Lake Titicaca was beautiful. I guess since Bolivia has a lake that big it makes up for not having a beach. Actually no, nothing can replace the beach, but the lake was still awesome. Its incredible how unbuilt-up (not sure if that´s a word, but we´re going with it) the area surrounding the lake is. I can only imagine the condos that would be all over the banks if the lake was in a developed country. There were also no jet skis or speed boats to ruin the peaceful atmosphere. Our last half day in Copacabana Mansfield and I spent an extremely enjoyable afternoon laying on the beach reading. We also ventured out to Isle del Sol (an island in the lake) for an evening. On the boat on the way over we met 2 french guys studying in South America, and they joined Camille, Mansfield and myself as we hiked from the south to north end of the island. It was a very nice hike, though perhaps a little longer than we expected. We reached the north end in time to settle into our hostel and catch the sunset on the beach.
After Copacabana we said goodbye to Camille, and Mansfield and I took a 9 hour bus ride to Cuzco, Peru. The ride seemed rather short compared to others we have taken. We had about two days in Cuzco before our Machu Picchu trek began, and we spent the time checking out local museums and getting to know the city. The city is incredibly touristy with people constantly trying to get you into their restaurants or stores. While its slightly annoying, it hard to expect much different in a city that sees thousands and thousands of tourists a year. We also bought some additional warm clothes (including rather cool toboggans (hats not sleds) with lamas on them) that turned out to be incredibly useful on the hike.
We left for the trek at 6 am on Tuesday (the 8th) and took a 2 hour bus ride to the town where the hike would begin. There were 3 other people in our group: two guys from Switzerland and another guy from Canada. I was slightly worried that being the only girl in the group I might slow us down, but that turned out not the be the case. It was great having such a small group, just 5 of us and a guide; we ate meals together, played cards in the evening together and got to know each other very well.
The four day hike was along an Inca trail that was discovered about the same time as Machu Picchu. Its believed that the Incas followed this route on religious pilgrimages to Machu Picchu. The first day of the trek was only about 4 hours and fairly easy. We also saw another Inca ruin site along the way. The second day was much harder. We only hiked about 5 hours, but the first 4 hours were pretty much straight up. The last part of the uphill consisted only of Inca stairs and at one point I was fairly sure my legs were going to quit on me. But they didn´t, and when we reached the top we had a lovely view of fog and rain awaiting us (what else can you expect during rainy season I suppose). We had a long siesta during the afternoon of the second day, but my legs were still a little swore and very tired when we began the 3rd (and longest) day hike.
I think ¨miserable¨ may be the best word to describe the morning of the third day. The hike started with a tiring uphill climb in the pouring and freezing rain, and the rain continued steadily until we reached our lunch site. My ¨waterproof¨ gear is apparently not very waterproof after about 3 and a half hours in a steady downpour. By the time we got to the lunch site we were all completely soaked and very cold. Fortunately the porters (who carried the tents and food the entire way) had the lunch tent set up and warm food cooking by the time we arrived. (Just a side not about the porters because without them I don´t think we would have made it. They carry max 25kg of gear for us all 4 days. They hike, in sandals made out of old tires, the trail twice as fast as the tourists. Before the government started regulating how much they could carry they used to up to 70 kg of gear. They would always beat us to the campsite and have the tents set up and food cooking before we arrived. They also woke us up with hot tea every morning. They are probably underpaid, but definitely not under appreciated, and they made our trip much more comfortable.) Ok back to the 3rd day, during lunch the rain stopped and we were able to dry out our clothes before finishing up the final four hours of the trek. Fortunately it didn´t rain too much in the afternoon and the hike wasn´t very hard. We also saw 3 more ruins sites along the way. The day ended in a very small town where we could get a hot shower and cold beer in celebration of the hike almost completed!
The following morning (the 4th day of the trek) we woke at 3:50, ate a quick breakfast, and were the second group in line at the gate for the final climb to Machu Picchu. The day turned out to be gorgeous and we had a clear and sunny view of Machu Picchu from the sun gate. After taking pictures there, we descended into Machu Picchu, stopping for many pictures, and our guide gave us a tour around the ruins. We were also lucky enough to be some of the few people allowed each day to climb Waynapicchu, a mountain overlooking Machu Picchu. I guess we felt we hadn´t had enough hiking so we climb to the top of ¨Young mountain¨ and saw another spectacular view of the ruins. It was an amazing trip, the group was great, the guide was awesome, and while the weather wasn´t always perfect, the last day made up for all the rain.
On Monday, we will fly to Bogota to see Jorge!! We are both really excited and will have updates from there.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Machu Picchu (there are pictures up)
Link for Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/mansfield.fisher
We got back last night from Machu Picchu and it was one of the most amazing places I have ever seen. We did the four day hike on the original Inka trail that spans a around 45 kilometers. It took us four days and three nights and was one of the best experiences of my life.
Day 1: We were picked up around 6 am were we met two of the other people in our group. They were two friends from Switzerland names Alex and Raphael both of which turned out to be a lot of fun and made our trip even better. We went and picked up our 6 porters and our cook. Porters are the Peruvian guys who carry all the tents, pots, food, and everything thing else we need all of there bags weigh 25 kilos. We only carried clothes, some snacks, our sleeping bag and pad our bags averaged about 13 kilos. We drove two hours through the mountains where we ate a small breakfast and met the fifth and last person in our group his name is Carlo and is from Canada. We arrived at kilometer 82 (the starting point) and hiked an easy 7 or 8 kilometers to our first campsite. We soon learned that we were in an awesome group our guide was named Freddy and was a lot of fun. We arrived took a short nap and then had "happy hour" in which we had tea and popcorn and played cards. Freddy then prepped us for our hike the next day he told us day two was the hardest were we would climb about 1200 meters and would be about 7 kilometers. He told us the first 4 hours would be up hill and was divided into 3 three parts the first part being "gradual up hill" the second part being the worst with lots of steps more commonly known as the infamous "Inka Steps" and the third part being "gradual" as well. We would summit at Dead Women's Pass.
Day 2: we woke up at 6 and left camp about 7 for our agonizing hike that awaited us. From the beginning we realized we were in for a long day. We learned Freddy had a completely definition of gradual then we did and it would turn out no part of day two would be gradual up hill. As we trudged through the hike we were all awed by the porters. None of the porters are over 5 and a half feet and none weighed over 130 pounds yet they carried 55 pound bags and basically ran up the mountain. To make it even more incredible they all were wearing sandals made out of tires. We soon realized how incredible the porters are and how essential they are to making our trek possible. Dee and I summited around 1130 were we greeted by Raphael and Alex yelling our team name (the second day were the Alpacas) we celebrated with some skittles and water at the top. We did not stay for long because we were also greeted by freezing rain. We then descended 600 meters or so in the pouring rain for 2 hours. We arrived at our campsite where our porters had tea waiting on us of course they had probably been at the campsite for an hour.
Day 3:By far the longest day, day three began about 530 we were hiking 15 kilometers so we wanted to get and early start. We got up and had another awesome breakfast by our cook. Hernan, the cook, was an amazing cook and we ate like kings for four days. We had only been hiking for ten minutes when the down pour began. We hiked for 4 hours in the pouring, freezing rain. I am not sure if i have ever been that cold in my life the last twenty minutes to our lunch camp site was basically a sprint for our entire group. We arrived and once again our amazing porters had the cooking tent set up so we could have some shelter we all crowded inside the tent and began to unfreeze. The sun god was looking out for us that day because once we were done with lunch it cleared up and began a beautiful day. We finished that day in very high spirits as our hike was a lot easier then the morning and the sun was beautiful. Once again though we found Freddy's sense up gradual and steep to be vastly different from ours. We all found this hilarious and continued to give him a hard time about it. We arrived at our last campsite were there was a place we could get beer and have a hot shower. We shared a few drinks and listened to music and bonded as a group. We had a feast for our "last supper" as Freddy referred to it.
Day 4: We woke up at 3:50 so we could get to Machu Picchu as early as possible. We reached the Sun Gate about 630 were the sun god once again gave us a spectacular day. We saw and incredible view of Machu Picchu as we sat in complete awe of what we were witnessing. From there the day progressed as a day at Machu Picchu would we got a tour took lots of pictures and spent a day in heaven. Though is not very relevant to Machu Picchu minus the fact that it happened there it was quite funny and showed how well our group bonded together. We spent lots of time taking shots at each others countries they all picked on Dee and I because we were just a bunch of hicks from the south. We picked on the guys from Switzerland because they are just neutral in everything and the Canadian guy well he is from Canada so there are an endless amount of jokes. Carlo said to me "I cant believe your proud to be from the south because you know Texas is in the south" i shot back "woaaahh no we don't claim those idiots from Texas" and right on cue we were walking past a couple from Texas and they had a few words to say about that. But all in all Machu Picchu is absolutely incredible and I will never forget this trip. Our group was perfect we laughed continuously for four days as we all made jokes and had a blast.
Tuesday we are headed to Colombia to visit Jorge and are very excited.
We got back last night from Machu Picchu and it was one of the most amazing places I have ever seen. We did the four day hike on the original Inka trail that spans a around 45 kilometers. It took us four days and three nights and was one of the best experiences of my life.
Day 1: We were picked up around 6 am were we met two of the other people in our group. They were two friends from Switzerland names Alex and Raphael both of which turned out to be a lot of fun and made our trip even better. We went and picked up our 6 porters and our cook. Porters are the Peruvian guys who carry all the tents, pots, food, and everything thing else we need all of there bags weigh 25 kilos. We only carried clothes, some snacks, our sleeping bag and pad our bags averaged about 13 kilos. We drove two hours through the mountains where we ate a small breakfast and met the fifth and last person in our group his name is Carlo and is from Canada. We arrived at kilometer 82 (the starting point) and hiked an easy 7 or 8 kilometers to our first campsite. We soon learned that we were in an awesome group our guide was named Freddy and was a lot of fun. We arrived took a short nap and then had "happy hour" in which we had tea and popcorn and played cards. Freddy then prepped us for our hike the next day he told us day two was the hardest were we would climb about 1200 meters and would be about 7 kilometers. He told us the first 4 hours would be up hill and was divided into 3 three parts the first part being "gradual up hill" the second part being the worst with lots of steps more commonly known as the infamous "Inka Steps" and the third part being "gradual" as well. We would summit at Dead Women's Pass.
Day 2: we woke up at 6 and left camp about 7 for our agonizing hike that awaited us. From the beginning we realized we were in for a long day. We learned Freddy had a completely definition of gradual then we did and it would turn out no part of day two would be gradual up hill. As we trudged through the hike we were all awed by the porters. None of the porters are over 5 and a half feet and none weighed over 130 pounds yet they carried 55 pound bags and basically ran up the mountain. To make it even more incredible they all were wearing sandals made out of tires. We soon realized how incredible the porters are and how essential they are to making our trek possible. Dee and I summited around 1130 were we greeted by Raphael and Alex yelling our team name (the second day were the Alpacas) we celebrated with some skittles and water at the top. We did not stay for long because we were also greeted by freezing rain. We then descended 600 meters or so in the pouring rain for 2 hours. We arrived at our campsite where our porters had tea waiting on us of course they had probably been at the campsite for an hour.
Day 3:By far the longest day, day three began about 530 we were hiking 15 kilometers so we wanted to get and early start. We got up and had another awesome breakfast by our cook. Hernan, the cook, was an amazing cook and we ate like kings for four days. We had only been hiking for ten minutes when the down pour began. We hiked for 4 hours in the pouring, freezing rain. I am not sure if i have ever been that cold in my life the last twenty minutes to our lunch camp site was basically a sprint for our entire group. We arrived and once again our amazing porters had the cooking tent set up so we could have some shelter we all crowded inside the tent and began to unfreeze. The sun god was looking out for us that day because once we were done with lunch it cleared up and began a beautiful day. We finished that day in very high spirits as our hike was a lot easier then the morning and the sun was beautiful. Once again though we found Freddy's sense up gradual and steep to be vastly different from ours. We all found this hilarious and continued to give him a hard time about it. We arrived at our last campsite were there was a place we could get beer and have a hot shower. We shared a few drinks and listened to music and bonded as a group. We had a feast for our "last supper" as Freddy referred to it.
Day 4: We woke up at 3:50 so we could get to Machu Picchu as early as possible. We reached the Sun Gate about 630 were the sun god once again gave us a spectacular day. We saw and incredible view of Machu Picchu as we sat in complete awe of what we were witnessing. From there the day progressed as a day at Machu Picchu would we got a tour took lots of pictures and spent a day in heaven. Though is not very relevant to Machu Picchu minus the fact that it happened there it was quite funny and showed how well our group bonded together. We spent lots of time taking shots at each others countries they all picked on Dee and I because we were just a bunch of hicks from the south. We picked on the guys from Switzerland because they are just neutral in everything and the Canadian guy well he is from Canada so there are an endless amount of jokes. Carlo said to me "I cant believe your proud to be from the south because you know Texas is in the south" i shot back "woaaahh no we don't claim those idiots from Texas" and right on cue we were walking past a couple from Texas and they had a few words to say about that. But all in all Machu Picchu is absolutely incredible and I will never forget this trip. Our group was perfect we laughed continuously for four days as we all made jokes and had a blast.
Tuesday we are headed to Colombia to visit Jorge and are very excited.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Onward with our journies
I know Dee hit on this a lot but I feel I need to reiterate this point. The entire population of Montero welcomed us with open arms and made us feel that we were part of the community. Whether it was the owner of the corner store who had us over for dinner, the girls at the ice cream shop who always made friendly conversation, or our friends who we spent many long and fun nights out with. We made a fair amount of friends though none of you know them I feel I should name them, Henry, Henry, Johanna, Jaun Carlos, John, Marioly, Carlos, Danny and Omar. I am sure I have left some people out but everyone in Montero made a huge impact on our stay. We were all a lot sadder to leave then expected. The friends we made at the clinic made our trip so much better. Everyone at the clinics was always willing to work with our struggling spanish and willing to explain everything when we asked questions. I spent a lot of time working in Archives/reception office as well as going on many home visits with many nurses but one nurse in particular her name was Isabell and we spent many awesome hot days vaccinating what felt like every dog in Bolivia.
We have spent the last couple of days in Copacabana, Bolivia visiting Lake Titicaca which is stunningly gorgeous. We visited the sun island or ¨isle de sol.¨ We have been traveling with a girl we met at the language school named Camille. We met two french guys on the boat on the way to the island which made Camille very happy since they both spoke French and the jabbered in French for a better part of two days. We hiked across the entire island which is about 4 or 5 miles long. We stayed over night and ate some amazing Trout. We made it back yesterday Camille and the French guys headed on to La Paz as for Dee and I we are headed to Cuzco tonight and will arrive early tomorrow morning. On Tuesday we being our four day trek to Machu Picchu. We will be taking the original Inca Trail. We are both very excited about this. We leave for Colombia on the 14th of December.
So as one part of our travel comes to a close and are very sad about this we are still very excited about the adventures that we are going to encounter.
We have spent the last couple of days in Copacabana, Bolivia visiting Lake Titicaca which is stunningly gorgeous. We visited the sun island or ¨isle de sol.¨ We have been traveling with a girl we met at the language school named Camille. We met two french guys on the boat on the way to the island which made Camille very happy since they both spoke French and the jabbered in French for a better part of two days. We hiked across the entire island which is about 4 or 5 miles long. We stayed over night and ate some amazing Trout. We made it back yesterday Camille and the French guys headed on to La Paz as for Dee and I we are headed to Cuzco tonight and will arrive early tomorrow morning. On Tuesday we being our four day trek to Machu Picchu. We will be taking the original Inca Trail. We are both very excited about this. We leave for Colombia on the 14th of December.
So as one part of our travel comes to a close and are very sad about this we are still very excited about the adventures that we are going to encounter.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Leaving Montero
For me, our final days in Montero have been full of mixed emotions. In some ways I am ready to go back home and see friends and family; in other ways I know that this experience has changed me in ways that will make adjusting to life in the states again difficult.
I have truly come to love the people of Bolivia. When visiting someone´s house, no matter their situation, poor or rich, busy or bored, they would always offer us a seat and pleasant conversation. And despite the stares, most the people we encountered on the street were also extremely friendly.
Besides the people in Montero who only entered our lives briefly, we also made some great, and hopefully life long, friends. They took us to places we never would have discovered without locals. They were amazingly patient with our spanish, and many weekends they helped us stumble through the traditional Bolivian dances. They seemed to accept us into their circle of friends as if they had known us for years. We were truly touched by their hospitality and we will miss all of them very much!
I will also miss the people we worked with at the clinic. The nurses we went on home visits with were very friendly and patient, allowing us to help with most aspects of the visit despite a couple missteps giving vaccinations. I really feel that we got to experience a lot of different types of work that is done at the clinics; from folding gauze, to painting, to inventory, to giving vaccinations. One day we helped a nurse vaccinate over 80 animals, mostly dogs, but a couple of cats and a monkey too. It was a longggg day, but very interesting. I have gained a great appreciation for the work of the clinics.
While this blog could in no way fully express all that we have experienced here, hopefully it will give a little insight into our time in Montero that has been life changing. As I stated in an earlier blog post, the clinics have been feeling the effects of the recession with the rest of the world. Because of our incredibly rewarding experience here and our belief in the work the clinics are doing, Mansfield and I are asking anyone who was planning on giving us a Christmas present this year to please consider donating to the clinics on our behalf. It would be a great gift to both of us, and you would be amazed how far even $10 will go down here. If you´re interested email me (or get in touch through the blog) and I´ll let you know details for donating. Thanks!
We are now in Copacabana for a couple of days. From here Mansfield and I will go on a four day trek to Machu Pichu, before heading to Columbia to see Jorge!
I have truly come to love the people of Bolivia. When visiting someone´s house, no matter their situation, poor or rich, busy or bored, they would always offer us a seat and pleasant conversation. And despite the stares, most the people we encountered on the street were also extremely friendly.
Besides the people in Montero who only entered our lives briefly, we also made some great, and hopefully life long, friends. They took us to places we never would have discovered without locals. They were amazingly patient with our spanish, and many weekends they helped us stumble through the traditional Bolivian dances. They seemed to accept us into their circle of friends as if they had known us for years. We were truly touched by their hospitality and we will miss all of them very much!
I will also miss the people we worked with at the clinic. The nurses we went on home visits with were very friendly and patient, allowing us to help with most aspects of the visit despite a couple missteps giving vaccinations. I really feel that we got to experience a lot of different types of work that is done at the clinics; from folding gauze, to painting, to inventory, to giving vaccinations. One day we helped a nurse vaccinate over 80 animals, mostly dogs, but a couple of cats and a monkey too. It was a longggg day, but very interesting. I have gained a great appreciation for the work of the clinics.
While this blog could in no way fully express all that we have experienced here, hopefully it will give a little insight into our time in Montero that has been life changing. As I stated in an earlier blog post, the clinics have been feeling the effects of the recession with the rest of the world. Because of our incredibly rewarding experience here and our belief in the work the clinics are doing, Mansfield and I are asking anyone who was planning on giving us a Christmas present this year to please consider donating to the clinics on our behalf. It would be a great gift to both of us, and you would be amazed how far even $10 will go down here. If you´re interested email me (or get in touch through the blog) and I´ll let you know details for donating. Thanks!
We are now in Copacabana for a couple of days. From here Mansfield and I will go on a four day trek to Machu Pichu, before heading to Columbia to see Jorge!
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