A tale of two hikes (and an ill-fated horseback ride)

OK, we are out of order a bit here, but before we went to Lima, our first stop after our triumphant return to Peru was Arequipa--Peru's "second city," and the gateway to Colca Canyon, which is deeper than the Grand Canyon and which is where we planned to do a 2-day hiking trip.

I insisted on a day of relaxation in Arequipa before heading to the canyon, and this was a very good decision. Here is a pic of Andy lounging in a city park. Andy is about as good at relaxing as I am at hiking, but he did his best.
So the next day, a bus picked us up at 3:30AM for the six-hour drive to the canyon. Our first stop was Cruz del Condor, where you are supposed to be able to watch enormous Andean condor birds rise up from their nests in the canyon for their morning flight. When we got there it was a little past peak time and we only saw three or four condors, plus the place was overrun with tourists.

This was kind of disappointing for me, because the whole reason I wanted to go to the canyon was to see condors. The hiking trip that was to follow was kind of an afterthought--we'd spent about 30 hours on buses in the previous three days, so I thought a little exercise was called for. Turns out we had signed up for nine hours of strenuous hiking--six hours down and across the floor of the canyon on day one, and a grueling three-hour climb out of the canyon on day two. Oops.

Here's a shot of the canyon. Beautiful surroundings if you have time to appreciate them...which I didn't, really, because I was struggling to keep up with our group.

If you know me, you know that I'm not a very fast hiker on the best of days. But making matters worse, we had been placed in a tour group with six French physical therapists, who apparently like to tear up and down mountains in their spare time, because even at a flat-out run downhill, I couldn´t keep up with them and our guide. They quickly left me and Andy (who surely could have kept up, but was a gentleman and kept me company) in the dust.

I found this frustrating and mildly humiliating, but Andy assured me that it was all in my head, and that no one would care if we were a few minutes behind. Well, no sooner did we catch up with the group at a resting spot, than the guide and one of the French hikers rushed over to me. "Are you OK?? What's the matter?" they asked in very concerned voices. I managed to mumble that I was just fine, but they kept up the solicitations. Thank goodness for Andy, who jumped in. "Nothing is wrong!" he told them, "We just hike a little slower than you do. If you could slow down the pace just a little, we'd appreciate it."

Then the guide knelt down next to me, like I was five years old. "It's hard, isn't it?" she said. "Hey, I like your hiking stick!" It was all I could do not to whack her with it. Luckily, Andy jumped in again and distracted me by challenging me to a twig sword-fight. My twig quickly cut his twig to pieces and I felt much better. How great is Andy?

So the Frenchies took off at breakneck speed again that afternoon, and I did better at keeping up once we switched from straight downhill to more undulating territory. I even managed to pause here and there to enjoy the cool scenery. For instance, these neat striated rock formations...


...cacti in bloom...

...and the light and shadow on the canyon-sides.

Also, at our lodging that night on the canyon floor, there was a swimming pool. Andy suggested we both dunk and take an underwater self-portrait together, which resulted in my new favorite picture from our trip so far. So flattering!

Also of note was that, when the couple who had the cabin next to ours opened their door for the first time, out ran a pig. Apparently he really likes that bedroom, and tried to sneak back in again while they were at dinner. They had to bar the door to keep him out at night!

So, the next day we were up at 5:30 for three hours of climbing to get out of the canyon. Ugh. I'll just say that my energy failed about halfway up and it was ugly. Ignore the smile on my face here at the end of the ascent--I'm delerious.

The last stop on the tour was some thermal baths, and boy did they feel good. We then rode the bus back to Arequipa, and were treated to a showing of the movie "Twilight" (I think I liked it better than the book--yes, I admit I've read the book)...and an incredible sunset.

Three days later, after our trip to Nazca and Lima, we were in Huaraz, a town in the Andes and the "trekking capital" of Peru. Yes, more hiking, I'm a masochist.

But rather than starting off with a hike, we decided we would do a horseback trip instead. You know, take it easy. Unfortunately, the horses had other ideas.

Here is the only shot we got of either one of us on a horse.

About five minutes after we took this picture, some fireworks went off (yes, in the middle of the day--the town where we got the horses was having a festival), our guide's horse bolted, and Andy's and my horses followed. I pulled on the reins for dear life, and I believe I screamed a lot, too.

So we dismounted and walked the horses through the town. 10 minutes after that, we ran into a construction site along the horse trail and had to dismount and do a complicated detour. When the guide told us we could get back on, he came over to help me first. We heard a noise behind us, and turned around to see Andy hanging upside down off the side of his horse! He had apparently tried to mount on his own and overshot, ending up in a handstand on the other side of the animal. I WISH we had a picture of this. Everyone was fine, so the guide helped him mount properly and we continued on.

Then at lunchtime it started to pour, so, no more riding for us. We squeezed into a very crowded collectivo van with our guide and went back to Huaraz. A dissapointing outing all around.

The next day, we did a day hike to Laguna Churup. We were told that it wouldn't be too hard, that we'd only ascend 500 meters, and that our guide would speak English. These turned out to be all lies.

Still, it was a beautiful hike, and this time we had the leisure to enjoy the beautiful views of the surrounding mountains and countryside.

Our guide was really nice, and we practiced a lot of Spanish on him. He was always offering to take photos of us at scenic points, like this one.

So, after four hours of mostly uphill hiking, including an unexpected bonus section of slippery rock-climbing, which saw Andy wipe out and me be hauled up by my arms by our guide, we finally reached the lovely elevated lake with the spectacular snow-capped Churup mountain behind it.

Yes!

The hike down was even more treacherous, because it started to rain, and we had to go down the steep, muddy sections on our butts. We felt appropriately filthy and exhausted by the time we got back to the little town at the base.

Also filthy, but cute: These two little pigs eating garbage in someone´s yard in the town.

That night back in Huaraz, we embraced the piggy spirit by downing a "broaster platter por dos": Six pieces of fried chicken, a monstrous plate of fries, a pitcher of limeade, and two salads (you know, for health). The one thing I like about strenuous hiking is that I can eat absolutely anything I want after and not feel guilty about it!

That wraps up our tales of hikes in Peru. Andy promised me that we would have no more hiking for at least a month after Huaraz, but of course we have already been on a four-hour rainforest hike in Ecuador since he said that. I plan to exact my revenge in Colombia and subject him to many hours of salsa dancing lessons. Stay tuned!

Why the Incas are Cool!

As we headed north from Santiago, the rest of Chile can be summarized in this picture. It is all desert, all the time. Not desert like in the American Southwest, where it is sort of sandy and not much grows, but desert where absolutely nothing seems to exist. This is the Atacama, the driest desert on Earth.
Once we made it across the border from Chile to Peru, the change in the way things are done was dramatic. When we went to board the bus, they had us put our luggage on a cart. Then some other people put their luggage on the cart. Their luggage happened to be a lamb.

Our first stop in Peru was Cusco, land of the Incas. For the next couple days, we explored the Sacred Valley of the Incas and Machupicchu. This is a picture of the agriculture terraces of the Incan village of Pisac. They used these as a laboratory, with each level having a different temperature and climate. They could slowly get plants to grow at higher altitudes or with different amounts of water. Really interesting stuff for those of you who are nerdy science people like me.

The main church in Cusco was built on the base of Incan ruins. A lovely church outside. Can't tell you about the inside because they charge the astronomical sum of $10 to go in. Seriously, $10 to see a church? Ludicrous. I might write the pope to complain.

The Incans used two types of stone work. This is the more famous, sometimes called Imperial. It is crazy. As our guide said, they had three tools: a bronze chisel, a hammer, and patience. They slowly hammered pieces to exactly fit one another. No concrete or anything else between the stones.

Even before the Incas, the native people had amazing building skills. In Ollaytaytambo (try saying that three times fast--or even once), the pre-Incas spent 200 years building the sun temple, which still wasn't done when the Incas conquered them in the 1400s. They dragged these 60 ton stones about 8 miles over a couple of mountains before polishing them to exactly fit each other. Oh, and those small stones inbetween the big ones are spacers for earthquakes. So, 800 years ago these people built earthquake proof buildings. Only took us about 750 years to catch up.

Most everyone of Incan descent puts a little topper on their house for good luck. Most of them relate to agriculture, like these cute bulls.

We met our friend Sabrina in Cusco. Sabrina is the only friend good enough to take us up on our offer of meeting us on our travels. Here are the three of us. It was good to travel with someone else. Not that I ever get sick of Tara, but it is always nice to talk to someone else.

In Machupicchu, they have llamas. Cheaper than lawnmowers. Here are some through the ruins.

This was sunrise in the Temple of the Sun at Machupicchu. You have to arrive early, climb to the temple, and then sneak over the gates that say do not enter when the guards aren't looking to get this picture. On the solstices, the sun rises through the two windows. Because we are between them, it rises between the windows.

Here you can see how people lived. These are mostly houses, which would have had thatched leaf roofs. They are divided into chambers that would have certainly been close quarters, but you can't beat the views.

We learned that Incan architecture is easy to identify because they build trapezoid windows. This window had a particularly good view of Tara out it.

This is the main square of Macchupicchu. Only residents of the city generally would have been allowed here (no visitors). The buildings in the back are partly houses and partly the school. Everything is built on terraces on the mountain. It rains for about 6 months of the year, so everything stays very green. It also means that the terraces help stop the massive erosion.

This is a view of Machupicchu from Wayanupicchu, the mountain that towers over it. It gives you a sense of the mountain that these people climbed to get home everyday. Incas were in much better shape than Americans.

Here we are with Machupicchu city and Wayanpicchu Mountain in the back. I climbed Wayanpicchu, but Tara and Sabrina made the (probably wise) decision to do something less strenuous. Between that and hiking up the mountain to Machupicchu and down again, we were all exhausted by the end of the day.

That concludes our Machupicchu fun. We have lots more pictures, but I didn't want to bore you and our Internet time is coming to an end. Machupicchu was very heavy on the tourists and is about 10 times more expensive than anywhere else in Peru, but was definitely worth it. We did not hike the Inca trail (which is incredibly expensive and doesn't seem all that interesting), but we did plenty of hiking in the area.

Chilly weather, hot chillis...

...that's right, we're in Chile!


Exiting Argentina, we had to transfer buses in Punta Arenas, Chile, a couple of hours south of our final destination. We ended up with a couple of hours to kill in Punta Arenas, and I was glad, because I had read that there was a huge statue there featuring Magellan, a mermaid, and two native people. Indeed, there was.

Then it was on to Puerto Natales, the self-described "capital of adventure tourism in Patagonia!" Now, for a while, Andy and I had the bad habit of arriving into a new city on Sunday, when everything was closed. This time, we made it to Puerto Natales on a Friday...and it turned out to be Chilean Independence Day, and everything was closed.

But we did get to catch army regiments parading in the street...

...and go to a "fonda" of folk dancing, music, and food in the square right outside our hostel. Not bad!

And we took a long walk around the harbor in town, spotting several fun birds. Too bad Andy is not writing this post, or maybe he could tell you something interesting about them.

On our way back, it was really windy and cold and I really had to pee. Luckily, a kind older lady was driving down the road back to the town and asked us if we wanted to hop in. Continuing our fine tradition of hitchiking in South America, of course we did.

(Fun aside: We chatted a little in Spanish and told her our names. When she heard my name was Tara, she exclaimed at what an unusual name that was. Then we asked her name and it turned out to be Freesia, like the flower. Nothing like a lady named Freesia telling you you have an unusual name!)

Anyway, we eventually did find a few places inPN that were open to book trips and buy some provisions, so all was well.

But there were no Rocklets for sale in Chile, so we decided we had to turn around and go back to Argentina the next day. Oh, yeah, and there was also this glacier we wanted to see...

That was the Perito Moreno glacier in Glaciers National Park outside of El Calafate, Argentina. The glacier is enormous and has a crazy, spiky surface as you can see. While most glaciers in the world are receding due to global warming, Perito Moreno is in equilibrium, growing in the center as fast as it melts on the edges. We were lucky enough not only to see a HUGE chunk of it crash off into the lake but to take video footage of it as well, which we will try to post online soon.

Note: The town of El Calafate, Argentina, appeared to be really overpriced and touristy, so if you want to go to the glacier, you may want to do it as a day trip from Puerto Natales, Chile, like we did. Although it was a looong day trip (7AM to 10PM) with border crossings in both directions, but you see wildlife like guanacos, rheas, and of course plenty of sheep on the drive.

Note 2: During the drive back, we reached a sheep grate that had not one, but two sheep stuck in it! It was dark and rainy, but our driver immediately jumped out of the bus and lifted each sheep out on his own. The sheep ran off into the darkness, apparently unhurt, and we cheered for the driver when he got back in the bus.

Note 3: With the number of times we have exited and reentered Argentina, I think we have an even dozen stamps from that country in our passports now!

OK, enough notes. Back to Chile!

The next day we set off for Torres del Paine national park in Chile. The day started with a stop at the cave where skin and bones from the milodon, or extinct giant sloth, were discovered. And what do you know, we encountered a real milodon! He was very friendly.

Then, en route to the park, we saw TONS of guanacos (the llama-like mammals that are common in Argentina and Chile) and finally got some good pictures of rheas (nandu in Spanish), the elusive emu-like birds that run around in the same areas.

Finally, we reached the national park. It is a stunningly beautiful expanse of mountains, lakes, and glaciers. You can see the pointy, pink-hued granite peaks that the park is named for ("torres" is Spanish for towers) sticking up in the center of this picture.

Our first day we spent on a full-day tour of the highlights of the park, which only encompassed a couple of little hikes. The best one was to a beach on a lake from which we could see Grey Glacier in the distance and loads of wind-sculpted icebergs that had broken off. You can see the glacier in this picture behind the lake, toward the right--it looks like a river of ice, which is exactly what it is.


Glacial ice is blue because the water is packed into it so densely.

We found this sign beside a road in the park. Andy thinks that it means "watch out for people who have one leg shorter than the other."

The next day, the real fun began. We stayed over in the park and left our hostel at 5:15AM to start the hike to the base of the Torres del Paine themselves. It was dark when we left, but soon the sun started to rise...

We went over hills and through valleys, hiking on dirt, through forest, and over rocky scree. It got snowier as we gained altitude.

Just four hours later, we were rewarded with this close-up view of the Torres!

We didn't see another soul the whole way up...but, then, who took this picture???

Here at the end of the trail, Andy kindly let me rest for 10 minutes and eat the rest of the Rocklets I had acquired in Argentina the day before. Then, it was time to hike all the way back--and quick-like, because we had to make the 2:30 bus at headquarters, which was an additional hour and a half walk back beyond our hostel.

We calculated that by the end of the day, we had hiked 17 miles in 8.5 hours. We have agreed that that is our longest hike ever in one day. We also agreed that, considering the circumstances, my amount of complaining during the hike was pretty moderate!

Today, we are sore. Guess that's why they call them the Towers of Pain, yuk yuk.

Finally, we leave you with this sign, which we encountered before a rather rickety-looking bridge on the hike back to the admin center. Guess if the bridge collapses, the driver is screwed!

Now, we are off on this boat for three days. Hope that the tales of seasickness are greatly exaggerated...