Robin and Hopper's grand south american adventure!

Our last post....

2010-08-22T14:59:00.000-07:00

Pics from along the el choro trek (reverse order)

hey folks...
I´m writing from our hostel in Lima, Peru, the day before our flight home. Here´s a recap on our last week: After Dave and I left Sorata, we headed back to La Paz, and spent a few days exploring our favorite city for the 5th time. This time it wasn´t so much exploring as it was feeling comfortable for a few days; hitting up our favorite mamitas at San Franscisco chapel for saltañas, empanadas or jugos, buying some last minute gifts and running end of our trip errands. We were going back and forth about how we wanted to spend our last days in La Paz, and had decided that a trek would be quite apt, but there were so many treks out of La Paz, that we were having difficulty deciding on which one. Some ¨required¨ a guide, and some were over a week long, which we didn´t have the time for. We met up with Jacob, our Israeli friend for dinner at a local chabad, in hopes of joing him for a trek, but he explained that he was going to pay or a jeep tour instead...not really our style, or in our price range.
Luckily, the next day, at our hostel, we ran into a couple who had been in ruennebaque on the same tour that we were on, but with a different guide. They were interested in doing a trek too, and had come traveling with all the necessary equiptment. The four of us decided to team up and do the Choro trek together. Our guide book said that it could easily be done alone, although it was better to go with a group because there had been robberies on several parts of the trail in the past.
The trek was fantastic and Caz (from Australia) and Jess (from the states) were wonderful company! The trek is over an ancient inca cobblestone trade route, and it decents 7000 meteres in 3 days! We went from really really cold mountain air, to steamy sub tropical jungles in one day. There were a lot of steep downhills and we definately got some nice looking blisters to show for it. Our days were long....it was a really challenging hike! We spent the evenings goofing off with Jess and Caz and sleeping like rocks in our tents. There was one other guided group on the trail, but other than that, we were alone out there to enjoy the views for ourselves. Unfortunately, I didn´t take many pictures, as the days were long and Caz has an awesome camera and has offered to send me her photos! So those might be uploaded at a later date.
We finished the hike in a small town and waited for a taxi to take us to Corroico, where we were planning on spending a night or to exploring before we would return to La Paz. The corner store where we parked ourselves to buy a well deserved ice cold coke, had a family lounging out front with two little boys weilding a butterfly net. When we arrived they had just caught two huge, colorful butterflies and were holding them a bit too vigorously by their bodies and then by their wings. Not surprisingly, the butterflies were struggling to survive, and the boys seemed dissapointed when they put the insects down and they wouldn´t fly. ¨Lo no vuele!¨
They quickly got over it, because they found that with their new found incapacity, the butterflies could sit for minutes on end (near death) on Dave´s baseball hat. We played along, but felt really bad for the ill fated butterflies.
On our way to Corroico, our taxi driver pointed out tons of children carrying bookbags walking along the drit road returning from school. Apparently, the kids walk 2 hours one way to school everyday! The taxi driver sometimes picks them up on his way back from Corroico, but most of the time they have to make the 4 hour round trip walk. It´s a hard life for kids that live in these tiny villages in Bolivia.
We had our hopes up for corroico, but we arrived on a Tuesday, which was the town´s official ¨Sunday¨and nothing was open. We found a touristy place to have dinner... pricy, but amazing! And spent the next day wandering through town, drinking coffee, taking a hike to the town´s mirador and watching an impromptu flag parade that was taking place in the town square. Most of the bars and restaurants were closed for flag day on our second night, so we cooked at our hostel with Caz and Jess, playing card games and drinking wine until we got sleepy.
The next day was our last day in La Paz :( We got up early to take a bus from Corroico back to La Paz and spent the day running around buying bus tickets, food for our trip back to Peru, and donating some of our items that just weren´t going to make it onto the plane back to the states due to baggage restrictions (bye bye yoga mat and our guitar nemo) We spent our last night with Caz and Jess and a few too many pitchers of fruity cocktails at a hip little bar in the Sopacatchi district. Lets just say getting up the next moring at 6:30 to catch our 7:15 am bus was not in my top 10 moments on this trip.
The past two days have been filled with buses, getting off buses, crossing the boarder, getting on more buses, stopping in Arequipa for a day, and then taking our last overnight bus back to Lima where we find ourselves now. Between my last hurrah in La Paz and three days of buses, I seem to have caught a cold, which is a bummer. But, I will brave the cold, muggy Lima air with Dave tonight and celebrate properly!
We are feeling really excited, but also sad and a bit reminicent already. Lima is a modern city, and we haven´t seen the traditionally clothed ladies selling delicious treats in a whole two days and we already miss them terribly! I´m nervous to go back, and preparing for culture shock... but mostly just grateful that I have had this wonderful opportunity and that I have learned so much in the past 6 months. I´m excited to bring a fresh perspective back to the states and to see all those I love and have missed so much!

Ok, time to go before I get all sappy. (I kind of already did, but it could get worse) This will be our last blog entry... I´m so thankful to all of you who kept up with our travels and supported us along the way. See you all very soon!

much love,
Lilli:)

La Entrada, Rurrenabaque and Sorata

2010-08-11T12:39:00.000-07:00

Alright, so there is quite a bit to catch you all up on since our last
entry. Let's get to it!

Before leaving La Paz, we ran into another fiesta. Lil was pretty
bummed about not going to San Ignacio de Moxos, which is said in
Lonely Planet to have any amazing party every year. But when we woke
up and walked out our door, one had begun. A big one. One that ended
up lasting from 8AM to 10PM. It is called La Entrada and is thought
by some to be the best in Bolivia. It presents all the different
cultures and their dances from across the country and snakes its way
through downtown La Paz. It is hosted by all the universities in La
Paz, and each university has a troop of dancers that perform their own
unique, traditional dance, complete with amazing costumes! It is so
funny here, but we have gotten so used to the culture; we weren't surprised
to hop out of our hostel and see bleachers appearing from nowhere,
vendors coming out from all the cracks and tons of people cheering on
the dancers. Our hostel was right on main drag of the parade, and we had
a balcony that overlooked the whole thing! We spent the evening sipping
drinks on the balcony and watching.

The next day, we took an 18 hour bus from La Paz to Rurrenabaque in order to go
explore the jungle that is National Park Madidi. We had heard that
the ride was horrible and that most people don't take the bus, but fly
with one of the local airlines. It actually wasn't too shabby at all; we have
gotten used to shearing precipes that drivers swerve too close to,
going around blind corners only too find another vehicle coming and
just missing the other car, crying babies, broken down buses where you
wait on the side of the road until they fix the clanking and you hear
"vamos" . On our ride there, the bus only broke down once... and the nearest
baby was a happy, giggling one,which means that it was a pretty successful ride.

So we arrived in Rurrenabaque in the early morning, crashed in our
hostel for a few hours and then woke back up to find a tour to go with (you can´t enter the park without a guide). We had heard that there are two types of tours: the Pampas and the Selva. The Pampas (similar to a marsh) has tons of animals but also tons of tourists and, at times, the practices of the locals are not the
best (aka catching anacondas or other animals, even killings them at times). The
Selva (jungle) was a bit more remote and we had heard the tours were more eco-concious. We just needed to find the right company. Only a few of the 24 were certified by the government and the one we eventually chose had a really charasmatic manager, who explained that the proceeds of the business go directly to the local
community. For example, the proceeds of the tour company were helping
support the local school, and as a result, his daughter was able to
attend. Done!
The tour was 3 days, 2 nights, with the first night being spent at a
community shelter and the second being further in the jungle. Our
first day, we went to a local community village by boat (really fun),
where they were making jugo de caña (cane juice) to sell in town. The
process is pretty amazing and takes a few hours with shearing the
cane, boiling it and then bottling it. Another fun thing is that if
you let the juice ferment for a week, you get guarapo, an alcoholic
version of the drink. After the village, we went to sign in the the
registration office and got some fun facts of Madidi. The park has 5
ecosystems, ranges in altitude from above 6000m to 400m and has some
species of animals (and probably humans) that are only located here.
There are parts of the park that are so remote, they have never been
explored by humans, and it is believed that indiginous tribes might
live in some of these areas, never having had contact with the outside
world. Pretty incredible.
We hopped back in our boat and arrived at our accomodation.
Pretty swank if you ask me... and the food was exceptional.
We took a small guided tour with Robin, our guide, who
told us about the different medicinal uses of the plants here and spoke of some
of the animals that inhabit the jungle. Almost every plant has some
sort of function, whether its bark can be boiled as an antidiarretic,
or if its sap can be used to heal broken bones. The favorite animal
for any person is the jaguar, which one hopes to see. But Robin told us that the
jaguar is very difficult to spot due to its ability to mimick the way
humans walk and usually stalks groups until it finds the person with
the most fear and POUNCES! (not really but sometimes it has
happened). And we went for a night walk, which turned up a night
monkey (rare here) and tons of spiders (it is kind of creepy walking
along with your flashlight and seeing all these tiny eyes staring back
at you).

So for the second day, we learned how to make artesania rings in the
morning with Robin. A lot of the locals know how to do these things
as they are pretty integral to the culture and a lot of festivities
feature such things. We made rings out of seeds from a palm tree!
Lil went a little crazy with how many she made but she really loves
her rings. We then packed up our things and headed off to the second
campsite. The group was Robin (guide), Mary (cook), Rodrigo (guy from
Chile, who has such a wicked accent it was difficult to understand
him), Lilli and I. We walked for about 5 hours and saw some capuchin
monkies and a deer (Note: seeing a deer is very rare here and only 1
in 20 groups may glimpse one while it is expected to see monkies and
wild pigs. So even though in the US they are everywhere, it was a
cool site). O yeah, and tons of ant hills, termite mounds, spiders
(EVERYWHERE) and other insects. Plus, the jungle was so immense and
full of sounds that you just wanted to walk and listen. We got to
camp, had dinner, had a lively discussion about land prices in
Rurrenabaque and contraception...long story about how we got to that
topic, but it is an important discussion to have here because STDś and
early teen pregnancy (girls as young as 12 are getting pregnant here)
are really out of control here, due to the lack of education and the
lack of condoms. While we talked, we saw some more night monkies, who
reminded Lil of small people scrambling in the trees.

On the third day, we booked it to the Macaw wall, where there were
tons of macaws nesting on the cliffs, licking the salt in order to
digest the fruit they ate during the day. Unfortunately, our cameras
really couldn't do the views justice but it was worth the effort and
seeing the birds was an incredible experience. We then made it to the
river and made a raft ..yep, made a raft. The locals here, before
engines were invented, would lash together large logs with the bark of
a type of palm and float down the river. It was sweet! It took us
about an hour to paddle down the river, standing up, with bamboo poles
as oars, but it was definitely one of our highlights, something probably not repeated in a lifetime. We then made it back to our main base camp, got our belongings and made our way back to Rurrenabaque. On our boat, there were two other
Americans, one from Minnesota and the other from Texas, who invited us
to dinner.

We had a really good time and got to hear some interesting stories.
They were married and around our age and Charles' father was
actually from Bolivia and they were in the country to visit his
extended family, as well as travel. He told us an amazing story! His
father was born in El Alto, one of the poorest districts of La Paz. He worked
with his mother on the streets until he was 6 and found a job at the
elite tenis club, as a ball boy. During the next 6 years, he honed
his skills when he wasn't fetching balls by bouncing a ball against a
wall, using a piece of wood as a racket. Then, one day when he was
twelve, he was helping a game when the instructor of a tennis club
guest was called to the phone. The guest told Charles to help him
practice and realized that he had some skill. When the coach came
back, they both decided that he needed to be a part of their tennis
club team. Sounds good but it was basically this kid was the Michael
Jordan of tennis and the club just wanted to see him win tourneys for
them. So he kept practicing and winning and eventually became the
junior national champion of Bolivia. At this point, people told him
that he needed to go to school (mind you this entire time he is still
living in the slums of El Alto). So the club got enough money for him
to send him to the States to try play in a international championship.
At this championship, he was recruited by a college team in the states
and given a full ride scholarship. And without speaking any English. Now he teaches high school tennis in Texas. Pretty inspiring!

The next day we just chilled in town and I had a pretty bad accident
during one of our walks in the streets (no blood, just a bit of
humiliation) and relaxed at a local coffee shop. And then, we didn't
have enough money to stay (not ATM here) so we headed back to La Paz.
Once again, the ride was fun (babies, broken chairs slamming down on
my knees, a creaky baggage rack held together by thick rubber bands)
and once we got to La Paz, we immediately hopped on a bus going
to Sorata.

And here comes my rant. So Sorata is known as the treking capital of
Bolivia. I was imagining Huaraz, from Peru, with tons of hikes from
town and a great feel to it. Once we arrived, we
knew it wasn't going to be great. There weren´t any fun hangouts, and most
places were filled with managers who made no effort to help us, even
when we entered their shop and wanted to buy something!
It wasn't malicious; it was that they just were indifferent to our presence.
So we only stayed for two days, during which we hiked 24 km roundtrip (15 miles) to see a cave (pretty nice)and have some awesome views of the mountains. We also met an
incredible Israeli journalist, who has been traveling for about a year
and a half and told us to meet up with him in La Paz for some good
kosher food and possibly a trek. Lil and I both agreed that we really
like hanging out with the older crowd of travelers; they are often pretty
inspiring to us because they have so many stories and have lived life
off the beaten path. And, a lot of the younger people traveling get
pretty wasted all the time, which is not really our idea of a good
time (and drinking every night is pretty expensive).
For now, hanging in La Paz for two more days, meeting up with Jacob
the Israeli for dinner and deciding what trek we want to do before we
leave La Paz on the 19th for Arequipa, Peru!
...hope all is well back in the states!

-Hopper:)

Pictures go in reverse order again...

Sorata from above

pics from nacional parque madidi and Rurrenabaque:

i love the houses down here with thatched roofs...

big tree. National Park Madidi

another Rurrenabaque sunset

raft complete! we stood on this thing with bamboo poles and navigated our way down the rio beni! (with the help of our guide of course)

Dave helping make our raft... my favorite part of our tour!

you probably can´t see them because my camera is pretty bad, but in these little holes in the rock wall, there are scarlet macaws. So goregeous!

beautiful butterfly, lit up with a flashlight

rain forest walking...

leaf cutter ants... carrying their bounty to the nest:)

sugar cane... yum!

sunset on the rio beni, Rurrenabaque

pics from la entrada...amazing!

chilling in samaipata and back to la paz

2010-07-30T16:38:00.000-07:00

the view from the top of the hike, overlooking amboro (the amazon side)

view from the top...the andes side (notice how theres less green over here.....almost desert like!)

waterfalls!

Dave with the sweet payphone in Samipata

Dave wielding a machete... watch out

view from the farm...this is the valley it looked over!

hey all!
I wrote an entry not too long ago, but we are going to be headed on yet another long bus journey soon, and I wanted to write again while I have the time! I met up with Dave in Samipata last Saturday and he informed me that he had been working on a farm outside of town that was owned by the owner of Andoriña hostel, a really funky hostel in Samaipata. The farm is still in it´s starting stages, and the owner, Andres, is trying to get it up and running so that he can start a full volunteer program in the fall. Dave was there by himself for a few days, helping around the farm and hanging out with Andres´ only worker, a local guy who is helping to get the farm started as well. Dave wanted to work a few more days at the farm to finish up some projects, so I decided to join him for the weekend. I really loved the farm. It was still definately in its starting stages, and all we really worked on was trimming some trees, cleaning them of moss,lichen, and vines (they are peach trees and would die off if they weren´t cleaned of the stuff) but we had a good time just being outside in the fresh air, with the place to ourselves and a kitchen to cook in. There was no electricity, so we played cards and cooked by candlelight in the evenings (ooo, romantic). It got pretty cold in the evenings and we were staying in a little adobe house, with not the best insulation, so we went to bed around 8:30 every night before it got too cold!
We headed back into town on Monday and decided that we would hike back to Samaipata instead of waiting for a cab and paying. We had brought EVERYTHING with us to the farm, and this was our first time hiking a substancial distance with absolutely everything we have! It was a challenge, to say the least... but it was encouraging to know that if we have to, we can still carry everything. Our bags have grown quite a bit since we arrived and I was beginning to think this feat might not be possible. It took us about 3 hours to get back to town, and we met a local woman along the way who offered to help us carry some of our things, and then spent a half an hour trying to convince us to buy some of her land that she was trying to sell. When she realized that she was wasting her breath, we got to talking about family, and she was awestruck as to why I was 25, had been dating a man for over 2 years, and did not have babies! It is quite a different world down here in that department, Dave and I always laugh at the prospect of having babies at this point in our lives. For starters, putting a baby in my backpack probably wouldn´t make it any easier to carry, hehe. (although sometimes my backpack feels like I´m carrying a 10 year old on my back)
Anyway, we spent the next few days staying at the Andoriña and being treated like a king and a queen by the owners, who were really grateful for our help on the farm. They gave us a really nice room for half price, and free coffees everyday... not to mention they were really enjoyable company to spend our evenings with. The town of Samaipata might just be my favorite place (other than La Paz) in Bolivia thus far. The town sits right outside of Amboro national park, which is part amazon, part andes...the park actually houses one of the only places on earth where these two ecosystems collide. There are tons of funky restaurants, bakerys, beautiful winding roads through the forest, and spectacular views. Our last day in Samaipata, we decided to take advantage of this beautiful place, and try and do a hike to Las Cuevas, some waterfalls about 30 km from town. We had read that you can hike to them from a little town about 5 km from the falls, so we took a taxi to where the trailhead supposedly was. We just ended up getting frustrated, because we couldn´t find the trail, and the only thing that resembled a trail was a dirt road with a giant, blatant private property sign. We decided to walk the highway on foot instead and try to find the trailhead from the other end. The walk was well worth it; the waterfalls were beautiful, and when we did finally find the trailhead, the trail brought us over a huge set of ridges that overlooked Amboro national park. We could even see the progression from Andes to rainforest, the view was that immense! When we finally made it back to the town we started in, the trail dropped us off right on the ¨private property¨ dirt road that we had avoided before. No one came charging after us with machetes for trespassing though, so that was a plus. We caught a minibus back to town and talked for a while with some travelers from Brazil, one of whom played the clarinet and decided to give us a little concert while we waited for some road construction to clear. (in Bolivia, they don´t just shut down half the road and work on the other half, they shut down the WHOLE road and you just wait until they are done...this time it was only 15 minutes, but last time in was 2 hours!)
We headed back to Santa Cruz two days ago, to figure out our game plan for our next destination, Ruennebaque, where we are going to do a rainforest tour! We had originally wanted to do a tour in Amboro national park, (this is why we went down that way in the first place) but last week there was a terrible cold front, complete with freezing rain, that took down a bunch of trees and has totally ruined the trail network. We talked to other travelers who went on tour anyway, but spent the whole time hacking through brush with machetes and looking at destruction. We decided we would head north instead to get our rainforest fix. In Santa Cruz, we found out that we could take a bus through Trinidad, but that sometimes the road was impassable, and it would take upwards of 24 hours! At this point in our trip, we are getting a bit sick of ¨sometimes¨ impassable roads (because this usually means you buy a ticket and then end up sitting in the middle of nowhere for HOURS) so, even though I REALLY REALLY wanted to go through trinidad so that we could see a bit of the eastern side of Bolivia; we decided to save ourselves the headache and go through La Paz. We arrived in La Paz today and will stay a day and head to Ruennebaque on the 2nd!
...also, in other news... we decided to come back to the states a little earlier than planned. Although traveling is wonderful, and we are meeting wonderful people and seeing beautiful places, we are both getting a bit homesick and the money is starting to dwindle. We will be flying home a few weeks early, on the 23rd of August. I could write 3 more pages about how nervous/excited/uneasy I am about this upcoming return to the states, but I´m not going to. We´re going to live up our next 3 weeks to the fullest (we´re staying at a hostel with a kitchen and hot showers right now...woweee!)and STAY PRESENT! On that note, its time for me to get some sleep so I can gear up for tommorow... more exploring of La Paz (I love this city!!!)

much love,
robin:)

Cochabamba, Santa Cruz, Samipata....Eastern Bolivia

2010-07-17T09:32:00.000-07:00

Pictures of Ginger´s Paradise: There was some really beautiful mosaics and art work...as well as a beautiful forest to hike in!

Toucan! This guy lived at our hostel in Santa Cruz.

pasteries for sale at the celebration. mmmmm

a HUGE celebration we encountered in Santa Cruz, celebrating one of the cities special saints.

Dave with Sergito and Chris. In this picture, Chris has just drawn a picture of Dave, featuring a huge nose and a disproportionate baseball hat. It was hilarious.

cuy!

Dave enjoying one of our favorite treats from Cochabamba: a fruit salad with tons of whipped cream and a cookie on top:)

one of the intricate windy cobblestone streets in Potosi

Alrighty gang, here we go. Since our last time together, quite a few things have happened. We left off with us in Potosi, which was a beautiful city that I would highly recommend to those who love architecture and have some money to spend. I visited the Casa de Moneda, which was absolutely incredible with the amount of silver that was pumped out of the silver mines here and how back when the city was founded, it had more people in it than London and Paris!

After Potosi, we traveled up to Cochabamba to meet up with our friend Yamile to set up a volunteer program teaching English. We met here just outside of the city in Quellacullo and headed off to meet her sister´s (Lorena) family. Yamile told us that the homestay wasn´t going to work out becuase a good friend of there family had died during a military drill. So we stayed with Lorena and Sergio (her husband), who are absolutely amazing and the two kids there, Christopher and Sergito, were amazing to hang out with. We had thought that we would stay for quite some time but unfortunately, the program wasn´t really set up for a prolonged stay so we knew we weren´t going to stay for too long but enjoy our time.

First day= trip to a cuy plantation!!!! (By the way, cuy is guinea pig) So Yamile´s friend owns a cuy plantation, raising the cuy for mascots (pets) as well as for food (read other sections in our blog to understand the wonder and flavor of cuy!). Lil was reminded her of her pet Timmy when she was a kid, and took tons of photos of the little, furry animals running back and forth. We even got to hold some of the ones that were going to be sold off as pets, which was a lot of fun and reminded us of being little kids again. The owners explained that they way they decide between the ones for fun and the ones for food is that there are many species of cuy. The ones with furry ,long hair are sold as pets and the ones with short, white hair are raised for food. I never realized how many different types of cuy there are out there; they even had a couple from California (talk about some expensive pigs!)

That night we had dinner with some of Lorena´s and Sergio´s friends, which was really interesting to have an insider view of military lives. All the people were very kind and some knew some English, especially a Liuetenant Eduardo, who was cracking jokes left and right and invited Lilli and I to see a movie at his house the following evening. Eduardo and his wife also informed us about there feelings toward the current President Evo Morales and where their faith lies. Most of the country, especially close to La Paz, LOVES EVO. He is similar to a God in some areas, with every other wall being painted ¨Evo Si!¨, meaning Evo Yes! But to hear from an army official that some of Evo´s policies aren´t in line with the way the country is running, made me get a better view of life there.

(Lilli is writing now) We went the next day to the pool with Sergio, Lorena, Yamille, and the two boys. It was a really nice country club type place, not somewhere we would usually go as travelers, but it was nice to lay in the sun, relax, and jump on eachother in the pool. The boys also loved it.. watching a two year old and a five year old play tirelessly in the pool can be really entertaining. There was also a suana and a jacuzzi, neither of which I enjoyed since I left the states... it was a treat:) We spent that night with Eduardo and his wife watching a movie and then decided to leave the next day. We were a bit frustrated that we were not teaching english (which is what we came to do) and it also felt a bit weird being americans on a Bolivian army base.

The next few days were kind of a blur, we went to Cochabamba, and then to Santa Cruz, trying to find some information about National Parque Kamff Mercado, which is a remote park in the north of Bolivia, along the Brazilian boarder. After doing some research, it became apparent that it would take us 3 or 4 days to get there, and then another 2 days to just walk to the entrance of the park! We decided against it, but we were having a hard time coming up with an alternative. Also, after 2 weeks in just cities (Potosi, Cocabamba, and then Santa Cruz) we were starting to get a little cranky. We decided to part ways for a week to get our heads on straight again and to take a break from each other. I decided to go to Ginger´s Paradise, an organic farm about about 2 hours from Santa Cruz to do some volunteering and some hiking. The farm was ownded by a couple; she was Bolivian, he was American, and run with the help of their 3 kids. The farm was beautiful, and the food was amazing (they are really into using EVERYTHING they grow... and we would often spend the mornings picking fresh fruits and harvesting herbs and to make marmalade and tea). My favorite mornings were spent harvesting hibiscus flowers that were going to be made into tea! Yum! I had the afternoons off from work, so I spent time down by the river swimming, or going for walks around the property. In the evening (well, one evening) we hung out by the family´s house and played music or board games. I liked the owner of the house quite a lot, but I found out pretty quickly that her husband (the american guy) was kind of a really big jerk and wasn´t really interested in having conversations or playing music really; he was interested in talking AT you and then playing music OVER you. He was a good guitarist, but when I asked him what chords he was playing so that I could play along (he had a violin that he wanted me to try) he insisted that knowing chord ¨names¨ stifles one´s creativity. When I explained that I was classically trained, and this what how I knew music, he said that being classically trained was the reason I wasn´t able to play along with him, my mind had been stunted. Hmm. He also asserted that he could ëasily¨swim the english channel and wanted to know how fast I could run a mile so that he could tell me how much faster he was. In other words, he was an ass. Well, that ended my desire to hang out at the family´s house as night. Instead, I spent the evenings with Amodine, another volunteer from Belgium, who also was not very pleased with the owner. She was much better company! I left yesterday afternoon to get to where I am am today, Samipata, where I will join forces again with Dave tommorow. I am not sure what he has been up to lately, but I´m sure he will write about it soon! Hope all is well back home and you are all enjoying the summer weather!

abrupt departure from sachawasi and the salar de uyuni!

2010-07-07T16:25:00.000-07:00

So, last thing you read about our trip down in Bolivia was that I was
involved in the slaughtering of a horse. So probably the rest of our
time on the farm would be dull right? No way! The day after the
sacrifice, a mob of angry residents from the village appeared at the
gate to our farm. Mind you, before this, Lilli and I had been told
that Bruno was having some problems with residents of the town and a
few travelers had even had their stuff stolen one night. We weren´t
too afraid about an incident with our stuff because we had only seen
the good side of Bolivia. So the mob came in and laid down their
reasons for wanting Bruno to be kicked out.

1) he had written an article saying that the whole town was just a
bunch of theives (in reality, he had been quoted in an article about
the village saying that it was said how a few degenerate people in the
village were causing problems for the rest of the town. he used the
word ¨theives¨ to describe the few deliquents)

2) he had cut down some important trees for the village (in reality,
he had already been given a fine and paid it. also, everyone in town
cuts down trees to build their houses)

3) he was having tourists here, which were paying him (in reality, we
were all WWOOF volunteers and didn´t pay him a dime or centavo, if you
prefer)

This was the basic gist of what he had done. So the town comes in,
with this militaristic, young woman leading the charge as well as her
insane, screaming mother, saying that Bruno needs to leave and that
the town is going to decide what is going to happen to the farm.
Also, the town was quoting the new Bolivian constitution, which states
that local indigenous tribes have the right to their own type of
judicial council. Bruno packed up his bag and headed to Apolo
(nearest city which is a 4 hour walk or 1 hour drive) to talk with the
police. Lil and I both checked in with each other to see how we felt.
We were on a walk talking about how if things didn´t change, we would
head out sooner than the month commitment. All good so far.
That night, Bruno returned with news that the police wasn´t going to
do anything until something further occured. Also, Bruno met up with
a local friend/ foe (couldn´t tell about this guy because he seemed
two-faced) to talk about strategy. And we found out our waterline was
cut when we tried to use the taps but got nothing. We had to make a
fireline to the nearby river and fill up a giant barrel to start
boiling water for drinking purposes. I was feeling a bit nervous so I
spoke with our chef/ soulmate, Victor, about the proceedings. He told
me that he even felt suspicious about what might happen next. But the
general mood was good so I went to bed feeling fine.
The next morning, I awoke to a beautiful sunrise. I went to the
kitchen and started brewing coffee for all the volunteers, feeling
good about the day. Then, the mob came back again after breakfast,
screaming to be let in and setting off firecrackers to get more people
to join in their throes of hatred. I decided to just ignore them and
go to the pineapple garden for some weeding. I was using a hoe to get
out the weeds when all of a sudden something hit me in the back of the
head! I checked the back of my head and saw blood spilling out. One of
the locals had thrown a rock at me! I lost it. I ran over to the front
of the wall yelling about what had justhappened. Lil calmed me down
and sat me on a stoop in order to clean my head. I just had so many emotions running through me as Lil helped me out. I couldn´t believe what had
just happened and was shocked more than anything.

Then, like a nightmare, the people broke down the
door and climbed the wall to come in. I got up and started moving
toward our tent so that they wouldn´t ransack our stuff. The people
rushed in the sticks and stones, as well as the militant woman and
screaming old woman. Lil and I both checked in very quick and ran to
get our stuff out of the storage shed. I was still shaken up and
thought that I might have a concussion so I had to sit down for a bit
while Lil and our other friends helped pack my stuff up. Meanwhile,
the mob was screaming for Bruno and had taken down his ladder to his
second floor, abandoning 4 female volunteers up there. After packing
up, we left. It was really hard to walk up toward the kitchen area,
were everyone was gathered, and start heading out. I lost it and
started balling; the others came up and gave me hugs and pats on the
back. Lil and I headed out and stopped off at the control point for
the National Park Madidi (based right in town) so that I could see the
doctor or nurse. They checked me out and put in the two stitches, all
the while saying that my story was wild and sad and that they didn´t
trust the townspeople themselves. Lil and I waited for a taxi to come
to town after the stitches and then hopped in the car with a newfound
friend named Yamile. Yamile, a friend of Bruno, had come out to see
what was happening at the farm, and was assaulted when she tried to
leave the farm. The militant woman scratched Yamile´s face with a
pair of sunglasses. Yamile was pretty broken up but kept strong and
told us that we could stay with her the night. We arrived into the
town, made a police report (which did nothing) and then just went to
bed. Long day done.
Next day, we woke up and spoke at length with Yamile about what to do.
She told us that we were going to meet up with Bruno and go to a
lawyer to document what happened. We met up with him and found out
more about the previous day, how the old woman had chased a girl with
a stick to hit her and also tried to light the house on fire. The mob
had also given Bruno the ultimatum of leaving by Saturday and that the
volunteers needed to be out by the end of the month. We documented
all of this to a lawyer and then Lil and I left Bruno and the two
other volunteers to go back for La Paz. We knew we were not going
back to the farm. I didn´t trust the townsfolk to hold their word and
even if things got better, when would the next rock get thrown? 5
other volunteers joined us on the voyage to La Paz. But, before
leaving, we had talked to Yamile about setting up a volunteer program
with military families in Cochabamba, for Yamile had previously been
married to a military man and knew how hard it was for the families to
learn English without having to pay a fortune.

La Paz was cool and quick. We stayed for a few days to hang out with
the guys and gals from the farm while we made a decision to head to
the Salar de Uyuni, a mystical salt flat located close to the Chilean
border. Two friends decided to join us, Sin from Korea and Erin from
the States.

The four of us took an all-night bus from La Paz down to Uyuni,
arriving Sunday morning near 6 AM. Uyuni was frozen! This place even
makes Bend look warm. With an altitude of 3500 meters and being
located in the desert, once the sun goes down, it gets cold. We ran
to a hostal, checked in and slept for a bit before going out on the
town to look for a tour to take. We had been told about a company
called Expresa from a few of our friends from the farm. We ended up
leaving the next morning around 10:30 AM and got to the salt flats
soon after. It was so eerie to be out walking around on salt flats, which
was going to be turned into salt for use across the world. The flats
are around 4000 square miles and have over 30 islands on them. By
islands, it is meant that rock outcroppings, some containing thousands
of cacti, are scattered across the desert. We reached one of these
islands called Incawasai and were able to take some amazing photos of
the salt flats. Javier, our driver, told us that the flats contained
about 9 meters worth of differing layers of salt as well as tons of
other minerals underneath that. Most importantly, lithium was found
here and there have been talks about mining the lithium for use in
batteries.
After lunch, we headed out into the middle of the desert for some fun
with depth perception. The salt flats make it seem that everything is
on the same plane, when in reality, it isn´t. Check out the photos
for some fun.
Then, we headed to our salt hostel for the night. The entire building
(except for the base) was made from salt. We got to sleep on salt
beds! After dinner, we all turned in for an early night, after a card
game of Gabbo (if you ask me in the States, I´ll show you how to
play).
The next morning had an incredible sunrise, which brought feelings of
desert loneliness to my mind (o Bend!). We had a quick breakfast and
then headed south to a couple of the lagunas located out here. All of
the lagunas we saw had some sort of chemicals or minerals in them,
from sulfur to borax to other things. It was pretty incredible to
think about how many natural resources were located in such a small
area of this country. The most impressive laguna was Laguna Rosada,
which looked red when the wind whipped up all the minerals located in
the lake. As well as a red lake, there were flamingos there! Yep,
flamingos live in Bolivia and love all the algae and minerals located
in the lakes here. There weren´t tons of them but we were able to get
some cool photos.
After a long day, we settled in to another hostal in the desert for
the night. We had purchaes two bottles of wine earlier in the day for
our last night together on the trek and were pretty surprised to see
our chef bring out another for us, on the house. We had a great night
of singing and playing guitar as well as I was able to befriend two
adorable kids that lived out at the hostel. Their smiles brought such
a warmth to our hearts and made Lilli and I want to volunteer with
kids.

Next day was an early one, with us getting up at 5:30. We got to a
location filled with geisers just before sunrise for some fun photos
and geologic goofing off. Lilli is going to hook me up with some
books about the way the world operates (her old geology textbooks)
once we get back. Pachamama, you are so amazing!

After the geisers, we headed off to some thermal baths and breakfast.
Good to wash up in the baths and get some warm water on our cold
bodies. Plus, we were at an altitude of around 5000 meters out there!
To put that in perspective, there are no mountains in the lowere 48
states higher than this elevation.
Then, the long trek back to Uyuni began. We stopped once in the
Deserted City of Italy, a massive rock formation, for lunch. I don´t
know why they named it so but it was fun to climb around a bit and
think about how many routes I would equip if I came back. We got back
to Uyuni around 5 at night, bid farwell to our friends (although we
will meet up with Erin in Cochabamba) and got a room for the night.
We also had an amazing dinner called Fricase, which is kind of like
llama soup with some noodles in it (so good that my mouth is watering
right now!).

The next day, we got up and headed for Potosi, where I am currently
writing from. We will keep you updated with what happens here after
we get to Cocha! Enjoy the blog, stay healthy and be seeing you soon!

PICTURES BELOW!
...in reverse order yet again

gorgeous rock formations

roadside llamas

hot springs and geyser steam

dave with two of the little guys whose parents worked at the hostel...they were hilarious!

wine with our tour group!

laguna colorado... the lake is red because of all the algae and microorganisms in there... and the flamingos are pink because they eat the algae!

our tour chariot...

some of the desert lakes here have pink flamingos! Crazy!

sunrise over the salar de uyuni

pics from the salt flats.... it is such a huge expanse of vast nothingness that you can take pictures without any depth perception! We had a lot of fun coming up with these...

dave surveying the salar...

dave befriending a cactus

cactus island...can't remember the name of it, but its in the middle of the salar! Strange...

cool statue in the city center

two friendly jungle birds at our hostel in uyuni

sachawasi

2010-06-27T10:57:00.000-07:00

our garden

Top floor of Bruno´s house...pretty nice yoga spot eh?

Dave and I at the farm:)

afternoon chilling

views of the rainforest

another rain forest view

Dave with two of the farms inhabitants:)

an example of how big the bugs are here

pinapples grow here!

community lunch time

homemade salsas and mole, courtesy of Carlos (from Columbia)

coffee beans in the grinder, fresh from the plant, before shelling

fresh picked coffee beans, shelled, and drying in the sun

Hello!
I´m really excited to be writing right now because I thought we would be out of contact for a while, seeing as we are a bit secluded right now. But, lo and behold, the town of Apolo, about a 4 hours walk from the farm where we are working, has fast internet! Pretty exciting. I only have a little time to write before getting moving back to the farm, so, here it goes. After a long 14 hour busride to Apolo from La Paz (including one flat tire and a 3 year old falling asleep on my lap) Dave and I arrived in Apolo, a small village on the boarder of Parque National Madidi, in the northern Bolivian Amazon. We came here to go volunteer on a farm we found through WOOF called Sachawasi. After a 1.5 hour taxi ride we arrived at our destination. Sachawasi is a wonderful place! We really are living in the middle of the rainforest...and I´ve got the mosquito bites to prove it. There are people from all over the world woofinf at the farm: France, Columbia, Argentina, Belgium, Mdagascar, New Zealand, and Korea, to name a few. Some people at the farm speak English, but we try to speak Spanish for most of the day, as this is the only language everyone has in common!
This is what a typical day looks like for us:
-Wake up around 7:15, when Bruno (the farm´s owner) comes into the tent area (we are camping) with his drum to wake us up
-breakfast until 8 or 8:15 (usually porridge with a api, a berry drink made out of fruit from the farm)
-8:30...self run work time, we do lots of projects, ranging from picking and grinding coffee, to working on a adobe oven project, to planting banana trees, to shelling peas or cutting up veggies for lunch
- mid day, snack time, there are tons of banana and orange trees on the property, and you can eat as many as you want!
- lunch time around 2...amazing food from the garden, cooked by victor,a crazy wonderful man from Canada who has worked as the farms cook for over 5 months
- rest of the day...chilling! We lounge in the sun and read, nap, or receive spanish lessons from one more experienced spanish speakers... sometimes we go down to the river and go swimming (the river is also where we wash ourselves...no showers here!) I do a yoga practice in the afternoon on the top floor of Brunos house, overlooking the rainforest:)
-night time: Dinner is around 7:30, and is usually prefaced by music, tea, and sometimes orange wine that Bruno makes himself. We usually head to bed around 10 to get ready for the next day!

So thats about it folks, we are meeting some wonderful people here, eating great food and really enjoying ourselves! One of the drawbacks, definatly is the bugs...but we have been really careful...I´m wearing long sleeves, long pants, and a scarf 24 7 because I don´t want to be tearing apart my skin.

Dave want´s to write a bit so I´m going to turn it over to him...

Hey gang. So two days ago, the owner of the farm, Bruno, came up to me. He asked me if I liked to eat meat. I said sure and then he motioned for me to follow him. Everyone else (I later learned) knew what was in store for me but I had no idea; I just thought the question was for almuerzo that day. So we walked over to where we had been keeping the horses, and only the brown, smaller horse was there. He told Carlos and I to help him bring the horse down onto its knees, which was a pain in the butt and I also got bucked a few times as the horse didn´t want to go down without a fight. Once the horse was down and Bruno pulled out a knife, I knew that this wasn´t going to be a ¨playing with the horse¨ session. He said a few words of prayer under his breathe before slicing the horse´s throat open as Carlos and I held the dying, bucking horse down. The noise coming out of his throat made you gringe, sounding similar to a wheezing, smoker´s cough. I kind of had left my body at that point and didn´t totally realize what was happening, more of feeling like I was going through the motions. Carlos was very much upset and left soon after the horse had died, while I stayed with Bruno to skin the animal and get the meat. Bruno had originally bought the horse in order to mate it with a donkey to get mules for carrying goods to and from town. But the horse was too small and since Bruno wanted meat, that is why the horse was taken down. Bruno would rather harvest his own meat from cows, sheep or other animals than buy it from a carneceria for ¨he doesn´t want another person killing an animal for him¨. Yet, I didn´t feel to overly horrible after the horse was dead and we were harvesting his meat. Without the lifeforce and energy of the living animal anymore, carving him up felt just like any other job. But the main point of this whole thing is if someone asks you if you eat meat, ask them why do they want to know!

pictures from La Paz

2010-06-19T08:44:00.000-07:00

La Paz is such a cool place, we thought we´d upload some pictures of some of the places we´ve been exploring over the past few days...

At the coca museum in La Paz...we learned all about the coca plant (that is used here for altitude sickness and for improved strength) we also learned about the bad side of the coca plant, cocaine, and what the bolivian people are doing to combat the drug trade.

goddess of coca

city of la paz from above

one of the crazy streets of La Paz...whew its busy!

La Paz has tons of awesome street art!

Bolivia at last!

2010-06-17T11:31:00.000-07:00

pictures go from bottom to top again...scroll up to see them in sequence!
There are also some cool pictures of the streets of La Paz...but they won´t load for some reason! That will have to wait till next time:(

local fabrics on sale in La Paz...the local women use these to make elaborate skirts

another picture from the witch markets, these little bottles house good luck charms for everything you can imagine!

baby lama fetuses at the witch market in la paz, legend has it that locals bury these under their houses to ward off evil spirits

one last shot of lake titicaca....goregous:)

la luna sobre la isla del sol

sunset from camp

algae nearby our campsite...mmmm

camp spot found. Beautiful!

ancient ruins on the Isla del Sol

Over look of lake Titicaca on the Isla del sol

On the boat to the Isla del sol (Island of the sun)

pink church in Copacabana

the city of Copacabana from above

Some cool cacti at a hip local coffee shop in Copacabana

Bolivians decorate their vehicles with flowers for good luck and safe journeys

the goregous cathedral in Copacabana

one last photo from huaraz...our favorite late night snack...sex burger!

Hola faithful followers!
Dave and I have found ourselves in La Paz, after several long bus rides, strange fiascos with boarder officials, and a goregous stay at Lake Titicaca. Since our last entry, Dave and I left Huaraz aboard an overnight bus, and stayed in Lima for 4 days, treating ourselves to a nice hostel, and buying some much needed items that we have been neglecting for a while. I needed some new shirts (wearing the same 5 shirts for the past 4 months was getting a little repetative) and we also stocked up on some of our favorite teas, soaps, and other ¨luxury items¨ that we were afraid we might not be able to find in Bolivia. The next few days were a whirlwind of bus rides through Arequipa, and to the boarder of Bolivia, where we decided to take a whole day of buses and try and make it through the boarder before dark. We made it to the boarder just as dark hit, but forgot to account for the time change between Bolivia and Peru (Bolivia is one hour ahead) and we exited Peru and arrived at the Bolivian immigration office just as the immigration official was locking up shop. At first he gave us a hard time and told us to go back to Peru (which was absurd because we had just exited the country and their immigration office was about to close as well), but eventually through excessive pleading and batting of the eyelashes, he told us we could stay the night in Copacobana and return to the immigration office in the morning. We exchanged our money in town, found a quiet hostel, and crashed for the night.
The next morning when we arrived back at immigration (carrying our packs, which we thought they might want to check...but of course they didn´t) they charged us an extra $5, in addition to the $135 that Americans have to pay for a visa, because they ¨did us a favor¨the night before by letting us enter the country without a visa. We were a bit annoyed, but we have heard other Americans have been given a much harder time, so we were grateful that we weren´t asked for more money. We were given a 90 day visa, and were not required to give them all the paper work that we so diligently prepared in the states for our entry. It seemed that they were not really concerned about the legality of our entry, only our money. Such is life.
We spent a day and a half wandering around copacabana, meeting some interesting travelers at our hostel, and preparing for our trip to the isla del sol, a 1.5 hour boatride away, across lake titicaca, where we were told we could camp and enjoy the scenery for a pretty affordable price. We met another american from brookline, MA on the boat who worked from home and was traveling while working on his blackberry. He said that his boss was getting suspicious because all of his work phone calls were international, and he has been sending e-mails at strange hours. It was fun to meet another traveler from so close to where I grew up!
The island turned out to be a total gringo zone, with tons of vendors selling goods, and tons of wanderers from all over the world. We were happy to duck off the trail (after seeing the famous ruins) and seek out a private campsite for the evening. We spent the day in the sun, reading, relaxing, and taking pictures from our camp in our private bay.
The next day (yesterday) we headed back to Copacabana on the first boat of the day (after running down a steep hill with packs on in order to make it in time!). I went out for lunch while Dave did some exploring, and met a man who is traveling around the world by bike! He is from Ireland and his next country to explore will be the states. I pointed him in the direction of Oregon and recommended some bike routes for him... he is in for a treat!
After lunch we caught a bus to La Paz, a goregous ride along Lake Titicaca. About 2 hours into the ride, we had to get off the bus with no explanation...it turned out we were going to be crossing lake Titicaca by barge in order to acess the highway that ran to La Paz. It was funny watching our bus floating on the lake (on the barge) from a motorboat across the way.
When we finally made it to La Paz, we were greeted by 3 local policemen at the bus station who insisted on hailing a taxi for us. La Paz can be a very dangerous city, especially at night...and they have ¨tourist police¨ who roam the streets at night helping tourists find their way and not end up in sketchy situations. When they hailed us a taxi, they took down the drivers plates and everything...there have been reported incidents of drivers taking tourists for a joy ride outside of the city and then robbing them; keeping track of where the taxis are going is a measure that the local police have taken to combat it. We thought that the police were a bit neurotic, but we were quickly proven wrong when 2 people tried to enter the vehicle (one through the trunk, and one through the side door) presumably to try and steal our backpacks. Luckily, all the doors were locked and we got to our hostel safe and sound. We were a bit shaken, however, and have been taking more precautions such as carrying our backpacks on our chests when out in the city, and I have been hiding my cash in my bra (hey...it works).
Today we explored the city a bit, and visited the famed ¨witch markets¨of La Paz. The women at the witch markets sell good luck charms of every variety, including llama fetuses, various sacred plants, and idols for worship. We spent some time talking to a woman who owned one of the stalls about the meaning of the charms, and she proved to be very informative! Our spanish is rapidly improving, and its fun to talk with street vendors about their wares to help improve our vocabulary and get to know the culture better.
We have found Bolivians to be just as friendly and charming as Peruvians, the majority of people we met today were not only informative, but concerned for our safety. They informed us of the areas to stay away from in the city, and one woman warned me to keep my camera hidden from sight. For all the ¨bad scary people¨ in this city, there are dozens who are wonderfully caring, and do their best to help keep you safe.
We will be spending the next 3 days in La Paz, seeing the sights, exploring, and gearing up for our next month, which we will be spending in its entirely in western Bolivia, outside of Parque National Madidi volunteering on a farm! If you are interested in what we will be doing, check out their website! http://www.sachawasi.org/eng/index_eng.html

Some other quick anctedotes:
-La Paz is the highest capital city in the world, measuring at 12,000 feet. Breathless climbing of stairs and up steep streets is definately a challenge.

-The world cup is in full swing and the people of south america LOVE IT. We have started watching the games on occasion, or asking people on the streets who is playing that particular day and what the score is, which is always a great way to start a conversation. The games are ALWAYS on, and its not unusual to see people lined up outside of a bar on the streets, blocking traffic, and watching the game. Also, Shakiras theme song for the world cup is also ALWAYS PLAYING, and although its a sweet song, its been stuck in my head for 3 days now and its starting to infiltrate my dreams. It´s a bit annoying.

- The Bolivian currency is the Boliviano, and 1 US dollar is equal to roughly 7 Bolivianos you can get a giant jugo for 6 Bolivianos, a room at a medium rate hostel for 20-25, and a nice, classy meal at a restaurant for 30. It´s a pretty cheap country to travel, for sure.

...thats all for now folks, hopefully more pictures to come in the next few days of the city of La Paz, and whatever else we happen upon!

much love,
Robin:)

The santa cruz trek!

2010-06-04T15:29:00.001-07:00

Hello all!
This is just going to be a short post about our latest adventure, the Santa Cruz trek! It was good enough to deserve its own entry. Amanda, Dave and I have been staying in Huaraz together for the past 2 and a half weeks, going on day hikes, Spending a few days at Hatun Machay, and exploring the bars and local restaurants. We also decided that we would all like to do a multi day trek in the area. Arnold, who is Amanda´s friend from when she worked in Lima, is a local mountain guide, and recommended that we hike the Alpamayo trek, an 8 day trek through the gutsiest portion of the Cordierra Blancas. The hike is bastante (intense), so you need to hire burros(donkeys) and an aradyo (the guy who owns the donkeys) to carry your stuff. Andy, our couchsurfing host, offered to set us up with his aradyo who he uses for treking with clients, but we were having a lot of trouble getting in touch with him. Apparently he lives in a little village on the outskirts of Huaraz, and he only gets cell phone reception when he hikes down the hill every morning between 9and 10 am. We tried during this time frame and got no answer. We only had a day to prepare for the trek (buying food, packing clothes, buying maps, etc.) and we were starting to get frustrated when we still couldnt contact the aradyo at 11:00. We unanimously decided to go for the Santa Cruz trek, a much shorter trek (4-5 days), which is intense as well, but it is possible to do the trek with only backpacks (sin burros) and no guide. We spent the rest of the day buying 4 days worth of food (much easier) and getting prepped for our hike.
We took a long a bumpy busride to Parque National Huacaran, where the start of our hike was located. We had needed Park passes to enter the park, which we had bought in Huaraz, but me, being the smartie pants I am, left my park pass in my backpack, which was strapped to the roof of the bus. The whole bus had to wait while I begged in broken spanish (Por favor, me bolleto es arriba, sobre el techo, no puedo entrar!!!)for the bus driver to climb up on the roof and grab my backpack. I had to whine a lot and look sad. It worked. Our bus driver also kept stopping along the winding highway through the mountains to tighten the axles of the bus, and one time to change a flat. A little jolting, but we got there in one piece.
The first day of our trek took us through a farming village where we asked the locals directions to ranger station where we offically would start the trek. Along the way, a group of children came running after us shouting ¨Dame carremellos!¨(give me candy!) and when we wouldn´t ablige, one little girl followed Amanda and grabbed her butt repeatedly. It seems as though these kids are used to begging for candy and money from tourists on the trek, and they usually get it. They eventually left us alone.
During our trek, we felt pretty tough because most other people on the trek were traveling with guides who carried all of their stuff on donkeys, set up their camp and cooked them all their meals. All they had to do was walk and carry a bottle of water. On the other hand, in our case, we carried everything ourselves; stove, tents, sleepingbags, extra clothes, and all our food...about 40-50 pounds per person...and this is not easy when hiking at altitude. A lot of the people hiking with guides had never been on a backpacking trip, let alone hiked at altitude, so when we walked by them, they looked at us like we were crazy. But we felt cool.
During the hike we were also constatly chewing coca leaves, a remedy the the locals use to combat altitude sickness. You can buy a bolsa of leaves for 1 sole (33 cents) and you basically roll up a wad, stick it against your cheek in the back of your mouth and chew. The juices from the leaves help to combat headaches, stiff muscles and other symptoms. The guides all chew the stuff, and when they smile, they have green chunks stuck in their teeth. We were part of that club as well. The donkeys along the trek were pretty funny as well, as they were all carrying 35 kilos of gear, and obviously not happy about it. The aradyos would yell curses at them and make ¨tsk tsk tsk¨ noises to get them back on the trail when they would go wander off to munch on grass. At some of our camp sites they would wander away from another camp site and come to ours in search of food. The aradyo would always be close beind cursing and apologising for his stubborn donkeys.
The second day of our trek we went over a pass that is over 16,000 feet, higher than any point in the continental US. I was definately feeling the altitude, every few steps I had to stop and catch my breath, and my walking was getting a bit sloppy, but it was worth it from the view at the top! We had brought a little whiskey with us on the trek and we shared a celebretory toast with some of the other trekkers and guides at the top of the pass.
The following day we decided to take a side trek to the base of alpamayo, a huge mountain that we could see from town that has a gorgeous laguna at the base of it. We got to the refugio, where many climbers stay before they attempt to climb the mountain, and asked some local guides at the basecamp to watch our backpacks while we hiked the last half an hour to the lake. The guides asked us where we were from, and upon telling them that we were from the US, they informed us that 2 tents over, there was a climber from Colorado who was blind. Dave almost freaked out, because about a year ago he has seen a flim about a blind climber, named Erik Weihenmayer, who had climbed Everest and various other peaks around the world. He was really inspired by the movie, and before we left for our trip to South America, Dave had told my dad about the film. Chance would have it that my dad had given this man guitar lessons when he worked at BB&N, before Erik had gone into climbing professionally. We had thought that was a coincidence back then, but this was even crazier!
We wandered over to Erik´s tent and talked with him for a while about his climbing career, and of course, asked him if he knew my dad. He remembered him and told me to send him a hello! Crazy crazy coincidental small world.
The rest of our trek passed without a hitch; good food, card games in our tents, and laughing at stubborn donkeys that would wander into our camp. We got back to Huaraz mid day on Thursday and celebrated with some expensive local beers that we promised ourselves we would splurge on after the trek.

...Tomorrow Dave and I will part ways with Amanda and head to Lima, where we will spend a few days resting, resupplying, and gearing up for Bolivia. Our next post will probably be from Bolivia....we are sad to leave Peru (Peru is so wonderful!) but excited to see a new country, learn about new customs, and meet different types of people!

Be well all.... until next time!
-Robin:)

these pictures are in reverse order...start at the bottom and scroll to the top to see the pictures in the right order!

last sign of the trek...we made it!

burros...other groups used these to carry their bags...but we carried our own stuff!

Dave, trekking beast

the view from the tent we woke up to on our last day...

storm rolling in...

other views

laguna at the base of alpamayo

the paramount pictures mountain

campsite #2

glacier spotting

celebration at the highest pass on the trek...over 16,000 feet!

Amanda, the vaca whisperer

first day treking views

setting up camp on our first night

Since Last Time...Huaraz!

2010-05-30T13:24:00.000-07:00

sunset at hatun machay:

pics from hatun machay:

I´m an intense climber

pics from dave´s climb:

houses on the route to laguna anticocha

amanda at laguna anticocha

the start of the laguna churup hike

other views from the hike:

amanda and dave cooking at andy´s place

street art in huaraz

woman in the market in huaraz

Hola Everyone!

Since last time, a lot has happened. I´m going to give you all the breakdown but it might be a bit fast. Sorry but I got´s things to do and places to see. Here we go:

Since arriving in Huaraz, we gained our grounding after a rough first week. Lilli got pretty sick with an ear infection and a fever. She had to let them sweat out before we could really do anything and get better. During that first week, we gained our bearings of the town, met up with Jeff and Jarra (friends from Rhiannon Community) for Chuchuwasi and other interesting beverages, as well as hanging out with our friends from Couchsurfing. After that first week, our friend from Oregon, Amanda, arrived in Huaraz and we were able to really start getting into gear.
Andy (Couchsurfing host), Nelson (Couchsurfer) and I decided to head up to Huscaran National Park to summit Vallanarju, a 5686 meter peak (for all those Americans, that is equal to about 18500 ft.) We got up there the first day and Andy made us practice climbing in both rock shoes as well as mountaineering boots because a lot of the time we would have to be scrabbling on those boots. Trying to climb a 6a (= 5.10b) in plastic boots is really hard but I was able to lead the route and make Andy proud (just kidding Andy). The next day, we headed up to base camp at 4800 meters for a day of acclimitization and rescue practice. Awesome fun and a lot of work learning all the different techniques, especially since Spanish is not my first language. Nelson and I had a blast jumping off the edge of a hill and pulling one another along until we could arrest each other. That night we went to sleep early to get up at 2 AM and start hiking around 2:30AM for the summit. We needed to get up that early so that the ice and snow would be still very hard and not slush by the time we wanted to come back down to camp. Andy thought that we should reach the summit within four hours and descend within three hours, since we were all strong hikers and in decent shape. By the way, 4800 meters is the height of the tallest peak in France (Mont Blanc), which made Nelson crack up with laughter at the fact that we were camping at the same height. So, Andy and Nelson and I got up, started hiking up the glacier around 2:30 in the dark. The glacier at that hour is so sparse and bone chilling at times that it can be a bit hard to regulate your body temperature, especially as you heat up early and then cool down fast. We saw some crevasses as well as ice bridges that we had to cross. Pretty incredible and made me realize how wonderfully beautiful the world in which we live in is. So as we kept on hiking, I looked at my watch and realized we were way ahead of schedule. By the time we reached the summit, the ascent had only taken us 2.5 hrs and we were left up there before the sunrise! The sun eventually came up within 20 minutes of us being there, but man was it cold! I got some amazing pictures of the Cordillera Blancas from the summit as well as a feeling that I need to do this more in my life. For the descent, we bombed down and got back to camp by 7 AM, a total of only 4.5 hrs hiking! We made it back to our tents before some other mountaineers had awakened! We were then able to hike down to the main road and hitch a ride back with some of the other local mountain guides and their company thanks to Andy´s suave nature.
While we were up on the hill, Lilli and Amanda went to visit a local social center in Caraz, a Peruvian woman who owns a community education center, where she educates people from all over the world and gives seminars about the local community. She also makes her own cheese, yogurt, and butter, and gave Amanda and Lilli a tour of the place. They also took a trek to Laguna Anticocha, a glacial lake in the Cordeirra blancas. The trek was through some small villages, where women were tending to their sheep and taking naps in the hills. Quite the picture of life in the mountains of Northern Peru.
After our respective outings, all met up back in Huaraz and went out for drinks and dinner with some of our new buddies from Huaraz who work as mountain guides at the casa de guias.
2 days later, we were on our way again: Amanda, Lilli and I headed off to Hatun Machay, Quecwha for Rock Forest (Quecwcha is the native language of the region, before the Spainards came in). Not much information is on the Internet about the place but it is absolutely incredible. It definitely has more rock available than my local hangout Smith Rock and is still in its infancy of development, with tons of new routes going up consistently. We had to travel for about 2 hours to get out there but it is in an amazing setting with views of the Cordillera Blancas, Huayhuash and the Pacific Ocean on clear days! When we first got out there, we met a Spanish buddy Xavi, who went climbing with us at the warm up spot. I led a 2 5.9s and then a 5.10b. Xavi went to lead the 10b after me and one of the holds popped right before he got the first bolt so he went flying and hit the deck! I was a bit shaken up but Xavi, an experienced climber, walked it off and went right back to the route to send it. That night a few more folks arrived with the owner Andres and some Chuchuwasi, a local drink made of different types of local plants and fermented cane juice. It helped make the night a lot warmer, espeically since Hatun Machay is around 4200 meters in height (13500 ft.) so it gets pretty darn cold at night... and we were camping outside the refuge! The next day, we went to the Cueva (cave) for some fun routes. A gorgeous 10a called Putas Chicas was our first followed by me hang-dogging a 10c (pretty physical but I managed to finish the send). I also led a 10b chimney that had my heart racing a bit and top-roped an 11c that I think I could have gotten if I was in better shape. Xavi sent a 12b without a hitch and made me realize how much harder I am going to climb when I get back. We bid farwell to our Spanish friend, who was headed out of Hatun Machay for work, and warmed ourselves by the fire with friends that night.

Also while at Hatun Machay, Lilli and Amanda both climbed their first 5.10d´s...a huge accomplishment for both of them. The place was absolutely magical and beautiful, and between climbs, we enjoyed some hiking, sunsets, and soaking up the sun. Our nights were full of card games, hot food, guitar playing, and chatting in Spanish with other travelers who were staying at the refugio. Lilli also taught a yoga class (in attempted spanish) to some of the girls who were traveling to the refugio from Chile. All in all, we were psyched to have had the opportunity to spènd 4 days at this amazing, off the beaten track place.
We hiked down to the road on Saturday afternoon after our last morning of climbing, caught an overfilled taxi, and dragged ourselves back into Huaraz. We splurged on a nice hostel with hot showers and beds...(no more sleeping on Andy´s floor!) Tomorrow we are headed off to start the Santa Cruz trek, a 4 day trek through the Cordierra Blancas. We are psyched! More to come soon folks....

A Few Things About South America

2010-05-17T09:34:00.000-07:00

So I´ve realized that there are quite a few things that happen in South America on a daily basis that we have not discussed on the blog. We have written quite a bit about our journey but not much about the day-to-day interactions that take place here. I wanted to give everyone some insight as to what occurs when we walk out our front door:

-Taxis, Combis, Collectivos, Buses:
For this section I want to give it some space because it is a constant in our lives. By the way, combis and collectivos are usually Volkswagon vans that have been modified to fit upwards of 20 people in them (not necessarily safe but we will get to that). So if anyone has been to New York City, you know how the cabbies drive. If you think that is bad, you have no idea. I have almost been hit every day that I have been down here as well as thought our bus was going to go off a cliff. The combis and collectivos are pretty cheap means of travel but you also get crammed into them. Normally, there are four rows of seats for 3 people each (note: if you have long legs, you´re screwed). Yet, there have been instances where people are standing in the ¨aisles¨ between seats, hunched over as the combis whiz through the cities. Also, there is a driver and a yeller. The driver drives and the yeller screams different places the combi is going to attract passengers. And boy do they yell hard as well as move incredibly fast. Lil and I were on one combi where I thought this elderly woman was going to be tossed out on the street because she was not ¨sube, sube, sube¨ fast enough (it means get off). Also, the combis are on timecard schedules so at various points of the ride, the yeller will jump out (while the car is still going), run to the time card slot, and then run back (no more than a minute usually). That´s combis.
Taxis, o taxis. First, their driving is really bad and be prepared to get thrown around in the backseat. But the biggest thing that makes me laugh is the honking. There is a honk for everything. Literally. One version is to see if you need a ride. Another is get out of the way pedestrians because I´m going through. The next is get out of the way as I round this corner, both for cars and people. Yet another is honking at other taxis to move. (Segue: people don´t really yell here they just whistle. And whistle loud and well. For everything.) The world of honking down here could have its own anthropological study.
Buses. They are this country´s version of planes. Very nice with full reclining seats, televisions and bathrooms. You even get fingerprinted when you go on the bus line Linea; pretty serious stuff. The movies are almost always hardcore action films and some of them are bootlegged, meaning that at times the screen will cut to nothing or a green screen. As far as sleeping on overnight buses, not really as everyone is usually playing their music. (Note: people don´t have I-pods, they have cell phones with music on them. And no headphones so they play them out loud. We have seen kids walking around in groups, all with their music playing, all different songs.)

People. They people are amazing and I really enjoy spending time to talk with them. It is a bit difficult sometimes to generate a lot of conversation, not only because of the language barrier, but because their lives are so different from ours. The women in the markets are usually of the town we are visiting and its not like I can talk to them about climbing mountains or other books. It has been very hard for Lil at times because even the younger women are mostly concerned with family and fashion, while I have been able to meet some climbing guides or other South American male travelers. Really lets you know how different one world is from another and how, if you want to be able to connect with people, you often need to be of the same economic background.
So, other things about the people, is that they love to try their English. I have had kids come up to me and the interaction has gone-
-¨What time is it?¨ says kid in English.
-¨Son las tres¨ replies Dave.
-¨That means it is three o´clock. That is correct.¨ says kid.
-¨Yep.¨ replies Dave
-Kid proceeds to run away with a smile.
Some of the really young kids are so adorable as they will say ¨hello¨ and then run to their parents. I often try to make faces at them to interact and the parents have smiles on their faces to see our interaction. We have not had any negative interactions so far and feel very thankful for there is a lot of poverty. I have had to refuse street kids daily, who come to you begging. Sometimes, they smell of alcohol, which is a major coping mechanism used down here. And seeing elderly people in the markets, grabbing you for change. I have given some money away but it isn´t always possible. And the locals will often just ignore the person, which has got to be that much hard to not even have your existence acknowledged.

Food. So this is one of the biggest questions asked out there. ¨What do you eat? How does it taste? Do they really eat only that?¨ Here is some insight. There are usually plenty of nice restaurants to go to, definitely in the tourist locations with some gringo restaurants. Problem is that when you are traveling on a budget, you can´t always eat out at the nice places. Sure, once in a while, but every day and night will be breaking the bank. So, the best places to go are the local restaurants or the markets. No, not Stop and Shop supermarkets but huge warehouses with tons of tiny stalls where the people will sell their goods (ie, fruit, veggies, any type of meat, fish) as well as have some small restaurants upstairs for eating. The local restaurants are really nice but I don´t really want to talk too much about them. The real show is in the markets. Starting with the comedor (eating area), they have everything from jugerias (juice stalls) to lunch and dinner areas. Be prepared as you go in to be yelled at for your business. ¨Chico, venga, venga. Tenemos jugos, caldos, pollos...Que quieres?¨ (Come here. We have juices, soups, chicken...What do you want?). Lil and I have been in spots where we aren´t even able to think because so many people are beckoning us. Normally, we may go to the jugerias in the morning to get a fresh juice and maybe some pan (bread) or tamales (ground up corn that is cooked in a banana leave; normally has chicken in it as a surprise). But the real show is almuerzo. In addition to having regular menus, the different shops will have the ¨menu of the day¨. Very cheap and huge portions (makes Texas look small). Soup for the first course and then usually some type of chicken and rice concoction for seconds. And tons of different spicy sauces to use to mix things up a bit. I really like getting a soup because the regular lunches are way too big.
Ok, on to the vendors. Fruits and veggies are basic; you probably have a farmer´s market in your area or have been to one. Same deal. The real funny thing is the bucther area. I have seen goat heads, pig heads, live cuy (guinea pigs) that are about to be dunked into hot oil for lunch.... Not uncommon to see a man hauling a massive pig on his back; the pig is gutted and may even have a bit of blood still coming out. And you get the whole ¨Venga, venga, venga¨ again to see their goods. I love it because it is such a great cultural experience but anyone from PETA would cry. Yet, these animals probably led better lives than the cows we have on ranches in the States. And do they taste good! The meat is so much better down here; makes McDonald´s sound like a dumpster diving locale.
And that is it for now. Up next, Lil and I will take on a hike in the Parque Huarascan for a bit. My next post will include that adventure as well as discussions about Artesanias, the South American gypsies....

Huanchaco and around:)

2010-05-10T19:20:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Huanchaco about a week ago and haven´t been able to leave! Huanchaco is a little surfing town on the northern coast of Peru, about 20 minutes from the city of Trujillo, where people come from all over the world to surf, swim and enjoy the sunshine. We arrived in Trujillo from Chiclayo in mid afternoon and when we got off our bus, we met another couple who were also heading towards Huanchaco and asked if we´d like to share a cab. The man was from Chile and the woman was from France, and they spoke only a few words of English. We decided to share a room with them at a cheap hostel, and hang out for a few days. It was definately a challenge, as we were trying to get to know them and have good conversations, but our Spanish is not at the point yet where we can discuss anything in real depth. By the end of the 3 days we spent with them, however, we had picked up some more vocab words and had managed to have a few conversations about our work, our respective countries, and a few other topics. We found a really funky bar in town with them as well, which turned out to be our hang out of choice for the next few days.

We have found that Huanchaco is an extremely laid back town, with many fun little coffee shops, restaurants, and wonderful people who seem to have all the time in the world and often stop along the beach just to strike up a conversation with you. While playing guitar on the beach, an older man sat down beside me to listen and proceeded to tell me his whole life story about how he came to live in Huanchaco. The locals call him abuello (grandfather) and after making his aquaintence, we had the pleasure of meeting many other locals who were walking the beach and stopped to say hi to Abuello. While Dave was out surfing, a little girl playing in the sand demanded that I help her make a sandcastle, and then took it upon herself to teach me the word for sand (arena) and castle (castillo). She wouldn´t stop until I pronounced the words exactly right. While walking back from the market, Dave was stopped by a man who invited him to have a beer with him because it was his birthday. Thus is the life here....no doubt we will meet some more wonderful smiling people this afternoon when we set up on the beach for our last day in Huanchaco.

We also checked out another archiological site nearby, the Huaca del sol and the Huuaca del Luna. The Temple of the moon was a religious site used by the Moche people and the Temple of the Sun was used by their political leaders. The site was facinating and we had a very enthusiastic, guide. The visit was all in Spanish, but we understood most of the explanations and were prety psyched to get an opportunity to see this amazingy perserved, beautiful site.

In conclusion, this week has been spent pretty much sunbathing, renting surfboards, running on the beach, and meeting too many people to count. I can say that we are both thouroughly relaxed and content. We even stayed at a hostel where we could use the kitchen, so we spent the past few nights in, cooking nice dinners and enjoying the luxury of being able to cook our own food with fresh produce from the market. Tonight we will board an overnight bus (grrr....not my favorite but there was no other option) to Huaraz, a popular tourist destination in the Cordierra Blancas, where the high season has just begun! We will be doing some trekking, climbing, and playing in the mountains.

Hope all is well with those who are following us!
Much love,
Robin:)

main square in trujillo

trujillo has some pretty amazing churches

engravings and paintings on the walls of the huaca del luna

the huaca del sol

Some sunset pictures:

surfer dave

local fisherman and his wife examining the days catch (cangrejo!)

ahhh bliss....

Lilli eating marycuya...one of the excellent tropical fruits you can buy for less than a dollar!

Us on the beach, enjoying the sunshine

Beach gymnastics

Ana, Regu and Dave walking the beach our first evening in Huanchaco

boats that the local fishermen use...made out of reeds!

..and onward towards the coast!

2010-05-05T09:49:00.000-07:00

Right now I am sitting at an internet cafe in Chiclayo, on the coast of northern Peru. Dave and I have been here for a few days, taking in the big modern city, and going to the Museo Tumbas Reales de Sipan, one of the most amazing museums I have ever been to! This museum was erected to house the artifacts uncovered from one of the biggest and most complete archaelogical finds in history, the tomb of Sipan, the leader of the Mochica people who lived on the coast of northern Peru over 2000 years ago. The museum is shaped like a pyramid, and there are 3 levels...you start on the top level. Each level of the museum takes you deeper into the archaelogical excavation, it was created to make one feel as though they are an archaelogist, systematically uncovering the different layers of the tomb. The articfacts inside the museum were amazingly well preserved, and we saw thousands of artifacts in gold and silver, tons of expertly made pottery, and the bones of the great leader himself. This museum is rated to be one of the best museums in the world, and we agree! All of the exhibits were in Spanish, so we spent a good deal of time deciphering the text and writing down new vocab words in a notebook we brought with us.
Chiclayo also has a huge market, which was amazing to walk through. I really enjoy going to markets because everything is so fast paced and busy, its very entertaining to stop in your tracks and just watch the hundreds of things going on around you. There is inevatably someone carrying a large bin of freshly killed chickens and shouting ¨Permiso!¨while he meanders quickly through the crowd. There are people chopping fish, bartering over vegetables and hundreds of people just sitting quiety or sleeping at their stalls, selling everything from plastic dolls, to T-shirts to pornographic magazines to hammers and super glue. While all this is happening, there are about 20 people, shouting at you in spanish, waving at you to come to their food stall and try their fruit drinks, cerviche, or, in this specific case, a kid goat stew which is a specialty in Chiclayo.

Before we came to Chiclayo, we spent a few days in Cajamarca, another city about 7 hours northwest of where we are now. It is a gorgeous colonial city and we spent a few days seeing the sites with our Dutch friend Merluse, who we decided to join forces with after we parted ways with Emil. Our first day in town we went on another long hike through the countryside to get to some more ancient ruins. They were pretty hard to find, and we had to ask several farmers along the way for directions. Sometimes its difficult to trust their directions, however; we´ve discovered a trend in south america that people will give you directions even if they have to make them up. Apparently it is rude to say ¨no se¨(I don´t know), so they often tell us to take a right or a left, with no idea whatsoever about the correct directions. In this case, we actually got good directions and we stumbled upon a beautiful fortress where we explored, took some pictures and had a lunch of fresh Papaya and banannas.
We also took a very touristy tour to Porcon, a community about 35K outside of Cajamarca where a self-suffient evangelical Christian community lives. They have opened their community to visitors to show how they make their cheese and textiles from scratch and to take them on tours around the property. The tour turned out to be a walk around their zoo (we didn´t know they had a zoo)in the pouring rain, and the opportunity to buy some cheese if you want. We were a bit disapointed, but met a french and peruvian couple along the way who decided to ditch the tour with us and have tea. We talked in mixed Spanish, French and English and had a great discussion, until our tour guide found us and told us it was time to go. He wasn´t too happy about us disappearing from the tour because he had to come look for us, and then wait to finish our tea. Ooops.

Well, thats all for now folks, I must get back to check on Dave, who is currently napping in our hostel room after another bad bout of the stomach flu. It keeps sneaking up on us when we least expect it! Tomorrow, if he´s feeling better, we are headed to Huanchaco, a little surfing town on the coast where we will hopefully rent some boards and mess around in the sun and waves for a week or so.

Before I go, a few fun facts about day-today life in Peru:
-A lot of cities use ¨combis¨ a sort of van sized taxi, for cheap transportation. It is one guy´s job to drive and anothers sit next to the sliding door with his head hanging out the window yelling to passsers by the name of the location where the combi is headed. When someone flags the combi down, they slide open the door and the new passenger jumps in, usually while the van is still moving, and squishes (even if there is no sitting room) with the other passengers inside. Riding in one feels like being in an action movie.
-A lot of the time, when Dave and I are walking down the street, people will yell from 30 yards away ¨Hello! How are you!¨in thicky accented English. Over 3 children have come up to us to ask us the time (both in english and spanish), and when we give them a response in spanish, they will say the time in English, giggle, and run away. It seems as though people (especially the younger people) are really excited to practice their english. It can be embarrassing sometimes though, for example, when you walk by a crowd of 50 people who are watching a street performer and the street performer yells out ¨Hello! Welcome to Peru!¨and everyone turns and looks at you. (this actually happened) I´m convinced that I don´t stand out that much, but I guess the fact that Dave is 6 feet tall, blonde, and light skinned doesn´t help in our efforts to blend in.
-There is a talking parrot at our hostel who just says ¨hola¨ all day long and laughs at you when you walk past him. I don´t know why I find this so amusing, but I do.
-Shameless self promotion: My spanish is getting a lot better. I´m proud of myself.

stay in touch you all, and thanks for reading!
-the robin:)

The Museo Tumbas Reales de Sipan, rated one of the best in the world. This is the outside of the museum, we were not allowed to take our cameras inside!

A street vendor we met in Chiclayo, he sells beautiful silver and iron jewlery and little figurines that he makes out of twisted copper and iron.

Some pictures of the HUGE market in Chiclayo

Chiclayo is crazy with traffic and lots of street vendors!

Spontanious nightime parade in Cajamarca

woman with an alpaca in porcon

Crafts we saw on our tour of Porcon

there were also lots of animals in the zoo at porcon It was pretty terrible to watch them in their cages. This is the one picture we took, of the cock of the rock, a well known variety of amazonian bird. There were also bears and monkeys and lions, but no pictures of those. They looked too sad.

overlooking cajamarca

stretching at a bus stop. Merluse looking on.

we discovered more ruins!

...and onward to Peru!

2010-04-27T15:09:00.000-07:00

So last time we had left off, we were working on a farm in Vilcabamba,
drinking tons of smoothies and devouring novels left and right. After
having been mostly around town for two weeks, we parted ways with Emil
and decided to go on an overnight trip to the Podocarpus National Park, located just west of Vilcabamba. The park stretches several hundred miles and goes from
rainforest up to high desert paramo. The night before the hike we
stayed at Cabanas Rio Yambla, a nice hostel outside of the main
city and owned by Charlie (don´t know his last name), who had moved
down here way back in the 70s. We had a lifely discussion about world
politics before going to bed in our cute little cabin on the hillside
overlooking Vilcabamba valley.
The next day we hiked out to a refuge located in the park. And what a
hike it was! Up and down valleys, through rivers, plunging into
bushes to pave the way...a real adventure at that. When we finally
arrived at our campsite, we were pretty exhausted but it was well
worth the effort with high crags behind us and a wonderful view of the
valley in front. We had to get some water, which just turned into an
excuse for us to descent into a ravine and swim in freezing cold
water. The night consisted of going to sleep early and waking up at 3
AM to see thousands of stars painting the sky. So much twinkling and
sparkling...really let you know how small you are. The hike out was
very easy, with tons of sun and plenty of cows guiding us along their
trails back to Charlie´s Cabanas. By the way, cows are everywhere in
the countryside of Ecuador, as many people farm right up to the next
boundary. So all the trails are left with wonderful, big bombs to
watch with your boots.

The next day we bought food and other supplies we would need for our journey over the boarder into Peru. We said goodbye to Nori and Richard and got up early the next morning to catch the first of many rides (the first leg was by bus) towards the border of Peru. The first bus was to Zumba, a small town about 2 hours from the Peruvian boarder. The bus took about 7 hours, 2 hours longer than we were told, because of road construction and the fact that many of the roads had been washed out from heavy rains in the pervious weeks. It was a twisty, turny, scary ride with parts of the ride where you could look over the edge of the road (with no guardrail) into gorges that were over 100 feet deep. When we finally got to Zumba, we boarded another ¨bus¨ which, was actually an open sided truck that took us to the boarder. This was a bumpy, butt bruising ride, but it was through the cloud forest of souther ecuador, and absolutely spectacular. The boarder crossing we chose was super remote and very safe...we cleared the boarder in less than 20 minutes and then man who checked our passports granted us a 120 day visa soley because we asked politely and he saw that Lilli´s birthday was in 2 days!

The next 24 hours is kind of a blur, but it involved taking a mototaxi (a motorcycle attached to a carrige that you ride in) to the nearest Peruvian boarder town. Hopping in a ¨taxi¨, a basic car with as many people as can be crammed inside (in our case, 8, including the driver) and a woman´s entire kitchen (pots, pans, stove, etc) strapped on the roof. We stayed a night in San Ignasio, and started early again the next day, taking a total of 4 more taxis to Chacapoyas. During these taxi rides, we got a little feel for just how different Peru is from Ecuador. First of all, the roads are alot worse. Second of all, the drivers are a lot more crazy
( one driver took his hands off the wheel while driving around 60 miles per hour on a rutted dirt road and asked dave if he wanted to drive as a joke) and 3rd, we´ve found, thus far, that the people are a lot more friendly. We talked with many people during the long taxi rides to Chacapoyas, all of whom were eager to help us with our spanish and who wanted to hear all about our jobs and where we live in the US. Upon getting to the next station (where we had to change cars) others were eager to help us carry our bags to our next taxi and talk with us about where we were headed and what fun things we could do when we got there.

After about 2 days of total travel time,we finally arrived in Chachapoyas.
Chachapoyas is a wonderful city located in Northern Peru and known for
the wealth of archeological sites located nearby. While the
Chachapoyans stole the name for the city, tons of other Pre-Incan
cultures existed in the area as well, which can be seen from towns
located in steep cliffs, sarcofogi appearing out of nowhere on a
mountain, and tons of other newly discovered towns.
Lil and I were really stoked to be able to get our archelogical fix on
as well as possibly meet up with our friend Emil, who had headed down
a few days earlier. We didn´t know if he was still in Chacha (as the
locals call it) but we had sent some messages to check. Of course, we
run into him before even checking our emails. Small World! We
decided to stay in the same hostal as he and his new friend Marloes of
Holland, who he had met on his way into Peru. The first night was
just hanging out in town and getting reacquainted.
Day two in Chacha was Lil´s birthday (yeah 25!) so we knew we had to
make it something special. We started the day of with coffee (they
only serve instant coffee here....literally, they give you a packet of
instant with hot water) and then Lil and I went to a tiny museum
consisting of some of the artifacts from the area. We had our Spanish
tested with all the different sites and one of the workers there was
nice enough to help us with our attempts as well as explain a bit
about the artifacts. We saw a few mummies as well, which was super
interesting to see how they preserved their antiguas (ancients) in
textiles wrapped around their bodies. We also tried going for a bit
of a run but realized we were a bit out of shape as well as terrified
of the dogs around here. (Sidenote: there are tons of dogs in South
America that just roam the streets. They sometimes give chase but are
so used to being poorly treated from people, that if you raise your
hand, they run. The really bad dogs are ones owned by people who,
apparently, don´t realize how scary it is to be running and then have
a dog chase you).
That night we all went out to a great vegetarian dinner at a local
restaurant and then split a pitcher of Pisco Sours (soooo goood) at a
bar. We were contemplating of going to a discotecqua but decided that
listening to Rumba and Reggaeton was not our cup of tea.
After having been in Chacha for a few days, we decided to head off to
see one of the ruins in the area. Kuelap is a fortress located just
outside of the town of Tingo. The fortress was originally thought to
be a place of military planning and storage for arms but, after a bit
more discovery, was actually to be revealed to be a place of religious
worship. Shamans´ tools and mummies have been found scattered all
over the area. (The dead were actually buried inside of the different
homes of the villagers, a way for them to still be connected to their
ancestors after they left this world).
In order to get to Kuelap, we took a bus to Tingo and then commenced
to hike 9km (around 6.5 miles) up to the site on the following day. The hike was
amazing, contouring up a valley to the top of a 3000m hill with a 360
degree overlook. Walking around and into the town was absolutely
incredible, feeling the energy of the place. Over 15 million tons of
rock were used to construct the site, well over the amount used to
build the Great Pyramid in Egypt. Amazing to think that the site was
constructed over a period of a 1000 years. We were all spell bound by
the site and what these people had accomplished so long ago. (check
out more info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuelap)
Now, when we returned to the town, we were supposed to have a
traditional dinner with a local family but that fell through. I´ll
explain.
The day we arrived in Tingo, we went walking around to get our
bearings. We were told about this type of drink called guarapo, a
fermented type of cane juice, that the locals consumed. We went to
find some and along the way ran into a woman who told us to follow her
into her yard. Once inside, we saw two massive vats filled with cane
juice and tons of people drinking that as well as the guarapo. The
family offered us both types of drink as well as joked with us. Now,
here is where the offer comes: one of the men there asked if we had
cuy, the traditional meat of the area. (Cuy is guinea pig; no, not
like the ones in the States. More like a small pig). We hadn´t so he
told us his cousin would prepare us a traditional meal upon our return
from Kuelap. We were overjoyed and decided we would bring guacamole
so that we would have a sort of potluck.
Unfortunately, when we went to their house, no cuy and no dinner. We
walked around town for about an hour, asking for Mariebella and got 3
different answers before giving up. So we went back to the hostel for
rice and beans and our farewell (for sure this time) to Emil, as he
was rushing down to Huaraz.
Currently, Lil, Marloes and I are in the town of Leymebamba and are
going to visit another archeological site called La Congona tomorrow.
I kind of feel like those scientists from Jurrasic Park when we going
hiking to the different sites; finding new discoveries. Til next
time, CHAO!!!
...the hopper

Pictures from Kuelap below!

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an alpaca who was hanging out at the ruins

the hike back to Tingo after Kuelap

Lilli with some of the kids at the family party in Tingo...they were very excited about our cameras and asked us to keep taking pictures!

Emil and Dave with the family we met in Tingo, where we were invited to try their jugo de cana and guarapo

overlooking Tingo

overlooking chachapoyas at dusk

look where we are!

celebration during the hike

The view from our campsite next to podacarpus national park

just so you can get an idea how big the leaves are down here...

vilcabamba continued....

2010-04-18T08:52:00.000-07:00

Soooo as our journey continues, we worked at Cafe Cosmos for the weekend, cleaning dishes, preparing meals, and soaking in some of the great vibes in this town. Nalassa is a really great chef and no matter what we were doing, we were surrounded by wonderful aromoas of stir fries, chais, and other scents.
After the weekend, we headed off to Nori and Richard´s farm/ ecovillage/ healing center. Both of them have pretty incredible histories from riding bikes across the USA to studying modern dance and calligraphy in college to speaking with Russian Diplomats about the future of the world. Emil, Lil and I headed out there with high hopes of learning as much as we could from these two wizened souls as well as getting our hands dirty working in their garden. We put in about 4-5 hours everyday, mostly weeding in the garden (as there were tons and tons of plants to ripe out of the ground), and leaving the afternoon open for yoga, reading and exploration of their property. They are in the process of creating a new village bent upon getting rid of the old system that is no longer working in the US and having a more conscious approach to living with the environment and improving our world. Nori has written several books on the topic as well as has a website under the heading of the Best Game on Earth (check it out...really interesting stuff there). Currently, they have one house, a spa room, a healing center and a large restaurant with three rooms above for visitors. We stayed in two of the rooms above the restuarant, which also goes by the name Cafe Cosmos. Wood worked ceilings, brick walls and comfy beds (camas)were the highlights, as well as a blender that Richard and Nori let us borrow to make smooties from the vegiies and fruits we picked from the garden!.

(Lilli is writing now)... I just wrote a really awesome entry and this computer just deleted it all....so I´m a bit frustrated right now and will try and recreate it, but it may be a bit abbreviated:(

We spent the first half of the week working in the fields with Nori and Richard and our evenings cooking dinner with them and sharing stories. Nori and Richard are in their mid 60s and have many interesting stories to tell. We talked about the importance of befriending people from different generations and our opinions and ideas concerning the current state of our world and our environmental future.

Richard and Nori left mid week to go back into Vilcabamba to work at their cafe in town and we continued to work 5 hours a day on some projects that had left us with. We spent the afternoons making smoothies, relaxing by the river and hiding from the sandflies (really obnoxious little bugs that bite you and itch for days!)

When Nori and Richard arrived back at the farm on Saturday, they brought back their friend who has been working with medicinal plants for his whole life and has learned the secrets of medicinal plants that have passed down from genereation to generation in his family. Hi is helping Nori to plant a medicinal garden and will lead tours for tourists to teach them about the art of medicinal plants once the garden is finished. He told us a story about the only time in his life that he has been to the doctor and how the doctor told him that he would need to have an opperation for an enlarged prostate. He ignored the doctors advice, made a cocktail of medicinal plants from his garden and had cured his ailment in less than a month. He is now 77 years old. Truly amazing!

Speaking of older people, we met an older man at a bustop in Vilcabamba who approached the busstop carring a 40 pound sack of oranges. We got to talking and he told us about his life as a farmer, family man and land owner. When we aked his age, he smiled and told us that he was 81, although he looked to be no older than 65. He attributes his health to eating a simple, healthy diet, being active in the fields most of his life and living in the valley of longevity; vilcabamba. We have been in awe of the vitality and lifestyles of the people here. What an amazing place to live!

Other quick stories of note:
While staying at the house on the hill cleaning the kitchen, I moved a dishtowel and a tarantula popped out and landed on my butt. This was quite a scene. Then, 5 days later, at the farm, I went to put my shoe on and about half way into putting my foot inside, I felt something furry and crawly. I pulled my shoe off and threw it across the porch while screaming. Another furry friend emerged. Dave and Emil think this is hilarious. I do not. See our pictures of our furry friend below.

Also, as a farewell to Emil, yesterday, the 3 of us decided to hike Mandango, a beautiful rock formation in Vilcabamba. The hike was one of the most beautiful I have ever been on, with sweeping views of the entire valley below, green hillsides and bird sightings along the way. Pictures below as well!

Alright folks, I have been retyping this entry for what seems for forever now, so I am going to go. Dave and I are off to Podacarpus national park tonight (also in Vilcabamba) and will stay until Thursday, when we will jump a bus for the Peruvian boarder. We hope to arrive in Peru in time for my birthday on Saturday!!!

Hope all is well with our friends back home. We love and miss you all!
Many hugs and hasta luego!
- Robin:)

some pictures from our hike ouside the rumi eco lodge:

some pictures of the wonderful food made at cafe cosmos...where we volunteered (in exchange for delicious food) over the weekend:

pictures from the garden of paradise:

Our guest house at the farm...pretty nice huh?

one of the projects we worked on...building creative rock gardens for planting medicinal herbs

mmmm radishes

taking a midday swim after work

Dave with the second tarantula that has tried to attack Lilli in the past week (notice the short new haircut!)

gorgeous wildflowers

the view from our porch on the farm

Dave, Nori and Emil overlooking the valley

whoa! look at all these veggies we picked from the garden!

emil and dave weeding the garden

Some pictures from our hike of Mandango...our last day with Emil!

spontanious yoga on mountaintops:)

Dave in the pose of victory

Lilli in the pose of victory

aww, we´re so cute (disclaimer: this picture has no religious significance, all of the tops of mountains have crosses on them down here!)

Banos and south to Vilcabamba

2010-04-08T09:30:00.000-07:00

Hello all!
Last time we wrote we were in Latacunga, frowning about our failed mission to circumnavigate Cotapaxi. Things have much improved since then! After Latacunga, Dave, Emil and I headed south to Banos, a touristy town well known for their hotsprings and beautiful hikes. As we were packing up our things to get ready to catch our bus, we happened to open our guidebook and read that Banos is extremely crowded on weekends and during holy week (la santa semana). The weekend that we were planning to go was the weekend of holy week, but we thought we´d go for it anyway and called a hostel in advance just in case. Banos turned out to be absolute chaos! During holy week, banos turns into a huge ecuadorian destination spot, and people from all over the country come for easter to enjoy the hotsprings, relax, and view the statue of the virgin, one of the most well known in ecuador.
We decided the town was too crazy to hang out in all day and we rented bikes with Robin and Brett, two fellow Americans we met at our hostel, and rode a well traveled bike path in the direction of Puyo, stopping to take pictures and go swimming in a waterfalls along the way. It started raining heavily about halfway to Puyo (which was a 60 km bike ride), So we stopped in Rio negro, had lunch, and caught a bus back (getting our bikes underneath the bus was quite an endevor).
We also spent some time with some wonderful people from the farm who were taking a well deserved break in Banos from work. We were happy to catch Andrea (from Austria) and Pablo (from Argentina) playing music in the square. They had played for us at the farm, but this was the first time we saw how big of a crowd they can draw in to listen! Andrea plays the hong, a beautiful hand drum made in Switzerland, and she and Pablo have been traveling and playing music all over the world for over a year. We spent our last evening in Banos on the rooftop of our hostel playing music, cards, and cooking a huge meal for the 10 of us.
The next day Dave and I left for Vilcabamba, a little town on the southern tip of Ecuador that we heard we just couldn´t miss. Vilcabamba was the subject of many studies in the 60s, because it was found that a good number of people who are born and raised here live well past 100 years old. The studies concluded that the farming culture, climate, and clean air and water contributes to a particular vitality of the people here. Since the 60s, gringos have flocked to the area, setting up intentional communities, meditation centers, and organic farms. The trip turned out to be quite an ordeal, involving 5 different buses and a late night arrival in Cuenca, but we made it to Vilcabamba by mid afternoon on Monday. (Emil stayed an extra night in Banos, but promised to come down to Vilcabamba the next day)
When we arrived in Vilcabamba,Dave and I decided to splurge on a nice hostel with the nicest beds EVER and a hot shower with water pressure! Ahhh the luxury! Then, crazy things started to align for us. First, we ran into Nalasa, a 24 year old from Massachusetts who we had tried to contact via couchsurfing the week previous and had not heard back. Upon meeting us, she offered to host us for a few nights, and then remembered that her friend was out of town and that maybe we could stay at his house. She called her friend, and he was fine with this arrangement, and so we hiked out a mile from town to a little cabana on a hillside that overlooks all of Vilcabamba to stay the night. Nalasa just let us know today that her friend will not be back till this weekend, and if we help a bit around her cafe and cover his shifts,(she owns an organic cafe in town) we could stay a few more days! Not only did this wonderful blessing come our way, but Nalasa co-owns her cafe with a couple from the states who are in the process of constructing an intentional artisan and farming community about 5 miles from town. While having lunch at the cafe, we got to know them and it became quickly obvious that we clicked very well with them. They offered to have us up to their farm this weekend, and if we like what we see, they would like us to help them put together a volunteer program, as they have been looking to start one up, but have not yet found the right people to help. We are meeting up them today to discuss the conditions of some possible volunteer work! You can check out their website at gardenofparadise.net
It´s looking like we might be in this town a while. There are also lots of opportunities for hiking and volunteering with the local kids afterschool program, which we are very interested in. So, in short, aside from the sandflies, we find ourselves in paradise.
Be well all and we shall update again soon!

-Lilli:)

ready to ride!

waterfall!

dave and I, taking a break from the ride

views from the ride

intense riders

swimming in waterfalls, a good break from the bike ride

Andrea and Pablo making sweet music

Dave with Nalasa´s kitty:)

the sleeping loft, glad I brought my bug net

kitchen view of the cabana

The view from our cabana, drinking tea and burning pablo santo (local amzing incense!)

San Pedro and Failed Cotopatxi Attempt

2010-04-01T11:25:00.000-07:00

So that last time ya´ll read about us, we were working on the Comuna de Rhianon farm, located on the edge of the world in Malchingui, Ecuador. We had been working on the farm for nearly two weeks when we started preparing for ¨the San Pedro¨ceremony. Lilli and I didn´t know what exactly it was going to be like or what we were preparing for. And then all was explained by our good friend Emil, also an Oregonian. San Pedro is a medicinal herb that comes from the cactus of the same name. It can be taken as a tea or ingested as an herb. It has been used for centuries in South American communities as a way to gain insight into one´s life, pray for help, and general path finding use. To set up for the ceremony, we would be decorating the yoga room and taking some more time to ourselves in order to mentally, physically and emotionally prepare for the event. Lilli and I were initially skeptical that the night would be just a bunch of people wanting to ¨take a trip¨ but one of the owners of the farm, Nikki, explained that the night consisted of a led ceremony with the shaman being very careful to make sure that every person received the right amount of tea. She also explained how insightful the entire experience can be and how she has gained quite a bit of insight through her experience.
Lil and I said we would join the night. The night before the San Pedro ceremony, we all took part in a sweat lodge in order to cleanse our bodies. A sweat lodge is not a spa as some people think. Although you are sitting in a room with very hot rocks and sweating a lot, you are in there in order to rid your bodies of all the toxins lodged in there over the days. I didn´t realize how taxing it was going to be until I had been sitting in the room for over 45 minutes and started to feel quite light-headed. Also, during the sweat, each person said something they were thankful for, something they wished healing for, and some dream they wished to come true. It was quite a memorable experience, hearing all the wishes of others as well as hearing my own voice echo the desires of my heart. After being in the sweat for an hour and a half, I emerged feeling like a wet rag, rinsed and rung out to absorb the good energy of the world and my current location on the farm.

Pedro and Juan Diego prepare the coals for temazcal

As you can imagine, the next day everyone on the farm was anticipating the evening´s proceedings. Many people fasted for most of the day; I only fasted from lunch on as was recommended by Nikki.

the yoga room, prepped for the ceremony

The Shaman arrived around 8 o clock at night and we anxious awaited the start of the ceremony. The ceremony started at around 10;45, and began with us all sharing our intentions for participating in the ceremony. My intention was to practice patience and respect for others, and Lilli´s was to gain more confidence and strength while traveling in an unknown place. After sharing our intentions, the shaman passed around the sacred tobacco, which he had rolled in a cornhusk and blessed. Afterwards, we all took our share of tea and passed the evening listening the the Shaman´s music, watching the fire in the center of the room and chanting, which was intersperced with small ¨sermons¨ which were translated into english for us by the Shaman´s American interpreter. At about 2:00 in the morning, the Shaman preformed a cleansing on Pablo, one of the members of the farm, who is from Argentina. Although the cleansing was performed soley on Pablo, it was meant to benefit all of us. The Shaman touched certain points on Pablo´s body while chanting and moving rhytmically with the chanting. Pablo then stood before us and the fire and called his name. It´s hard to explain what happened next, as Pablo started to shake and fell against a wall, he had expended so much energy that he was suddenly shivering and cold and crying out for the Shaman to help him. The Shaman was able to calm him and bring him back to the room within minutes, but we were all shaken at the power of the medicine and of the Shaman.
Soon after the Shaman came around the room and blessed each one of us, which resulted in many smiles, and some tears of joy. We all continued on the journey with the Shaman until the sun rose and we watched a beautiful sunrise out the window of the yoga room. The ceremony ended with a beautiful water ceremony, which took over 2 hours and consisted of the Shaman and his assistants discussing the importance of water and sharing water with all of us (we were not able to drink during the ceremony). The next day was spent recovering, spending time with other members of the farm, and falling asleep in the yoga room; we all dragged in the matresses and had big giant sleepover! The last day at the farm began with a huge breakfast and ended with pictures, goodbye hugs, and a long truck ride to Quito, where we caught our bus to Latacunga, the starting point of our hike.

The yoga room, prepped for our sleepover!

Olivia and I in the yoga room, post ceremony

our rhiannon community family, big family photo before departure!

After arriving in Latacunga, we got ready for the Cotopatxi hike. First, we needed to get fuel for our camping stove. To let you all know, white gas is a white lie in this country. It does not exist. And diesel fuel sucks to try to burn with. I had to get unleaded auto fuel after a full day of running around like a chicken with my head cut off asking untold numbers of people. So Lil, Emil and I were ready for our hike. We had our IGM maps, the ¨trail¨ guide, two compasses and all the food we could handle. Our first day started in the small hamlet of Pansaleo, located under the shadow of Rumiñahui, a mountain with three peaks above 14,000 ft. We had about 4000 feet of elevation gain to complete over the next 2 days so we started early in the day in order to get a good start.

Dave and Emil, on the truck ride to the trailhead!

We charged the vehicular track and made quite a bit of headway by lunch. Clouds had settled in but only a sprinkle of rain was falling upon us. And then, the directions and trail started going very awry. We came down to a stream and thought we needed to cross but realized that we actually needed to be on the true left of it climbing this hill (by the way, anything that says true left or true right is very unhelpful in my personal esteem; writers could just as easily use landmarks). After crossing the stream again, we went back up to the cattle fencing, tossed our packs, and continued the march. We had to climb a tussock slope in order to gain the trail at the top of the ridge. As we were hiking up the hill to the trail, rain descended upon us. And not just light sprinkles but buckets. We quickly buckled down under Emil´s tarp. And we were there for 1 hour, holding on tight through high winds, heavy rains, thunder, some lightning and the pressing realization that we would not be getting to the final camp site tonight. After waiting for that long, we just ran for it, slipping and sliding up the hill until we got onto the trail and started making out way to the second, closer camp site listed on the map. But there was snow in the distance! The mountains were making monkeys out of us. We spied a copse of trees to our right and booked for some cover and to make shelter for the night. Tromping through brush and shrubs, we got down to some trees, threw up the tent and all cuddled in for the night. We were soaked and needed to get dry fast so we all huddled close for warmth. (Quote of the night: ¨we´re just trying to survive!¨-Emil) Now, I might be a bit over exaggerating here but trying to get dry and warm without a fire sucks. Lil, Emil and I had been through worse at our jobs, but it was still pretty miserable. (Emil works for Youth Corp, building trails during any season). We made a pot of hot soup, prayed for a clear morning, and fell asleep at 13,000 feet.

The only fire we managed to have on Tuesday night:(

The next day, the clouds parted and we saw Rumiñahui for the first time. Beautiful and magestic, we knew we had to continue for at least another day. (The night before we had discussed the possibility of returning to the trailhead if it continued to pour the next day) After packing up, we found the trail and booked for the next camp site in the promise of water. Lil used her Steri-Pen in order to sterilize the water while Emil and I built a fire to warm up. The wood was wet so we were only able to build small one to get a bit dried out before moving on. The day was great at this point with even some hints of sunshine. And then the fog moved in. This fog was so thick at points that I couldn´t see 10 feet in front of me! And trying to navigate through that is really hard. We pressed on, with a definite trail in front of us, all feeling like real hardcore adventurers. And then the trail disappeared and we were wrapped in fog for a while. Upon a bit of clearing we realized we were near that valley we wanted to be at. We descended down, feeling light and free that we had made it to at least here. This is when things started to go downhill. (Lilli is writing now so the rest of this blog is from her point of view)

There was a river in front of us that our directions indicated we be to the true right¨ of, while also walking on the west bank. These two directions were conflicting, so we crossed back and forth a few times, and decided on the side of the river that had a visable trail. After hiking for 45 minutes, we realized that this trail was actually a cattle trail, which disappeared over the top of the ridge line. From this vantage point, we could see a clear trail on the other side of the river. The fog was getting thicker and we decided that we would make our own trail and follow the ridgeline down to the lake we could see in the distance, which was our ultimate destination for our campsite. Hiking the 2 miles down the ridgeline took over 3 hours, and included bushwacking huge bushes and grasses up to our heads in the pouring rain and fog, becoming disoriented, constantly needing to catch our breath (still at 13,000 feet) and falling over several times. The fog cleared for a few minutes and we saw that there was a road in the distance with an occassional truck passing by. We decided to head towards the road since the fog had swallowed up the lake and we figured that the road probably headed towards the lake.
Finally, finally, we were about 50 feet from the road. We charged full steam ahead, only to discover that the river had snaked back around and getting to the road meant taking a running leap over this rushing river. Awesome. Emil and I leapt across (I leapt 2nd and knocked Emil over, who was waiting to catch me on the other side) and then Dave threw our packs across (these also knocked Emil over). Finally, we reached the road, ate lunch in the rain and started hiking towards, what we thought was, the lake. We flagged down a car about 40 minutes later to see how far we were from the lake, and they told us that the lake was one hour in the opposite direction! We were only 20 minutes from it in the first place! We turned around, again, and started hiking. A truck pulled up about 20 minutes later and asked if we wanted a ride out of the park, to the panamerican highway. We made a spontanious decision to accept and abandon our mission. We were cold, wet, lost, and miserable, and we decided that going back to our hostel and sleeping in warm dry sheets, would be much more enjoyable than climbing in my wet tent and shivering. We accepted the ride, hailed a bus from the highway, hightailed it back to Latacunga, went back to our hostel where all our dry clothes were stored and waiting for us, showered, ate wayyy too much fast food, and collapsed in our beds. Cotapaxi definately won this battle. We all agreed that bailing out on the hike we´d been planning for over 2 weeks felt pretty crappy, but we´d rather feel crappy about it than end up hypothermic and dead in Ecaudor.

The few pictures we managed to take of our hike between hiding from lightning storms drowning in torrential downpours, and being lost in disorienting fog.

Wow, this has been a long post. It´s time to go! We are off to Banos tomorrow, where we will bathe in hotsprings, relax, and do some hiking (with real trails this time). Until next time!

Life at the Rhiannon community

2010-03-25T13:51:00.000-07:00

Hello all!
I am currently writing from a small interenet cafe in the town of Malchingui, Ecaudor. Malchingui is located about 15 minutes by cab from our farm, and myself and about 5 other volunteers called a cab today so that we could all use the internet and to buy some odds and ends. We arrived at the farm on March 15th, and have been meeting tons of wonderful people and enjoying ourselves thoroughly. Here at the farm there are 3 people from Oregon (2 from portland and one from corvallis) and some girls from maine and new mexico. Other volunteers are from all over the globe; Chile, Columbia, Australia, Germany, England, Canada and Austria to name a few. It is a wonderful mix of people, the only downside is that almost everyone at the farm speaks english, so this is generally the language of choice for communication. My Spanish is falling by the wayside, but hopefully it will get back on track when we hit the road again in a few days.

A typical day on the farm looks like this: At 7 am there is a community yoga class (several of which I have been teaching!) and then we have breakfast at 8:15. Then it is time for morning chores (generally, I feed the chickens and pigs, but other jobs include watering plants, cleaning up breakfast, and tiding the house)At 9:30 we are assigned our daily jobs, and we work for 4 hours with a half hour break in between. I have been doing a lot of different jobs, including planting, painting and building fences, and shoveling animal poo (fun fun), and Dave has been designated fix it man and has been doing little odds and ends fix jobs around the house for the majority of our time at the farm. We usually work in pairs or teams, so we have had a lot of time to get to know the other members of the community.
We have lunch at 2 pm (a different person is in charge of cooking each day) and then we have the rest of the day to ourselves to play music, go for a run, or read in the hammocks overlooking the mountains. We have no heat or electricity, so when it gets dark out we litter the house with candles,light the fireplace and chat or play music by candleight.

We also get 2 days a week off, so this week Dave and I took a bus to Quito and spent the day in Quito running errands and preparing for our hike around cotapaxi, which we plan to start 2 days after leaving the farm with another awesome volunteer we met named Emil. Before our side trip to Quito, however, I came down with my second bout of the stomach flu on this trip, the dreaded Rhiannon virus that apparently nearly everyone at the farm gets when they first arrive. Noone knows the origin of this unknown virus, but it results in a fever, horrible diarreah, and throwing up in the middle of the night. Awesome. Luckily, it only lasted 24 hours (largely due to everyones special remedies...such as coco tea and papaya seeds) and I was able to make the trek to Quito.

Tonight Dave and I will be doing a sweat lodge, also known as Temazcal with other members of the community. We perform the ritual in a mud hut, filled with hot rocks, which are doused with water to create a sort of steam room where we will all sit for about an hour (with breaks in between) as a way to cleanse our bodies of toxins. The secondary purpose for this Temazcal is to help prepare ourselves for San Pedro, a ritual which we will be partaking in this weekend with a Shaman who is coming to visit our farm. San Pedro is a South American medicinal plant that has been used for centuries to help cleanse the body and help provide guidance to those who are looking for purpose and direction. This ritual also requires fasting, which we will be doing all day tommorow in preparation for the ceremony on Friday evening.

Our next update will be after our 6 day trek around Cotapaxi, which we start on Monday and are navigating all by ourselves! (with maps and a compass, of course). Hope all is well with all those who are following our journey...we shall be in touch soon!

Hasta Luego,
-Robin(tweet tweet!)

Dave, weilding power tools and fixing the community sink. He´s psyched.

inspirational paintings abound

Tomas chilling during break time

Olivia and I attempting to relocate a fence post. At this point, it wasn´t going so well.

Helen´s birthday costume party at the farm

Dave and I with a beautiful evening sunset behind us:)

another view of the sunset

one of the many beautiful handpainted signs at the farm:)

riding donkeys

The super cool mosaic on our cobb oven!

Mikela and Olivia serve lunch:)

Hammocks at the farm (not occupied at the moment)

Fuya Fuya and Otavalo!

2010-03-14T14:21:00.000-07:00

a view from the top of Fuya Fuya

halfway to the top

Us at the top of Fuya Fuya

EL LECHERO...beautiful tree that overlooks lake san pablo

The city of Otavalo from above

Lilli with our new travel guitar we bought at the market!

views of the saturday market in otavalo, note dave´s height compared to the locals!

view of the city center of Otavalo, with imbaburra in the backround!

sweet! fireplace at our hostel!

Dave´s awesome sunburn

more views of the lake

Lilli chillin at our hostel in Otavalo

La Laguna Cuicocha

Aight, its the Hopper writing this one so it is going to be short and sweet. Robin is looming over my shoulder making sure that it doesn´t fall short.
The story left off in Mindo, with us having conquered two waterfalls and having just met some chill folk who were expats. We took off from Mindo for Otavalo, one of the best known artisan locales in Ecuador. Every Saturday, thousands of vendors come to sell their wares, pets, and food to other Ecuadorians and tourists. It was pretty overwhelming as we left our hostel at 8 am and didn`t return until 12 pm. We had a blast dealing with vendors and seeing all the different types of products we could buy, from clothes to watches to sunglasses to shrunken heads! We were able to find a guitar as well from a friendly local artist who sold us the shredder for 30 bucks.
After the event, we took a short, actually turned out to be long, hike to Lago San Pablo, one of the largest natural lakes in Ecuador. Pretty cool but on the return we visited El Lechero, a famed spiritual tree located between Otavalo and the lake. It was a pretty magical place as the tree stood out on a hill with nothing surrounding it and had big, ole Mt Imbabura standing watch in the background.
Before all of this (I like to be similar to Quinto Terintito with none sequential stories), we took off for Laguna Cuicocha, a crater lake in the shadow of Cotacachi. We stayed at this cute hostel called El Mirador, which looks out on the lake and the beautiful peak of Cotacachi. Our second day there, we hiked around the lake for 11k (about 8 miles) and had some amazing views of the surrounding valley. We were pretty wiped out after the hike and decided to go for a short jaunt the following day. All in all, a great place and we had a ton of fun being out in nature.
So, we returned to Otavalo, did the market, and today summited a peak that is 13,900 ft! Booyyyaaaa! Our guide, Pablo, was a worker at the hostel we have been staying at. A very friendly guy who took us up the short walk to the summit. Lil and I both had a bit of exhausation wash over us due to the lack of oxygen but it was quite a lot of fun. We summited andhad returned to the trailhead around 11 so we cruised over to another lake, had some lunch, spoke in Spanish and called it a trip. When we got back into town, we both needed a nap but we rallied to write this blog and get ready for tomorrow and farming time! We are both super excited and will keep you all informed as the journey progresses. Much love and be well!

Da Hoppa

Hola from Mindo!

2010-03-07T12:31:00.001-08:00

Hi all,
Dave and I have found ourselves in a little town called Mindo, about 2.5 hours west of Quito. Mindo is situated in a cloud rainforest, and it is well known for the hundreds of species of birds which live here. When we arrived on Wednesday night it was pouring rain, something that we found to be the norm over the past few days. The morning is usually bright and sunny and hot, and as the day wears on, clouds roll in over the forest and then it pours! The rain cools things down a bit, and then the rain continues on through the night and is wonderful to fall asleep listening to.

When we first arrived in Mindo, things were not going so well. Dave and I went out on a hike on a nearby trail to try and spot some birds on our first day here and all was going well until my stomach started churning. By the time we got back to the hostel I was feeling pretty sick and had a fever and Dave was starting to feel a bit sick as well. The night was spent taking turns in the bathroom and trying to comfort eachother as best we could. Needless to say, the next 2 days were spent recovering. We have no idea what we ate, or what we contracted that caused the virus; but being sick in a foreign country makes you homesick and sad. Luckily, a woman in town recommended we try some oregano tea, which is supposedly the cure-all for stomach ailments among the locals. We were cured!

When we were finally feeling well enough to venture out, we decided to take a 10 minute busride out of town to a place called Mindo Lindo, which we were told was a key birdwatching spot in town. We found that Mindo Lindo is actually a family´s house, they let people walk around their property (which is all rainforest) and look at the birds for a small charge. The woman who owns the business is a german ornotholigist who asked if her daughter might be able to accompany us on our hike to hear us speak english (she apparently really wanted her daughter to learn). Once we started hiking, it became clear that Edith, her 11 year old daughter, had absolutly no interest in speaking english at all, but instead wanted to teach us all the names of the plants and animals in the forest in Spanish. She was quite an intellegent little girl, she taught us about certain plants that could cause you to vomit blood if eaten, and how certain plants in the forest have adapted to growing upside down, so that they are protected by their leaves from the sun and from hungry animals.

Today we ventured farther from Mindo and walked about 4 miles to some waterfalls which we had heard about from a man who rode the bus with us from quito to Mindo. There were lots of people hiking the trails and swimming underneath the watherfalls, and there was also a slide which you could slide down which dumped you out into the river. It was super crazy! Dave convinced me to do it, and I ended up flying off the end of the slide and landing with a huge splash and a mouthfull of water. Well worth it though, super fun!

Dave and I just got back from hanging around a small coffee shop owned by a woman from Corvallis, OR (go figure), her friend who is also from the states, and another man from Ecuador. Tonight we will be meeting up with them to do some slacklining and hopefully, if it stops raining, they said that they would spin fire for a bit! We shall see.

Tomorrow it is off to Otavalo, where we will be doing some hiking before heading off to our first farm.

Ok, time to post some pictures...more to come soon!

Dave on a lookout above the waterfalls

beautiful view of the cloud forest

hummingbirds everywhere!

the poisonous berry....don´t eat this!

Views in the forest while we hiked with Edith

Yay Mindo!

Dave and I on a lookout over the forest

beautiful forest hike...this was before the stomach flu hit :(

beautiful flowers on the terrace of our favorite cafe in Mindo

ooo, lily flower!

More from Quito!

2010-03-02T06:50:00.001-08:00

the view up the street that our hostel is on

frutas en el mercado

jugos!

Medicinal plants that are sold at el mercado

Jackie (my Spanish teacher) and I on the terrace

Robert, Dave and Nicolai in La Mariscal

mmm...star fruit in my mojito!

Dave rock climbing at el roco droma

Public graffiti in Quito

This past week has been full of Spanish, spanish and more spanish. Dave and I have been taking classes at the school run through the Secret Garden hostel, the classes were taught on the upstairs terrace overlooking the city and we each took about 4 hours of class a day. I was originally going to take 40 hours of classes, but decided to only take 20…the city is a little claustrophobic for us, not to mention Spanish lessons are muy caro (very expensive). We decided to end our time in a Quito a week before schedule to allow us some time to explore the countryside before heading to our first farm on March 15th.
I have been studying Spanish with two friends we have met here from Europe; Nicolai from Germany and Robert from Holland. We have a lot of fun in our classes, we are constantly mispronouncing things; causing Jackie to erupt in laughing fits. The other day we were learning how to talk about temperature. Caliente = hot and frio= cold. Apparently you can only use the word “caliente” when talking about the temperature outside, not when referring to your body temperature. I learned this the hard way by saying “Yo estoy caliente” when Jackie asked how I was doing that particular day. This, in Spanish, literally means “I am horny”. And thus, the laughing fit began.
Other funny things about our Spanish classes; Dave and I take our Spanish classes at the same time, on the same terrace, but with different teachers. Our teachers enjoy asking us funny questions about our significant other and then shouting across the room in Spanish to tell the other one what we said about them. Good stuff. On Saturday, Jackie and Diana took me, Dave, Nicolai and Robert to the local market to teach us the names of fruits, vegetables, and popular Ecuadorian dishes. We stopped at a jugo stand (juice stand) and tried all different kinds of juices and milkshakes made from tropical fruits. The juices here are amazing! You pick any kind of fruit you want, in any combination, and they throw it all in a blender with ice and sugar and give you a huge cup of it; usually jugos cost only .50 cents! Our Spanish teachers introduced us to the women at the jugo stand and they kept giving us more and more combinations to try. I love love love the jugo de coco (coconut milk juice) and Dave likes alpalfa and morra (a green mixture similar to wheatgrass, and blackberry).
Also while exploring the market, Dave decided to buy me a lily flower to try and get a rise out of our Spanish teachers (the Ecaudorian people are very romantic, and Diana and Jackie swoon at us whenever we do anything remotely romantic). One of the women at the flower carts saw Dave give me the flower and was so enamored than she came over and gave me a rose as well. I came home from the market with a tummy full of jugo and an armful of flowers.
Sunday was our day off from class, so Dave, me, Nicolai and Robert walked down to an outdoor climbing gym in Quito and went climbing for a few hours. The routes were really difficult; definatly a challenge for Dave and pretty much an impossibility for me. Dave and Nicolai climbed while Robert and I ate mangos and lounged in the sun. Afterwards we went out for drinks in the tourist area of Quito, called La Mariscal.

Before I end this entry; just a few more observations of note:
-Buying school supplies is very very funny. In all the bookstores and school supply shops, they keep the spiral notebooks behind the counter and you need to ask for what you want (lined, not lined, big, small, etc.) They then pick one out for you, and there are always really funny pictures on the covers; which you just get stuck with. I wanted to get a super suave plain black notebook but I ended up with a huge picture of tweety bird winking at me. Yesterday Dave and I went to get another notebook because we ran out of paper, and ended up with a picture of a tiger and the caption “happy animals” on the cover. I find this small detail of life in Ecuador absolutely hysterical.
- Speaking in Spanish is like playing charades. My grip on the Spanish language is quite minimal, so asking for directions or ordering things often involves excessive gesturing and animation. Last night we met a man from Argentina whose English was just about as bad as our Spanish and we talked for a half an hour with him, acting out words in Spanish and English, pointing and making funny faces in order to get our points across. We laughed at each other more than we actually ended up talking, but it was a good language lesson for all parties involved.

Tomorrow Dave and I leave Quito for Mindo, a cloud rainforest that is home to more than 450 species of tropical birds! We will try and update soon; but no promises, we might be very busy chasing butterflies and spying on hummingbirds!

We love and miss you all….
Hasta la vista!

The Never Ending Ride and Quito

2010-02-23T11:48:00.000-08:00

After departing our hostel at 3 pm on Friday, we boarded our 26ish hour bus ride from Lima to Guayaquil. The bus was pretty nice; two floors, with fully reclining seats and a TV for movies. It also had two bathrooms downstairs, which came in very handy later during the voyage. Now, if you have ever taken a bus for a few hours, you probably know that it isn´t a bunch of fun; going overnight was a walk through the darkness of transportation world. I´m not taking about the bus company, which I would highly recommend; I´m talking about how you have to sit in your seat for hours upon hours. The ride started out fine and we watched two bootleg American films. We knew they were boot-legs because there were parts of the films that obviously weren´t edited properly, with cameramen still being seen on the scene. The night dragged on, we didn´t get too much sleep and I had an eventful meeting with the bathroom downstairs after having dinner (my body is still getting used to the food down here).
We arrived in Guayaquil around 8 at night, more than the 26 hours we were told but that is just how things work down here. We met a German woman on the bus named Nora, who already had a place to stay so we cruised along with her to check out that hostel. It was the Manso boutique hostal. A bit pricy for the two of us (35 dollars for a room for two!) but we had free breakfast and were tired enough to pay. Now, a few things about Ecuador. They use the American dollar; no, I´m serious. Our presidents are on their national currency. A twenty down here still has the face of Andrew Jackson across it. Next, people don´t wear headphones when they listen to music; they just pull out their i-phones and rock out to music loud enough for all to enjoy. It´s pretty funny! Next, everyone we have met is very nice and willing to hear our broken Spanish; sometimes, they even try their English out. Two other fun facts: showers here are electric and you can´t flush toilet paper down the toilet.
After spending the day recovering from our long bus ride in Guayaquil, we took a taxi to the transportes Ecuador bus station with hopes of taking the 9:00pm overnight bus from Guayaquil to Quito. And that is when the madenss and wonderfulness of Ecuador began. We bought out tickets for our bus and claimed a nearby corner with our backs as we needed to hunker down to 1.5 hours before we took off. While manning our items, two young kids came hopping over to us screaming and yelling with joy. They were just being kids and it was pretty funny to watch them run, fall, yell, throwing things at each other. Then, their mother came over and started conversing with us. I was able to pick up on some of what she was saying and able to get across where we were from, where we were going, why and some other basics. Then, she started talking about her youngest son´s birthday and before you know it, she invited us to the party on Sunday the 28th! Welcome to Ecuador! She was seeing that I was having difficulty understanding everything so she busted out her cell, called a woman named Kris, and gave me the phone. I was talking with an American woman named Kristin, who was working in Quito for the Peace Corps. She retold me that Lil and I were formally invited to his birthday party and that she may be there as translator. (We called Kris on Tuesday after we arrived and are going to get a beer with her on Friday and will hopefully go to the birthday party on Sunday as well). The bus was long and sweat-tastic but the joy of having other wonderful people surrounding us was overwhelming.
We were told that the bus from Guayaquil to Quito would take 8 hours, so we planned on 10, based on what we had been told, and our experience on our first bus. However, this bus was 1.5 hours early, so we ended up arriving in Quito shortly after 5 am, when it was still dark. We hung out at the bus station until the sun came up and took a taxi to the secret garden, our hostel. (Thanks for the recommendation Amanda!!!) Our hostel is great, it is 5 floors, with abundant potted plants, funny painted decorations on the walls and tons and tons of rooms. There is also an open air terrace on the top of the hostel with a bar and restauraunt that serves breakfast (desayuno) and dinner(cena). The food is delicious and not too expensive, and they have vegetarian options. We are going to stay here for approximately 2 weeks while we take spanish lessons at the spanish school that is run through the hostal. Lilli met two guys from Germany and Holland who are also beginners, so they will be taking a group class together. I am a little more intermediate level so I will be taking a higher level class. In addition to setting up our Spanish lessons, we have been meeting lots of fun people at the hostal, including a pair of women from NZ, a couple from Sweden, and a few people from Europe. We are a bit embarrassed that we only speak English because every single person we have met speaks two or more languages (one of them being english) We are excited to start lessons and hopefully be bale to communicate more effectively. Today we took a cab into the new city ( we are staying in the old city section of quito) to explore the botanical gardens. They were wonderful! Check out the pictures!

-Dave

inside our hostal

Another view

The view from the terrace

Dave hanging out at the terrace restaurant

One of the many fruit stands in Quito. You can get any tropical fruits you want! Papaya, Bananas, Mangos, Passionfruit...yum!

Below are pics from the botanical gardens!

Lima!

2010-02-18T17:12:00.000-08:00

The buildings here are so colorful, this is Dave and I in front of one of the houses; bright red!

Sea Urchin!

sun and the sea!

Cerbiche! Yum!

Beautiful tile wall in Miraflores

First day in Lima, overlooking the sea!

Hello all!
I am writing this post from our hostel in Miraflores, which is the tourist district in Lima Peru. We arrived here on the 17th at about 2 am, and the whole process; NYC to Mexico city, Mexico City to Lima, and the airport to our hostel went without a hitch. On our 2nd flight, from Mexico City to Lima, we met a man named Sergio, who was a very fiendly missionary who decided that our 5 hour flight to Lima would be a good chance for us to learn some Spanish. Dave spent the greater portion of 3 hours speaking to him in Spanish, while I listened and tried to follow along. By the end of our flight, Sergio had flipped through an entire magazine and taught us the names of the objects on the pages in Spanish. I think I retained about 3 words.

Yesterday, Dave and I spent the majority of the day getting aqainted with Miraflores, exchanging our money, walking the boardwalk by the sea and fumbling through spanish phrases in an attempt to order food, use the bathroom, and ask for directions. Dave took 4 years of Spanish in high school, and it is coming back to him very quickly. Most people in Miraflores speak a little bit of english, but Dave knows more Spanish than they know english, so it is more effective to fumble through the wording in Spanish and use excessive gesturing than to try and speak english. Peruvians are very friendly and it seems that the harder we try to speak their language, the more apt they are to help us.

Last night we went out for drinks with a wonderful woman we met at our hostel named Karen, who is from Norway. Karen speaks fluent Spanish, so she was especially helpful in ordering drinks and helping us some more with our spanish. Today we went out for Cerbiche with Karen as well; Cerbiche is a traditional Peruvian dish which is cooked in lime and hot chili peppers. Amazing!
We ended the day with a dip in the ocean and frying ourselves in the hot sun...even though we wore sunscreen we burnt the hell out of ourselves..hmmm, I guess we need to cover up a bit more if we don´t want to get torched.

Tomorrow we will leave for Ecuador to attend our spanish school, it takes 2 buses and over 24 hours to get there, but I hear they have food and drinks on the bus, so we should be happy campers. More to come soon!

Bon Voyage!

2010-02-13T10:13:00.000-08:00

After setting sail from Portland to Boston, we realized we wanted to create another post to our blog. With that said, we already have been over here for almost two weeks and this is the first one we were able to write! We will try to keep up on our travels a bit more; feel free to remind us to post more often.
Once we got back to Lil's parents' place in Natick, we packed up her Mom's car (Putt Putt) and headed down to the grand city of Bristol, CT. Through the rolling hills and the lush concrete, suburban jungle, Putt Putt guided us to my folks' place on Violet Drive. We spent a few days hanging with the family, Mom commenting on the hair (the usual first comment), my brother Jeff telling me his M3 Beamer and his Applebee woes, meeting his wonderful girlfriend Ashley, playing pool with my Pops and meeting up with some great people that I had not seen in over a year and a half. One of the most memorable moments for me was hanging out with Jeff and Ash one night playing the game "Loaded Questions". We laughed, we cried, we made non-PG jokes and had a great time connecting with my brother and his wonderful partner.
Then, we packed up and blew out of that popsicle stand (my humor doesn't work on everyone but just try it). Putt Putt faithly returned us in one piece (no thanks to I95, where if you are not going 75 then you will get honked at) to Natick. Lil's folks were gracious enough to provide the entire downstairs space as our "Home away from Home". We hung out with her folks the first few nights and even managed to check out a local climbing gym, Boston Rock Gym. Lil's uncle Steven used to own the establishment back in the 90s and then sold it a few years back. I give it two thumbs way up: tons of bouldering, top-roping and plenty of lead climbing for all to enjoy. I even met a new inspiration: Jon, a 62 years-young guy who started climbing only three years prior. When I struggle on V2s from now on I will think twice about complaining that I can't do it; I will try to reflect on the fact that I have been given the physical talent to use my athleticism at such a young age.

Lil and I then parted ways for a night; I went into Boston and Lil visited a friend in Framingham. We both had a grand evening, Noam being a little prince and Caroline showing Lil a good time, and then we met up in the city on Friday to tromp around a bit more before heading down to NYC. Last night, I experienced my first Jewish service at Temple Beth David, where Howard Worona (Lil's dad) led the service through the art of song. I was very impressed by the entire experience, especially how the community gathered together and acted as one loving, caring unit.

Lil, Howard and I at the Worona's house in Natick

Playing music:)

Today, Lil's parents and mine are meeting up (wish us luck). Tomorrow, it is the rest of Lil's extended family (yep, double dose of family for us this weekend). Monday, we are heading into NYC to stay with my good friend Heather and then flying out on Tuesday. Already missing the wonderful peeps of Bend and Portland; thanks for sending us your support.

Til Suramerica,
Hasta la vista
G Hop (Robin will not allow me to include her name with this post because she does not care for my writing style)

Last week in Bend...

2010-01-30T16:42:00.000-08:00

Wow,
The last week in Bend has been a whirlwind. It started with obsessive organization and packing, followed by our last few days at work and tying up last minute logistics, to a wonderful goodbye potluck at our house on Friday evening. Thanks to everyone for coming out to the potluck! We had amazing food (I ate way too much), drinks, and music complemented by great conversation with our favorite people in Bend. Over these past few weeks, it has also become very apparent how strong our support network is in Bend. Bear and Journey have offered to store ALL our stuff in their shed, Redwing and Brendon will be taking care of Smashy (my car) and Dave's computer while we are gone. Erika offered to drive us to Portland, and Forrest will be feeding us, housing us, and driving us to the airport in the early morning on the 4th. We are so appreciative to all of our friends for volunteering to help us in any way possible... we truly wouldn't be able to make this happen without your kindness.

Dave's gear...packing begins

Mel,Dave,Journey and City at our potluck

yummy!

With all these wonderful Bendites reaching out to help us, Dave and I are getting a little sad and sentimental about leaving our community. It's been almost 3 years since we both moved out to Bend to start working at Sagewalk! Whew. Who knew we would find such a wonderful family in the process. Anyway, I've gotta stop writing my sappy goodbyes or I might change my mind. I don't think our friends would let us stay anyway though:)

In other news, Dave and I decided to pull out the winter gear one last time before we leave and go for a cross country ski loop today at Swampy lakes. There was gorgeous weather and freshly fallen snow...we were happy to get out to enjoy some good old Bend recreation before leaving.

skiing at swampy lakes!

That's it for now, we've got some more last minute packing to do and some more people to hug before we leave for Portland, and then it's off to the east coast to spend some time with our respective families. We'll write more updates soon from the east coast!

-Robin

Winter Wonder What!?!?!

2009-12-07T13:59:00.000-08:00

Two months til we head down South. While most people will be huddling around their stoves to stay warm, we will be hiking to our first volunteer location: Sacred Suenos! Yep, Lil and I have been accepted to volunteer at this cute organic farm located in southern Ecuador (it is about 3 hours from the nearest town by foot). I know what some of you may be thinking- 3 hours, by foot, with no TV, internet or other means of talking with the outside world. We already checked; they aren't mass murderers or anything- they just don't believe in how much technology most people need or are addicted to. I am really excited to be in a place without the modern day conveniences that I rely on, from phone to Internet. Lil is pretty stoked as well and is looking forward to hard-working days on the farm and good nights playing music around the hearth.
Til then, we have been spending time in this white stuff that floats to the ground- snow. Despite being a foreign concept due to global warming, snow does strike and when it does, downed trees, spinning cars and puffy coats abound. In order to take advantage of our shortened winter, Lil and I have been spending time on the mountain, her skiing and me boarding. We went up about a week ago and had a blast, even without a lot of snow on the ground. We are planning to go cross country skiing tomorrow with all the new powder that hit town (12 inches!).
Over the next two months, Lil and I will be planning out the rest of our trip, from passport photos to immunizations to more farms, spanish and climbing locations. We hope that you all can join in on this trip and take part in the journey with us...to Jurassic Park... I mean South America!
-Hopper