and the rest of the day...

machu pikchu (in quecha)

3:15am Wake Up
3:45 Walk from hostal to base of machu pikchu
4:15 Ready to ascend 45 minutes+ of stairs in pitch black rain to que to be one of the select few to scale wayna pikchu - the steep mountain next to the ruins with great views, at 7am
4:20 Get ride from only truck on road for 20 soles (about $7)
4:40 Arrive as second group in line
6:00 Enter as park opens
7:00 Begin Ascension of wayna pikchu

8:00 ...

Adios Quito... llegamos en paraiso

We returned from the Galapagos on Saturday in the afternoon and stuck around in Quito to send my Mom of the next morning, at the unfortunate hour of 4am... this afforded us two more days in Quito, probably more than Laura wanted, as Quito is essentially closed on Sunday and we had a narrow window to negotiate our travel plans with the carriers open (there would also be no flights to our ulitimate destination until Monday). On the bright side, Laura finally found a day she liked Quito: SUNDAY! On Sunday, the main thoroughfare in Quito, that cuts through the business district and the Mariscal (where are all the restaurants, bars, gringos and actually some young locals like to hang out) closes down to cars and turns into a parade of quitenos on all forms of bicycles or out for a sunday jog. Quito Viejo, the main sightseeing area with the old colonial buildings, churces, etc. which is usually a mess of child shoe shiners and beggars, street vendors, locals, tourists all crowded around beautiful sights also closes to cars and undergoes a wonderful transition. If you head to the Galapagos, or anywhere else in Ecuador, and have any time to kill in Quito, try to include a Sunday. The only downside of course, is that conudcting any business (maybe other than getting a hair cut, which I did, for about $3) is nearly impossible.

When we finally managed to talk to ariline ticket agents we quickly surmised flying to Lima would be impossible ($500 each was standing in our way). So, we came up with a fast, but sound alternative plan: fly to Loja, southern Ecuador, home to supposedly the best spoken Spanish in all of Latin America, and from there cross the border into Peru by bus for $8. Monday, we put our plan into motion after a bit of siteseeighing amidst Laura´s very fond Quito sendoff (see first of slideshow).

Loja - five hours north of the Peruvian border, cultured city, citizens love music and to play instruments, and home to apparently some actual vegetarian restaurants in Ecuador! Worth a day and a half indeed. Laura and I checked out the town, visited a park that seemed designed by children for children, featuring miniature versions of landmarks from around the world: the Eifel Tower (see photo), Big Ben, the Kremlin, etc. We also visited a nice botanical garden run by one of the two universities in town.

Wedensday, we hopped on a bus out of Loja in the am and headed in sort of a u shape down and back up to the northern coast of Peru, to a little surftown called Mancora, blessed with great weather year round. Now in Mancora for a few days, we have managed to worn on our suntan, eat some great food, drink some great pisco sours, get to know some limeños we met by heading away from the touristy parts of town, both north and south (by tuk-tuk, combi (matatu) and foot), etc. We highly recommend visiting Mancora on a trip to Peru, but also even more highly recommend getting out of the main beach and heading north to Punta Sal and south to Las Pocitas, you will thank us later!

Tomorrow, we head to Lima to a very nice hostel that was recommended re:one of Laura´s friends... we hang there until Monday before we push on to Cuzco and the Sacred Valley of the Incas, including Mach Pichu... until then, enjoy the photos! and we hope you are all more than well...

Con un abrazo,

Esteban y Laura

Vegetarian dinasaurs, giant tourtoises, snorkeling with sea lions, penguins... where are we?

¡GALAPAGOS!
After a week in the wonderful world of the Galapagos, Elizabeth is on a plane slowly making her way back to Laguna Beach as
Laura and I are back in Qutio plotting our slower, but muuuuuuuuuuuuch cheaper jump from Ecuador to Peru via the overland route...












We had a wonderful time in the Galapagos and thus are posting a ton of photos of all kinds of crazy animals, beautiful beaches, odd scenery, etc. Here are a few of our favorite photos and a bit about our experience...

We spent 4 full days and nights aboard the Galaxy Yacht (Yate in Spanish) and would recommend the boat to anyone...

About our boat: the cuisine was amazing and often featured local Ecuadorian dishes, the rooms were fantastic and the itineraries were great... each day we had at least one expedition on land on one of the islands and at least one snorkel, either from the beach on the island we walked along or straight into the sea from a small panga boat... towards the end of the trip there were two snorkels a day, and these snorkels afforded us the opportunity to snorkel literally with sea lions, sharks, all kinds of cool fish, oh, and my absolute favorite, the Galapagos marine iguanas (see below).


We actually were lucky enough to snorkel with a marine iguana and watch it feast on algae a few feet below the surface and sun afterwords on nearby rocks... the marine iguana is a very unique animal that adapted specifically for the unusual environemnt of the Galapagos.... with a paucity of fresh water, the "vegetarian dinasaur" adapted to be able to drink the salt water abundant in the ocean, and either snort out the residual salt, or process it through its liver... they also adapted to be able to hold their breath under water for up to an hour so that they could eat the ocean algae as there was very little food for them on land... they can also handle the rather cold sea water and very hot temperatures on land... a really unique animal totally adapted for its incredibly unique home, really cool to see and even cooler to snorkel with...

Other highlights included visiting Genovesa island, literally an island for the birds... with no real top of the food chain predators, in the Galapagos the Hawk is the most feared predator, birds rule the islands, and Genovesa in particular... We saw countless blue footed boobies nesting in trees and diving head first into the ocean for food, pelicans that also majestically dive into the water for their food, owls, mockingbirds, etc. flying in chaotic swirls around jagged cliffs with splashing water almost reaching the tops of the cliffs ans soaking your shoes 40 feet above the sea... the only thing that interupted the all bird island were the occasional marine iguanas found sunning on hot rocks between meals. In the above photo featuring a pelican and its offspring, you can literally see the entire fish (tail peaking out from bill) that the pelican just pulled from the sea... so cool!

We also really enjoyed hiking on lava fields on Santiago island and witnessing the first plants struggling for life between the lava that was only 100 years old or so, laying the foudnation for future life to inhabit the island, as they have done on the other islands of the archipalego also birthed from volcanic eruptions...

All in all, a great week... it was a lot of fun, and we certainly got a taste for what inspired Darwin over 150 years ago...

Hasta Luego,

Laura y Esteban

El Mercado de Otavalo

(Mom & I in Otavalo, the center of town, not far from the Saturday market)

Every Saturday, in a small but cool town called Otavalo, about 30 minutes from Cusin, where our Hacienda was, there is a wonderful local market that is frequented by tourists and Ecuadorians alike, though I think the latter tend to buy the live chickens where as the former opt for bracelets, art work, bags, etc. Either way, its a cool experience and the ladies enjoyed the shopping... (some of you may even recognize future souveneirs!)

(Laura picking up a new bolsa)

(alpaca scarfs)
(tapestries)

(embroidered hand towels)

(juice break!)

esteban y laura y isabel

Quito at Night

(Please note: clicking on image will provide a much bigger, more detailed photo!)

Ok, so the next few posts may go a bit out of order, apologies...

We (Laura, Elizaebth and I) arrived back in Quito today in order to be ready to shove off to the Galapagos tomorrow... we spent a wonderful weekend at Hacienda Cusin, hiking, shopping (las mujeres) and eating... which you will be reading more about, and seeing more photos from, hopefully soon... I´m not sure what kind of internet access we will have in the Galapagos, probably none, so better to get off one post than sit on a few, we think...
We watched a bbc dvd on the Galapagos last night (highly recommended, probably on netflix, new this year) at the Hacienda, along with some canguil (popcorn) and are all very excited to go...
Tonight we visited the Mosaico cafe, perched high above Quito, between Quito Viejo and Quito Nuevo, with a fantastic view, sipping on wine, pisco sours, martinis and what have you, it was a good time...
Hope to be able to post soon, hope you are all more than well!
con un abrazo,
esteban, laura y elizabeth

Nuestro Familia de Cuenca

I know not everyone is a Footy Fan, but almost everyone loves food and family, so this post should appeal to most of you. We have been in Cuenca for a week now, living with a (wondeful) family; thus, we have had the opportunity to try some traditional food and some non-traditional as well. Our host mom has fed us well. Me gusta la comida de Rocio.


Per Rocio´s recommendation, we also went to an excellent local restaurant that was very reasonable. It was here that Stephen first tried the typical Equadorian soup which has cheese, potatoes and avocado. (He liked it).

Not only have we eatten well, but we have also had an excellent experience with our host family. We all went out together for Soledad's birthday, Rocio's daughter-in-law. You can see the photos below. And Stephen finally got to have his cono simple (just a scoop of delicious helado on a cone, oreo flavor in the photo if you are curious). Note to self: order from the menu as it is mas dificil to alter your order in broken Spanish. (por ejemplo, somehow plain vanilla frozen yogurt in a cone turned into a cherry sundae (not shown).



The happy man with tie and sundae is the esposo of Soledad and a Spanish professor at the school we have been attending... more to come regarding Cuenca, our host family, our school, etc., but we are being kicked out of our internet cafe... we´ve been getting funny looks for 30 minutes and all the other computers have covers over them and the workers are waiting to go home, so hasta luego, but soon...

laura y esteban

¡El Dia de FUTBOL!

Rarely is a day filled with two losses so enjoyable...
Before I get to today´s post, I should probably thank Laura for being a willing companion in today´s football madness, muchas gracias señora, muchas gracias...
1) El Juego De Futbol Numero Uno (the appetizer) fue a las Doce de la tarde: Lucky for us, the Ecuadorian football league is in full swing... and today, mighty Cuenca hosted rival Guayaquil, who currently possess the top spot of the Ecuadorian table (though it has been plausibly asserted by some that Quito plays the most beautiful futbol in Ecuador, at least this year)... the final score was a bit anticlimatic with a one-zero loss favoring the current table holders of Guayaquil, but the game was lots of fun nonetheless...



Before the game we were advised to sit in the $15 section for our comfort and safety versus the general section with ¨la gente¨for a fiver... always employing the utmost caution, we waited until we got to the stadium to see what the vibe was like... we opted to sit with ¨la gente¨and bought two tickets that looked like high school lottery tickets- we were not sure they would work until we were inside... not only did they work, we each got a free pack of sunflower seeds with each ticket... the section was totally safe, though it was cement rows with no backs, but hey, as mentioned before, we did get free sunflower seeds! and it looked like the $15 section was exactly the same except under a cement roof (a la the ¨con sombrero¨section in Costa Rica eh phil?) and las personas pobres cannot afford to enter... the quality of play was so so, i would say on par with middle of the pack to the upper echelon of MLS teams, though there was one jugador on the visiting team who wore neon boots and always seemed to be causing trouble and looked very skilled, much like each MLS team typically has at least one standout, if you are going to rock the neon boots while the rest of the team wears more modest black you better be good no?... in any event, the crowd was lively and there were beautiful views from the seats (see above photos), you could actually see la catedral, las montañas, a nearby school, etc... so, with the game looking solidly in Guayaquil´s hands, we ducked out 10 minutes early to...

2) ¨Locos por Futbol¨, a bar and lunch spot (the Norton´s Vault of cuenca, if you will) that was recommended to us by our host family, we had front row seats to our own big screen to watch the valliant valliant valliant effort of los Americanos, Los Estaods Unidos! For those that have not been following along, the USA stunned Spain, the best team in the world (at the moment) 2 nill in the semifinals of the Confederation´s Cup in South Africa, featuring many of the best teams in the world, including the eventual champions: Brazil. The first day Laura and I arrived to Cuenca, was the same day the USA beat Spain and, surprisingly, many people in Cuenca were discussing the game, i had not seen it, and was encouraged by many peoples´ comments that not only did the US win, but that they looked great doing so... que bien... We arrived at the bar with the USA up 1-0 from the creative and skilled goal by Dempsey (Phil can tell you a great Fulham chant involving Dempsey, just ask him)... we were happily surprised by the incredible run and goal by Donovan, when he plays like that, he can play with anyone... there was a nice Ecuadorian couple who had also been on our double play domingo futbol action at the local Cuenca match that had high praise for Donovan, as soon as they arrived they said: ¨where is Donovan?¨, within minutes he had scored the goal (not dissimilar to Phil´s high hopes for Dempsey)... alas, mighty Brazil eventually bested los americans and the stunning Tim Howard, but nonetheless, how far the USA came from losing to Honduras a few weeks ago, no?

At the end of the day of football, a day filled with two losses, all I can say was it was a great day, it appears many of mi amigos americanos watched today too, and i think we would all agree that we were very proud of the lads, as phil would say, and to answer Lars´s question in an email... absolutamente!, the Ecuadorians were amped for the Confederations cup and were really very supportive of los americanos, we have already met many Ecuadorians who have lived in New York for a few years, have cousins in the States who send cashish back home, etc., also many in Toronto, though that´s obviously not in the States... so the Americans get a nice reception in Ecuador...

¡viva el futbol! ¡viva los americanos!

spanish classes start again tomorrow...

hasta luego,

esteban y laura

¡Cuenca esta chevere!

So, we made it to Cuenca, Ecuador (which is in the souther highlands) without a hitch. We flew here on TAME which was a much better experience than most American airlines. We even got sandwiches, on our 45 minute flight! Amazing! (though, we´re still only partially sure what was in those sandwhiches, hmmmm...)
Our host madre met us at the airport. She was muy simpatico (very nice) right from the start. She welcomed us into her home and we felt like part of the family right away. The homestay has helped our Spanish immensely. We take classes in the afternoon which have also proved to be helpful. But, the most important thing is that we are forced to think and speak in Spanish most of the day & night. This has accelerated our learning process greatly. We have enjoyed spending time with the family, Rocio (madre), Jorge (padre), Rafael (hijo, 24 años), Jorge Adrian (hijo, 26 años). Rafael is married to Soledad and they have little Louis Antonio (2 años) - pictured below, tiene mi corazon (per Laura).

Oh, and we can not forget Puchini y Madona (los dos peros). Puchini esta bueno en la mañana y esta malo en la tarde. Le Puchini esta bipolar (their words, not mine, but they are correcto).
We are really enjoying the city of Cuenca as well. It is very picturesque with large plazas, grand cathedrals and cobblestone streets. The people here are very friendly and helpful, especially when we speak to them in our elementary Spanish.

(view of Cuenca from our balcony)

There are also many activities and things to do outside of Cuenca. Today we went to Ingapirca, which is a pre-Inca/Inca archeological site. It was very interesting to hear about the history of this special site. Incapirca was a nice appetizer for the main course of Machu Pichu to come in a few weeks...


p.s. chevere = cool. Steve is learning the local slang from Raphi.

Ecuador!

(our hostel)

We (Lau-ooh-ra and Esteban) arrived in Quito safe and sound yesterday evening a bit before 23:00 after a brief (briefer than expected!) layover in Atlanta, where our biggest entertainment was a row of payphones (yes, they still have those) dominated by Mormon missonaires phoning home before they embarked on their missions to who knows where... For the first time in my entire life, listening to the announcements on the airport speakers paid off as I faintly overheard that last call was being announced for our Quito flight 40 minutes early!, we said good bye to the missionairies, raced to the plane, only to find out we were 20th in line for takeoff, glad they rushed it...

Our biggest adventure of the evening involved the innagraul test of the nifty water purifying gadget that the Gelbergs procured in Santa Barbara and skeptical Harris confirmed the efficacy of via an online study by what we hope were respectable md´s... passing Harris´s google test, we went in for the real thing... (SO FAR SO GOOD!)

Today (Martes) we headed over to the potentially very useful South American Explorers club that has free internet for us in all the major cities we will be visiting (which will help us keep in touch) and a bunch of other nice amenities which should make our travels easier, more productive and more enjoyable. This also put us conveniently near Quito Nuevo and a section of town dubbed ¨Gringolandia¨ (think Rosarito in Ecuador), its like backpackers disneyland. There were some useful shops nearby and not far from Quito´s ¨Fisherman´s Wharf¨or ¨Union Square¨was una calle full of local Quitenos walking around in suits and work clothes, local students, some tourists, etc. This area holds more promise. More or less, today was about getting a feel for Quito. Though Gringolandia wasn´t all bad...

Oh, and we booked our flight to Cuenca... we will be headed there tomorrow for a homestay and a week of Spanish instruction with a bit of fun and sightseeing mixed in. There is a nearby town of Inca ruins which is supposed to be relatively easy to reach and cool, we´ll test both of those hypothses in the coming weeks...

p.s. for the footie fan followers of this blog, Phil, dempsey is on the main us soccer page ahead of the match v spain tomorrow, good luck americanos, make it respectable...

http://www.ussoccer.com/