Local girls in Cuzco



Incan ruins, agricultural terraces in Pisac



Our sweet camp spot in Huanchaco


Showing off my skills



One of the many amazing sunsets in Huanchaco




Cuzco, Peru

I flew from Lima to Cuzco, and gained about 3500 meters in elevation yesterday. It was a little hard taking a breath, especially going up stairs, or exerting myself in any way. A little scared about starting the Inca Trail tomorrow, though I feel better after having been here for 2 days now. Yesterday the Brissards and I hiked up to the ruins behind Cuzco, one of them is called Saqsaywaman, pronounced 'sexy woman', and later that evening I was describing to some locals that we went up to sexy mama that day. Let's just say I was made fun of, I don´t think Danielle will ever let me forget it. Today I spent the whole day touring the Sacred Valley, a few hours from here. I saw lots of cool Incan ruins, most of them unfinished at the time of the Spanish conquest, and remained half done. There were lots of temples devoted to the elements. I saw a temple of the sun, where during the winter solstice, in June, the sun shines through a window over a carved rock, and casts a shadow of a cross. Also saw a similar water temple designed to cast special shadows on June 21. There are about 6 such temples in the highlands around here, many km's apart, that are all arranged in the shape of a cross, and could communicate with each other. Very interesting stuff. So tomorrow I start out on the 33 km hike to Machu Picchu in 4 days, reaching 4200 meters at the highest, I am sure I will be gasping for air. It is definitely noticable here at only 3300m or so, though the acclimatization is coming along.

Reed boats made and used by the locals for fishing in Huanchaco



Chan Chan ruins







Buildings in Trajillo around the Plaza de Armas



White Celebrities




Huanchaco, Peru
Well, luckily we stumbled upon the Brissard sisters eventually, just in time to sit on a patio overlooking the ocean, and drink some cervecas. We had a great time in Huanchaco, it was so relaxing, and such a cool little surf town. We made friends with lots of locals, so that was cool. We took some surfing lessons, from Carlos and Tito one day. I found it way easier than when I learned in Aussie land last year, I guess it is like riding a bike, you just pick up where you left off. So we surfed until we could paddle no more. The water was really shallow where the waves break, and the bottom is covered in rocks, so it hurt every time we wiped out, all of us were mopping up our wounds after. Our instructers were showing off their 360's, we weren't quite there yet. The next day we went out to some pre-Incan ruins, of the Chimo's, called Chan Chan. It was really neat, my first taste of ruins down here. They were built in the 15th century, a huge complex out of mud, and surprisingly, they still stand. We wandered around, baking in the desert for a while, then caught a collectivo to Trajillo, the city a few kms from Huanchaco. We went to some little cafe for lunch and ordered some hamburguesa deluxe, which turned out to be a hamburger bun with a fried egg, piece of lettus, and a quarter of a neon pink weiner, not quite what we wanted, but still good. There is a ton of colonial architecture and cool building to see in Trajillo, so we walked around a bit more after lunch. We then sat in the Plaza de Armas, the city centre square, and were celebrities. We were approached constantly by locals asking to have their photos taken with us, or just to sit and listen to us talk, or stare at us. We made a bunch of friends sitting there for hours, with a huge circle of people around us, it was so weird, I felt like a star. The next day we rented surf boards and tried to go by ourselves, without much luck, we got pummelled into the rocks many a time, then decided to just work on our tans. Our new local surf bum friends took us out for a night on the town in Trajillo that night. They turned out to be rather sleezy when they drink, confessing their true love for us. We escaped eventually after Danielle was groped my multiple men at once on the dance floor, and I put one in a head lock. So that was an interesting night. We did go to a Latin dance show, which was cool to watch. Our last day in Huanchaco there was a national surf competition on so we hung out on the beach and watched for a while. They were pulling out some pretty cool moves, it was a really neat atmosphere, with DJ's pumping music out all over, cheerleaders, anouncers. Each surfer gets 20 minutes in the water to try and show off their moves, then they are scored on 3 waves. I toured the second oldest church in Peru last evening, in Huanchaco. The curator even took me up into the bell tower, up this creepy, dark, steep stairway barely big enough for me to pass through. The view was amazing, as the church is perched on the top of a hill overlooking the town and the beach. I watched the sun set from the bell tower. There was a man up there, tied in, banging the bell for an hour during sunset. Then they shoot off fire works from the church each evening. We borded a very tight econo class bus last night, and just arrived back in Lima this morning.

So Peru has been amazing so far. Lydia and I met up with Kopetski last week and spent a few days with him before he started Spanish lessons. We stayed at a beautiful oasis in the middle of the desert and went dune buggying around in some sketchy buggies with sketchy divers. They had to stop every 10 minutes to top up the radiator fluid. It was a ton of fun. We Did some sandboarding, very similar to snowboarding down the dunes. They spread motor grease on the bottom to really make you go fast. It is rather hard to carve in the sand though, i preferred going on my stomach. I wore the colour off my dark blue shorts as they were touching the sand while I rode, a bit more friction than snow. After the oasis in Huacachina, we headed back down south for a flight over the Nazca Lines, some ancient, pre-Incan geoglyphs in the desert pampas. We saw figures of birds, animals, hands, trees, and other geometrical shapes. Apparently they were for harvesting calenders, but lots of mysteries remain around their existance due to the huge sizes of them. So after a nauseating cesna flight, which I co-piloted for 10 minutes or so, we had some coca tea to get rid of the nausea, then set out for Pisco, 4 hours by bus.
In Pisco we strolled around the huge outdoor markets, and spend a couple nights sitting in the town square people watching, and sipping cervecas on balconies overlooking the markets. We took a day to check out the National Reserve and did a hike recommended by the Lonely Planet through the reserve. It turned out to be a 9km walk, one-way, on broken pavement, through a baren desert in the hot hot sun, with absolutely nothing to see, but a vulture circling above us. Luckily we got a ride for the last few km, and hung out with some local people our age. We went to the most beautiful beach, a secluded beach, surrounded by sandy cliffs and rocks, with white sand, greeny blue waters, and sunshine, where we swam in our undies. Then we watched the pelicans fish in the fishing village and drank cervecas by the sea for the afternoon, turned out to be a lovely day, not at all what we expected.
After Pisco, Kopetski left for Arequipa and Lyd and I pressed on to Lima. We only spend 1 night in Lima, did some shopping, went to a movie in English, and picked up Danielle and her sister Katie. So we are now in Huanchaco, a little surfing town just out of Trajillo, camping for a few nights, and wondering what happened to the Brissards, as we were supposed to meet 5 hours ago here. We may have to send out the search party soon.

Lonely Planet recommended hike through National Reserve (one long, hot, boring walk on broken pavement)



Beautiful secluded beach out of Paracas, Peru







Pelicans in the harbour of a fishing village



Mmmmmmm, fruit

Sand boarding



Got going a little too fast, while running down the dune



Kopetski was so scared he peed his pants when we got out of the dune buggies




I co-piloted our flight over the Nazca lines



Beautiful oasis

Firefighter reunion



A real Oasis in Ica, Peru



One of the most beautiful drives of my life, up the southern Peruvian coastline



Shite-town, Peru



The Elqui Valley, Chile




So, Lydia and I survived the marathon bus ride from the middle of Chile to the middle of Peru in only 46 hours. Stage 1-We left La Serena at 8pm for Iquique, arriving 18 hours later. Had a little picnic lunch on the grass overlooking the harbour for 2 hours, then got back on the bus to Arica (stage 2), arriving at 8pm, only 4 hours or so. We then ran out of the bus terminal to find a collectivo to drive us the 40km across the border into Peru before it the border closed. Thus began stage 3. We got held up at the border since I hadn´t received a tourist card entering Chile at the airport, and the other couple in our collectivo got detained as they had no passports. We walked across the border, put our bags through the x-ray machine, and waited around for an hour impatiently for the cabbie to get his papers signed. There were fights breaking out in the cabbie line, jostling for position. Finally we were on our way to make it to the Peruvian border town of Tacna. Our hopes to make it out of Tacna that night were renewed when we remembered the 2 hour time change backwards. We made it into Tacna at 10pm, and caught the only bus out, which wasn´t to where we wanted to go, but would have to do, to Ariqupa. Stage 4, we left at 10pm and arrived at 430am into the bus station, warming with homeless Peruvians asleep on the benches. We then looked for a bus to our original destination, Nasca, and found one leaving at 515am. We got ´gringoed´, paying the full fare to Lima, twice the distance, but seemed to have no choice, it is so corrupt here. Anyways, Stage 5 begun at 515am, with the 10 hour ride up the coastline to Nasca. Finally, we arrive at 4pm, am get settled into a hostel. It was a total shanty town, not quite what we expected. We thought we were meeting Kopetski there, but turns out he was in Ica, 2 hours away. So there was a bus leaving for Ica in 20 minutes, we buy a ticket, run over, grab our stuff, and and off we go, the last stage, only 2 hours, thank goodness, to Ica. Finally, we get there, find the hostel Eric is at, and hook up with him. It is a rent by the hour place, though you only save $1.50 by renting an hour, as opposed to the whole night. They blare megaphones and honk horns perpetually right outside the window, as we were close to the main square, all night long. So we had a nice evening out on the town, hit a few bars, and finally slept in a bed. The next day, we caught a cab out to an oasis in the middle of the desert near Ica, and are hanging out here for a few days. It is a pretty sweet place. We hiked up a huge dune last night to watch the sun set, it was beautiful.

Some more good news, I got an interview for med school at UBC 3 days after I get back to Canada, so I am pretty stoked about that.

Isla Damas



Sea lions in a Reserva Nacional Pinguino De Humboldt



The lighthouse in La Serena



Some of the old Spanish architecture all over town in La Serena



Burning away on the busiest beach I have ever been to in La Serena



Today we went on a tour through the desert for an hour or 2 up the coast to visit some islands in a Chilean National park. We took a boat around the Isla Choros and Isla Damas, and saw wild sea otters, sea lions, penguins, dolphins, cormorans, and other cool wildlife. The sea lions reeked so bad, they just lay on their rock and rot in the sun all day. While driving through the desert we saw some juanaco's, a tan coloured relative of the alpaca. The land is so barren, with just a few cacti and small evil looking shrubs. We came across an oasis in the middle of the moonscaped land, it was so bizzare, with orchards of olive trees. Tomorrow we are headed to the Elqui Valley where the Pisco, national booze, is brewed. After that, we hop on a bus and head 23 hours up the coast to the Chilean border town of Arica, and hope to get across the boarder that night into the Peruvian border town of Taca. I am in absolute produce heaven here in Chile, I have been existing off of peaches, ruby grapefruit, bananas, and strawberries (1 kg for $1). And we are not talking bland, ripened-en-route, steriod-injected Canadian fruit. The avocados are amazing as well. So far, no stomach sicknesses, even with non-peelable fruit, but I don´t think I´ll be so risky in Peru. It actually seems like the parasite I probably contracted in the Dominican Republic (or the one from Austrialia that I never got rid of) has subsided, I haven´t felt this good for months. Apparently the ozone is really thin here, that is why we burnt so bad, also why the area is home to many of the world´s top observatories, as the skies are always clear at night.

So Lydia finally made her way down to me and woke me up banging on my door at 9am this morning, it was so awesome to see her. She took a 27 hour long bus ride to meet up with me. We are in La Serena, a beach town, and of course, we spent the day on the beach. Turns out the sun is a little hotter here than I Thought, and I fried a bit today. I will be investing in some SPF 30 here pretty quick. The city is quite nice, it is the second oldest city in Chile, founded in 1540ish. Everything is very Catholic looking, huge old churches, white stucco statues of Jesus all around. The hostel is a slummy little dive that Lydia picked out of the guide book to meet at, but we will tough it out another night or two, then move on up the coast.

South America

Santiago, Chile

I finally arrived in Santiago at 01h30 my time on Tuesday morning, after leaving Big White 11am Sunday morning, and travelling pretty much constantly except for a brief visit with Grandma in Vancouver. I totalled 5 hours sleep in 48 hours, for some reason the vast selection of movies on the plane were more appealling than actually sleeping. So exhausted and sleep deprived I made my way into the city from the airport and crashed all day at the hostel in Santiago. The city is quite nice, Chile is a rather well-off SA county, and the extensive metro system makes it easy to navigate. I am off to La Serena tomorrow morning to meet up with Lydia, so I will have to explore Santiago when I return at the end of my trip to fly out. Most people here speak a bit of English so that has been nice, but I am working on acquiring some Spanish at least.

Dominican Republic

As an 'end of the never-ending fire season' reward, Leif and I took a tropical booze and burn vacation for a couple of weeks in Puerto Plata, DR. We stayed in a swanky 4.5 star resort on the beach. Turns out we got a pretty good deal on the whole thing after getting $500 back each for the 5 flight delays, and left 25 hours after our scheduled departure. Our days consisted of walking from the restaurants to the beach to the bars. We ventured a few kilometers down the beach to some sweet secluded areas away from the resort. It was pretty close to paradise. Leif devoted an entire day to the "conch search" and at sunset as we sat digging for shells in the sand, a local diver came strolling up the beach carrying the most beautiful conch in existance: pinky purple inside, with a golden coat on the outside. He wanted some old tennis shoes to trade for it, but having nothing, we gave him a few bucks, and thus the conch joined our travels. Unfortunatly there was a bit of a tropical storm brewing around the island, and we faced rain for an hour or 2 every day in downpours, probably for the best, as we didn't burn. We did however get to see Michael Jackson at the resort in a 2 hour special performance.