Since we’ll be discussing climbing a fair amount here, we thought we should include a note on climbing grades. All climbing routes in North America are graded according to the Yosemite Decimal System (YDS), which is theoretically based on the difficulty of the hardest move on the climb. The leading ‘5’ simply denotes technical climbing where a rope is advised. The following description of the levels within the YDS is from Freedom of the Hills, one of the standard instructional books on climbing/mountaineering, and was reprinted in the J-Tree parks brochure this fall:
5.0 - 5.4: There are two hand- and footholds for every move; the holds become progressively smaller as the number increases.
5.5 - 5.6: The two hand- and footholds are there, obvious to the experienced but not necessarily to the beginner.
5.7: The move is missing one hand- or foothold.
5.8: The move is missing two of the four holds, or missing only one but the move is very strenuous.
5.9: This move has only one reasonable hold which may be for either a foot or a hand
5.10: No hand or footholds. The choices are to pretend a hold is there, pray a lot, or go home.
5.11: After thorough inspection you conclude that this move is obviously impossible; however, occasionally someone actually accomplishes it. Since there is nothing for a handhold, grab it with both hands.
5.12: The surface is smooth as glass and vertical. No one has really ever made this move, although a few claim they have.
5.13: This is identical to 5.12 except it is located on overhanging rock.
Since the publishing of this article in FotH 5.14 and 5.15 have been added to the scale. Don’t expect to hear them referred to in this blog much, tho :)
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Christmas in Joshua Tree
We have spent the last ten days back at our Indian Cove campsite at Joshua Tree. It's been beautifully sunny every day, with only a few days that were a bit windy. We’ve climbed at least a little most days, and done one nice hike from Indian Cove up into the higher areas of the park. Much like Disneyland, this “rest day” was more tiring than any of our climbing days to date.
Climbing here is very low-key, so we have had plenty of time to catch up on sleep (from the last few years I think!!), study Biology (Megan is taking a distance education course), and learn the fiddle (Dave). We’ve also discovered backgammon, and played many games during the long winter evenings.
With the help of our Outback Oven, we did not miss out on a classic Christmas dinner. We successfully cooked a delicious turkey breast, accompanied by cranberry, mashed potatoes and carrots. With pumpkin pie for dessert and a bottle of red wine we were quite festive.
Christmas Day was a bit windy and chilly, so we didn’t climb much, but Boxing Day was windless and warm, so we cancelled a planned rest day and went climbing again. Despite our early worries Megan’s hand/wrist is behaving pretty well, and it held up fine when Dave’s bad memory sent her on a route that was a bit too hard for this stage of her rehab. As mentioned in earlier entries, routes in Joshua Tree tend to be hard for their grade, and can also vary quite a bit from route to route. This is at least partly due to the friable nature of the rock and the fact that the guidebook hasn’t been updated since Dave was last here (1994).
Disneyland
After spending a peaceful week climbing in Joshua Tree, where on a typical day we would see two or three cars and three or four people, we felt able to once again brave the freeways of LA to go to Disneyland.
Disneyland is about as opposite to our campsite as we could have imagined, with hordes of people, parking lots devoted to strollers and filled with every possible shape and colour of plastic… However it was more than a little entertaining. Although there were a few crowds due to the Christmas season, with the Disney system of “fastpass”, essentially the opportunity to reserve a spot on a ride and therefore not stand in line for more than a few moments, we were able to scoot around the whole park and enjoy the rides. Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain were some faves for daytime. In the evening they had holiday fireworks (which shortened the ride lines) and so we spent the time riding the Matterhorn over and over until our tummies no longer agreed! We were afforded amazing views of the fireworks as we speed round steep corners on the ride, pretty cool. Although Dave was a little bit apprehensive about the Disney experience before we arrived, however, I took his hysterical laughter on many of the rides as a clear sign he was enjoying himself…We didn’t feel out of place as “grown-ups” without children as there were many other couples our age running through the park for their next shot at Big Thunder Mountain.
We didn’t meet too many Disney characters, even though we even went to Goofy’s house and knocked on the front door. He wasn’t home.
Our most visited ride was the Buzz Lightyear “Space Ranger” ride, where you are provided with a “space pistol” and told to hit as many targets during the ride as possible. You were able to see your running score and then given a space ranger “level” at the end, enticing you to return over and over to try and better your score. Of course we did just that. They also take very silly pictures of you and let you email them to yourself.
If I ever go to Disneyland again I would bring a pedometer and try to measure how far is walked during a long day there. In total, we spent about 13 hours, mostly running from ride to ride. We figure we walked at least 25km in total during those hours!
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Heading to warmer climes
Leaving Vancouver, our plan was to drive slowly down to the LA area. And drive slowly we did, with a record time to LA of 3.5 days! But we're not in a hurry. Also we did have a minor detour of driving the great circle route around Washington due to a closure on the I5... During the drive we managed to not eat any fast food - this also might be a record. The US highway system is
pretty good, with rest areas set up every 50 miles or so that have bathrooms, covered picnic tables, running water and even free coffee sometimes. Not surprisingly, the coffee was not up to Megan's standards :). However, we did appreciate being able to cook our own meals at the picnic areas.
We got to LA on Sunday afternoon and found ourselves travelling on a freeway system that had more cars in motion at the same time than perhaps there are cars in total in Vancouver. Yikes. After two hours of neverending freeways, we opted to head straight to Joshua Tree National Park (about due east of Palm Springs) for some peaceful camping and climbing. We'll brave LA traffic for Disneyland next week...
Although Dave has spent considerable time in Joshua Tree, it was Megan's first sight of the park. Wow! Our campsite is nestled in a shallow canyon of brown and gold granite, there is actually a climb right out of our campsite. It's easy to see how people come here and have trouble leaving!
As an example of how plush our camping setup is, we baked a pizza for dinner yesterday. Tonight we're having Megan's signature thai curry. Roughing it? What? Although we do have to eat a bit quickly, since evenings are slightly chilly. Today's temperature ranged from "Dave climbing with no shirt" to "wearing 2 fleeces, a down vest, and a down jacket while playing board games at camp".
Today was our third climbing day, and by far our fullest - we climbed more routes today than the previous two combined. No sense starting off in a hurry when you have 8 months to play...
J-Tree is peaceful and beautiful, very good for the soul. It can be rather hard on the ego, though. 5.4 (a grade that most 5 year olds can climb in Squamish) can be really hard here. Also, Dave toproped and fell off a route he soloed when he was 19. Youth is wasted on the young!
Our plan is for a few more days of climbing, then a brief return to LA (Disneyland!!!) and then ten more days of climbing in J-Tree before driving north to Red Rocks/Vegas to meet Chis, Brock & co. for New Years.
pretty good, with rest areas set up every 50 miles or so that have bathrooms, covered picnic tables, running water and even free coffee sometimes. Not surprisingly, the coffee was not up to Megan's standards :). However, we did appreciate being able to cook our own meals at the picnic areas.
We got to LA on Sunday afternoon and found ourselves travelling on a freeway system that had more cars in motion at the same time than perhaps there are cars in total in Vancouver. Yikes. After two hours of neverending freeways, we opted to head straight to Joshua Tree National Park (about due east of Palm Springs) for some peaceful camping and climbing. We'll brave LA traffic for Disneyland next week...
Although Dave has spent considerable time in Joshua Tree, it was Megan's first sight of the park. Wow! Our campsite is nestled in a shallow canyon of brown and gold granite, there is actually a climb right out of our campsite. It's easy to see how people come here and have trouble leaving!
As an example of how plush our camping setup is, we baked a pizza for dinner yesterday. Tonight we're having Megan's signature thai curry. Roughing it? What? Although we do have to eat a bit quickly, since evenings are slightly chilly. Today's temperature ranged from "Dave climbing with no shirt" to "wearing 2 fleeces, a down vest, and a down jacket while playing board games at camp".
Today was our third climbing day, and by far our fullest - we climbed more routes today than the previous two combined. No sense starting off in a hurry when you have 8 months to play...
J-Tree is peaceful and beautiful, very good for the soul. It can be rather hard on the ego, though. 5.4 (a grade that most 5 year olds can climb in Squamish) can be really hard here. Also, Dave toproped and fell off a route he soloed when he was 19. Youth is wasted on the young!
Our plan is for a few more days of climbing, then a brief return to LA (Disneyland!!!) and then ten more days of climbing in J-Tree before driving north to Red Rocks/Vegas to meet Chis, Brock & co. for New Years.
Our Token Winter
We flew into Vancouver on a rainy day in November. Surprise!
We visited with Todd & Max, then our parents and Granny on the island, then returned to Vancouver to Dave's Dad's place to do a bit more visiting and start prep for the driving portion of our travels. In ten days in Vancouver in December we saw rain, sleet, snow and freezing rain. We packed the van rather quickly!
We visited with Todd & Max, then our parents and Granny on the island, then returned to Vancouver to Dave's Dad's place to do a bit more visiting and start prep for the driving portion of our travels. In ten days in Vancouver in December we saw rain, sleet, snow and freezing rain. We packed the van rather quickly!
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Sunshine & Futbol
Our last long-distance bus ride was a quick and easy 19 hours from Puerto Madryn to the warmth of Buenos Aires. We've decided that someone needs to start an Argentine-style bus service in Canada. It'd be way simpler for short-to-medium trips than flying (especially with all the hassles and confusion in the airports these days) and not only cheaper and more comfortable but much more environmentally friendly. Who'd want to fly to Calgary cattle-class when you could take a sleeper bus for half the price and wake up to a view of the Rockies?
Like our last trip to Buenos Aires, we had big plans for what we'd spend our days doing, and again we shelved most of those plans in favour of wandering the city and hanging out in the many amazing parks and plazas. We stayed in San Telmo neighborhood this time, which put us in walking distance of the old harbour and a whole different set of shops and parks. And a pretty good tenedor libre vegetarian buffet on Avenida Florida, which is like a much busier pedestrian-only version of Robson St in Vancouver.
The old port was mostly empty when we wandered thru, but we did see one really interesting ship. The Sarmiento was the flagship of the Argentine navy for over 40 years, from the late 1800s thru to 1946. It is a 3-masted frigate with coal-fueled steam engines, a ship style that neither of us had ever seen before.
Puerto Madero also has a very interesting bridge, oddly named Puente de las Mujeres(womens' bridge). It is a one-armed suspension bridge that swings open to allow boats through. We both thought it odd that such a phallic construction was the womens' bridge :)
Throughout our trip we've visited many churches, ruins, and other locations of religious significance. On our last full day in Argentina we visited Estadio Monumental Antonio V. Liberti, aka River Plate Stadium, for a taste of the other major religion: futbol - Argentina vs. Bolivia in the FIFA World Cup eliminations! We went with a tour, since we'd heard that games can get extremely rowdy and it's safer to travel with a large group. Fortunately there were no problems at the game besides the incredible heat, which was dealt with by two pairs of firemen who sprayed the stands with a huge amount of water. Our seats were in the shade, so we stayed cooler and dry, but the cheap seats at the ends (the most crowded sections) got sprayed for around 10 minutes by fire hoses!!!
The relatively peaceful nature of the crowd was probably largely to do with the fact that Argentina dominated for most of the game (final score was 3-0 for Argentina) but the 100 or so cops in riot gear probably helped too. Also, the Bolivia fans were all together in a cage. Really - 10 foot high wire walls topped by two spools of razor wire! The Bolivia fans were outnumbered 10:1 or so, but they did their best to match the 65,000 or so Argentina fans in volume - at least until Argentina's third goal.
Our last morning was spent at the San Telmo market picking up a few last-minute gifts before we headed to the airport. After Argentine bus service the Air Canada economy-class trip home was a bit shocking, but we did get some spectacular views of the mountains as we flew back from Toronto to Vancouver.
Like our last trip to Buenos Aires, we had big plans for what we'd spend our days doing, and again we shelved most of those plans in favour of wandering the city and hanging out in the many amazing parks and plazas. We stayed in San Telmo neighborhood this time, which put us in walking distance of the old harbour and a whole different set of shops and parks. And a pretty good tenedor libre vegetarian buffet on Avenida Florida, which is like a much busier pedestrian-only version of Robson St in Vancouver.
The old port was mostly empty when we wandered thru, but we did see one really interesting ship. The Sarmiento was the flagship of the Argentine navy for over 40 years, from the late 1800s thru to 1946. It is a 3-masted frigate with coal-fueled steam engines, a ship style that neither of us had ever seen before.
Puerto Madero also has a very interesting bridge, oddly named Puente de las Mujeres(womens' bridge). It is a one-armed suspension bridge that swings open to allow boats through. We both thought it odd that such a phallic construction was the womens' bridge :)
Throughout our trip we've visited many churches, ruins, and other locations of religious significance. On our last full day in Argentina we visited Estadio Monumental Antonio V. Liberti, aka River Plate Stadium, for a taste of the other major religion: futbol - Argentina vs. Bolivia in the FIFA World Cup eliminations! We went with a tour, since we'd heard that games can get extremely rowdy and it's safer to travel with a large group. Fortunately there were no problems at the game besides the incredible heat, which was dealt with by two pairs of firemen who sprayed the stands with a huge amount of water. Our seats were in the shade, so we stayed cooler and dry, but the cheap seats at the ends (the most crowded sections) got sprayed for around 10 minutes by fire hoses!!!
The relatively peaceful nature of the crowd was probably largely to do with the fact that Argentina dominated for most of the game (final score was 3-0 for Argentina) but the 100 or so cops in riot gear probably helped too. Also, the Bolivia fans were all together in a cage. Really - 10 foot high wire walls topped by two spools of razor wire! The Bolivia fans were outnumbered 10:1 or so, but they did their best to match the 65,000 or so Argentina fans in volume - at least until Argentina's third goal.
Our last morning was spent at the San Telmo market picking up a few last-minute gifts before we headed to the airport. After Argentine bus service the Air Canada economy-class trip home was a bit shocking, but we did get some spectacular views of the mountains as we flew back from Toronto to Vancouver.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Los Pinguinos!
Our last stop in Argentina before heading back to Buenos Aires was an area called Peninsula Valdés. Valdés is famous for the thousands of Southern Right Whales that migrate each spring to the waters surrounding the peninsula, as well as a huge colony of elephant seals, sea lions and dolphins.
We were not planning to go and try to see the whales (being from BC we were sniffing our noses at the idea of whale watching) but we changed our mind and were very glad. We saw almost 10 whales, including some with their calves at their sides, and even got to see a whale breach, which was amazing. Up until only about 20 years ago, the Southern Right Whale was hunted in the same waters where we saw them, almost to extinction. In 1985, the international community persuaded Argentina to stop whaling and instead create revenue through tourists who would come to whale watch. Today, there´s about 3000 whales. They are HUGE, up to 15 metric tons!
We also saw the colony of elephant seals but must admit they weren´t quite as exciting as the whales. While on land, they are fasting and so pretty much don´t move at all! Kind of akin to a bunch of furry lumps...
Also, about 2 hours south of Valdés is a place called Punta Tomba, where there are over 500,000 Magellenic penguins! Penguins!! As far as the eye could see, there were penguins. At this time of year the penguins are nesting and the chicks are expected to arrive any day - we saw many eggs but no chicks... There are over 200,000 active nests in the area and it was quite the sight. Penguins spend most of their time in water so are amazing swimmers but are not adapted to land quite as gracefully! To us, they truly looked like cartoon caricatures, but they were definitely real. And so cute.
Our final highlight was to go out for dinner at one of the seafood restaurants along the shore of the closest town, Puerto Madryn. The area is obviously a major fishing port, with seafood such as squid and shellfish the specialties. We had a five course dinner of different kinds of shellfish and a bottle of really good wine. Hands down, the best calamari we´ve ever had. Every course was amazing quality, the restaurant was funky with good music and the service was fantastic. At home in Vancouver, we figure this would have been a $200 meal easily. We paid just over $50. They could definitely charge more and I would have paid! It´s called Vesta if anyone is ever in Puerto Madryn...
We were not planning to go and try to see the whales (being from BC we were sniffing our noses at the idea of whale watching) but we changed our mind and were very glad. We saw almost 10 whales, including some with their calves at their sides, and even got to see a whale breach, which was amazing. Up until only about 20 years ago, the Southern Right Whale was hunted in the same waters where we saw them, almost to extinction. In 1985, the international community persuaded Argentina to stop whaling and instead create revenue through tourists who would come to whale watch. Today, there´s about 3000 whales. They are HUGE, up to 15 metric tons!
We also saw the colony of elephant seals but must admit they weren´t quite as exciting as the whales. While on land, they are fasting and so pretty much don´t move at all! Kind of akin to a bunch of furry lumps...
Also, about 2 hours south of Valdés is a place called Punta Tomba, where there are over 500,000 Magellenic penguins! Penguins!! As far as the eye could see, there were penguins. At this time of year the penguins are nesting and the chicks are expected to arrive any day - we saw many eggs but no chicks... There are over 200,000 active nests in the area and it was quite the sight. Penguins spend most of their time in water so are amazing swimmers but are not adapted to land quite as gracefully! To us, they truly looked like cartoon caricatures, but they were definitely real. And so cute.
At Punta Tomba you can walk through the colony where the nests are built and look down over the beach to watch them play in the water - and they definitely play just for the sake of fun in waves, surfing and spinning and generally having a ball. Definitely a highlight of our whole trip to watch them in water. Also, we ran into two of our friends from Vancouver at the penguin colony! We knew they were in Argentina but it was still kind of crazy to run into your neighbour (one of them lives 3 blocks from us) at a penguin colony down south!
Our final highlight was to go out for dinner at one of the seafood restaurants along the shore of the closest town, Puerto Madryn. The area is obviously a major fishing port, with seafood such as squid and shellfish the specialties. We had a five course dinner of different kinds of shellfish and a bottle of really good wine. Hands down, the best calamari we´ve ever had. Every course was amazing quality, the restaurant was funky with good music and the service was fantastic. At home in Vancouver, we figure this would have been a $200 meal easily. We paid just over $50. They could definitely charge more and I would have paid! It´s called Vesta if anyone is ever in Puerto Madryn...
El Bolson and Trevelin
El Bolson was a welcome relief from the frosty weather in Bariloche. This little hippie town is nestled in a valley out of the wind, and was at least 10 degrees warmer than Bariloche. Such a relief not to be wearing all our jackets and still chilly!
We visited the craft market (very SaltSpring-esque) and then headed into the hills for our last patagonian trek. We couldn't do our originally planned trail due to a campground closure, so we had a bonus 10K of walking, on a dirt road past many farms with big dogs. Whee!
Once we reached the alternate trail it got rather more pleasant, meandering up a river valley along a good trail. We passed one other group of hikers and a few gauchos with 'herds' of 5 or 6 cows each. The only camping allowed was behind the refugio, in a field occasionally visited by very large Patagonian Chipmunks, that begged for food in typical chipmunk style.
The next morning we broke camp quickly and headed downriver to a lovely quiet place where we made our brekkie and chilled out drinking mate for a few hours.
Then we were off down the trail to our hostel and another few days of hippie-town relaxing. We went to the town's best restaurant on Dave's birthday and had a pretty fantastic meal of local trout grilled to perfections. The restaurant (Jauja) also has a chocolate shop and ice cream. Really, Really Good ice cream! Highly recommended! For those who've been tracking our search for the best ice cream in Argentina, this was the clear winner!
After El Bolson we headed to Esquel to simplify our bus connection to the coast. Not the most exciting town, apparently it's a good base for visiting a nearby national park, but we didn't have time. We did head to a little welsh town down the highway for high tea. Wow! The welsh tea tradition seems to have blended well with the argentine sweet tooth - after eating most of the 7 large pieces of cake we each got (Megan hid a few in her bag for the next day) we walked the 25K back to Esquel. Well, some of it - we flagged a bus before it got dark - but enough to reduce the sugar-induced jitters and let us sleep :)
We visited the craft market (very SaltSpring-esque) and then headed into the hills for our last patagonian trek. We couldn't do our originally planned trail due to a campground closure, so we had a bonus 10K of walking, on a dirt road past many farms with big dogs. Whee!
Once we reached the alternate trail it got rather more pleasant, meandering up a river valley along a good trail. We passed one other group of hikers and a few gauchos with 'herds' of 5 or 6 cows each. The only camping allowed was behind the refugio, in a field occasionally visited by very large Patagonian Chipmunks, that begged for food in typical chipmunk style.
The next morning we broke camp quickly and headed downriver to a lovely quiet place where we made our brekkie and chilled out drinking mate for a few hours.
Then we were off down the trail to our hostel and another few days of hippie-town relaxing. We went to the town's best restaurant on Dave's birthday and had a pretty fantastic meal of local trout grilled to perfections. The restaurant (Jauja) also has a chocolate shop and ice cream. Really, Really Good ice cream! Highly recommended! For those who've been tracking our search for the best ice cream in Argentina, this was the clear winner!
After El Bolson we headed to Esquel to simplify our bus connection to the coast. Not the most exciting town, apparently it's a good base for visiting a nearby national park, but we didn't have time. We did head to a little welsh town down the highway for high tea. Wow! The welsh tea tradition seems to have blended well with the argentine sweet tooth - after eating most of the 7 large pieces of cake we each got (Megan hid a few in her bag for the next day) we walked the 25K back to Esquel. Well, some of it - we flagged a bus before it got dark - but enough to reduce the sugar-induced jitters and let us sleep :)
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Chocolate and Horses
We left the rain of Chile behind and crossed the border back to Argentina to Bariloche, essentially the start of Argentine Patagonia. Bariloche feels a lot like Whistler, it´s a major ski destination in winter and has a pretty spectacular setting on Nahuel Huapi Lake (massive and a bit chilly as it´s fed by glaciers). In the summer, it´s a center for hiking, horse riding and biking. Our plan before we arrive was to rent bikes but once we realized how windy the area was we modified :)
Our second wedding anniversary was Nov 2 and we celebrated by going horseback riding on an 'estancia', a farm where they breed cattle and sheep for steak and wool. The estancia owner was Carol Jones, who had lived on the farm her whole life and has been taking small groups out for over 20 years. The horses were actually quite nice, which for Megan was a surprising change from the normal type of horse that tourists are normally subjected to... these horses you got to ride, not just sit passively! So it was more of an adventure for Dave, who did great on his second time ever riding!! We had lunch of empanadas over a fire and shared mate with our hosts (who retrieved the water from the creek right next to our lunch stop. Since for mate you don´t actually bring the water to a boil, we were a bit concerned about the after-effects but our tummies seem to be South American adjusted now: ) All in all, a great anniversary experience.
Megan y David
Our Gaucho guides
Bariloche also turned out to be an awakening for us in terms of our plans to spend Nov and Dec trekking further south. Near Bariloche, we attempted to visit some of the mountain refugios (kind of like BCMC huts but bigger and with services...) that we had planned to link on multi-day treks.
As a quick sidenote, one other discovery we´ve made regarding Argentina is that camping here is VERY different than camping at home. Campgrounds usually have full services and are not in wilderness areas. In fact, in most parks you can´t camp anywhere 'wild', rather you must stay in the area where the services are and this often includes refugios with beds for up to 50 and a restaurant!!
We day tripped up to the first refugio in the mountains and discovered that we should have packed our snowshoes! Talking with people afterwards, turns out this year has been a huge one for snow and even though it´s technically spring, it´s still essentially winter camping (and in some cases skiing) conditions, which we are certainly not prepared or motivated for! One of our main goals this year is to avoid winter...
So our new plan is to extend our North American roadtrip to include give or take about a month in Baja Mexico. After all, our tour of the Americas can´t exclude Mexico!! Plus it´s warm and we can snorkel and paddle, one of Megan´s dreams. We will return to Vancouver briefly at the end of Nov to regroup, eat some veggies, pack and then get on the road to Mexico.
Another factor in our decision to change plans is that Argentine Patagonia, while gorgeous, reminds us very much of the Coast Mountain range of BC. We decided that a travel destination should not remind us so much of the area an hour from our house!
So, we are enjoying a few more weeks in Argentina, including the row upon row of chocolate shops that Bariloche is famous for...
Our second wedding anniversary was Nov 2 and we celebrated by going horseback riding on an 'estancia', a farm where they breed cattle and sheep for steak and wool. The estancia owner was Carol Jones, who had lived on the farm her whole life and has been taking small groups out for over 20 years. The horses were actually quite nice, which for Megan was a surprising change from the normal type of horse that tourists are normally subjected to... these horses you got to ride, not just sit passively! So it was more of an adventure for Dave, who did great on his second time ever riding!! We had lunch of empanadas over a fire and shared mate with our hosts (who retrieved the water from the creek right next to our lunch stop. Since for mate you don´t actually bring the water to a boil, we were a bit concerned about the after-effects but our tummies seem to be South American adjusted now: ) All in all, a great anniversary experience.
Megan y David
Our Gaucho guides
Bariloche also turned out to be an awakening for us in terms of our plans to spend Nov and Dec trekking further south. Near Bariloche, we attempted to visit some of the mountain refugios (kind of like BCMC huts but bigger and with services...) that we had planned to link on multi-day treks.
As a quick sidenote, one other discovery we´ve made regarding Argentina is that camping here is VERY different than camping at home. Campgrounds usually have full services and are not in wilderness areas. In fact, in most parks you can´t camp anywhere 'wild', rather you must stay in the area where the services are and this often includes refugios with beds for up to 50 and a restaurant!!
We day tripped up to the first refugio in the mountains and discovered that we should have packed our snowshoes! Talking with people afterwards, turns out this year has been a huge one for snow and even though it´s technically spring, it´s still essentially winter camping (and in some cases skiing) conditions, which we are certainly not prepared or motivated for! One of our main goals this year is to avoid winter...
So our new plan is to extend our North American roadtrip to include give or take about a month in Baja Mexico. After all, our tour of the Americas can´t exclude Mexico!! Plus it´s warm and we can snorkel and paddle, one of Megan´s dreams. We will return to Vancouver briefly at the end of Nov to regroup, eat some veggies, pack and then get on the road to Mexico.
Another factor in our decision to change plans is that Argentine Patagonia, while gorgeous, reminds us very much of the Coast Mountain range of BC. We decided that a travel destination should not remind us so much of the area an hour from our house!
So, we are enjoying a few more weeks in Argentina, including the row upon row of chocolate shops that Bariloche is famous for...
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Chilly Chile
Perusing our guidebook in Mendoza, we discovered that although the Acongagua Park was closed for the season, the road that stretches from Mendoza through the Andes and into Santiago, Chile was not to be missed. So onwards across and south to the Chilean Lakes district, which we believed would be a bit warmer than the Argentine side as it is lower elevation and closer to the ocean.
The ride through the Andes was pretty spectacular - we think we saw Acongagua, the highest peak in the Americas.
Following another 24 hours of travel and some unfortunate clothing catastrophes (Dave left his coat on the first bus that arrived in Santiago, we tried for hours to locate it in the lost and found. Apparently it was found on the bus but it seemed to get ´lost´again on the way to the customer service desk. We hope it will be used well. Then Megan spilled a cup of black coffee down the front of her favourite shirt. The worst part about this was that the coffee wasn´t even coffee - it was Nescafe).
However, eventually we arrived in a town called Puerto Montt, in south central Chile. Puerto Montt can best be described as similar to Port Alberni. We based ourselves there in order to do a trek in a nearby national park, the Alerce Andino. After figuring out the local bus system and finding a grocery store we were on our way. One thing we´ve discovered about both Chile and Argentina is that in rural areas, the local buses also serve as school buses! So after cramming ourselves and our packs into a bus with many children we found ourselves in the park. In fact, we were the only visitors to the park that day - the ranger seemed excited to see us, even with our fumbly Spanish.
We had fabulous weather and probably the best campsite ever - right beside a river. Definitely glad we got the trek in as the minute we caught the bus back to town it started to rain. And then it didn´t stop raining until we left Chile about 5 days later!!! If we were at all feeling homesick Chile cured us with all the rain. After our trek we headed over to Isla Chiloe, which was very beautiful and extremely green because of the mountains of rain it recieves annually... We met up with a friendly Argentine-Canadian from Canmore and went tootling around the island with him in his car. Must admit the luxury of not taking public transit for a day was pretty nice! We even had some patches of sunlight that day. We gave Chile one more shot and went to a town called Puerto Varas, a bit further inland but on a huge lake. More rain. Thankfully they had a good book exchange.
We left Chile without too much regret - we were a bit soggy and they do not have coffee except for Nescafe. Really. We had heard rumours but once faced with the reality it was difficult for Megan to cope. However, Chile is a gorgeous country with plenty of parks, camping and volcanos to climb. But maybe another time.
The ride through the Andes was pretty spectacular - we think we saw Acongagua, the highest peak in the Americas.
Following another 24 hours of travel and some unfortunate clothing catastrophes (Dave left his coat on the first bus that arrived in Santiago, we tried for hours to locate it in the lost and found. Apparently it was found on the bus but it seemed to get ´lost´again on the way to the customer service desk. We hope it will be used well. Then Megan spilled a cup of black coffee down the front of her favourite shirt. The worst part about this was that the coffee wasn´t even coffee - it was Nescafe).
However, eventually we arrived in a town called Puerto Montt, in south central Chile. Puerto Montt can best be described as similar to Port Alberni. We based ourselves there in order to do a trek in a nearby national park, the Alerce Andino. After figuring out the local bus system and finding a grocery store we were on our way. One thing we´ve discovered about both Chile and Argentina is that in rural areas, the local buses also serve as school buses! So after cramming ourselves and our packs into a bus with many children we found ourselves in the park. In fact, we were the only visitors to the park that day - the ranger seemed excited to see us, even with our fumbly Spanish.
We had fabulous weather and probably the best campsite ever - right beside a river. Definitely glad we got the trek in as the minute we caught the bus back to town it started to rain. And then it didn´t stop raining until we left Chile about 5 days later!!! If we were at all feeling homesick Chile cured us with all the rain. After our trek we headed over to Isla Chiloe, which was very beautiful and extremely green because of the mountains of rain it recieves annually... We met up with a friendly Argentine-Canadian from Canmore and went tootling around the island with him in his car. Must admit the luxury of not taking public transit for a day was pretty nice! We even had some patches of sunlight that day. We gave Chile one more shot and went to a town called Puerto Varas, a bit further inland but on a huge lake. More rain. Thankfully they had a good book exchange.
We left Chile without too much regret - we were a bit soggy and they do not have coffee except for Nescafe. Really. We had heard rumours but once faced with the reality it was difficult for Megan to cope. However, Chile is a gorgeous country with plenty of parks, camping and volcanos to climb. But maybe another time.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Mendoza
Mendoza, home of many wineries and the base for the high Andes. It's still early spring here, so we decided to focus on the wine :)
As usual, our first day in town was spent wandering around, checking out cafés and ice cream. In most cities in Argentina the street signs are a mini history lesson. Streets are named for important dates, events and people. Virtually all Argentine cities have the same street names and many have the same intersections. This can be confusing when you move around a lot!
The above streets are named for the date of a relatively peaceful revolution, and San Martín's army in the fight to free South America from Spain.
And, of course, Avenida San Martín. Every town has at least one street named for El Libertador, and generally several. Mendoza has (at least) 3 streets and a plaza named for him. Also a museum, which we thought need a new curator but has lots of potential... The items on display are interesting, but the display is a bit haphazard.
Most cities in Argentina are laid out in a simple grid pattern, but Mendoza is the only one we've seen so far that gives references to the grid on their signs. Streets are numbered in reference to the original center of town. Av San Martín is (of course) one of the reference points.
Our last full day in Mendoza was a wine, olive oil, and liquere factory tour. We were a bit apprehensive at first, since we were the only gringos, but we mostly followed the tour guide's spanish, and at most locations there was either a bilingual tour or a private english tour for us. Sometimes it's good to be the odd ones out :)
We were befriended by a pair of Argentine couples on their honeymoons and had a great time chatting in slightly drunken Spanglish with them.
After the wine tour we discovered a vegetarian "tenedor libre" buffet restaurant, which had been open for a grand total of 9 days. We had a great meal and chatted with most of the staff, who are dedicated to improving the health of Argentinians one vegetable at a time. It's at 2 north and and 1 east if you're hungry and in Mendoza.
As usual, our first day in town was spent wandering around, checking out cafés and ice cream. In most cities in Argentina the street signs are a mini history lesson. Streets are named for important dates, events and people. Virtually all Argentine cities have the same street names and many have the same intersections. This can be confusing when you move around a lot!
The above streets are named for the date of a relatively peaceful revolution, and San Martín's army in the fight to free South America from Spain.
And, of course, Avenida San Martín. Every town has at least one street named for El Libertador, and generally several. Mendoza has (at least) 3 streets and a plaza named for him. Also a museum, which we thought need a new curator but has lots of potential... The items on display are interesting, but the display is a bit haphazard.
Most cities in Argentina are laid out in a simple grid pattern, but Mendoza is the only one we've seen so far that gives references to the grid on their signs. Streets are numbered in reference to the original center of town. Av San Martín is (of course) one of the reference points.
Our last full day in Mendoza was a wine, olive oil, and liquere factory tour. We were a bit apprehensive at first, since we were the only gringos, but we mostly followed the tour guide's spanish, and at most locations there was either a bilingual tour or a private english tour for us. Sometimes it's good to be the odd ones out :)
We were befriended by a pair of Argentine couples on their honeymoons and had a great time chatting in slightly drunken Spanglish with them.
After the wine tour we discovered a vegetarian "tenedor libre" buffet restaurant, which had been open for a grand total of 9 days. We had a great meal and chatted with most of the staff, who are dedicated to improving the health of Argentinians one vegetable at a time. It's at 2 north and and 1 east if you're hungry and in Mendoza.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Salta province
After the tropical heat of the Iguazu area we travelled to the Salta province after yet another epic bus ride. Salta is the main city and it was our favorite so far. The usual city layout centered around a gorgeous plaza lined with cafes was visited more than once in Megan´s continuing and everlasting quest for the perfect cafe experience!!! The best thing about coffee in Argentina, other than the fact that it´s normally quite exceptional espresso, is the fact that it usually comes with a plate of little yummy pastries and mineral water. Very civilized. However, although we´ve experienced many lovely cafe locales, the best actual coffee that we´ve had has been in a gas station on the side of the highway. Even the gas stations here have high-quality espresso machines with baristas!!!!
Salta and the Northwest region is a very different Argentina, it´s proximity to Bolivia and Incan history makes it feel much more similar to Peru than to other parts of the country. The landscape reminded us of Red Rocks or Zion National park, with valley after valley of multicoloured sandstone. As well as lots of different shades of red rock, we saw a cloud forest and salt flats in a 4x4 tour north of Salta City.
After Salta City we visited Cafayate, a small town south of Salta which is also a wine growing area, and went for a memorable (and kind of long) bike ride through the valley. After 50km our bums hurt and going for wine tastings while so dehydrated wasn´t as much fun as we expected! So instead we went for ice cream. In fact, we have conducted a quite thorough tasting of high-quality ice cream throughout Argentina. Many towns claim to have the best ice cream in Argentina so we´re making it a goal to try all of them. So far it seems to be Buenos Aires or Cafayate, but the survey continues!
Next stop: Mendoza
Salta and the Northwest region is a very different Argentina, it´s proximity to Bolivia and Incan history makes it feel much more similar to Peru than to other parts of the country. The landscape reminded us of Red Rocks or Zion National park, with valley after valley of multicoloured sandstone. As well as lots of different shades of red rock, we saw a cloud forest and salt flats in a 4x4 tour north of Salta City.
After Salta City we visited Cafayate, a small town south of Salta which is also a wine growing area, and went for a memorable (and kind of long) bike ride through the valley. After 50km our bums hurt and going for wine tastings while so dehydrated wasn´t as much fun as we expected! So instead we went for ice cream. In fact, we have conducted a quite thorough tasting of high-quality ice cream throughout Argentina. Many towns claim to have the best ice cream in Argentina so we´re making it a goal to try all of them. So far it seems to be Buenos Aires or Cafayate, but the survey continues!
Next stop: Mendoza
Friday, October 12, 2007
Argentina!
After our trek through the Lares valley in Peru, we sat down and checked out a map of South America and considered how far we wanted to go in the next few months. Then we booked a flight to Buenos Aires. In case you haven't looked at a map lately, let's just say that Argentina is big. Really big. We´re now in Salta, our fourth major stop in Argentina, and we've spent over 65 hours on busses already. Not that we're complaining, since the long-distance bus service here is incredible. "Coche Cama" (sleeper) is the most common travel type - every seat is like flying first-class. If only Canada had busses like this...
We mostly chilled out in city parks in Buenos Aires, but we did manage to stay up late enough to go for dinner at a fancy restaurant. Once. Dinner here starts around 10:00, but things don´t really get going until nearly midnight. The food was great, even though they kept calling Megan´s salmon "trout". Buenos Aires is a magnificent city, Megan compared many places to ones in Paris. And there is lots of coffee :)
After Buenos Aires we caught a short (10 hour) overnight bus to Córdoba, where we spent 2 days wandering the city and one night camping in Los Gigantes (The Giants) provincial park. We also did the pilgrimage to the house Che grew up in, in a small town south of Córdoba. Not the greatest museum in the world, but there were lots of samples of his writing, and it piqued both our interest in learning more about Che.
Next stop (23 hour bus ride) was Puerto Iguazu, home of one of the world's largest waterfalls. And some really cute Capuchin monkeys. We spent two full days in the park, the first on the established tourist walkways taking LOTS of pictures and the second on a slightly less-travelled path to a smaller falls and a little swimming hole. Amazingly, we had this to ourselves for over an hour, and left just as a massive school group arrived.
Dave having a gently-massaging shower
The second day was sunnier and we briefly considered walking out to the big falls to see them in bright sunlight (Dave wanted a picture with rainbows) but we were out of water and nearly out of camera batteries so we decided to head back to our hotel's pool instead. We were a bit disappointed that we'd seen neither toucans nor the troop of monkeys we'd read about, but we'd seen crocodiles and birds and lots of lizards, so we weren't too disappointed. The edge of the park walkways is "El Sendero Verde" (The Green Trail) and it meanders under a canopy of trees covered in vines and epiphites. Monkey Food :) We saw the whole troop snacking above the trail, generally hangong upside-down and looking back at us while they nibbled. Unfortunately, our camera battery was completely dead due to Dave's many attempts to photograph butterflies on the wing, so no monkey pics. Doh!
Puerto Iguazu is a friendly little town on the edge of a tropical jungle and we really enjoyed our stay there, despite the complete lack of edible vegetables. We were getting quite concerned that the only things that Argentines eat is meat, sugar and white bread. This is difficult when you don´t eat meat!!! But our hotel was awesome. For about $17 we had a pool, air conditioning and breakfast!!! And a litre of yummy dark beer was about $1. Yum. After a slight bout of bad veggie induced food poisoning we headed up to the Andean Northwest of Argentina, a mere 27 hour bus ride away. More details on this area in our next edition.
The right-hand edge of the main falls
We mostly chilled out in city parks in Buenos Aires, but we did manage to stay up late enough to go for dinner at a fancy restaurant. Once. Dinner here starts around 10:00, but things don´t really get going until nearly midnight. The food was great, even though they kept calling Megan´s salmon "trout". Buenos Aires is a magnificent city, Megan compared many places to ones in Paris. And there is lots of coffee :)
After Buenos Aires we caught a short (10 hour) overnight bus to Córdoba, where we spent 2 days wandering the city and one night camping in Los Gigantes (The Giants) provincial park. We also did the pilgrimage to the house Che grew up in, in a small town south of Córdoba. Not the greatest museum in the world, but there were lots of samples of his writing, and it piqued both our interest in learning more about Che.
Next stop (23 hour bus ride) was Puerto Iguazu, home of one of the world's largest waterfalls. And some really cute Capuchin monkeys. We spent two full days in the park, the first on the established tourist walkways taking LOTS of pictures and the second on a slightly less-travelled path to a smaller falls and a little swimming hole. Amazingly, we had this to ourselves for over an hour, and left just as a massive school group arrived.
Dave having a gently-massaging shower
The second day was sunnier and we briefly considered walking out to the big falls to see them in bright sunlight (Dave wanted a picture with rainbows) but we were out of water and nearly out of camera batteries so we decided to head back to our hotel's pool instead. We were a bit disappointed that we'd seen neither toucans nor the troop of monkeys we'd read about, but we'd seen crocodiles and birds and lots of lizards, so we weren't too disappointed. The edge of the park walkways is "El Sendero Verde" (The Green Trail) and it meanders under a canopy of trees covered in vines and epiphites. Monkey Food :) We saw the whole troop snacking above the trail, generally hangong upside-down and looking back at us while they nibbled. Unfortunately, our camera battery was completely dead due to Dave's many attempts to photograph butterflies on the wing, so no monkey pics. Doh!
Puerto Iguazu is a friendly little town on the edge of a tropical jungle and we really enjoyed our stay there, despite the complete lack of edible vegetables. We were getting quite concerned that the only things that Argentines eat is meat, sugar and white bread. This is difficult when you don´t eat meat!!! But our hotel was awesome. For about $17 we had a pool, air conditioning and breakfast!!! And a litre of yummy dark beer was about $1. Yum. After a slight bout of bad veggie induced food poisoning we headed up to the Andean Northwest of Argentina, a mere 27 hour bus ride away. More details on this area in our next edition.
The right-hand edge of the main falls
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Last day in Cusco
After nearly a month, Megan and I are finished school and ready to leave Cusco. We fly out tomorrow morning for Buenas Aires. Megan is researching tango shows and cafés as I write this :)
We actually finished school nearly a week ago, but we had one more thing to do, that no trip to Cusco is really complete without: visit Machu Picchu!
We took a guided tour that technically ended at Machu Picchu, but really seemed like two separate trips: 3 days walking thru the Lares Valley and seeing how the locals lived and camping in villages, and one day in Machu Picchu after a night in the best hotel we're likely to see in South America.
The trek was interesting, and our guide's relationships with the locals really gave us a view into their lives. The fully-supported nature felt a bit odd to us, tho, and we probably won't do another similar trek. Machu Picchu was (of course) spectacular, even after having seen many of the other ruins in the Cusco area.
One thing my pre-trip reading hadn't prepared me for was the incredible number of granite walls in the Machu Picchu/Ollantaytambo area. Unfortunately most are covered in a hanging garden of jungle foliage - if it was a bit drier there I might have to move there!
Lots of pics are up on my picasaweb site.
--Dave, Cusco
We actually finished school nearly a week ago, but we had one more thing to do, that no trip to Cusco is really complete without: visit Machu Picchu!
We took a guided tour that technically ended at Machu Picchu, but really seemed like two separate trips: 3 days walking thru the Lares Valley and seeing how the locals lived and camping in villages, and one day in Machu Picchu after a night in the best hotel we're likely to see in South America.
The trek was interesting, and our guide's relationships with the locals really gave us a view into their lives. The fully-supported nature felt a bit odd to us, tho, and we probably won't do another similar trek. Machu Picchu was (of course) spectacular, even after having seen many of the other ruins in the Cusco area.
One thing my pre-trip reading hadn't prepared me for was the incredible number of granite walls in the Machu Picchu/Ollantaytambo area. Unfortunately most are covered in a hanging garden of jungle foliage - if it was a bit drier there I might have to move there!
Lots of pics are up on my picasaweb site.
--Dave, Cusco
Monday, September 17, 2007
Off to the salt mines...
We decided we needed a weekend away from our year away. Cusco is just a wee bit too frantic sometimes...
So we hopped on a local bus to Urubamba, and wandered around until we found a hotel. It was a "one night only" location, but for $10 no problem. Urubamba is a non-tourist town, which was a refreshing change after Cusco. We finally felt like we were really travelling in Peru. Our first local bus and our first (and second) Pisco Sours.
Saturday we awoke early to find: nothing. The locals don´t go out for breakfast, so neither did we. Thankfully we managed to find the bakery and provisioned ourselves with buns and cookies for the day´s hike. There was some intense negotiation in Spanglish before we managed to get a cab ride to the start of our hike, but we ended up exactly where we wanted to be, despite not knowing exactly where that was.
45 minutes of hiking brought us to the salt mines at Salineras. Inanticipation of a long day´s hike thru the high desert, we´d started with 5 liters of water. This was a bit of over-preparing, as thereis an ice cream stand at the salt mines. You can also buy water, snacks,and a full alpaca-wool suit in stylish bright red and orange.
Salineras
Happy Megan: first shade since we started and ice cream!
The tourist-attraction shops are a sharp contrast to the workers in the salt mines, who manually fill and extract huge bags of salt using nothing but human and donkey muscle-power.
We shared a taxi with a visiting american doctor to the start of our next hike, 5 kilometers along a gentle trail surrounded by farms in the foothills of the andes. Despite a near-miss with a bull and some large pigs (Megan no le gusta pigs) we made it to Moray, an ancient Inca site thought to be an experimental agricultural nursery.
After Moray it was taxis and Buses to our next village, the slightly more touristy town of Pisac. Above the current town are some magnificent Incan ruins, also called Pisac. We spent the night in another "economical"location, with a fantastic view across the Sacred Valley. The next morning we got a leisurely start, had breakfast, and started up the hill. Imagine two Grouse Grinds at 11,000 feet. We was winded! Exploring the ruins was well worth the climb though.
Dave´s shirt, after hiking to the salt mines and Pisac.
Guess who was carrying the backpack!
After the climb down we still had to contend with the bus back to Cusco. Standing the whole way, and barely room to inhale. But only 80 cents!
Back to school this morning - next weekend Machu Pichu!
-- David y Megan, Cusco
So we hopped on a local bus to Urubamba, and wandered around until we found a hotel. It was a "one night only" location, but for $10 no problem. Urubamba is a non-tourist town, which was a refreshing change after Cusco. We finally felt like we were really travelling in Peru. Our first local bus and our first (and second) Pisco Sours.
Saturday we awoke early to find: nothing. The locals don´t go out for breakfast, so neither did we. Thankfully we managed to find the bakery and provisioned ourselves with buns and cookies for the day´s hike. There was some intense negotiation in Spanglish before we managed to get a cab ride to the start of our hike, but we ended up exactly where we wanted to be, despite not knowing exactly where that was.
45 minutes of hiking brought us to the salt mines at Salineras. Inanticipation of a long day´s hike thru the high desert, we´d started with 5 liters of water. This was a bit of over-preparing, as thereis an ice cream stand at the salt mines. You can also buy water, snacks,and a full alpaca-wool suit in stylish bright red and orange.
Salineras
Happy Megan: first shade since we started and ice cream!
The tourist-attraction shops are a sharp contrast to the workers in the salt mines, who manually fill and extract huge bags of salt using nothing but human and donkey muscle-power.
We shared a taxi with a visiting american doctor to the start of our next hike, 5 kilometers along a gentle trail surrounded by farms in the foothills of the andes. Despite a near-miss with a bull and some large pigs (Megan no le gusta pigs) we made it to Moray, an ancient Inca site thought to be an experimental agricultural nursery.
After Moray it was taxis and Buses to our next village, the slightly more touristy town of Pisac. Above the current town are some magnificent Incan ruins, also called Pisac. We spent the night in another "economical"location, with a fantastic view across the Sacred Valley. The next morning we got a leisurely start, had breakfast, and started up the hill. Imagine two Grouse Grinds at 11,000 feet. We was winded! Exploring the ruins was well worth the climb though.
Dave´s shirt, after hiking to the salt mines and Pisac.
Guess who was carrying the backpack!
After the climb down we still had to contend with the bus back to Cusco. Standing the whole way, and barely room to inhale. But only 80 cents!
Back to school this morning - next weekend Machu Pichu!
-- David y Megan, Cusco
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Finally, a horseback ride.
Megan's been promising to take me horseback riding for 2 years, and today we finally went! We were planning to visit an incan ruin near Cusco, called Saqsaywaman, but Marina (our fabulous homestay 'mum') suggested that we take a horseback ride and see a few other ruins as well. She also mentioned that most touristas can´t pronounce the name, calling it 'sexy woman' instead. There were a few hiccups (you can´t actually ride all the way) but it was a fabulous day. Weather was "unsettled" - 5 minutes hail, 5 minutes brilliant sunshine, repeat - but the horses kept us warm, and hail doesn´t really get you that wet...
I neglected to take any web-sized pics until after we dropped the horses off, just before we returned to the main ruin.
Sexy Woman this way!
The other ruins that we saw were all smaller, and Megan and I were actually more impressed by the terraced farms and natural andean gorgeousness than the 'piles of rocks.' Once we got to Saqsaywaman, we were a bit more impressed. Most of the stones used here are over 10 feet high!
Megan and some big rocks
Records of the construction are a bit hazy, as the site was trashed during a war in the 17th century, with the general consensus being that it was designed as a temple of the sun.
All the work done way back then has left an amazing legacy, tho: thousands of offwidth boulder problems!
Dave about to get noticed by security
We walked back down to Cusco, and stopped for some mate de coca and yummy chocolate cake. Peruano food is incredible!
The sun was out by the time we were back in town, so we hid all our valuables away and headed home, via the Place des Armes. Surrounded by beautiful old churches, this is the tourist spot in Cusco. I´m pretty sure that 20 soles vanished from my pocket while we chilled out here yesterday. Cheap lesson in keeping an eye out...
Place des Armes
Old Church. TBD: find the name...
I neglected to take any web-sized pics until after we dropped the horses off, just before we returned to the main ruin.
Sexy Woman this way!
The other ruins that we saw were all smaller, and Megan and I were actually more impressed by the terraced farms and natural andean gorgeousness than the 'piles of rocks.' Once we got to Saqsaywaman, we were a bit more impressed. Most of the stones used here are over 10 feet high!
Megan and some big rocks
Records of the construction are a bit hazy, as the site was trashed during a war in the 17th century, with the general consensus being that it was designed as a temple of the sun.
All the work done way back then has left an amazing legacy, tho: thousands of offwidth boulder problems!
Dave about to get noticed by security
We walked back down to Cusco, and stopped for some mate de coca and yummy chocolate cake. Peruano food is incredible!
The sun was out by the time we were back in town, so we hid all our valuables away and headed home, via the Place des Armes. Surrounded by beautiful old churches, this is the tourist spot in Cusco. I´m pretty sure that 20 soles vanished from my pocket while we chilled out here yesterday. Cheap lesson in keeping an eye out...
Place des Armes
Old Church. TBD: find the name...
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Learning un poco de Español
We've spent two days in school now, Megan's spanish is getting prety good, and Dave actually knows a word or two. Our brains are full after 4 hours of class as well as meals in spanish with our homestay family. They are extremely patient with us during our 'conversations' at meals. 
Our home for the next two weeks.
Iglesia de Santo Domingo from Avenida del Sol
Our home for the next two weeks.
We have learned from our family that Peru is in a recession and work is very difficult for most people to find. Tourism is an important source of income. For our family, boarding spanish students has been the primary source of income for the last seven years. Otherwise, work is only sporadically available.
Today we went for a walk through Cusco before school, and saw some amazing weaving (no pictures allowed, sorry) and then walked to an old church. We discovered that we were able to breathe almost normally, after two days' acclimatisation.
Iglesia de Santo Domingo from Avenida del Sol
--Megan y David, Cusco
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Mmmm, Coca Tea
We arrived yesterday, after 36 hours in transit (including 10 hours in the lima airport).
A bit tired still, but so far no altitude problems(coca tea is yummy:).
Our homestay is wonderful! Comfy bed, super-friendly family, great food, ...
Also a dog and a kitten. Me gusta!
It´s a bit chilly at night here (at 10,800 feet). Last night we slept with two heavy blankets, two sheets, long johns (Megan) and a down sleeping bag! But it´s sunny today and warmer.
Off to explore, pictures coming soon...
-- Megan y David, Cusco
A bit tired still, but so far no altitude problems(coca tea is yummy:).
Our homestay is wonderful! Comfy bed, super-friendly family, great food, ...
Also a dog and a kitten. Me gusta!
It´s a bit chilly at night here (at 10,800 feet). Last night we slept with two heavy blankets, two sheets, long johns (Megan) and a down sleeping bag! But it´s sunny today and warmer.
Off to explore, pictures coming soon...
-- Megan y David, Cusco
Friday, August 31, 2007
Prepared?
The bags aren't packed, exactly, but there's a large pile on our floor that we're pretty sure will fit in our two packs. And another larger pile of stuff for the North American leg. And a bunch of climbing stuff on the portaledge, which is hanging from the rafters. Getting a bit worried that there won't be room for us in the van after we put all our gear in, but that'll have to wait
for January...
Our last travel-clinic appointment is this morning, and then it's just packing and last-minute visiting with friends and family. 2 more days before we fly!
Sometime after that there'll be interesting content, I promise :)
--Dave, Vancouver
for January...
Our last travel-clinic appointment is this morning, and then it's just packing and last-minute visiting with friends and family. 2 more days before we fly!
Sometime after that there'll be interesting content, I promise :)
--Dave, Vancouver
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Preparation
"Just one more trip to MEC, then we'll be done all the big pre-trip spending."
If I had a nickel for every time one of us said that, I'd probably spend it at MEC!
5 weeks of work left for me, 3.5 for Megan. Should be plenty of time to get our gear sorted out, if we could just stop adding to the pile! One more thing to check off the list now, tho - we officially have a blog.
The title is a bit misleading, since we'll only be in Moby (the minivan/great white whale) for 2/3 of the trip, but that'll probably be the time when most of the activity happens on this blog. Our current itinerary is as follows:
All of the above is subject to whim and fancy, and will probably change.
--Dave, Vancouver
If I had a nickel for every time one of us said that, I'd probably spend it at MEC!
5 weeks of work left for me, 3.5 for Megan. Should be plenty of time to get our gear sorted out, if we could just stop adding to the pile! One more thing to check off the list now, tho - we officially have a blog.
The title is a bit misleading, since we'll only be in Moby (the minivan/great white whale) for 2/3 of the trip, but that'll probably be the time when most of the activity happens on this blog. Our current itinerary is as follows:
- Aug 15: Megan finishes work and starts packing/house stuff
- Aug 24: Dave finishes work and helps finish packing/house stuff
- We staggered the time we're done work cuz we don't trust ourselves not to just go climbing for that first week if it's sunny...
- Sept 3: Fly to Cuzco by way of Lima
- Sept 5: Spanish school starts
- Sept 19: Done spanish school, probably do a few longer trips out of Cuzco
- Play, lots, trending generally south
- trekking
- touristing
- horseback riding
- ...
- Jan 1: fly back to Vancouver to visit family, friends, cat
- Jan 8: head south to Joshua Tree in Moby
- Play, even more, following the weather east and then north
- hiking
- climbing
- touristing
- museums
- violin
- June-ish: listen to fiddle music (read: pub crawl) in the maritimes
- August-ish: climbing in the Bugaboos and/or Tuolomne Meadows
- August 25: Visit family
All of the above is subject to whim and fancy, and will probably change.
--Dave, Vancouver
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
