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