Crossing the border and Mancora Peru

Well we have officially made it into Peru. A good trip overall, we were glad to be safely in a nice bus to cross the border! We arrived in a northern surf town of Mancora, Peru. A nice Swiss guy helped us at the bus stop and we joined he and his Peruvian wife to their new bungalows above town. We have now been here for 4 days and really enjoy it. The bungalows are special, they overlook town and a great view of the ocean and surf break. The first day i decided to try kite surfing (i have wanted to try for a long time) it is even expensive here but truly a great rush. After only 3 hours i was standing on the board and riding! One more lesson tomorrow and i am equipped with the knowledge for kite surfing=skiing! I describe it like this: similar to slalom skiing behind a boat with a crazy driver that you have total control over. We decided this place promotes doing nothing but relaxing and observing! Also our Spanish is really improving. We move south on Saturday, until then i´m going surfing.

Cuenca and Guayaquil Ecuador

We finished Spanish school in Cuenca and feel really good about our skills. Come to find out they had a huge festival starting on thursday and we got a taste. They have tons of sweets and candy for sale all over and at night they light off these crazy towers of fireworks. The fire was raining down into the crowd and everyone loved it. We personally felt in danger but smiled along with them. The city was an awesome place to learn, great architecture and atmosphere. I even went to a futbol match! It was a crazy fast busride over the mountains and We are now near the coast and ready to cross into Peru tomorrow. Guayaquil is busy and huge but they have a great walkway along the river where we currently are.

En Cuenca Por Escuela de Español

Emily and I have enrolled in a week of seperate one on one spanish classes. 4 hours a day in the afternoons.

We started yesterday and it is amazing how much i learned once but have forgotten. We both feel it is a great investment in our travels.

We will post pictures of this really cool city with great architecture and very nice people. Cuenca is however very busy! We moved hostals this morning, to be closer to the river and not in the middle of the buses and taxi´s at 6 am.

Baños and Puyo EC

Let me just say it is not afraid to rain here! Nearly every night and morning it is raining, then the sun will come out and it is hot and HUMID!

On Thursday we hiked high above the town of Baños to a small village, it was a tough hike, but good for both of us. After buying groceries we ate and i was asleep by 6pm through the night...i guess i was tired?
Yesterday we rented a MOTO and drove the route of the waterfalls on the Pastaza river all the way to Puyo. Puyo is the gateway into the jungle where there are no raods. The airport was busy with little airplanes taking people and supplies into the jungle. We got wet going down there but the sun was warm on the edge of the jungle. We then continued to a little zoo with jungle animals and my favorite was definetely the monkeys. We saw birds, snakes, turtles, large rodents (capybaras) and pig-like creatures, Em knows the names?
The long road back confirmed that this would be a tiring way to travel all the time (at conception of this trip i wanted to buy motorcyles and travel all the way south).


We again went to the hot springs last night to sooth our weary bums, and good old pizza was the perfect food for a long but adventurous day!

Baños Ecuador

We have descended down to 6000´to the town of Baños (baths). There is an actve volcano above us which we saw the smoke from as we descended, however today there were clouds and rain. We walked the town yesterday, bought some bootleg DVD´s (all for $1 each) and watched Juno. We decided that the movies will help us survive from becoming home sick. The place we are staying is amazing! Last night we stayed at a mediocre place with my new nemisis the rooster next door. I thought they only crow at sunrise but that is not correct, this one did it all night? So we moved into a great place further into the hills, below a waterfall and a nice quiet area. We are fresh off of a $25 massage and a thermal pool visit. We hope the weather holds for a hike or bike tomorrow.

Happy Birthday MOM!

COTAPAXI!

Well I made it! The highest i have ever climbed 5897meters (19,460´) It was a cloudy drive in and i was bummin a bit. However as we arrived at the north approach to the Refuge the clouds parted and we got our first look! It is a very round looking mountainand an active volcano with a glacier cap. We drove to 4500m and then hiked up to Jose Rivas Refugio at 4800m. The afternoon consisted of carb loading, pictures and lots of tea. The refuge is quite big, but simple with bunk beds and a few tables to eat. Baño was sketchy, but most of them are here. I tried to sleep from 7-12 but with limited success due to excitement and ever calling bathroom calls (i drank a toñ of water and tea). There were 5 of us 2 Gias and 3 climbers, One swiss the other an Aussie. We geared up at about 12;30 am and were hiking by 1;15. We hiked to the glacier, put our crampons on and then up, up and more up. I was roped with a guide and the Aussie, we were all in great shape and passed the few other guides that started before us very quickly. All crampon climbing, with a climbing axe. The air was thin and crisp and the stars were incredible! We hiked so fast we made it to the summit 5897m in 3hours17min! Even the guide was amazed. But that did not fit the sunrise schedule we were hoping for, it was before 5am and we needed to be there at 6. It was cold, windy and all of our gear was coated in humid sugar. We could not stay there for an hour it was too cold, so we descended. About 300m down we saw the swiss climber and our other guide, i decided to join them for round 2 hopefully for the sunrise. Well the second time was the one, we saw the sun coming to life and got some great pics. Not enough light to see into the volcano crater but iwas a beautiful morning. A long slog down with great vistas and cold everything. We were truly blessed with awesome weather amd great guides.

Emily hung back at papaguyo, read and rode horses. Naturally i had the camera.

All in all it was an awesome experience, but that is enough mountain climbing for awhile, on to the thermal pools at lower elevation.

IGOR

A shot out to Emily´s cousin Matt Parker whom has been working on a movie that releases in September. Watch this trailer! And go see the movie in Sept!!!!!

http://movies.yahoo.com/premieres/7714044/standardformat/

Laguna Quilotoa, Ecuador

We have been thoroughly enjoying our time here at the farmhouse Papaguyo. Yesterday we took a guided trip to an amazing crater lake. The drive there was very exciting with passing buses and major commerce happening on not so great roads! We had a fun group, a guy from New York, a Scottish bloak and an Isreali gal all with our guide Fernando in our old-school land cruiser. The drive through the high mountain valleys, with idigenous towns and steep farmland was breathtaking. The actual Laguna was super cool with steep cliffs dropping right down into the emerald lake. The hike down was enough to inspire Emily to Hire a burro for her lift out. I climbed out as a I am anxiously getting ready for Cotapaxi climb Sunday night.

I hope you Enjoy these pics, this place was beautiful!

Papa Gayo Ecuador

Well we have finally headed south from Quito, We spent 2 days planning our next steps and have found our way to a cool 150 year old farmhouse in Avenue of the volcanoes! We are here so that Emily can ride horses and i can acclimitize for my hike up Cotapaxi 5897meters Sunday night. Yesterday we did just that; I climbed Illiniza north (times 3.3 for feet, my watch sais 16,250 but i think the calculation is greater) It was a mixed climb on rock and ash (sand and pummeled rock) as well as some snow. It was super windy and cloudy at the top but Either way that is the highest i have ever climbed! Emily rode horses here at the farm, up into the hughlands. It is great to have a little fire in our chiminea and warm up at night and in the morning. Today we are going on a guide trip to a lago encime de volcan.

Ecuadorian SURPRISE

Even this little Ecuadorian boy was surprised at what this doorway had to offer!

We are headed south now,I may attempt to climb COTAPAXI at 5897 meters, that would be far beyond any height i have climbed!

Mitad de Mundo (Middle of the world)

Well it was not the easiest place to get to but we successfully walked on the equator. There are two location so we made sure to walk both. Apparently the French made a monument, about 250 meters from the true GPS location, (i guess it is true you cannot trust the French). Regardless it was fascinating! They did the water experiment, no swirl on, counterclockwise in Northern hemisphere and clockwise in the south. We were also both successful in balancing a raw egg on a nail? Check out our trans-hemispherical kiss!

FuyaFuya, Ecuador

Sunday Emily and I (and a group of 5 others) climbed a local dormant volcanoe FuyaFuya. Only Emily and I summited both peaks, which were roughly 13,500 ft. There was an amazing lake at the trailhead with some great rocky spines above. The hike was not bad but the return was super wet! At the summt our guide told us that Fuya meant cloudy, well fancy that it was cloudy!

Otavalo Ecuador

Well we made it out of Quito by the skin of our teeth, we envisioned buying tickets, standing in a queue and getting on a bus...no,no...instead our taxi raced in front of the bus with otavalo stuck to the front, and we jump out, jammed our bags underneath and sit down in a frenzy. Greatest lesson learned however is not to get caught up in the pace and insanity, but rather to move with poise and intention. Naturally all of the hurrying led to many stops and waiting, so regardless we were fine to just relax! Breathe

So Otavalo bus ride was beautiful, many valcanoes, rivers, canyons and towns along the way. Once we arrived we found another simple but comfortable hostel. The day eventually had rain, so we ate empenadas (fried goodness stuffed with things like chicken, cheese, etc) and bought some beers to relax on our terrace and read. Very relaxing and energy boosting.


After Enjoying a siesta we went down to the restaurant for some live Andean music which was super cool. A great dinner, authentic music, a game of checkers (Emily whooped me) it was a nice day.

We came to Otavalo for the Saturday market, which we are currently escaping from. These people are so tiny and content, and amazing artesians! We quickly busted our budget with very unique items, some of which you all will benefit from.

All in all we are finding our stride, and learning to work together to travel, buy, eat, speak spanish, and Conquista la aventura!

We are now to hike up to a lakeand waterfall nearby.

QUITO Ecuador

Well we made it to Ecuador late last night, the rain made for a relaxing sleep in our basic, clean room. picture on the left is from our room. This morning Emily was a little overcome by the sacrifices and discomforts we will experience down here, there is no doubt this is certainly not home! We walked both old and new town in the rain today, bought a paragua, umbrella and climbed an amazing church tower, picture to left. it was sketchy but proved to be an amazing perspective of the city.

We decided that big cities are not so much our style and we plan to go north to smaller towns with mountains, markets and cloudforests for the weekend.

Crazy thing about ecuador is that everything is US dollars, which makes things easy!
chao, dav3