Closing Time

Today is a sad day.
I returned to La Paz for the 3rd time, but without my partners in crime.
I realized that I have officially began the trek home, and what a trek it will be The tremendous amount of land I will be covering (and have covered) for the next few days is going to be a challenge. My trust is with Peru, TACA air and the back of my fathers truck that I will arrive safe and sound.

Today was a strange day.
I said goodbye to my South American soul mate. Then I realized how far away from each other we were going to end up and how we have not spent more than 3 days apart in 4 months. This was strange.
I realized that I am moving from a home on the road, but continuing to be homeless. This was even more strange.
I realized that I will no longer be surrounded by those who understand the term ‘mas o menos’. This is going to be strange.
I realized that I am going to need to pay a lot more and tip a lot more from now on. This will be strange.

Yet, today is a wonderful day.
I realized how attached I have become to this area of the world and how wonderful it really is.
I realized that I have experienced sooooo much and a lot of which, was outside of my own awareness.
I realized that this is not an ending at all. How wonderful is that?!
I realized even more what wonderful friends I have. 

Today I had to say goodbye to a fantastic German lady and Israeli man. Veronika, Guy, thank you for sharing your journey with me. Thank you for putting up with me for a month and 3 weeks. I could not have laughed more with the both of you. The best of luck in Lima and Columbia. Be safe and talk soon.

Miss. Clotilde Mallet, you are an unbelievable friend and woman.

Thank you lady for sharing your time and journey with me. I could not have found a better traveling partner. You have truly taught and inspired me more than I can express through words. We have developed a language of our own on this trip and nothing could be more exciting. I will see you in Hong Kong as soon as I can lady. much, much love.

Fresh, fresh, fresh

I am not going to be able to forget these juice stands in Sucre. Unfortunately we never did take a photograph, but the visual image of every fruit imaginable piled  higher than your head will forever be in my brain. The ladies there are forever making fruit salads, vegatable and fruit smoothies, fruit juices, cereal options and they never seem to find the bottom of the produce pile. You can never go wrong when ordering…… Actually, scratch that there is one trick. You must, must, must ask for no sugar, because even though you would think that the fresh flavour of the fruit would be sweet enough they do not agree. No azúcar por favor!

2 weeks

We are off to Cochabamba tonight and it seems that this wonderful S.A. tour is quickening with time. Yesterday we returned from a wonderful 3 day hike through another set of beautiful mountains. Leaving Sucre at 3am in order to avoid road blocks and people from the bus strike, we began the trek. Everywhere we went it seemed to be a totally different, yet wonderful landscape. I am going to miss these highlands quite a bit when home.

It seems that I have 2 weeks to go and I am trying very hard to not think about it. Some people only go on vacation for 1 or 2 weeks anyways right? These next few weeks will be packed with hiking and jungle tours. The worst thing I am fearing at the moment would be the 24 hour bus ride to the jungle followed by a 3 hour flight back, 27 hour bus ride to Lima and then a 16 hours in and around planes home. This lady is going to be mighty tired when I finally arrive home to Canada.

add it on baby!

When you order or make a meal it is not simple. Thought and time is always needed. Yet, it is very common to think that when it reaches your plate it is not complete. Adding salt, pepper, ketchup, whatever is really common. Not an insult to the cheif, but common. As well, a snack before or after is something found in most places around the world. Yet, what the snacks or additives are, are different depending on where you are. 

For all of the South American Countries I have been these things only change slightly and I wrote a while back about how much sugar and salt everyone uses. What I didn’t mention was the amount of ‘snack’ stands there are everywhere!!! You can not turn a corner without someone selling a chocolate bar, chips, nuts and more. A HUGE thing that is very strange here is a lack of market variety. There will be 5-6 stands that are the EXACT same. I am not kidding, people will offer the same product all the way down to the chocolate bar brand. This is insane, but is true for all things. If someone starts selling fried chicken and potatoes the next stand is bound to sell the same thing.

Bringing it back to the condiments and additives. There is always something called aji, a spicy (usually homemade) sause which is super good. You never will know how it is made because each region, country and person makes it differently. It is usually with a lot of peppers, onion and tomatoes.

Another which is common is the dulche de leche which is put on bread in the morning. This product is suuupppper sweet and insane. Fair warning though, consuming this will leave you with a right proper stomach ache. I learned my lesson.

Perfect Timing

It is either that we have incredibly great luck or that we have built up a bank of great karma, but we couldnt have better timing lately. The past three days we have spend just outside of Arequipa and in the Colca Canyon. This place is beaaauutiful, larger than the grand canon and filled with small villages to visit. Our first day was an 6 hour hike down and across the canon ending in the oasis where we just beat the rain and all of the tourists. Perfect timing.

Our hostel was a small place at a perfect price and couldnt have been more enjoyable. The following day we hiked for another 8 hours to an upper village named Fure. Here we enjoyed a lunch of avacado, cracers and fruit after Simon and I played in the most amazing mountain fed waterfall I have ever seen. We then ventured our way along a mysterious (insanely high and narrow) waterway to a small village overlooking the lower river. We again stayed in a great small hostel(for a few more dollars than the last) with a fantastic meal and great company. After waking up to pancakes and sunrise we headed out again to make our way back out of the canon.

Sunscreen, homemade tshirt-head protection and bandaids on, we were ready to go, or so we thought. After coming to what we thought to be the right bridge and right path we started up the second climb. Through some confusion and my attempts to run uphill at that altitude we were overly unsure of our trail choices, but to our surprise there was a car coming our way. Filled with buisness men, they reasured us that we were on the right track. So, vamos (we thought)! Simply follow this route for another 2 hours, fine.

Another 10-15 minutes further up the mountain we were to meet a friendly, old and fast moving peruvian man headed our way. Now, Miss. Clotilde, with her great language skills and elder person charm, shortly learned that this was infact not the right way at all. “Tis loco,” he proclaimed, as we were headed into not a 2 but 8-9 hour, uphill trek. He knew the better way that only made sence and nothing else to him. Well, who do you believe? The tourist car which came from the town we were headed or the old man who lived these mountains? The old man of course.

So, we followed and he proceeded to show us the quicker and obviously ‘correct’ path. “Follow up there, to there, to there, easy, 2 hours,” he says in spanish. He was right, this would be faster, but the path he was showing was not a walking path at all. It was one for mountain animals and small, nimble children. Imagine tinny; tinny switch backs all the way up 1 or 200 meters, where if you slipped you reeeaaaaly slipped. The crazy part is we said alright, let do it.

While continuing to approach this daunting climb we again ran into the tourist car which had stopped. They were unable to keep going because they may get stuck due to afternoon rain.

After a small chat it was clear that these men were VIP types and offered us a ride. Being unsure and so sweaty from the heat this was a great option. Perfect timing.

Up the mountain we road now very aware of our smell and becoming more aware of the company we shared.

One 70 year old german gentalmen who’s company was looking to engineer a hydro-electric dam, using the river we just played in the day before. Perfect, our friend just finished her engineer undergrad and was in a small debate about her next more. Internship in Peru? Oh ya.

The second two men were very nice engineer investors in the project and from Seoul, korea. You can imagine my excitment. So, I began the conversation. Once hering my plans to teach in korea I was no sooner given a buisness card and told to call him for english lessons. Future teching job and connections pour moi, check.

Following these discussion we were to learn that these men were stopping for lunch and driving to Arequipa, where we were also headed. Our lucky day; it was not just a free ride, but a direct one.

Two hours for lunch while they had a buisness meeting, we were set. You think this story is long and too good to be true, it continues. Our friend had forgotten some very expensive and important glasses in the car on the way to the canon. Well what would you now, but that exact van was sitting right infront of us and about to leave. Finding glasses, check. Again, perfect timing.

We enjoyed the market and made our way back to the car only to find it was gone: Damn, the way too good to be true day had finished. Do not take things like this for granted we thought, bus it is. After realizing this, to our great surprise, the car turned the corner only to pick us up. We learned our lesson.

Having the best conversation and beautiful drive back we couldnt help but proclaim wow; what perfect timing we had and what incredibly lucky and privledged people are!

Next stop, Bolivia.

Back to ‘reality’ and on to great wonders of the world

What to do when your life no longer consists of chickens, pulling weeds, making bread, harvesting sweet lemons and being in a truely peaceful and beautiful place? Well, first spend some time hiding in a hostel trying to understand all the loud horns, people and speed of the city. Then you travel across a country of course! Leaving beautiful Ecuador and taking a quick 12 hour jont to Chiclayo and a small 6 hour hop to Lima is where you then pick up a wonderful french man named Simon. From this point you must only roll all the way to Ica and Huacachina where you will experience the greatest sandbox for adults surrounding a natural oasis. There is then no other answer than a 16 hour ‘full cama’ bus ride to Cusco complete with jello and butter, ham sandwiches only to be improved by french cheese and chocolate. When reaching Cusco you may embarrassingly struggle to walk a flight of stairs from the increase of altitude, but it is all good because you are off the see one the greatest wonders of the world!!!!!

This past Friday we had the pleasure of climbing up to see Machu Picchu, a beautiful and breathtaking inca ruin and site outside of Aguas Calientes, Peru. We hiked to the top of the mountain, a trek not travelled by most visitors. This is something I do not understand because despite the multiple stairs, this hike gives the most beautiful and full view of the Machu Picchu city. Further more, you can see the WHOLE surrounding valley and then some. Why not put on some hiking shoes, do some exercise and really be a part of this beautiful and special place?

We didnt spend much time in and among the inca city itself, but it isnt every day you can see something as impressive and beautiful as this. The following morning we began a 7 hour hike back along the train tracks for a full view of the valley.

Miss Clo Mallet said it the best, ‘those Inca had got it right!¡’ They picked a valley which is just stupid beautiful and used there power to literally carve out their lives. Such a difference and a very eye opening change to the way we are used viewing a city.

Awkward Silence

Watching a family of 6 this morning solidified my understanding of social silence. Seeing as they had just spent the last 8 hours sleeping in silence, you would think they would be roaring to chat, nope. Their silence was broken by the arrival of breakfast and a discussion on where to go that day.
Clotilde and I went for dinner the other day and our conversation was the same. Yet, our silence was broken with realizations about all of our ‘unawkward’ silences. Mind you we never see to run short of things to say, but man, silence sometimes just feels golden. All of this is to say I think we have made a true little travel family.