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Sucre, La cuidad de estudiantes

noreply@blogger.com (two-way) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:06:00 +0000

We are now firmly inside Bolivia and enjoying the balmy climate and somewhat laid-back vibe of Bolivia´s judicial capitol, Sucre. It´s quite hot here actually and much dryer than Lake Titicaca or even La Paz. This is a smallish and well-preserved colonial built city with narrow streets that bustle seemingly constantly with throngs of Students of all ages. There is a more prosperous feel here and the city has many private schools of all types. We are actually looking for some more schooling ourselves here as we hear that this is a good place to study spanish.

This is a picture of something I´ve been meaning to snap for awhile. It´s a clay oven at a garden restaurant that we ate at yesterday that is typical of the andes and almost every restaurant we go to seems to have one. What this means is great baked potatoes, broiled meats, baked fish, and pizzas, lasagnas etc... Usually they are wood-fired and, from what I can gather, are a traditional Andean cooking method. When the results are this good, why buck tradition?

Our hotel room has a kitchen so we went to the market yesterday and bought everything we needed for a good Quinoa soup which seems to be a staple down here. The markets here are an adventure unto themselves. I´ve never been to a market that is taken up 2/3 with it´s meat section. Check out this Chola whacking into a hunk of meat with a giant axe. As always, market trips are pretty challenging for people more accustomed to isles of pre-wrapped meatstuffs and sanitized deli-counters but the shock wears off eventually. We finally found a ¨supermarket¨ where we could get a few things we couldn´t find in the market, like soysauce, and that was as weird as the open market but in a different way. It was like shopping in a supermarket with about a third of the selection on it´s shelves. The dairy section consisted of various plastic bags of milk and yogurt with only a few brands represented. All the produce was wrapped in plastic.
All in all this city is really comfortable and pretty. There are many old, colonial buildings and since it´s a university town there is a youthful vibrance and the primary tree-lined streets are well looked after. The main square is full of people of all types socializing and sucking on delish coconut popsicles in the shade of giant trees. Yeah, I think we are doing OK.

La Paz

noreply@blogger.com (two-way) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:50:00 +0000

Well, we are in La Paz still. We´ve actually found a great place to stay so we´ve decided to hang out for a bit here in this city. We will head to Sucre or maybe Cochabamba on Sunday, but we will have to see how things go. I was remarking in my last post about how strange it is to see people from distinct cultures or places ¨acting¨ or sort of performing for the tourist cameras. Anyone who comes from a heavily touristed place will understand what I´m talking about. Things can get even weirder when the average daily income in a place is 100 times less what it is in your country. When I saw the villagers of the Uros Islands greeting us with a familiar greeting in forced unison it reminded me of the TV show FAntasy Island where all visitors recieved a Lei and drink with an umbrella in it as soon as they stepped off the plane. I found myself being constantly on-gaurd for this kind of behavior. For awhile anyone in customary indiginous dress that seemed a little too clean or made-up I regarded as a ¨performer¨ and it made all sorts of things seem staged to me. Much like the Native carver I once saw Japanese tourists videoing at the mouth of the Capilano Suspension Bridge, these people seemed to be putting on a show. I suppose we´ve all done similar things - especially for money, but when the behavior is extended into the confines of your home, it seems even weirder. Hayley was good enough to point out, however, that while a lot of men on the Island of Taquile, for example, wore customary dress when soliciting rooms for the night and then changed into more mass-fabricated modern clothes for the morning chores, most indiginous women of these communities continued to wear their traditional clothes at all times. Maybe it´s not all a performance then. I´m still not sure. If you go to NYC and get a cab, do you think that guy is being particularly familiar and projecting a NYC attitude to help the tourist have an authentic experience? Hard to say I guess... Well, enough of that. WE are currently in La Paz which is a big city and full of all kinds of inauthentic and authentic people alike.

The sprawl of La Paz up above the valley is called El Alto and it´s the Ayamara capitol of the world I´m told. I´m pretty sure most people are too busy hustling here to worry too much about weather or not things look good for the tourists. What I do know is that this snack food known as a Saltena and is basically a baked empanada full of juicy meat or veg stew is constantly orbiting around in my mind as I walk the streets and wonder what we should do for lunch.

Lake Titicaca

noreply@blogger.com (two-way) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:58:00 +0000

Well things seem to be taking a long long time on this computer in La Paz Bolivia that I am attempting to upload about 10 pictures onto. In that case I may have to use the addage that a thousand words are worth a picture and write sans pictures for today. If you are still with me I guess it means that you are a truley dedicated Clayhastings.com reader and don´t mind the lack of dazzling colors to titilate your senses. Anyway, we are obviously in La Paz, Bolivia and it´s pretty amazing. I´ve never seen a city quite like it. Aha! there the photos go - uh, disregard the intro to this piece, as some of the photos just went though. I´ll be adding a few here and there.

We are up in the high altiplano and we recently went to Lake Titicaca where we vistited the renouned islas Flotantes. These are made by the legendary and much touted in the tourist guides, Uros people who proved to outlast the Lakes original empire, and the incans, ...and even the Conquistadores to some degree. They are still living out there on the lake tucked away on self-built islands of Totora Reeds, fishing and catering to the whims of Tourists. Will they outlast this latest cultural invasion? Time will tell, but from the little mini tour we got on our way out to the Isla Taquile, it seems like things are going OK for these folks dispite the dozens of tour boats that land every minute. It´s easy to be cynical about ¨touristy¨ attractions and hard to see the value through the playacting etc... but
money in any form can´t be that bad when you´re sleeping in a hut that´s floating in the middle of a cold lake can it? These people seem to be taking the onslaught in stride. As if they have a choice I guess.

These photos are taken from the Isla Taquile which is where we spent a night in a sort of family-run house/hotel. They were really nice and this Island is an amazing thing to see! There are no cars and little paths run throughout the island past sheep pens and potatoe patches. It reminded me of the place Frodo Baggins lived before he had to leave. Totally fairytalesque. I will try to post more photos of this place as it was amazing. Note the angle of the clouds. In Lake titicaca it always feels like you are looking out the window of an airplane or hiking in the high sierra, but there are so many things going on up here you feel as if you have discovered another planet.
The woman who is running this shammy internet cafe just started downloading another Telenovela and my computer has slowed to nothing so I guess I´ll just try to post pictures later through a faster connection. We are really enjoying La Paz so far. The food especially and surprisingly but not surprisingly the people too! There is a lot going on here - protests, parties, tourism, and markets, markets, markets! It is like a canyon with a metropolis crammed into it. The part of the city we are staying in seems to be 50% made up of stalls and stands offering everything from Llama fetuses for Pachamama ofrendas to Solar Powered calculators. You must navigate through the mazes of tarps and comedors (lunch counters) but you don´t really mind because it´s quite fun and interesting and useful if you´re actually looking for something. Wish us luck!

Low times HIgh times

noreply@blogger.com (two-way) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:15:00 +0000

AS we are finding out there are Low times and High times up here in the Andes, and the times don´t get much lower than when Machu Picchu is closed and it´s raining quite often. The good part is that rooms are cheaper, you can always find a nice one and you are not always feeling like you are simply part of some giant qeue of tourists bussing, flying and plodding methodically from site to site, even though that might be what you are doing. We are in Puno Peru which is a pretty nice little bustling town perched on the shores of Lake Titicaca, but even here things are what you might call ¨dead¨ as touristing goes. We are liking the relative mellowness of the tourist trade, but are finding it a bit weird being the only two people in a giant resteraunt full of tables with aproned staff looking-on as we dine on Alpaca medallions (only me non-veg)and try not to talk too loudly because the place is so quiet the squeaking of the forks on our plates sounds obnoxious. I kid you not, every place we go into is simply abandoned and while our dutiful Book-Wearhouse purchased guidebook exclaims ¨crowds of locals and tourists alike rub shoulders in this friendly and bustling room while delicious local food is served and nightly live music resounds¨ it is dissapointing to be whispering in a corner over two plates of drab food while over-dressed waiters glower at you from behind the cash desk. We have decided to simply use the guide as a way to know where the resaurants are and then find out where the crowds are eating. This has worked for us so far on this trip. I admit it was probably our fault for tying ourselves too much to the Guidebook, as helpful as it has been. It seems, just like the weather up here, tourist traffic is a changeable thing. There is also the strange element of gringoesque restaurants always having a CD changer full of some kind of early 90´s top 40 NOrth American music compilations. I can picture some restaurant manager saying to the staff, ¨Now don´t screw with this selection. This is what the tourists like. This is what they want to hear, so don´t go putting any of that Salsa or Cumbia crap on there!¨ What it ammounts to is me feeling like I will go crazy if I hear Eric Clapton singing about his Father´s Eye´s or that horrid ¨Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?¨ song again.

In this picture you will find a man who sharpens knives using a bicycle type contraption on the street. It seems he goes around to the restaurants and does their knives.

and this other picture is of me doing what a lot of people do around here almost all the time - squinting! Yes, squinting into the powerful light of the midday sun. I´ve never seen the like. You practically need to put sunblock on at night up here! If you have light complexion and do not put on sunblock and spend more than a half hour in this intense low-ozone filtered high-altitude sun, you will get a skiers sunburn that somehow gets under your chin and eyebrows like you spent the day on a glacier! It´s amazing white burning light, but it does really feel nice when it breaks through the frequent passing rainclouds. It is an excercise in extremes and it makes everyone, tourists and locals alike have this permanent Dirty Harry / Marlborough Man expression on their face, that is, unless you want to be the only one in town wearing sunglasses, which apart from military badasses, don´t seem to be that popular amongst the locals.

Up UP up...

noreply@blogger.com (two-way) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:35:00 +0000

We are heading up and more up to the area known as the ALTIPLANO tomorrow. It´s hard to imagine people living any higher up than this much less giant cities and lakes and islands in the lakes with towns on them! We shall see what this is all about when we get to the peruvian town of Puno near the Bolivian border.

1 Day in Ollantaytambo

noreply@blogger.com (two-way) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:29:00 +0000

We caught a couple of busses out of town this week and headed for the small town of Ollantaytambo for a night. It was well worth the journey! The bus ride snaked it´s way through what is known to Ancient Incans, Locals, and tourists alike as ¨The Sacred Valley¨. This is the valley where Machu Picchu and a whole host of other very interesting Ican cities were (and still are) located. It´s quite lush, a little warmer than Cusco and at times dryer. Cusco and this valley are considered the heart of the Incan empire and the whole place is littered with ruin sites and towns that still boast buildings, aquaducts, and walls of Incan heritage, probably a few people too.
The river Urubamba lays at it´s bottom and it´s this river that is responsible for raging over the rails and washing out all access to Machu Picchu. While this is lame, there are tons of other places to go here. Ollantaytambo was particularly interesting because the town itself is a former Incan settlement so the walls of many buildings and carless streets and aquaducts which guide a small stream throughout it´s fields and streets are all very very old. And as we have learned from places like Rome, Cairo, Bethlehem, etc... Old is good. Old is interesting. These cities are some of North Americas oldest continuously inhabited settlements and if you were as lucky as we were to settle there ourselves for a night, you´d know why. Ollantaytambo is a stunning little place at the juncture of two very deep valleys and surrounded by dryish peaks with a giant Incan Fortification/Ceremonial centre stepping it´s way up the mountainside.
It´s been raining pretty much every day since we got here, but it usually peters out and gets sunny by 10am, this day was drizzly though and while I was warm in my new alpaca sweater, we got soaked. It sure was fun though. It took us a few hours to exhaust this site and the next day we went up the other side of the river, where there are non-paying unregulated ruins as well.
Check these out! Incan water fountains, that still work. The whole area was crisscrossed with these little ingenious channels that I guess were the way that incans transported water around the area.
This is apparently a fort where occured one of the few succesful battles the Incans had against the Spanish. They held them off here on these battlements after retreating from Cusco. Crazy times. It´s hard to imagine rocks, arrows, and spears being chucked off these terraces at armoured spanish horsemen, but that´s what happened.

The vegetation up here on these dry mountainsides was practically as interesting as the fortress itself. Because it´s the rainy season the mountainsides were lush with undergrowth. Cacti, Maguey, crazy looking air plants, and wild flowers of many varieties were in full bloom.
This little town was really looking quite slow. There was evidence of some washout from the extreme rains and the river was swollen and roaring with debris and the color of chocolate milk, pretty dangerous looking. However, people here seemed to be carrying on as usual. The bridge to the ruins had been repaired and only really noticeable thing was the emptyness of all the businesses in town. Practically every restaurant we´ve been in, we´ve been the only people. And that goes for Cusco as well. It seems the dropoff in tourism from Machu Picchu´s closing and the sensationalist articles in newpapers may hurt the region more than any natural disasters. It´s been a bit wet and muddy from place to place, but nothing like we expected from reading the papers on the coast. The obsession with Machu Picchu is funny actually. These ruins offered a practically parallel experience from my standpoint. Points of interest for tourists become like pilgrimages over time and people can become a bit crazy I think. It´s like waiting for hours in the rain to catch a glimpse of your favourite movie star. Nonetheless, this place warrants a visit. I suggest staying a few days and chilling-out and walking the hills to some other more remote sites around here that I read about but didn´t get to. The people in this small place are friendly and there is pretty much everything here a vacationer could want. These giant stones were under construction when the Spaniards came and destroyed everything. They were quarried from a site about 5kms away! I can´t imagine how much work that would have been, but I guess as we have learned from other civilizations in those times, rock hauling was a serious priority and when you´re a king, it´s never hard to find haulers.
This was a Sapo (frog) game that they had at our hostel and it´s aparantly a popular Peruvian pastime. People throw brass coins and try to score points in certain holes with the top score being in the frogs mouth.
This is what the ¨streets¨ of Ollantaytambo are like. I don´t think they´ve changed much since the olden times, but when we hiked up the hills and past some terraced gardens you could see over the high walls into peoples little yards and houses. Some were quite old-fashioned with hog-wallows, veggie plots and chicken coops while others had manicured flower gardens. I felt like I was looking down on some old-world europe village.

We are finally in Cusco. - no kidding this time.

noreply@blogger.com (two-way) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 01:33:00 +0000

Well, we arrived by super-fast and comfy jetliner to Cusco the other day and now that we´ve had a chance to wander around for about three days I can safely say it´s a great place. We are lucky actually in that because of the closing of Machu Picchu and the fact that this is the low season, there are not giant busloads of tourists parading throughout the town and it has a fairly mellow and relaxed feel. You only need to glance at the huge offering of four star hotels, fancy restaurants, numerous artisan markets, and throngs of touts, souvenir stalls, and sellers of woven crafts to know that the supply right now far outstrips the demand and I´m sure in high season with the star attraction open for business, this place is pretty packed. Right now you´d never know that you were in South Americas most visited town. People here seem to be taking the bad turn of events in stride though and the town (the touristy parts anyway) has little evidence of the disastrous floods we´d read about in Lima. The previous photos with us smiling over Machu Picchu are, of course, fakes. A close inspection would reveal that we posed in front of a mural while staying in Lima. Abundant tourist trade has it´s upside as well. This is one of the only places that we´ve had a choice between many vegetarian places to eat and other, more gringo, kinds of food. I actually expected more McDonalds and Planet Hollywood kind of offerings, but Cusco is surprisingly small-scale so far.
We bumped into this guy on our way back from the ruins of Saqsaywayman which proudly tower above the city. Llamas abound here of course, and generally there are a few people in traditional dress around and next to them all too happy to pose for a pic for a few Soles tip of course. This guy seemed to have lost his way somewhere and was wandering the narrow cobbled streets sans herder.
Here is a picture of one small, almost perfectly cut little stone among thousands that were piled into the amazing ramparts of the Saqsaywayman fortress above the city. This distictive Stone-masonry is definitely one of the most impressive Incan accomplishments. It´s ubiquitous by now of course, but it´s still impressive by current days standards. As you can imagine I was just staring at this stone and thinking, ¨I´m impressed¨, and then I took a picture.
Never mind the ruins though, Cusco is a artifact unto itself! Many churches and buildings, roads, sewers and other infrastructure in Cusco was built by the Incas, and is still being used today. As you ply Cusco´s narrow, cobbled streets there are reminders of the city´s ancient past all over the place. Of course, I wasn´t there so there isn´t much to be reminded of accept some of the stuff that we saw in the Museum today which was
stuff like mummies which were paraded around and were fed and treated like kings because that´s what they were; dead kings who still get to rule the roost after death. So there was a museum with screaming mummies and other artifacts from the area.
These are the battlements of the fort above the city where the retreating Incans gave the Spanish conquerors a serious run for their money. Bloody battles ensued and finally the Incans capitulated. Only the rocks remain. Well, and their ancestors of course who still inhabit this great city way up in the Andes, llamas and all. The books don´t lie. This place is a gem in mine too.

We go the high-way but not the highway.

noreply@blogger.com (two-way) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 23:15:00 +0000

We are leaving for Cusco Tomorrow, by plane. What that means is that we won´t have to take a 20hr long journey on the roads of danger which may be closed, but will coast over it all in the sky at fairly great expense as we discovered that while there are deals-o-plenty for Peruvians to fly to Cusco for the weekend, they are not open to foreigners. Lame. But, well, them´s the rules and we tried to get around them, but it could not be done so we paid full tourist prices for our tickets. WE are STILL in Lima and while we have not exhausted it´s charms, we are ready to move on at any rate. The sky is hot and sunny pretty much every day and the streets are full of bustle and hustle. Nothing much new to add actually. We are beginning to feel more at home here. We know what places we like. It´s nice. It suddenly seems like Vancouver has erupted into Olyimpic frenzy as expected, complete with protests and arrests etc... Probably no one has time to check the news on this page. Too busy dodging rubber bullets! These are just another few spare images of the return journey to Lima from Ayacucho. We desperately wanted to jump off the bus and just walk in these elesian fields of uber-green grass and puffy clouds but we never did figure out how to get here.

Tomorrow we will be in Cusco so I will hopefully have more to say. One strange thing we´ve noticed about Lima is the prevalance of English 90´s top 40 hits. There is noticably less salsa and cumbia playing in restaurants and bars than in Ecuador. It seems that 90´s pop hits from the USA and Canada are pretty En-Vogue (just to add a little 90´s nostalgia to the blog). Lot´s of really bad stuff like Nickelback, that horrid ¨where have all the cowboys gone?¨ song, and onehitwonders like Dido, who did something with Eminem to her fame, we recalled. Popular music is kind of like Whack-a-Mole I guess. You hammer it down somewhere and up it pops in some other country. Wait! I hear some Cuban Son being played outside. I guess it´s still Latin America after all!

Doubling Back

noreply@blogger.com (two-way) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 01:34:00 +0000

We are back in Lima from Ayacucho despite the fact that Ayacucho is physically closer to Cusco and hence the altiplano of Bolivia and Lake Titicaca which is our next phase of travel, the roads in-between are dirt, scary, and have a good chance of being washed out. The bus from Ayacucho to Cusco takes 20 hours! So we decided to come back to Lima and plan our next move from here. We are trying to find out if flying to cusco won´t be too expensive. It seems this is what many people do rather than chance the rains.

Finally there!

noreply@blogger.com (two-way) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:10:00 +0000

Finally there!, originally uploaded by burro come churro.

Here´s another view of this majestic place! And us in the middle of it!

Finally Made it!

noreply@blogger.com (two-way) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:02:00 +0000

Finally Made it!, originally uploaded by burro come churro.

Well. We finally got to Machu Piccu! hehe. Yeah, it's supposed to be closed, but there's nothing a few Soles placed in the right palm and a helicopter ride or two can accomplish. It's such a breathtaking place. Nothing can really match the experience of seeing the real thing with your own eyes! Especially when there's no one else around to share it with. Breathtaking...

Fiesta!

noreply@blogger.com (two-way) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:25:00 +0000

It´s carnival week here in Ayacucho and that means lots of processions and bands and stuff going on in the street. Actually, there have been processions in many andean towns during the months of January and February. It´s kind of fun accept for the one yesterday that was a funeral procession which was more serious. We are awoken each morning and sometimes the middle of the night to the sound of andean flutes, horns and drums parading the streets which is why I still don´t have any photos of said processions, we are usually sleeping and not parading around. We did have a nice night in the park last night. Where we just sat for awhile and chilled out on a bench and watched the youths of Ayacucho hangout. Actually the people of this town are quite out and about. It seems every night there are throngs of people down in the square walking about with kids and socializing etc... People seeem to go for Chicken at night in Peru. Roast chicken is the typical cena meal maybe washed down with a few beers. We are trying to hang out here a bit and study some of the Spanish notes we got during our brief but intense classes. It´s a bit hard to study on the road when you´ve got to move on all the time.

Here´s a small square we walked to yesterday which was full of little artisan shops. Apparently this is the place to buy straight from the producers and there was some amazing craftsmanship on display. Many rugs with agaraian themes and meanings. Rugs that tell stories all hand woven from wool or Alpaca. There was of course a lot of other neat stuff too, but we are constantly battling the wanting of trinkets and stuff with the reality of weight. Backpack weight is a big issue when backpacking as you can imagine. We end up bantering and negotiating quite a bit about who carries what and who´s carrying more and all that. Every kilo counts when you´ve got to lug your pack around in the heat or heave the whole thing onto your lap on a chicken bus that bounces along some dusty road. Fortunately we´ve been able to travel by fancy bus and taxis when we´re not in the mood for roughing it so the question of weight hasn´t been too intense or contencious for that matter, which is good but I won´t surprised if I end up with some giant ceramic bull and a rug under my arm by the end of this crusade.
Most peruvian towns seem to have legions of moto-taxis to get you around. The convenience and price is great but the pollution from their little two-stroke engines isn´t. That said we´ve been using them pretty unsparingly.

We´ve been eating quite a few of these in the mornings with jam and butter. Chaplas they are called and delicious they are! They are puffed-up like pitas and a little sweeter and a little gummier than pitas but very similar. I seem to be getting a lot of vista type pictures and many pictures of food. As usual I miss out on the picture perfect moments because I´m just not obnoxious enough to whip out the camera when there´s interesting stuff going on like five old women in the market hacking up a giant side of meat while a giant, furry hound looks on from down below anticipating scraps or drippings. There is a lot going on in this busy little place, but I haven´t yet been able to photogistically capture the total Vibe yet. It´s hard. We are also constantly vigilant here as there is a tradition during this time of year for people to throw water buckets and water balloons on passers-by and Gringos are no exception. We have been hit a couple of times already, and there have been many missed attempts. Yesterday three little girls chased us down the street loaded with balloons. They pegged us in the end. It´s quite fun, but we also don´t want to be soaked every day so there´s a bit of strategy involved. Now we know the spots and times when water thrower people are most likely to lurk. Cuenca Ecuador was a little more daunting as most attacks were drive-by style and you could not anticipate as easily. It makes the day interesting at any rate. Anyone want to play ´hit the gringo´? hehe...

Ayacucho

noreply@blogger.com (two-way) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:09:00 +0000

We went to Trujillo and saw the slowly melting remnants of what once was the worlds biggest Adobe city. Over a hundred thousand people lived here at the site of Chan Chan before the rise of the Incas and all were gone by the time Columbus discovered the americas. It´s kind of mind-boggling. Additionally, there are these Incan dogs that have no fur and are black. A remnant of this breed was playing the waiting game for snacks outside the Chan Chan concession and we had to take some photos home. Don´t you want one of these guys for a pet?

We have left Lima for a few days after eating some amazing ceviche. Lunch is the big meal of the day here and ceviche and pisco sours are the name of the game at this busy local place on a hectic Friday afternoon. The band was in full swing when we arrived at 3 o-clock and we wasted no time getting the ceviche of the day. Yes, it comes with it´s own small crab. We also discovered people lined up at this place in Miraflores that makes amazing cremoladas and has these cookies called alfajores that are basically amazing velvety shortbread with caramel in between - yummer-do!.

Here´s the sunset of Miraflores where people make-out and make-up. Also a lot of people like to para glide here.

All in all I can say that Lima is a great city to get to know. It´s pretty hectic and crazy at times and in places, but it has many faces and the food is amazing. There is street food a plenty as well.
This collection of comedors next to our bus station in the centro had hot herb drinks and chicken with chicken and chicken and rice.

Another 9 hour bus ride down the desert coast and up through some amazing countryside has brought us to the quaint little city of Ayacucho. We thought it might be a better idea to visit this place as Cusco is completely swamped in rain these days and we seem to be getting lucky with the weather so far. The ride up here on the bus was by far one of the most amazing drives I have ever been on. At first you climb up and up through giant mountains with hard and dry cliffs to high plains dotted with herds of Alpaca and sheep.
Then we descended slightly through some of the most amazing terrain. High walls of rock jut out of the valley with sharp and smooth angles like massive folding screens. The valley floor was riddled with boulders of various sizes, sparkling little rivers and ultra green grass. It was very surreal. My bus window shots do not do it justice.
Ayacucho is a nice town of around 170 thousand people and has a quiet industriousness to it. There are a lot of churches and small artisan shops that sell ceramics and weavings of high quality. The main square is pleasant and people here are pretty outgoing and seem to like their city. Our guidebook calls this part of Peru, ¨the heart of Peru¨ and I can get a small idea of what they are talking about. Here is a shot of our little hostel that we are staying at.

Mostly it´s just nice to be somewhere where the pace is a little more laid back and you can relax back and have one of these to help quash the high altitude headaches and give you extra energy for the day ahead. Cocoa leaf tea! Well having said that I am feeling a moist breeze on my arm and can see outside the open door of this internet cafe that there is a nasty storm boiling off in the distance. Maybe I spoke too soon. I will post again homies! Hope all is well where you are.

Genki des Ka?

noreply@blogger.com (two-way) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 02:49:00 +0000

Another tidbit that I´ll add while I´m waiting for hayley to finish talking to her father in the telephone cabin is that there is a noticeable Japanese population here in Peru. There are also part-Japanese people like me! I knew for sometime that there were people of Japanese descent living here, but I was surprised at how many. The most notorious ex-pat being the disgraced former President Fujimori. Upon entering Peru through the north (through a wiley, dusty, unruley and relatively bleak border city packed full of hustlers and rustlers) I was surprised to see giant ad banners painted along factoy walls with the slogan ¨free fujimori¨ and ¨Fujimori innocent!!¨. It would appear he still has big support here from some. Hayley sat next to an interesting and rather extravagant woman on the bus from Trujillo who declared that she was part Japanese, Italian and Spanish blooded, whatever that means. The quality of the seafood here is good enough that I can see why Japanese people decided to stay. Unfortunately this hasn´t translated into any kind of preferential treatment for me. Maybe half helpings don´t count hehe. There is also a chinatown in Lima that we tried to find but got distracted with the cream filled churros. We actually get waylaid quite a bit by the desire to eat something rather than dwell over some ruins or mummy or something. Hopefully we can see some ruins in Ayacucho of some kind. I hear it´s not ruin-land like Cusco, but ruins are overrated anyway. Maybe I´m just trying to make myself feel better about not getting to Machu Picchu. Funnily enough we have been to Ecuador without seeing the Galapagos Islands and now we will have been to Cusco without seeing Machu Picchu. Well, tomorrow we will ascend yet again into the mountains and from what I hear, things may get a bit chilly from there on in. I can finally use the wool socks and long sleeved shirts I´ve been lugging around in anticipation for the last weeks - but lugging things around in anticipation is what travelling is all about I guess. More snapshots to come...

More Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (two-way) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 22:26:00 +0000

Well here we are back in Vancouver just looking out our window... Actually, no we are currently in Lima, Peru and it´s one of our favourite places so far. Wow! It´s quite crazy and huge and fun, hot, pretty, sad and surprising. People are relatively friendly and maybe a bit more outgoing than in other parts of Peru that we know so far anyway. It´s a giant place. It seems people have poured in here from all parts of Peru. Getting around is pretty crazy. There isn´t really any central, easy to use transit system so we´ve been mostly cabbing it around, but we´re currently staying in the trendy, wealthy Miraflores district which is really comfortable and safe and beautiful. Our hostel is merely a block from the flat expanse of the Pacific ocean.
One of the big treats in Lima so far has been the food. Actually the food all the way from Ecuador to here has been pretty good and at times amazing. Especially the seafoods. This is an authentic spanish churro stall that we discovered downtown. Imagine fresh, hot out of a giant copper pot cream-filled churros. We´ve learned that you need to look around at where and what the locals are lining up for and simply make the line to see what all the fuss is about. Generally, the fuss is about something and something good!

Dowtown has a crazy busy feel and at times it feels as if it´s coming apart at the seams. If you venture off the well-beaten track, you immediatley see the more unseemly side of Lima. Clogged dark streets with hawkers of everything, dusty potholes, carts of produce and discount sneaker shops stretch into the dusky, smoggy distance. The traffic is practically un-regulated (there are scant traffic lights), but somehow, through honking and shunting and brute jostling, Limas clogged arteries flow.
The dowtown area has some handsome plazas and fountains and a few parks. Since arriving in Peru we´ve been sampling some of the local beverages as well. Pisco sours are strong and delicious and refreshing but don´t overdo it. The interesting thing is that people drink this one often just before a big ceviche lunch. Woah. And I´m supposed to present myself back at work after that? I will try to post some catch-up stuff. But basically we´ve been making our way down the Peruvian coast. We learned that we won´t be able to go up to Machu Picchu. It´s totally rained-out and the mountains are riddled with mudslides and basically a lot of people are flooded out and miserable. We are not sure if we want to be in the middle of that, but we´ll see how things shape up after this week. Hmmm... Uh, can´t think of more to say today. We´ll play catch up later.

Plodding on the Blog

noreply@blogger.com (two-way) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:47:00 +0000

I´m a clodding and plodding along on the blogging but as you can imagine it´s just what I´m able to do with the limited time I have in the cyber cafes of Peru. I´ve no time for photos today, but I just wanted to instruct my readers that if you scroll down to the end of the blog you may be able to check the archives of my blog to find posts from earlier in our trip as there is only so much space dedicated and I´m no good at editing HTML. I just realized that this version of IE isn´t doing the same kind of formatting that Firefox does so the sidebar will either be at the end or at the beginning. ¿Entiendes? Stay tuned for more soon.

Looking back over the last few weeks

noreply@blogger.com (two-way) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 01:14:00 +0000

Well even though we are now in Peru and currently hanging out for the night in a bustling little beach surf town full of Peruvian vacationers, I am beating the heat by taking an opportunity to post some pics from the past few weeks. Well this is a church in the beautiful little town of Cuenca that was somehow perfectly blessed with this godlight on our afternoon walk to work off some food we ate. I guess god must shine his light more often in Towns with a church every three blocks.
In Quito we went to this amazing ice cream place where you can get ice creams made the same way they have been since the 1700´s or something like that, in giant copper pots. The Heladeria San Agustine creams were really good but not like regular ice cream, more like a fusion of ice cream and slushie, but I shouldn´t even mention the 7-11 travesty in the same uh, webpage
These are from out little side jaunt to Baños a little way away from Quito. I think I already posted some Volcano pictures? I thought I should include this nice one to show the deepness of the valley and the lushness of the forest. For some reason there were a number of places in town that sold tour packages on 4-wheeled 4-track off road go carty things that buzzed down the streets. All over the place these guys stand in doorways pulling taffy. Just hauling on it with their bare hands over wooden hooks. We tried a bit, but it was pretty salty and hard. I was really worried that it was going to pull out my brand new fillings - a sort of reverse destistry by way of sugar over hook pulling.
When you descend, and that´s what you do, down down to the coast you go through zones and zones of different vegetaton. It´s very beautiful and striking and a little freaky rolling at crazy speeds down washed out roads and around switchbacks down through cloud forests until you pop out in harshly tropical, sweaty jungle. I didn´t really get a lot of great shots as we were on the inside side of the bus most of the time but as a sidebar that man in shilouette with the ball cap and a few other of us passengers ended up getting stranded in some woebegotten bus terminal due to a protest and a closed road and we ended up going on a little roundabout trek together by land and sea to get to our destination! At each juncture we would confer with eachother the best way for us to go which was no small feat in itself, but all went well... This is on the carratera to the coast. Very hot and jungly here. Lots of little pueblitos on the side of the road with all kinds of ramshackle shacks and little comedors (small restaurants). Seems like people have less money down in the jungly lands, but that´s just my bus-whizzing-by heresay. On one note I thought this was a creative way of keeping people from driving on the brand-new blacktop as they were still working on it. Screw the fancy lights and traffic herders just throw a few thousand giant tire busting rocks on there.

This is the bustling big city of Guayaquil. And this picture if fairly indicative of the general feel. It was hazy and dark from the greyness of it´s towers and the smoggy streets, but to be fair it was a little overcast. It bustles and it hustles! Guayaquil is Ecuador´s biggest city and while it has some interesting aspects, it felt a bit rough and tough as well. Safe neighborhoods had a distinct ¨gated¨ vibe with security zones at night and dark hazy rolled-down sidestreets that might only be lit by one orange streetlamp and a few dim flourescent tubes. Not many smiles here and with the size of it´s sprawling slums I can see why. We were on our way to Canoa which proved to be pretty nice as they go.
Canoa is a small fishing and surf town north of Bahia that has a bevy of hotels and hostels where fishermen still ply their trade from small boats they launch themselves over the long flat beach every day. It was similar to the town I´m in right now, but way less crowded and built up. We did find a place that made good coffee and pancakes though. I liked it. Especially the Japanese run bakery cyber cafe. As you can see it looks a bit like Tofino, accept that water is the temperature of a bath!
This picture is from a weird hotel we stayed at in Bahia on our way to Canoa and it´s about all I can say about this little hub of a place. The people were a bit cold there. I think it was low season for them and things seemed pretty slow. Many people glared at us from hammoks, but we did enjoy the heat after the relative briskness of Quito.
Now back to my favourite! Cuenca! WE stayed here for a week. (the church at the top of this entry is the first cuenca picture.)
The image of the weird boys face is a drawing Hayley did of me! I´m not sure if I should be flattered or not. I do look a bit younger and rather more like some animee character, but with 5-0-clock shadow. These images are of a woman´s resource centre and an example of some of the amazing breakfasts that we are having

Salero Tipica

noreply@blogger.com (two-way) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 18:25:00 +0000

Salero Tipica, originally uploaded by burro come churro.

Este es el salero muy tipica de los comedors en Ecuador. Nosotros comimos en Quito comida tipica de los almuerzos del Gente de Quito. Mas rara fue el plato Chaulafan que es de China pero muy popular con los Ecuatorianos. Tiene salsa Soy y mariscos mexclado con carne y verduras.

Into Cuenca and out of Cuenca

noreply@blogger.com (two-way) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 17:48:00 +0000

we´re in Cuenca and have just completed a week of Spanish classes where I got some much needed review of my verbs etc. and Hayley was introduced to the past tense! We paid for a week each of spanish classes with a private teacher! Well worth it. The teachers here are quite good and the hourly rates are very cheap. Unheard-of really for the skills of the teachers. We are having a really good time here. The city is a beautiful and colonial surrounded by mountains and up in the high andes. It´s quite a bit safer and more laid back than Quito and a little warmer. There are lots of Americans and foreigners here. Indeed they seem to almost own the town. Despite this, the town retains own identity and people are friendly. The food is very good here by our standards. There is international cuisine and very good traditional Ecuadorian food. I did try some roast guinea pig which was not-surprisingly delicious with a little hot salsa. It resembles rabhit, in flavor. There are also yogurt stands all over the place where you can buy uh, yogurt and fruit blended with yogurt and giant goblets of fresh tropical fruit drenched in yogurt. In the mornings we´ve been going to this cafe that sells fresh fruit and yogurt and pancakes. We buy an order of each and top the pancakes with the fruit and yogurt. Yogurt! Woah, it´s really good. Yesterday we went to a public market that was epic in it´s selection of foo0dstuffs; a testimony to the wealth of the countries breadbasket/s. It was multi-floored and in addition to the giant meat and fruit/veggie sections there was an ample fresh fish section and an isle dedicated entirely to fresh herbs and medicinal flowers and roots etc... Here a Shamana will cleanse your soul with a little ceremony that culminates with breaking an egg and reading the yolks, etc. to see if bad energy has entered your soul. I got a little scared and kept my distance. I´m not sure if I avoid this kind of thing (I am also kind of creeped out by Tarot - I keep distance between me and that guy outside Tio Pepe´s on Commercial Drive in Vancouver) because I don´t believe in it or because I don´t want to believe in it, but it was pretty interesting too see. Uh, we are leaving tomorrow for the upper top coast of Peru, so it´s with a little sadness that we leave Ecuador behind but it{s been an amazing trip so far. Ecuador was a really big surprise in many ways. It´s much more diverse and interesting than I thought it would be and the people as I have said before are quite friendly. So far this little city has been the highlight of our trip here.

Advertising Advice needed

noreply@blogger.com (two-way) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 17:48:00 +0000

Advertising Advice needed, originally uploaded by burro come churro.

It´s a low blow to make fun of crazy crap you see on the street in foreign countries, but this one really made me think about the dying art of studio photography and the function of photography in general in different places. Additionally, my blows are often low. There has to be a little room for this in my blog.

New years Turkey with garnish

noreply@blogger.com (two-way) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 22:07:00 +0000

New years Turkey with garnish, originally uploaded by burro come churro.

I know this comes a little late but Feliz Nuevo Año por 2010 to all my family and homies in Canada and USA y mis amigos de Mexico tambien! Aint no turkey like a NYE Quiteño turkey!

cathedral door

noreply@blogger.com (two-way) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 21:49:00 +0000

cathedral door, originally uploaded by burro come churro.

There is some really nice artwork in a few of the churches in Quito and some of the other towns. This was from a cathedral in Quito. As always cherubs figure big.

Why I don´t get Callbacks

noreply@blogger.com (two-way) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 21:31:00 +0000

WoodenHorsey, originally uploaded by burro come churro.

This is a picture I would like to entitle, ¨Why I don´t get Callbacks¨ Hayley took it of me fooling around at a park which looks down over Quito, but I think the look on my face especially if you look closely says it all.

Waterfall in Banos

noreply@blogger.com (two-way) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 21:16:00 +0000

Waterfall in Banos, originally uploaded by burro come churro.

This is the waterfall on the far side of Baños that comes right off the side of the mountain, through a few pools and then straight through a clothes washing area that looks like it´s a few hundred years old where people (read women) are busy scraping clothes clean on the stones. We went to a hot springs here which was interesting. Very interesting. ¨Rustic¨ is the word I´d use. Maybe there are more rustic natural pools around the world but this pool we went to had many people crammed in together as it was the only really hot one so it was kinda like taking a bath with a whole gang of Strangers. Hot water percolated up through the cement on the floor and the perforations where the water was coming through were boiling hot so you had to watch your step. The co-ed pre and post dip shower was pretty interesting if not altogether sanitary feeling. I´m not sure if Hayley would call bug-eyed stares interesting though. It was refreshing though and the water was so cloudy with minerals that I´m sure we got some rejuvination from them.

More Baños

noreply@blogger.com (two-way) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:22:00 +0000

IMG_2732, originally uploaded by burro come churro.

Here´s another view of the town.