June - July 2010 Peru - Huaraz

Peru – Huaraz and the Cordillera Blanca

Even if the bus was a double- decker, super comfortable bus with food service and many inappropriate videos, it was still a non -stop eight hour ride to Huaraz from Lima. We were obviously concerned about how Sam would do on the trip. Luckily, he did slightly better than expected. Always keep the expectations low and you can’t help but be pleasantly surprised.

We had two days in Huaraz to get ready for our backpacking trip. We had down coats to rent, return bus tickets to buy, menus to plan and a we needed to take a trip to the market to gather food. Once we were ready, we took a taxi 45 minutes up from Huaraz to a recommended hotel called, “The Lazy Dog Inn”. Diana the owner, helped us pick the best looking hanging chickens from the market and squeezed the trout to find the freshest ones for our trip. She not only helped us shop, but organized our guide, found burros and rented some great tents and sleeping bags for us. We had one night in their beautiful Inn before we started Sam’s first backpacking trip.

Another hour in a taxi brought us to the Parque Nacional Huascaran boundary. We were headed to a valley called “Quillcayhuanca”. We met our main guide named Donado at the Inn. Our other guide, Romaldo, was in charge of the 4 burros needed for our trip. Two Burros carried our bags, tents and food, one burro (Aculina) carried Sam and Aculina’s 3 month old baby came along for her first trip. The bebe name Chapara, was super fuzzy, energetic and very cute! Since we were at 12,000 ft to start our trip, it was good that we only carried day packs. Sam walked when he wanted and rode the burro when he was tired, it was perfect!

We spent the day hiking up a gorgeous valley with grazing sheep, horses and cows, a river and stunning snow covered mountains getting closer with every step. Our guides set up camp in a nice meadow with great views in every direction. It took some getting used to, but over the next four days, Romaldo and Donado did everything around camp for us. They cooked, cleaned, set up the cook tent and the bathroom tent (sounds silly, but it was nice!) Donado was the hiking guide during the day and Romaldo protected our gear and stayed at camp. Spoiled and loving it!

The next two days we did day trips. We explored the lakes in the valley we were camped in and hiked into the valley adjacent to ours. The weather was mixed – sunny and warm at times, rainy and horrible at others. Nights were also mixed – cold, down to freezing on two nights with stunning clear skies and billions of stars and warmer, cloudy and rainy nights.

We were definitely living in style on Sam’s first backpack – but it was perfect for our family. Sam was a super hiker on our day trips. He made it to a high lake at 4,625 meters (almost 14,000 ft) and was happy to walk around exploring or helping Romaldo herd the burros. On the last day he was tired and chose to ride Aculina all the way to the trailhead – but he was happy and that is all that mattered to me.

We enjoyed two more luxurious nights at the Lazy Dog Inn. Sam and Haviland rested, rode a horse, played at the Inn and went into town to enjoy their favorite café while I went for one more hike. I joined Diana’s husband, Wayne on an ascent of a classic pointy peak called Rima Rima. The peak was visible from Huaraz and looked gorgeous. Wayne had never been to the top, even though he could walk out his back yard to get to it. We packed up his extra harness and some rock climbing gear and started walking at 6:00 am the next morning.

I have never been above 14,400 ft. At 14,000 and 15,000 ft, I was really feeling the lack of oxygen. Slow and steady for 6 hours, we hiked up the trail-less slopes until it met the ridge. We got to climb my favorite thing - a knife edge ridge at 16,000 ft with glaciated peaks in both directions. For that alone, it was worth the hike. The crux of the hike was the last 1,000 ft. It was snowy and looked difficult. We picked a route that looked like it had the most potential of reaching the top. I led the first pitch in sneakers and full winter gear. It was slippery and the rock was loose. By the time I got to the end of the rope, I was worrying about how late it was, how we were going to get down and how cold my feet were. As soon as Wayne finished the pitch, we agreed that it was too late in the day to summit. So we rappelled down.

We got to enjoy the ridge again and wandered down the mountain sucking in more and more air as we went lower. We reached the road at sunset and were treated to a magnificent sunset display. This was a nice end to my mountain time as we needed to board a bus back to Lima the next day. Our Peruvian adventure was about over.

For more mountain pictures go to:

http://picasaweb.google.com/GrobGuat/Huaraz#

June - July 2010 Amazon Rain Forest - Peru

Peru - Puerto Maldonado

We left the chill of Cuzco to go to the Amazon rainforest near the town of Puerto Maldonado. The town was a moped, tuk-tuk and motorcycle city – there were very few cars or trucks, just two wheeled vehicles zooming everywhere. We got picked up by one of the few vans and were delivered to the Madre de Dios River. The river is a tributary to the Amazon River and contained piranha, electric eel and caiman among other exotic species. This river did not have a bridge going over it yet, so many small, boat-like-things brought people, cars and busses over to the other side of the river. We were heading to a hotel about 30 minutes from the river, deep into the forest.

We stayed four days in a beautiful spot with a nice view of the surrounding forest. The first day we explored the area around the hotel. There were many birds – parrots mostly and some cute monkeys. Sam was not so interested in the wildlife; he just wanted to go to the swimming pool. While he swam, I was able to go bird watching with our guide, Freddy. We saw parrots and toucans, heard macaws and more monkeys and just enjoyed the view from their lookout tower.

The next day, we joined our guide and headed back to the main river. Our destination was Tambopata National Park and a protected lake called, Lake Sandoval. 3 Km of walking brought us to a canoe and a small stream. We were able to see 1 small caiman hiding by the bank of the river before the river opened up to the lake. We spent the day paddling around the lake looking for birds and animals. The lake is home to a giant river otter that is near extinction – we were not lucky enough to see them. But we saw cool birds and turtles and just enjoyed the peaceful lake. Freddy brought us to a good swimming and picnic spot so Sam could jump off the canoe and swim while we could eat lunch. Freddy had packed a great lunch wrapped in a giant leaf. When we opened the leaf, we were surprised to have a chicken and rice traditional meal that was still hot!

The third day was spent hiking 5-6 Km from our hotel through the forest to another small river. Freddy did a great job pointing out cool trees, medicinal plants, footprints of cats, signs of anteaters, etc. Once at the river we jumped onto a small canoe and explored the river deep into the jungle. We were able to watch more monkeys playing in the trees, saw a few more caiman and Freddy swears he saw an anaconda, but no one else saw it. I think Freddy sees a lot of things that no one else notices – he was really amazing at finding animals that were almost invisible unless you knew where to look.

We woke early on our last day to journey to a nearby “clay lick”. Getting up at sunrise, we went back to the Madre de Dios River and went upstream via a bigger canoe with a motor. Our destination was a clay cliff that contained a particular salt essential for parrots. In the morning hours, hundreds of parrots flock to the cliff to lick the clay. We spent an hour watching 4 different species of parrots noisily fly to the cliff and get their salt. It was quite a spectacle – parrots are not quiet birds. As we left the cliff, floating down river, we enjoyed a nice hot breakfast on the boat and enjoyed our last morning before our flight back to Cuzco.

More pictures of the Amazon are at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/GrobGuat/AmazonPuertoMaldonado#

June - July 2010 Peru

Peru 2010 - Cuzco and the Sacred Valley


Flying over Lima, I knew immediately that I would not like it. We stayed a total of 28 hours in Lima, spread over three weeks and each time we were there it was gray, industrial a,nd depressing. My mantra to Haviland was, “PLEASE don’t make me live in Lima!”

First stop – Cuzco

Luckily, we left before 6:00 a.m. the next day to fly to Cuzco. We really liked Cuzco. Right when we arrived, the woman who picked us up from the airport bought Sam a big chocolate cake for his 7th birthday. Mmmmm chocolate cake for breakfast! It was a nice welcome and a good beginning to our time in Peru.
Going to Cuzco at 10,000 ft was fine for Sam and me, but unfortunately the high altitude really affected Haviland. She spent the first 24 hours stuck in bed feeling lousy. While Haviland was suffering in the hotel room, Sam and I got out and explored the city. His favorite activity was feeding the pigeons in the Plaza de Armas. I enjoyed people and llama watching. Fortunately, by the end of the next day, Haviland started feeling well enough to walk around town and eat some food.

Sacred Valley - Pisac

We left Cuzco to go to Pisac- a town nestled in the base of a valley, next to a river and surrounded by beautiful, steep mountains. The best part of Pisac is that it is lower in elevation than Cuzco so Haviland lost the headache and stopped throwing up – whew! The town is also famous for its Sunday market. We all had a grand time finding presents for people and ourselves. Sam was focused on the beautiful rocks, crystals and fossils that were found in the mountains of Peru. He ended up using all of his travel money on some polished stones and a lovely crystal.He even bought an egg-shaped piece of Serpentina from Machu Picchu which is said to help rid you of headaches--good kid, thinking of mom.

Machu Picchu

Several buses, a taxi, and a train ride brought us to Aguas Calientes – the mandatory stopping point to visit Machu Picchu. Since it is the dry season we, of course, woke up to rain. At 5:30 in the morning we boarded a bus and rode the 20 minutes to Machu Picchu. Since we couldn’t see the world famous, amazing archeological site through the fog, we decided to hike a nearby peak called, Wayna Picchu. The hike was steep and exposed. It was perfect for Sam because there were steps, cables to hang on to, ladders to climb and caves to crawl through. Even though it was strenuous, he felt very proud that he was able to hike this peak. We hiked through the clouds and reached the summit and a view of ...nothing. At the top, we waited for the clouds to lift so we could look down on the famous Peruvian landmark. Over the next hour we watched as Machu Picchu slowly revealed itself. It really was very dramatic. The views became better and better as we crawled down the mountain. By the time we were ready to meet our guide, the day was sunny and beautiful. We had a full day exploring and learning about the site – by 4:00 we were all exhausted and ready to go back to the hotel. Ravenous, Haviland decided to eat alpaca for dinner – she loved it! We didn’t try the local favorite of guinea pig, but the alpaca got rave reviews with Sam chanting, "Carne! Carne!"

Urubamba and Return to Cuzco

After being on the move for five days, we had two “rest” days in Urubamba. After our big hiking day in Machu Picchu, we were ready for some down time. Unfortunately the road to our hotel was closed due to construction, so the taxi left us with all our bags about 2 -3 km away. So, without really knowing where we were or where we were going, we shouldered our bags and started walking through a beautiful farming area surrounded by lovely mountains. Some very nice locals helped us find our way and soon we were at “Las Chullpas” – one of our favorite places during our trip. Most houses in Peru were built from an adobe block, but Las Chullpas took adobe to a new level. Each room was beautifully constructed with fireplaces, lofts, different colored bottles, windows and sky lights placed into the adobe for natural lighting. We had two very peaceful days enjoying the quiet, farming area – all we needed to do was read, hike and run on the trails behind the hotel, play cards and find good food in town. Ahhhh… vacation!
A squished public bus brought us out of the peaceful valley and back to Cuzco. Sam had to endure countless local people through-out our trip testing his Spanish skills, as they couldn’t believe a small blond haired, American could understand Spanish. When they got over the initial shock, and they realized the parents were Spanish language morons, they had a great time talking to him. Haviland and Sam made friends with a nice craft woman who was going to Cuzco to sell her hand carved gourds. We spent the bus ride looking at what she had to sell and the stories behind them.
We enjoyed two more days in Cuzco wandering about aimlessly. We ate more good food, bought alpaca socks to get ready for the Cordillera Blanca and caught glimpses of the World Cup everywhere. After the two days, we packed away our down coats, hats and gloves and got ready for the Amazon Rainforest near the town of Puerto Maldonado.

Pictures are at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/GrobGuat/CuzcoAndSacredValley#

June - July 2010

Nicaragua 2010

With Guatemala City covered in a blanket of ash from the recent eruption of Volcan Pacaya, with the flooding from the tropical storm and torrential downpours of a heavy rainy season, and with the stress of grading and ending a school year – let’s just say, I was ready for a summer vacation.

As soon as school was over, we headed to Nicaragua with our friends Stephanie, Rachel, Jeff, Maya and Alexis. We decided to use Granada on the shores of Lake Nicaragua as a base for several days. It was easy to use the quiet colonial city as a central spot to explore the surrounding area.

For some reason, you can’t quite escape volcanoes in Central America. Even though we just shoveled ash for weeks at home, the first place we decided to go was an active volcano called Volcan Masaya. It was a flatter volcano with a road that basically goes right to the smoking crater’s edge. After peeking down into the massive crater, we drove around the back side of the mountain and took a tour of an old lava tube. There is something irresistible about volcanoes – they just are so cool and if they are steaming and active… all the better!

Granada is next to an area of Lake Nicaragua called, “Las Isletas”, which is an area with approximately 360 small islands. If you have money, for a mere $300,000 you can buy your own island – many rich people from Managua do just this. We took a nice boat tour of the islands where we could see beautiful homes, shore birds and nice views of the massive lake. It was a good relaxing time to unwind from a stressful end of the school year.

Nicaragua was similar to Guatemala in many ways. It was a country that seemed to be in the middle of modern and ancient just like in Guate. In Nicaragua, the streets had modern cars and motorcycles weaving around horse drawn carts that carried produce or were used as a means of transportation. I suppose like everywhere, there was a vast difference between the rich and the poor. Again, like both countries all the people were super nice. When our friend Jeff got his wallet stolen on the public bus, a group of guys from a baseball team that happened to be on the bus, ran after the thief and got the wallet back. Not only that, but a nice man named, “Angel” walked us back to our hotel to make sure the gringos were safe.

From Granada, we got a ride in a pick up several hours south to Rivas and San Jorge where we got a ferry to Isla de Ometepe. The huge island sits in the middle of Lake Nicaragua and was formed by two large volcanoes – one active and one inactive. It was a nice quiet island with very few roads and even fewer cars, there were howler monkeys and white faced monkeys, many beautiful birds, swimming holes and waterfalls. It turned out to be a great place to enjoy several days. It was also a fun way to spend our last few days with friends before they moved back home to the San Francisco area.

From Isla de Ometepe, we parted company. We spent a night in Managua before our flight to Lima. We were excited to leave the heat and humidity of Central America to head to the mountains and the cold of winter in Peru!

Pictures of the trip can be found at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/GrobGuat/Nicaragua2010#