Follow up to the survey

So, we of course tried both giving money to the taxi driver and leaving it at the hostel. We decided to leave it at the hostel because the money from the cabbie was never delivered. We felt very discouraged but were determined it would work to leave it at the hostel. Our friend went to pick up the money but they staff said it was never delivered. After we assured him in an email that we did indeed drop it off, he went back and after a lot of arguing, the staff eventually handed over the money.

We also found out later the cab driver did in fact drop off the money, just later than he said he would.

All in all, we should have remembered to pay him back in the first place, but we thought it was interesting that both methods did work, just not in the way we hoped.

Also, we are hoping to do a month or so of volunteer work in southern Africa in April/May and would love any ideas/contacts/resources that you might have. (Katy, we are eagerly awaiting more info from you!) Our main interest is to stay in one community for a longer period of time and get to know people and their culture.

The long and winding road to Machu Picchu

Alisa and I arrived into Cusco the morning of the 23 and went in search of our Servas host for the night. We had the address - a home on Avenida Camino Real and so we hopped in a taxi and asked to be taken there. A few minutes later, we´d arrived! Except for what should have been a house looked more like a hotel . . . it turns out we had the right street but the wrong city! The wrong Camino Real.

Uh . . . no problem . . . Two buses and 3 hours later we arrived at the correct Camino Real in the small and beautiful town of Urubamba. We had the privilege of staying with the wonderful Senor Yoyo, his incredible family, his three dogs, and his two talking parrots. They took us out to a delicious Peruvian lunch and we spent the evening sharing magic tricks and travel stories.



0800: There is a train that takes people directly to Machu Picchu but we decide to take the scenic (aka cheaper) route. We begin our journey by heading to the bus stop to catch a bus we think is coming at 8:30am.
1030: Our bus finally comes. We board.
1200: We watch rocks slide off the mountain and into the road.

1201: Our bus drives straight through the rock slide.

1209: We stop to fix the flat tire . . . who would have guessed??

1210: Someone in the back yells ¨We´re missing three people!¨

1212: Three out of breath people climb onto the bus.

1221: We stop again to fix the flat tire.

1630: After an incredibly twisty but beautiful drive through the sacred valley, we arrive Santa Maria.

1645: Us and 21 others squeeze ourselves into 12 passenger van.

1700: All 23 of us get out of the van and walk a particularly narrow part of the road . . . not sure why . . . something having to do with the van being too heavy . . .

1745: All 23 of us pile out and off the van again. This time just to take in the beautiful views.

1845: Two hours later we arrive in Santa Teresa and grab some cheese and avacado sandwiches to take with us in the next van. It is now down to just us and 10 boys from Chile. We realize the route we are on is nicknamed ¨The Chilean Route¨ for a reason.

1900: We arrive at the ¨hydroelectrico¨ and begin following the train tracks to Aguas Calientes, the town next to Machu Picchu. We have to cross a few rivers.2200: We finally make it to Aguas Calientes and go in search of a hostel. The Chileans go in search of a campsite (they ended up sleeping for free at the police station . . . if only we´d known).

0030: We finally get to sleep.

0500: We wake up to catch the first bus (5:30am) to Machu Picchu.

0600: 22 hours later, we finally make it to Machu Picchu. Alisa is so excited she tries to hug the llamas. We ran into some of the Chileans again and hike to the top Wayna Picchu. It was a really steep climb but we walked really slowly and absorbed lots of energy just like our guide told us to. It was really wet and cold but we were lucky to catch glimpses of Machu Picchu and the surrouding area when the clouds moved. (In this picture, the clouds have not moved.)

Really, really wet and dirty now, we walk back down to Aguas Calientes instead of taking the bus.

All in all, Machu Picchu was absolutely wonderful and half the fun was the adventure of getting there.

Colca Canyon: The Trek of a Lifetime

We met up with a good crew of people on our bus ride to Arequipa (I think the puppet show cemented our friendship). Iain, Thijs (he is from Holland...does anyone know the difference between Holland and the Netherlands, feel free to comment), Rob (graduated a Santa Cruz slug), and Pascoe (also known as the 29 year old birthday boy...as evidenced on the birthday crown we made him). We went out on the town to celebrate. Luckily, the night before, we had discovered an incredibly romantic (according to all of the Peruvians) karaoke/dance-the-night-away bar (for all those reading from Eugene, the place was as close to Skate World as you can get....we could not have asked for more). The guys tried to veto our suggestion and, at first, were very reserved. They warmed up quickly and, after the first song, we could no longer access the microphone.

This night, which should have ended early in preparation for the 5 am trekking departure, carried on with great strength until the wee hours of the morning (we got home around 4 15 am).

Not too far from Arequipa, Peru is Colca Canyon, one of the world´s largest canyons. We went on a three day trip trekking down and up the canyon. The views were breath-taking, we stayed in a tiny village nestled into the canyon wall, and we got to see condors in flight. On the second day of our trek we had the opportunity to dress up in traditional Peruvian outfits. This is our trekking group, all of whom we loved. Our favorite moment was during our first day of rigorous trekking (the day after our night of birthday celebrations) when the other groups somehow ended up far ahead and our whole group had stopped to eat cheese and smoke cigarettes.

So far we have twirled in every country.

Tessa and I were, by far, the most athletic and adventurous trekkers in the group (we really did choose to bring up the rear) and we really were planning on hiking back out of the canyon...but then we discovered the mules. Actually, these mules begged to take us up the canyon. We wanted to hike out of the depths of this canyon yet we succumbed to their constant pleading, we both ended up riding up hte canyon on the back of the mules.

How to Prevent Boredom: Finger Puppet Shows

We got incredibly bored on our bus ride from Cochabamba, Bolivia to Arequipa, Peru and so we decided to put on a puppet show in Spanish, much to the amusement of everyone in the back of the bus. Hand-knit finger puppets are for sale every where in Bolivia and Peru and they are Tessa´s new addiction (Mom, these are going to be family heirlooms). We already had 15 at this point so we busted them out and tried to convince kids to play with us. We finally recruited these three young-uns. They got a little aggressive with the puppets, however, which was a little disconcerting because they are valued family heirlooms in the making.

In the middle of playing, a man got up in front of the bus and started trying to sell miracle pills. On most any bus someone gets up and tries to sell something, but this guy was especially irritating and yelled for well over an hour. At one point Alisa put her hair up in the bottle to amuse the kids and the man stopped talking and wouldn´t start again until Alisa took her hair down. We were playing first! The indignity.