Peru's Canyon Country

Although we had never heard of Arequipa before visiting Peru, it is Peru's second largest city.  We arrived with some anxiety over hearing of tourists being ripped off by taxis. All the taxi cars looked the same to us, making it difficult to pick the official taxi drivers out of a crowd. Luckily, we made it to the hostel near Plaza de Armas without a problem and settled in. Every city in Peru seems to have a Plaza de Armas, no matter how big or small. Even the very smallest towns in the middle nowhere seemed to have one, and Arequipa's was pretty great, despite the rainy days we spent there.

The main cathedral in the Plaza de Armas stands out in the gloomy weather.

The main attraction in Arequipa was the Monastery of Santa Catalina.  We were both a little skeptical when we arrived, but the monastery proved to be an entire city within a city.  It was founded all the way back in the 16th century and is still actively functioning today, although much smaller.  Most of the many acres of cobblestone and colorful buildings are no longer used, but gave us a great insight to how they lived in those times.  Many of the nuns´ cells, or bedroom quarters, were still set up, and we couldn´t keep track of the number of kitchens and courtyards.

One of the old rooms that served as a nun´s quarters.

Bright blue courtyard inside the convent.

Near Arequipa are the two deepest canyons in the world, Colca Canyon and Cotahausi Canyon. Both claim to be the deepest in the world, and although we read the Cotahausi beats Colca by about 550 feet. Either way, they are both twice as deep as the Grand Canyon! We struggled for a long time to determine which canyon to trek. Although we heard that Colca was much more tourist driven than Cotahausi, we didn't feel up for the 12-hour overnight bus ride on dirt roads that Cotahausi required (we had enough of that in Uganda).

The Cross of the Condor as we passed it on the bus.

So after a day of preparation, we headed out on a morning bus to the main trekking town in Colca Canyon, Cabanaconde. I can see why this canyon is tourist driven, because even the veiws from the bus were not to be missed. We immediately started the 2 hour trek down to the bottom of the canyon, and we made a few friends along the way that followed us all the way down...two of the stray dogs in town. Since we left in the afternoon, we got caught in the rain for the last part of the hike, but since it was much warmer than Torres del Paine in Chile, it wasn't so bad. We made it to Oasis Sangalle around 4:30 pm. We decided not to camp on this trek due to the afternoon and evening rains, so we stayed at a small local hostel, instead, which with a pool. We only paid $8 for each night in the canyon, but one downside is that none of them have hot water. We were just glad for a hot meal and a dry bed, though.

Our hiking friend, one of the stray dogs in town. Who knows how many times he´s been down in the canyon.

A look down at the small village of Oasis Sangalle.

Then next day we were up and off to the next site, starting out with about an hour and a half climb. We decided on the less travelled route to Llahaur because we were told there were natural hot springs. This took us to see the other side of the canyon, with gorgeous views from a lookout about halfway there. Although we never made it to Cross of the Condors, a perfect veiwing spot in the canyon for the famous birds, we saw them flying through the canyon as we hiked. Unfortunately, we found out when we arrived at the small village that the hot springs can´t be used during the wet season becuase the river in the canyon rises so much that it covers the hot springs.  I was very disappointed after a long day of hiking. We took that time to rest up though, becuase we had a heck of a climb out of the canyon the next day. We had descended over 4000 feet into the canyon, and we made it back up in just over 5 grueling hours on the third day. I vowed that this would be the last trekking of our trip!

All smiles on the way down on the first day.

One of the condors stands out against the clouds that were predicting rain.

Getting a great view of the other side of the canyon.

We wanted to head back to the village at the entrance of the canyon, Chivay, as soon as we made it out of the canyon. They also have natural hot springs and I wasn't going to miss out this time. That's when we learned about the landslide that had happened almost as soon as we came into the canyon. The only road leading out of the canyon was completely gone for about 150 feet. The bus that was supposed to take us out was never coming. Instead, we hitched a ride with a truck driver to take us to the missing road. Thankfully, they were letting people climb up and around the road so that we could catch a minibus to town.

Not a bad view from the hotspings just outside of Chivay.

The next morning, we soaked our sore muscles in the hot springs in Chivay for a couple hours before catching a ride back to Arequipa. We were surprised to hear that Colca Canyon was so tourist driven because we rarely saw anyone else on the trail. We were also the only people in the hot springs besides the locals. We are sure it is quite different during dry season when tourism peaks, but I wouldn't have given up our peaceful time in Colca Canyon for anything!

(Written on March 2nd)

The Highest Navigable Lake in the World - Lake Titicaca

After spending several weeks in southern South America, it was time to head north to Bolivia and then Peru. We had originally planned to tour Salar de Uyuni, the famous salt flats where it is completely flat as far as the eyes can see, but since it's the wet season, we decided it would be best to hold off. We flew from Argentina through Chile and on to La Paz, Bolivia.

Awesome views from the highest point on Isla del Sol on Lake Titicaca.

On a side note, many countries in South America charge a reciprocity fee for entering their country. This directly corresponds to the amount it cost their citizens to get visas in the U.S. Since we where flying through Chile and had one domestic flight, we were charged the $160 per person even though we didn't want a visa and never even left the airport....Complete bullshit. I even got the border agents to agree with me on this. While I know it stems from our own U.S. government charging outrageous amounts for foreign visas, it doesn't make it any more fair in our situation. Everyone traveling to South America (and some in Africa) should be aware of this, especially Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Bolivia. These can put a good size dent in a budget if not planned for.

Back on point. We arrived in La Paz and could immediately feel the effects of the high altitude off the plane. Even climbing a small flight of stairs can get you huffing and puffing, not to mention while carrying our packs. We only spent that first night in La Paz before catching a bus to Copacabana, a small town on Lake Titicaca, which is considered the highest navigable lake in the world and the largest in South America.

We arrived in Copacabana with expectations of seeing the Isla del Sol, an island on the lake where there are many ruins, the following day. Erin had a headache all day which turned worse that night. I quickly became a self-proclaimed expert on Altitude Sickness with the help of the Internet and a medical research paper. Her nausea, headache, and fatigue got better throughout the night so luckily a trip to the hospital never materialized.

Erin insisted she was okay to do some of the hiking on Isla del Sol the next morning so we took the 2 hour ferry to get there. We took it nice and easy on the hike to the ruins and had a successful day without many surprises. The ruins were surprisingly intact and there were plenty of great views along the way.

Ruins on Isla del Sol.

Terracing was everywhere. This was done so the steep slopes could be farmed.

The ruins were quite extensive on the island.

Despite the headache and fatigue, we managed to climb to the highest point for some awesome views.

We took a small minibus to Puno, Peru the following day, which is also on Lake Titicaca, and had enough time to visit the Yavari. It's the oldest ship on the lake and was brought by mule from the ocean in over 2700 pieces over 6 years before being completely assembled! We decided against visiting the famous reed islands on the lake because they have been turned into a huge tourist attraction. The Uros, the indigenous people who began living on the islands made of reeds long ago, no longer actually live this way and it is mainly a show for tourists. While some may go for this, several other travelers recommended against it.

The Yavari. The oldest boat on the lake, meant to be a gunboat, that was restored and is now a bed and breakfast.

A boat made of the same reeds the Uros make their islands out of on Lake Titicaca.

The area around the lake, although it is split by the border, is almost exactly the same. The same indigenous tribe is split almost half and half by the border and so they barely even recognize it. The people have a very unique style of dress which is nothing like the countries we have previously visited. The women's dress is the most striking, with colorful shawls and their dark long  hair put into two braids with tassles tied at the ends. They cap this off with a hat I can only describe as crosses between top hats and sun hats like that of the Kentucky Derby.

The unique dress of women in the region.

Being a civil engineer, it did somewhat irk me that many of the buildings in this region were unfinished and we couldn't figure out why. It took a conversation with another American who is living in Copacabana to explain that taxes are lower if a structure is unfinished. This causes many of the people to make their buildings appear unfinished so they can receive the lower tax rate. Therefore, you can walk down the block and see most of the buildings with rebar coming out of the top as if another floor was supposed to be built. This is kind of the opposite as in the U.S. where you only have a certain amount of time to complete the project before the building permit is rejected.

Here some construction workers are actually working on another portion of a building. Usually, many buildings have this rebar jutting out of the top to maintain the appearance that the building isn´t finished.

Now that we are finally about acclimated to the altitude here, it's time to leave for Arequipa (several thousand feet lower) and Peru's canyon country, which is home to the two deepest canyons in the world, Colca Canyon and Cotahuasi Canyon. We definitely enjoyed Bolivia and plan to return someday to see more cities and the Salar de Uyuni. It's a beautiful country and by far the least expensive we have visited thus far in South America.

(Written February 28th)

Experiencing the Patagonia

We haven't had a chance to use our tent yet in South America, and heading to the southern Patagonia gave us the perfect excuse. As Sam said when we first arrived in El Calafate, Argentina, this was quite a rugged place. We fit right in with our backpacks and hiking shoes here. El Calafate was only a stopover, though, as we took a bus to Puerto Natales, Chile the next day. This quaint little town serves as the launch point for trekking in the renowned Torres del Paine National Park.

We planned to spend 5 days hiking what's called the "W-route" in the park (named so because it's shaped like a W on the map). Although it's summer in southern Chile right now, we still knew we might have freezing temperatures at night and unpredictable weather with rain and strong winds. On top of that, this was the first time we we trekking while carrying our own packs and all our food with a stove and gas. We felt like the well-known Erratic Rock Hostel in Puerto Natales prepared us well, though, and we were ready to hit the trails.

Our first views from the catamaran.

We arrived into the park and took a catamaran to the west end of the route. Although the first day was only a 3 1/2 hour hike, we were hiking into the wind and weren't used to carrying our packs far yet, so we were exhausted when we arrived.  We woke up the next morning to winds that seemed like they would make our tent collapse (which ended up being a common theme), but we managed to see the nearby glacier, Glacier Grey, up close before hiking on again.

At the farther lookout to see Glacier Grey.

Only one of the scary bridges we crossed on the route.

Hiking back to our camp for our second night.

The campsites were completely packed.

Our third day ended up being the longest, but was definitely rewarding. We hiked 2 1/2 hours with our packs to the start of the French Valley, which is the very middle of the W. We dropped of our bags at the campsite there, and went on with just our day packs up into the valley. This 2 1/2 hour hike one way was arduous, but when we finally reached the top, we had a 360 degree view of peaks all around. We didn't stay but a few minutes due to the freezing winds at the lookout and the ominous sky. We made it back to our packs before the misty rain hit, but we still had a 2 hour hike to reach our camp that night. In the end, we didn't escape getting wet.

We saw an avalanche when hiking in the French Valley.

360 degree views at the French Valley lookout. This was the sunny side...

...but the clouds were definitely coming in from the other direction.

That night, the rain held off, but what we call "Hurricane Cuernos" (the name of that campsite) hit. All of the nights had been windy, but this was the worst of all. We woke up to the howling around 2 am and the stakes had come out of the vestibule doors of our tent and were flapping all around. Sam went to fix them and ended up placing rocks on top of the stakes to help hold the tent in place. He said he saw more than one other person out fixing their own tents. We took in the damage the next morning, with some of our tent poles bent and a broken stake. We weren't the worst off though as at least two different people had their tents ripped or just broken. Someone else said theirs moved at least 2 meters in the middle of the night.

We were up early and off the next day, wanting to escape that campsite. We were met with beautiful sunny weather and a hike through green fields. What we thought was going to be an 8 hour hike turned into only 6 hours because there was a secret short cut that was not on the park's map.

We had some funky clouds this day, but the weather was beautiful.

The horses blocked our way for a few minutes, but we managed to squeeze past.

On the 4th day of hiking, we were rewarded this view of the valley.

The final morning, we woke up and left when it was still dark for the shortest, but steeper hike up to see the main towers of Torres del Paine, saving the best for last. The weather was clear, and although the hike upwards warmed us up, it was quite cold at the top. The peaks rose steeply above us with a small sky blue lake below the rock formations. We were only there to take in the sight, but many climbers take on the peaks as one of the world's best climbing sites. Once our hands were numb and we had taken many pictures, we started the descent to head out of the park. When we had arrived in the park, there was an ere of excitement for the trek. Boarding the bus back to town, we saw tired and sore people limping and hobbling about. For us though, it was all worth it.

The main attraction on our last morning in the park.

Over the next few days, we made our way back into Argentina as we were flying out of El calafate to Bolivia. Before leaving, we took a day to admire the famous Perito Moreno Glacier nearby. The glacier is quite large, at 253 square kilometers, it's larger than the city of Buenos Aires. It stands up to 220 feet above the water and extends up to 330 feet below the water. Perito Moreno is still by no means the largest glacier nearby. Its popularity comes from the fact that it is so accessible and that the glacier is one of few that is growing in size.

We hopped on a few hour bus ride that took us there and stopped to observe the sheep on one of many farms. The Glaciers National Park has walkways that extend over the front face of the glacier, allowing you to get up close and see the brilliant blue colors in the ice formations. Many stand posed with their camera just waiting for ice chunks to fall into the water on a sunny day. We caught a few of these ourselves, as the thunder of the ice cracking and hitting the water is hard to miss.

Catching the falling ice from up close. This happened almost as soon as we entered the park.

Another piece falling. You can´t tell just how big the glacier is unless you´re right in front of it though.

We picnicked in front of the glacier, then opted to take a boat ride to get a different view.  The ride was quite cold, so we stayed inside until we came up to the glacier and could see just how tall it looked from below. When we were on the walkways, we had seen the boats looking so tiny that were headed toward the glacier, and now that was us. In the afternoon warmth, we saw more ice chunks fall and then rode the length of the glacier to see all the formations. Just toward the end, we saw a group of ice trekkers that looked positively tiny. Then we were back to the bus and back to the town of El Calafate for the last time before our flight left in the morning.

 Patagonia gave us a chance to see what the edge of the world has to offer, including some of the most extreme landscape out there. We hope the people who chose to live there don't take it for granted, being that most other places don't have such natural beauty right outside the door. That being said, the weather is absolutely insane! When we heard winds like we did at Cuernos, being from Indiana where tornadoes hit, it was hard for our brain not to continuously tell us there is something wrong.

(Written February 23rd)

Rio de Janeiro´s Crazy Carnival Week!

From the start of this trip, we knew that Rio de Janeiro during Carnival was going to be the craziest experience for us in a city, and it did not disappoint. When researching Rio, many sources site the crime and how dangerous it is, and, after having our wallets swiped a couple weeks ago, we were very anxious about this. We arrived to a packed bus station in what we would say a sketchy neighborhood, at the very best. We were on hyper-alert until we reached our hotel and got in contact with some other English speakers (only Portuguese is usually spoken in Brazil). We then heard stories of people in the hostel getting held up at gunpoint and one group that was robbed 3 times in 1 night! Luckily, we were exhausted, otherwise, it may have kept us up that night.

The view from Christ the Redeemer.

Our first day was spent catching up on sleep from the rough 24 hour bus ride from Iguazu. The next day, we took the cable-car up the nearby mountain of Sugarloaf, which offer views of the city from around 1100 feet. Once we got to the top, I decided this was already more beautiful than Cape Town, which is saying a lot. The coastline is littered with pristine beach after beach and small islands, making it look like a picture-perfect paradise. This was one of the two places we visited in Rio that we decided to take our good camera with us (the other being Christ the Redeemer).

It's hard to beat a view like this!

That night, we ventured out to a street party in Lapa with several other people from our hostel. We danced down the street in the parade, saw a pickpocket get, literally, kicked in the ass right in front of us, and made it back to the hostel by around 4 am.....We were the first 2 people back in our 12-person dorm.

Rio has about half a dozen beaches within a long walk from where we stayed and spending the day there is any amazing way to beat the heat. We spent several hours at Ipanema and Copacobana and I was even able to coax Erin into swimming with me. The water was a bit cold, but both beaches were absolutely packed. The entire 3 mile length of Copacobana is visible at any point because of its arch shape, and it was umbrellas and people as far as we could see.

Another cool thing in Rio is the Escadaria Selaron. This is an amazing tile staircase made of thousands of different tiles from 60 countries all over the world. It was started around 1990 by a Chilean artist, Jorge Selaron, and he has been maintaining them ever since. It was another hot day in Rio so it took everything we had just to climb the 250 steps. I have laid some tile in my day, and it is difficult work, but this is on an entirely different level!

Erin hanging out on the Escalderia Selaron

The main attraction of Carnival is the Samba school parades at the Sambadrome (a massive structure built solely for this event). We had tickets for the last night, the finale. The parades started at 9 and lasted until 6 am. We were able to last until around 4 after seeing about 4 of the 6 schools. It is an experience best captured in videos and pictures. Weirdly enough, our favorite school ended up coming in 8th out of the 12 schools from Sunday and Monday nights. If there is one thing we would recommend to do when going to Rio Carnival, it's going to the Sambadrome for the parades. You can even dance in them and keep the costumes, for a pretty penny, of course.

This is part of our favorite parade, The Mangueira Samba School!

Going strong!

My favorite float of the night...a badass dragon!

 

Here is a video from the Sambadrome. (Hopefully it plays correctly...)

The last, but certainly not least, thing to see was Christ the Redeemer. We took the tram up the mountain at insanely steep grades. It was the hottest day we spent there in Rio (100+) so we didn't want to do too much hiking. Being on top of that mountain is amazing. It has given us the best scenic views and on par with the best from our trip to Yosemite last year, except this gave you the ocean, beaches, and the city. Christ the Redeemer can seem small from the city since it's so far away, but up close, it makes for perfect pictures. That's if you can manage to squeeze one in between the hundreds of people fighting to do the same thing. I think we got some good pictures, though.

It's WAY bigger up close...

It is completely packed up there so we were only able to get one or two good pictures of us with Christo in the background.

This seems like a reoccurring theme, but we were again ready to leave this city. We are looking forward to cooler weather and getting out of the city for awhile. Our next stop is the Torres del Paine National Park in the Patagonia in Chile where temps will be near freezing. It'll be quite the change from Rio where we only had A/C at night. We were happy we did Carnival in Rio. We made it out with all our gear, money, and limbs, but it's hard for us to imagine doing it again.

(Written February 16th)

Poor Niagara!

"Poor Niagara!" is what Eleanor Roosevelt supposedly said when she first caught a glimpse of Iguazu Falls. Sitting on the border of Argentina and Brazil, it is located where the Iguazu River flows over the Parana Plateau. It is on the same caliber as both Niagara Falls and Victoria Falls (which we just saw a few months ago in Zambia). Although Iguazu Falls is a third taller than Niagara Falls, Niagara has a greater flow of water in the course of a year. Victoria Falls on the other hand has the single greatest sheet of water falling at one time out of all of them.

Since we were coming from Buenos Aires, we visited the Argentine side of the falls first. We had to spend a few days in Puerto Iguazu (the nearest town) anyways to apply for Brazilian visas. The bus ride into the falls is only a short 20 minutes away. We couldn't believe the masses of people that were headed in the same direction, but once we were there we could understand why.

Walking along the lower circuit, Argentine side.

The Argentine side of the falls has two main circuits, and we started with the lower circuit first. The highlight of lower circuit was the boat ride to the small San Martin Island, which is right up against one of the major falls. We hiked up a short way to the main lookout and were instantly misted with water. We had a perfect view of the a rainbow against the backdrop of the water. From below, we could see all the different levels of the falls. This differs from Victoria Falls, which create almost a straight line of water falling from the same height all the way across.

The rainbow from San Martin Island.

Getting drenched at Garganta del Diablo.

The upper circuit was just as exciting, as many catwalks took us over the top of many of the falls right into the heart of the falls, called Garganta del Diablo in Spanish. In English, it means "Devil´s Throat." Here, water is spilling over the falls in three different directions all in one place. Again, as soon as we reached the end of the catwalk, we were getting soaked from head to toe. Somehow, Sam still managed to shoot a few pictures.

We saw a rainbow on the Brazilian side too!

More of the fall!

After a full day of walking in the hot sun, we were exhausted. Luckily, we secured our Brazilian visas without a hitch and were planning to across the border the next day. We still hadn't decided on whether to visit the Brazilian side of falls. We felt like we didn't know if the experience could get any better, but everywhere we read told us we needed to go for it.

The Brazilian Garganta do Diabo from afar.

And we were so glad we saw Brazil's version of Iguazu the next day. On their side, there is one main walkway that extends the length of the falls. We saw them up close on the Argentine side, but Brazil gives you the panoramic shots from further away. You can't really appreciate just how great the falls are until you've seen it. The walkway on the Brazil side also ended at the Garganta do Diabo (Portuguese), so we still didn't walk away dry.

Up close and getting misted.

After seeing the natural beauty of the falls, we were gearing up to head back to the city. Rio Carnival is coming up next! We went directly to the bus station to wait for our overnight ride to Rio. Somehow, both of us missed the fact that Brazil is actually an hour ahead of Argentina. So even though we only drove 20 minutes across the border, the time had changed on us. We were sitting at the bus station when our bus left without us that evening. Luckily, they put us on another bus the next day without an extra charge, but it still meant we needed to find a place to stay that night. I don´t think we´ve stayed in a real hotel the entire trip so far, but we splurged that night on one nearby. We didn´t take for granted the whole room to ourselves with two double beds and our own (very nice and clean) bathroom. Sam took advantage of the pool before it became dark outside. And we feasted on the best breakfast of the whole trip so far the next morning before finally boarding the bus to Rio!

One small section of our buffet breakfast before heading to Rio de Janeiro!

(Written February 9th)