looked like shit. After thirty-six hours we were in as different a place from Cuzco as one could be. A thirty minute plane ride brought us down 10,000 feet and we were in the middle of the Amazon. A two hour boat ride took us into the Tambopata Reserve, where our rustic lodge (the Explorer´s Inn) at least provided us with good food and a bed, if no electricity. We spent three days taking in the jungle. It was every bit as hot and humid as one would expect from the Amazon. You would sweat just taking a step. We enjoyed the experience once acclimated to the humidity. We walked through the primary rainforest each day, taking in exotic bird after exotic bird. Macaws, parrots, and tucans were all over the place. The trees and plant life were indescribable. The growth is so thick, you can´t see more than a few feet in any direction. There are so many amazing trees and plants with a variety of human uses. There are Rubber Trees native to the Amazon that give us rubber, obviously. Rubber is so essential to our lives now, and taking a piece of its bark and feeling its elasticity is a trip. There are garlic trees that when you take a piece of its bark it literally tastes exactly like a garlic clove. There are fruit trees and medicinal plants of more varieties than I can name. The most impressive tree, however, has to be the Walking Palm. This tree is amazing. It´s a palm and is tall and has huge leaves, but as the tree approaches the ground (about eight feet before the earth), it splinters off into dozens of smaller shoots. The shoots grow and die as the tree looks for new sunlight as the competition around it becomes more fierce. It can literally walk up to twenty feet a year in search of the perfect spot! Even having seen the thing we are still in disbelief of its abilities. The sounds of the jungle were spactacular as well. At 4:30am the Red Howler Monkey greeted us with its, well, howling. To us it sounded like death coming for you. Our twenty-two year old guide Ivan was very knowledgeable. He was able to spot the slightest sign of wildlife and point it out to us once we were quiet. One time we were out on a night walk and he saw something. We back tracked about ten paces and he told us to turn off our flashlights and stand ¨very still¨. The next thing we knew his flashlight was on and the biggest spider we have ever seen was at our feet. Bigger than Pat´s hand, the ¨Chicken Spider¨ is bigger than a turantula (which we also saw twenty minutes later). We also took a ten mile hike to an oxbow lake (a lake formed when a large river changes course and leaves a body of water in its place) to see the Giant Otter, native to this area of the Amazon. They are the largest otters on the planet (seven feet long), and a family of elevan lives in the lake by our lodge. We were extemely fortunate (we better have been waking up at 4am in the dark to find them) to get an up close encounter. We got in a canoe and paddled towards their calls, and within minutes the group approached us to mark their territory. We thought they were being inquisitive and friendly, but it was most definitely a warning to keep off their turf. The experience was amazing. We also took a night boat down the river to find caiman, a crocadilian related to the crocodile and alligator. The river too was impressive. It was strong, fast and wide, and this was a small tributary according to the locals. At one point the water level raised five feet in an hour, apparently due to rainfall hundreds of miles away. All of the activities were memorable, but we had to rest in between. It was just so damn humid. Of course it would rain a lot too. We took three naps a day. Between the heat and the sounds of the jungle (not to mention waking up at 4am every morning), it was impossible not to sleep when you weren´t looking for wildlife.
In the last two weeks we couldn´t have experienced two more different places in such a short amount of time. We trekked through the second highest mountain range in the world and hiked through the largest and most imporant rainforest in the world. That´s pretty cool stuff. Next we go even higher than Cuzco to the highest navigatable lake in the world, Lake Titicaca. After hanging out with the locals on a remote island there, we´re off to Arequipa and the deepest canyons in the world, some over double the depth of the Grand Canyon. Peru is an incredible place. Thanks for continuing to follow our crazy adventures.
Until next time,
S&P
So Cool! OMG...The Walking Tree!!! Rad.
ReplyDeleteDid you pet the Chicken Spider? sounds like you guys are having a blast, can't wait to see you at Christmas!!!