Los Aventuras de Edmundo y Linda

After over 12 hours in planes and airports it was amazing to get to Mexico and hang out with friendly people, warm weather, and great food!  We spent a couple nights at Nacho´s house and a couple at Luis´s.  Thanks guys!  They took really good care of us.  We went and visited some cool ruins, some tasty taco stands, and some cool pubs.  Our friend Poncho just got back from England so we had a reunion party!  The car is making some strange sounds and there is a little smoke coming out of the engine but we´re feeling positive and are planning to drive to LA in 3 or 4 days.

We took a beautiful bus ride from Copacabana to La Paz. There were amazing views of Lake Titicaca and the city of La Paz. At one point we all had to get out of the bus and take a boat across part of Lake Titicaca and the bus got on a separate boat (check out the picture). We then took a cab to Patty´s house, one of the friendliest, most hospital people we have ever met. We met Patty´s son in Cusco, Peru and were invited by him. Patty spoiled us rotten for the two wonderful days we spent there. It was very relaxing and was just what we needed. Thanks Patty!

Took an early bus to Puno, Peru from Arequipa. The bus turned out to be a big piece of junk. The driver was a maniac and drove most of the trip in the wrong lane while passing semis around blind corners on the highway. After somehow surviving that bus ride we hopped on another substancially nicer and calmer bus accross the border to Copacabana, Bolivia. Checked into a nice hotel right on Lake Titicaca. We got a private room with a private bathroom (and 24 hours water) on the 5th floor for $11.50/night! Man, Bolivia is really cheap!

Had some more free breakfast at the hostel. Getting free breakfast is sweet but we have been eating bread, butter, jam, and tea every monring for the past 2 weeks and its getting a little old. We did a hike up a hill above the town. Beautiful views of the town and lake but the hike was extremely tiring due to the altitude. Took a boat ride to the Isla del Sol, which is where the Incas believe their civilization started. The boat took 1.5 hours each way because there was about 50 people on the boat and just a tiny outboard engine. We did a rushed hike up some Inca stairs to nearly the top of a huge hill on the island. The views of the lake and snow capped mountains were spectacular! We sped-walked back to the boat and then stopped at another part of the island to see some Inca ruins.

Took a 10 hour bus ride to Arequipa and arrived at 5:30am. We didn´t sleep much on the bus because the heat was on full blast and we were sweating like crazy. The whole bus stunk because of the sweaty, discusting people. Had a free breakfast at the hostel. Met Kealy & Nico, a cool Austrialian/Argentinian couple. Slept for many hours on the hammocks on the roof and did some city exploring.

Left the hostel at 8am to Colca Canyon, the deepest canyon in the world. The bus ride to the canyon took us over 5000m above sea level. Everyone on the bus had altitude sickness and had to drink coca tea and chew coca leaves or take pills. One man even had to take a ride back to Arequipa because he was having problems with his heart. We saw lots of cool lamas and alpacas, man are they cool and cute! We ate some that night and they were really tasty! Did a hike up to some pre-Inca tombs and lookout over the valley and then went to some hotsprings. Stayed overnight in a town called Chivay.

Left our hostel in Chivay at 6am and did a hike through part of Colca Canyon. The canyon was about 3500m deep at the point we visited but gets to over 4000m in some places. We saw tons of HUGE condors flying around the canyon. There wing span is about 2.8m! Took the bus back to Arequipa and sang along with the sweet 90s tunes the driver was playing. Said bye to Nico and Kealy… thanks for the book!

We enjoyed the fantastic view from our hostel, while eating free breakfast, which Edmundo thinks is awesome because he writes it down in our journal everytime. The hostel is really cool, it has been converted from an old farm. We spent most of the day walking around the main square (Plaza de Armas). We also looked for warm clothes since our bags got stolen in Huacachina, Peru. During the night we enjoyed an awesome meal, even though Edmundo was still a sicko.

We went to a few stores to replenish our gifts and did many walks back and forth to the hostel. The Plaza de Armas was full of people today, because of the Festival del Sol celebrations. We checked out the parade and festivities. We decided to cook our own meals and went to the supermarket. It´s cheaper and we are also way over budget. We also stopped at a delicious bakery on our way back to the hostel.

Woke up at 6am. We both didn´t sleep much because Linda was coughing all night. We met some friends at the Plaza de Armas at 7am. We grabbed a small bite to eat and then walked to get a seat on a dirt hill overlooking the festival area. We arrived about 6 hours early and it wasn´t even that good. Peruvians were throwing rocks at other people standing up and blocking their view and thousands broke through police barricades to sit on the ruins to see the festivities. Later that night we meet some Brazilians, French and Americans and all had a mini fiesta at the hostel.

We decided to walk around town very slowly, because were waiting for our bus to Arequipa, Peru.  We were so hot cause we left our long underwear on all day.  Edmundo thinks its so funny that the propane companies deliver tanks chained to the delivery mans motorbike.  The rest of the day we hung out around the hostel and admired the view. 

We woke up at 4:30am to take a 4 hour train ride to Aguas Calientes, a city near Machu Piccu. We bought some wool mitts and toques because we were so cold. The area we are in now is approx. 3,000m above sea level. It gets pretty cold here at night and in the shade. We were served some breakfast on the train and meet some very nice Peruvian and Argentinean ladies. Spectacular views during the entire train ride. The town was very nice and was surrounded by amazing mountains, a creek and lots of markets. We went to the ¨hot springs¨ that weren´t even hot are really brown. We walked around town and ate some traditional Peruvian food, stuffed (vegatable and meat) peppers.

The next day we woke up at 4:30 in the monring to stand in line to catch the 5:30 bus to Machu Piccu. Amazing there was 22 buses that left at that time. Machu Piccu is absolutely beautiful. We also did a hike up to WaynaPiccu (the younger mountain). The hike was a crazy steep stone path that zigzaged up the mountain to the peak with awesome views of Machu Piccu, the mountains and the valley.

Finally got to Cusco, Peru after a 15 hours uncomfortable bus ride.  We could barely sleep because there was a baby crying almost all night right behind us.  The first picture shows a bunch of roosters in a mesh bag tied to the roof of a bus!  We didn´t do much today, just lounged around the hostel.  Last minute we decided to go to Aguas Calientes (near Machu Piccu) the next day and had to organize a whole bunch of things last minute.

Happy Birthday Edmundo!!! The hostel in Huacachina organized a tour to the Nazca Lines for us… a two hour bus took us there. We hopped on a little 6 seater airplane and we had a crazy plane ride over the lines. Edmundo puked on the plane and Linda thought his puke bag was gonna explode so she gave him hers.

Huacachina is a really cool little town.  The town surrounds an oasis in the desert and is surrounded by huge 300 meter sand dunes.  We took an insane, death dune buggy trip into the desert and then went sandboarding, and stopped on top of a dune to watch the sunset.  We got sand everywhere that you can imagine.  Later that night we hung out with 8 French medical students and 3 Canadians (2 of which were medical students), lots of good French practice!  We had most of our clothes in the laundry that night and so we were pretty cold.

We climbed up a sand dune… and it wasn´t as easy as we thought.  We made a bet on how long it was going to take and we both lost.  We couldn´t make more than 40 steps before we were completely out of breath and had to stop for a rest.  It was beautiful when we finally made it to the top!  We also ran down the dune and that was crazy too! 

We stayed here a little longer than we expected because Edmundo felt poopy.  So he decided to get some blood tests to make sure he didn´t have malaria.  The results negative… sweetness! 

We also found this hotel that had a turtle as a pet.  Turtles walk so funny… we made a video, too bad we can´t post it!  Next door to our hostel is a farmer who likes having many animals as pets and one of his huge geese crash landed inside our hostel in a plant.  Weird and super funny!

We left by bus (4 hours) to Paracas, the landscape was beautiful.  Peru is surrounded by desert with huge sand dunes.  On the way into town we passed a whole bunch of fish meal processing plants… man did it smell disgusting.  We had dinner on the beach, which was under construction.  We were the only people in the restaurant and they were so happy they gave us 2 free drinks.     

We went to Isla Ballestas, nicknamed the ¨Poor Man´s Galapagos.¨  Check out the HUGE jelly fish that washed up on the beach.  On the way to the islands, the indigenous people of Paracas dug out a chandelier like shape into the side of the sand dune that can be seen from 22km away, its was really cool.  On the islands there were tons of birds, penguins, sea lions and pelicans.  The area smelled like bird poo though and we goot pooed on.  An interesting fact about the islands is that every 7 years people scrape off the bird poo (which is often more than a few meters thick) and sell it as fertilizer.   We met a really cool French couple (Benoit and Mode) and traveled with them to the next town (Huacachina).