Peru and Little Brother's visit

As described in Suzanne's last post, June didn't start out so great for us between the camera being stolen to counterfeit bills to my Dad canceling his trip down to visit us. However, one thing did end up being good about June as we wind down on our birthday month, Thomas. My little brother, ten years younger arrived at the beginning of June, right after his graduation from high school. We had extended the invitation to him at the beginning of our trip and he was one of the few who had the time and resources (through our Dad) to accept our offer. When we asked, his top destination ended up being Machu Picchu so that is where we went. After arriving in Lima, we hopped on a 21 hour bus trip to Cusco the old Incan capital. This was Thomas' first trip on a bus for that length of time so we took him in style, buying 1^st class tickets on the best bus company in Peru. The only bad thing about our trip was the fact that the road to Cusco is quite serpentine so even though we were comfortable in our huge leather seats that reclined almost to horizontal, our inertia and the road caused us to move around a bit, making sleep difficult.

Once in Cusco, we spent a day getting acclimatized and exploring the city. We went up to the ruins of Saqsaywaman and walked around, getting our first good Incan ruin tour from a guide in Spanish. We helped Thomas with translation but he must have paid pretty good attention in his Spanish classes since he got most of it. Back in Cusco we kept coming across folklore dances and processions in the main plaza. It seems every school child from kindergarten up to high school was involved and each class had their own dance and elaborate, colorful costumes! This also coincided with the end of Corpus Christi and there were tons of processions of huge statues of saints from the Cathedral to all the other parishes of Cusco. It was perfect, we couldn't have asked for a better example of what we've seen in South America to show Thomas. Here's our album of Cusco:

Then we headed down into the sacred valley of the Incans, exploring the ruins of Ollantaytambo and then caught a train to Aguas Calientes, which is the base town for all Machu Picchu visitors. We stayed one night there and caught the 5:30 am bus up to the famous ruins. We took a tour immediately and learned all about the city and its history, which lasted about 1.5 hours. Since we were there early, we were able to be one of the 400 people to climb Huana Pichu. It's the big rock behind all the famous Machu Pichhu pictures, so you get to get a birds eye view of the whole city. It was a hard climb so after that we headed down for a delicious lunch of tuna and crackers, then being a bit tired but not wanting to leave (so many people leave at 1pm!) we decided to take a nap on some of the agricultural terraces. After our nice sleep (Thomas likes to take a sleep sometimes), we decided again to go on a long hike and went up to the Sun Gate which was longer than we expected and higher too but we ended up being able to see the famous Incan trail that so many people take to arrive at the ruins. We were then some of the last to leave, making it a very full but very rewarding day. Here are the pictures of Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu:

After getting back to Cusco very late (same day we were at Machu Picchu), we recovered for a day and decided that since we were so close to the rain forest that should be our next destination. We spent a day or two going to all the travel agencies, bargaining down and trying to find the best value for our trip. There were two basic tours, one was 4 days and the other 8. Only the 8 day tours got you into the pristine untouched rainforest so even though they were more expensive, we decided that if you were going to make it to the rainforest, you might as well go all the way.

The tour didn't leave for 6 days but since it was so expensive (even after our bargaining), we decided to try to lay low a bit in the Cusco area. We spent this time getting to know my little brother a little better. I was a little surprised at a couple of things I learned. The first was that Thomas had very little financial education. We set about rectifying this omission, teaching him about credit cards, stocks, bonds, IRAs, and all their advantages and disadvantages. It was crazy for us that Thomas who is now 18 had not been taught any of this in his school. He's heading off to college but he has friends who are not and are entering the “real world” without any of this kind of education! It only underscores for me the need for parents to teach their kids about money. I think that parents shy away from it because they think that money shouldn't be too important in their relationship with their kids and they don't want to obsess over it, but in reality they're doing their children a disservice. If they don't become victims to easy credit and get involved in paying 19% interest on credit card debt, then they'll never save for retirement or make any kind of investments, making whatever savings they have be whittled away by inflation. So anyway, we tried to teach Thomas all about this and even convinced him to go ahead and apply for a credit card which we did online. However, easy as it was for me to get one, he had a bit harder time. The credit card companies seem a bit more strict for first-time cardholders and new legislation is making it harder for young adults to get cards. I'm not sure I agree with the legislation since education seems to be more important in this regard but I digress... It wasn't all just about finance though, we also got Thomas hooked on the TV show “Lost” which we finally have started watching, so we would often sit up late at night huddled around EEVA watching 4 episodes in a row!

Finally, the day arrived for us to head into the rainforest. This particular national park was called “Manu” after the river that runs through it and it is one of the best places to get to primary rainforest (which is untouched rainforest). It's relatively close to Cusco which makes it convenient. Manu has several different administrative zones, one is multi-use which allows people to set up lodges that can use generators (only for a couple of hours a day), the other is the reserve zone which is open only to a couple of tourist companies, and then there's the vast majority of the park which is completely off limits to everyone except scientists. In there they have some native tribes who don't really want any contact with the outside world.

There are also several ecosystems in the park. The park begins at the eastern slope of the Andes so they have high altitude grasslands, then as the slope goes down, cloud forest where you constantly see clouds in the trees, then further down it flattens out into rainforest. What amazed me was the temperature difference between the highlands and rainforest. It went from cold to hot and humid so quickly! We stayed in lodges designed to keep insects out. All our beds had mosquito nets and the rooms had screens to keep them out as well. It was kind of fun to have your own little net around your bed, kind of like your own little kingdom. However I suspect that it wasn't completely effective because I definitely got bitten a couple in places that were always covered by clothes! So the only explanation that I could think of is that some little crawlers were either able to crawl underneath the net or were already waiting in the bed! In any case, the bugs were everywhere! I've never put so much Deet on my body for so long! Even when I would cover my body, the mosquitoes and flies would just hover around my head and arms. I realized I was torturing them, offering such tasty blood (I'm such a sweet guy you know) but covering myself with a dreaded smell. Perhaps it was like Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit. So tasty but they knew it would kill them. In the end I think some flies and mosquitoes succumbed to the temptation and bit me anyway through my Deet or maybe through some tiny uncovered piece of flesh and I got plenty of bug bites as evidence!

In every zone, we took walks through the jungle with our guides, during both day and night in order to spot some animals. The most exciting animal was the Giant River Otter which is very endangered and lives on a lake formed when the river changed direction. We got on a small raft in the lake and paddled out to where they were fishing with their whole family. We got to watch them try to avoid the caimans (essentially crocodiles) who wanted to eat their babies. It was pretty cool. The other interesting animals we got to see were of course, monkeys! We saw five species of monkeys. They were relatively easy to spot since they usually go crashing through the trees as they move through the canopy. We saw and heard them eating, fighting and mating! One of our guides brought a telescope and we even got some real close up looks at their faces! It was also pretty cool. Finally on the way back out of the reserve zone we stopped at a lodge to spend a night and there they had a pet tapir! It's kind of like a giant pig but friendlier! So we got to feed Pancho and see a big mammal up very close, including all the disgusting ticks that were all over his head! :(

Overall, the jungle was really great! It was cool traveling along the rivers because roads there are really difficult to maintain. It was the dry season and the river was pretty low though, but you could see the huge trees that the river knocks down with every rainy season. Every rainy season the river knocks down more trees and leaves more new land for the forest to regrow. Some of the trees it knocks down though were so huge! The thing about the trees down there is that it's impossible to know how old they are since they don't really have seasons where they don't grow. I think I'd like to check out the redwood forest up on California to compare how they look to the trees we were just walking under.

We finished with the jungle and began our trip back to the U.S. We're currently in Lima awaiting our flight back to San Francisco. We dropped Thomas off at the airport yesterday and spent the day today looking for a new dress for Suzanne for the two weddings we are going to be going to. We're really excited to go back to the USA. It's been more than 5 months now and it'll be nice to speak in English to everyone and see a lot of our really good friends. I think the thing I'm most looking forward to is the almost 100% chance that we'll have toilet paper in all bathrooms and that we can also flush said toilet paper into the toilet! Small pleasures... Suzanne is most looking forward to being able to drink water from wherever and whenever she wants. This includes not being paranoid about accidentally opening your mouth in the shower. :) The thing I'm least excited about is 18% tipping at restaurants. What a ripoff! Here its maximum 10%!!! And no annoying tip jars at fast food places.

~Mike

ps. Will post pictures of jungle soon, though there won't be as many.

28 not so great. . .

At the beginning of June, Mike and I each celebrated our birthdays. Some say that bad luck comes in threes so we'll hope that this is true. It started with Mike's Dad letting us know that he would not be able to join us in Peru and would have to reschedule around 9PM very near when my actual birthday occurred. Although we both understood we were both disappointed. Thomas, Mike's brother, would still be coming down but I had lost my blue circle traveling buddy (in the skiing sense, not their airport security line skills). Whereas Michael and Thomas are more of black diamond travelers erring on the side of extreme and moving fast, Mike's Dad and I enjoy taking it all in. The next blow came the following day when our camera was stolen within 20 minutes of bus ride from Cuenca. The rest of the day was spent in the police station and then on a later bus replaying what things we should have done differently to prevent the theft. However, hindsight is 20/20 and there was nothing we could do- the camera was gone. We finally arrived around midnight on the other side of the border in Tumbes, Peru. Clearly it had been a long day and we were both looking forward to a good night's sleep and a hot shower. We arrived at the hotel and took out our Peruvian money. We handed the owner a 100 sole bill that we had gotten back in April and were told that it was counterfeit. Luckily he said we could just pay tomorrow since going to an ATM at that time of night would not be safe or fun. Well the first 28 hours didn't turn out so great but we're hoping for better luck now that Thomas will be with us to add to the fun.

From Banos

This being said our birthdays were quite fun before the bad luck began. For Mike's birthday we were in Banos, Ecuador enjoying the hospitality of Mary Beth's Ecuadorean family. They took us on a waterfall tour, to the hot springs, and Sarah made a birthday dinner complete with cake. The excitement of Banos was increased with the sounds of the exploding volcano nearby. Because of the volcano the town was a little less crowded than normal and it was nice to be with locals for a change.

My birthday was spent in the beautiful town of Cuenca. We stayed in a wonderful hostel and I awoke to find two dozen roses in our room that Mike had gotten from the local flower market early in the morning. Many of the roses in the US come from Ecuador and they were very beautiful. We spent the day exploring the city's churches, a mosaic exhibit, and shared a delicious piece of chocolate cake. That night we walked to dinner. We picked a restaurant on the second floor of the corner of the plaza. This turned out to be the perfect spot. We sat by the window and fifteen minutes into the meal a celebration began of Corpus Christi in the plaza below. Fireworks and floating candles were lit before our eyes. However, it was not uncommon for the fireworks not to go straight up and they seemed to land right in the crowds of people gathered below. We watched safely from our balcony and just enjoyed the moment. It was truly magical evening that we won't soon forget.

Ecuador & latest happenings

While we try to write our blog posts about Galapagos, I decided to give a quick update of what's been going on with us so far.  

We crossed into Quito from Bolivia after a grueling 4 day bus adventure.  We then enrolled in two different schools.  One was a Spanish school the other Salsa.  One of our goals with the trip was to learn Spanish and we decided that speaking English to each other and stammering out phrases to locals just wasn't cutting it.  So we had Spanish school in the morning and Salsa classes in the afternoon.  In the meantime we searched for last-minute deals to the Galapagos Islands.  We ended up finding a great deal on a first-class boat for the next Saturday for 8 days!  We're still going through those pictures and trying to keep them manageable for those who actually look at them all. :)   Both our schools were really fun.  Both Suzanne and I had private teachers for around 4 bucks an hour, 4 hours a day.  They really helped us out on learning all the grammar that we hadn't learned or mastered in school.  We're still by no means fluent but I can say proudly that I am 70 pages into the first Harry Potter in Spanish and besides some vocabulary, am understanding it pretty well. :)  Salsa was the same way.  I really like dancing it, Suzanne does too.  It's so fast, but sensual and fun too!  We are looking forward to perfecting our skills in the discotecas down here.  

After the Galapagos, we took another week of our schools and packed up and headed south.  My dad and brother were going to join us in June for a trip to Machu Picchu and we had a week before they arrived.  So we decided to hit a couple of the main tourist spots on the way down.  First on the list was Otavalo, a huge and giant market in Ecuador.  We took the opportunity to get a lot of gift shopping done!  

Next on the list was Banos, the top Ecuadorian resort town.  It is nestled in beautiful green mountains with a stunning volcano just 5 miles away which gives it plenty of hot water for springs and resorts.  There we met up with some good friends of Suzanne's sister Mary Beth who took us under their wing for the 2 days we were there and showed us an amazing time.  Oh and did I mention that the volcano was erupting!  :)  We would hear huge explosions during the day that would rumble down through the valleys towards Banos.  If you were in direct line of site of it, you got an even louder bang.  Standing outside our new friends house, we were able to see the shock wave push through the ash and water vapor and then wait for the thunder clap to reach us (I counted, 26 seconds roughly).  It was awesome.  Then I set up my camera (poor camera...) to do a time-lapse video and you can see it erupting.  At night, you could see some of the rocks glowing red that had just been expelled from the cone.  Sadly I didn't get a picture, but here's the video:  

From Banos

Then we headed south to Cuenca, a beautiful colonial town.  We enjoyed it a lot there.  The highlight was on Suzanne's birthday, which happened to coincide with the feast of Corpus Christi (Body of Christ) in which the locals have fireworks and parties most of the night.  We walked down to the plaza and sat in a restaurant with a view and watched the fireworks go off.  It was amazing.  The cathedral was lit up and the fireworks would be set off just in front of it.  This was actually very dangerous (or so it seemed to us) because there were trees in the plaza and sometimes the fireworks went off into the tree.  Luckily no fires that we saw.  In addition to the fireworks they were setting off what seemed like little hot air balloons.  They looked like a candle in a big paper bag or something  but they would rise very slowly and then eventually start sinking (hopefully out).  And through it all we just sat and drank our wine on the balcony and had a blast.  

The next day began a rough patch for our journey.  As we left Cuenca to head south towards Lima to pick up my brother, my camera was stolen.  We were on the bus and we had put the camera on the luggage racks above us. About 30 minutes in, I got a funny feeling and decided to bring the camera down but when I got up it was missing. We think it was someone who had gotten on the bus to sell stuff or someone else who just got on to see if there was anything worth stealing.  They appeared to slide the case towards the back of the bus then took it down, took out only the camera and left the case on the floor.  When I looked up, case was gone then I started looking around the bus, then fell to the floor to see if it was there.  There I found the case under the seat of a young boy.  I took the case but felt my momentary joy fall as I realized the case was much too light.  Opening it up, the camera was gone.  :(  Not only that but the wonderful neck strap that our friend Julie had made for us was gone too.  We stopped the bus, got off and called the police.  He took us to the station and we filed a report.  Overall it was very sad.  We had insurance on it, and it seems like the claim will go through without a problem but it just sucked.   


So anyway, then we continued on, there was nothing we could do in Cuenca anymore (the police never find stolen cameras).  We arrived in the Peru border town of Tumbes tired and feeling a bit violated.  We eventually got to Peru and waited there for Thomas my brother to arrive.  We picked him up no problem and we are now currently in Cusco, the capital city of the Incan empire.  We're going to spend the next couple of days exploring the sacred valley and visiting Machu Picchu.  It's great to have a visitor with us and we're sure this month is going to be a blast!  


~Mike