Christmas in Colca Canyon

So remember when I wrote that the trek to Lake Churrup was the craziest hike we've ever done...scratch that...Colca Canyon takes the cake.

We hopped on a bus on Christmas Eve at 1am to head for the town of Cabanaconde which is at the top of the deepest part of the canyon. We arrived at about 7am on Christmas morning, met up with our guide, grabbed a quick breakfast, dropped off our big backpacks, and we were off.

Turns out Colca Canyon IS actually the DEEPEST canyon in the world averaging 3400 meters deep. We hiked down for about 4 hours until we reached a bridge over the river in the bottom of the canyon.

On the hike down we were really lucky to see about six different condors. Apparently, it's really unusual to see them as late in the day AND as close as we did. A couple of them flew by us at about only 10 meters away. We were stoked because a lot of people come to the canyon just to catch a glimpse of these condors and only see a small dot in the distance or nothing at all.

Once we reached the bottom, we had our Christmas dinner at a small indigenous home. Get this, people actually live down in the bottom of the canyon AND the only way to get in and out is to hike...no cars, no dirtbikes. Anyway, as I was saying we had our Christmas dinner of alpaca at the bottom of the canyon. Yes, I said ALPACA! Turns out, not only is it delicious, but our guide informed us that alpaca meat is a very healty alternative to beef because it's less fatty.

After we ate, we hiked up and down the side of the canyon for another 3 hours taking in GORGEOUS views until we finally reached our camp for the night. Both of us were wondering why we were so exhausted, but when our guide told us that we had hike 16 km it seemed to make a bit more sense.

Once we settled in and ate dinner our guide filled us in on the plan for the next day's climb out of the canyon. We were to wake up at 3am and begin the 4 hour climb back to Cabanaconde. It turns out it's best to start before the sun rises because the heat of the day is too strong to complete the climb.

After dinner we retired to our bamboo framed hut and taco-like foam mattress. After three consecutive night bus rides and 16 km of hiking, a crappy mattress never felt so good.

At 3am we were up and at 'em. Hiking in the dark was a much welcomed break from the heat of the previous day. Switchback after switchback we slowly climbed up the canyon. We were climbing under a full moon so we didn't even need to use our head torches. Watching the night slowly fade into day was absolutely breathtaking. The view definitely took our minds off of the difficulty of the climb.

Three and a half hours later, we made it to the top and four hours later, we arrived back into town. Get this, in 4 kilometers of walking we climbed 2000 meters (2km) of altitude. When we got to the top our guide told us that he was impressed because most people don't make the climb up. I guess the majority of tourists climb down the canyon and then ride a mule back up...what's the sense of accomplishment in that?

After hiking down, around, and up the canyon for a total of 20 kilometers in 24 hours, we were pretty proud of ourselves. We couldn't have thought of a better way to spend Christmas away from home.

¡Feliz Navidad!

Happy Christmas Everybody!

We got all dressed up and took a special Christmas photo for your Christmas Eve enjoyment. I realize it's not as good as a visit from Santa, but it's the best we could do :)

Right now, we're in Arequipa, Peru (our last stop before heading to Machu Pichu). This very special Christmas photo was taken today in the Plaza de Armas. Arequipa is a high desert city that sits at about 2300 meters above sea level. It's very hot in the day and, at this very moment, we're discovering how cold it can be when the sun goes down.

We've decided to celebrate Christmas with and two day trek into Colca Canyon...the second deepest canyon in the world (no big deal). We leave tonight at 12:30 for ANOTHER overnight bus to Chivay.

P.S. I realize we've been a bit lax on the blog posts, but I'm working on a bunch of drafts (Galapagos, Nazca Lines, etc.) so stay tuned...

The Nazca Lines

On our way from Lima to Cuzco, we decided to stop in Nazca and check out the mysterious Nazca Lines. The were created in the Peruvian desert by the ancient Nazca people, but nobody knows their purpose. Sure, there are plenty of theories ranging from celestial maps, to an airfield for alien spacecraft, to lines simply used for indicating the presence of ground water...but nothing has been proven.

That fact that nobody knows the lines' purpose is interesting, but actually going up and staring down at these huge geoglyphs (the animal figures) and geometric lines was pretty amazing!

We took a flight in a small four-seater plane in order to get the best view of some of these figures. Both of us were pretty excited to be up in the sky in such a small aircraft because neither of us had been in a Cessna before. Before the flight we were even starting to make plans to get our pilot licences when we get home. My plans changed about halfway through the flight...here's why:

The flight takes only about one half hour and the pilot takes you over thirteen different figures and various lines. In order to get a REALLY good look at the geoglyphs, the pilot puts the small plane into a steep, toilet flushing-type spin...first a few times to the left, and then, another few times to the right.

While checking out the first few figures I thought it was the GREATEST thing! Then, at about figure number four my stomach took a turn for the worst. I was no longer able to stare down at the whirling figures below us. I had to keep my eyes on the horizon...and even that wasn't doing much good.

I broke out into the cold sweat that happens just before you vomit and, luckily, the pilot turned around and noticed I wasn't doing so hot. He opened the window for a couple minutes and the fresh air seemed to help a bit. Between the fresh air and yoga breathing I was able to keep the chunks down, but a half hour flight never seemed so long.

If you check out the pictures in the photo album, you can see a nice shot of me fresh off of the plane and sitting in a wooden chair...I've never looked so GREEN!

Trekking Lake Churrup

Remember when I wrote about the crazy hike we did in Cajas National Park? Scratch that...we did the craziest hike up-to-date in Huaraz yesterday.

The city of Huaraz, Peru sits the in a mountain range called the Cordillera Blanca. There are over 50 snowcapped peaks of 5700 meters or higher and this area is famous for its beautiful, but challenging trekking.

We didn't have enough time or the right equipment to do a multiple day trek so we decided to do a day hike up to Lake Churrup for the day. We hired a guide through our hostel because we had read that there were some dangerous parts to this trail. Given our inexperience with hiking in the mounitains we thought it best to have an experienced guide.

Lake Churrup sits at an elevation of 4500 meters which is about 14,763 feet...pretty high. We started from a little bit above Huaraz which sits at 3091 meters . We figured we should be able to handle the altitude because we hadn't had any problems in the area around Quito which was similar altitude. Note for later in the story - we didn't take into account that we had been at sea level for about a month and had only arrived in Huaraz two days earlier.

The day started out great! The sun was shining (which doesn't happen often this time of year...it's the wet season in the mountains) and our guide, Coqi (there's no "U" after the "Q", it's a different language), seemed like a really nice guy.

We caught a mini bus to an indiginous area about a half hour outside of town and started walking on a dirt road. Both Brandon and I were a little bummed because we had pictured something a little more challenging than walking uphill on a road. Our wishes would soon be answered...

After about two hours on the road we reached the trail that lead up to Lake Churrup. We stopped for a quick snack and made friends with a local dog who accompanied us all the way to the lake.

At first, the trail was rocky and mostly uphill. Our hearts were beating hard, but we were able to handle the incline as long as we kept a slow, steady pace. After about and hour of climbing we started to feel the effects of the altitude in a serious way. Both of us had headaches and Brandon's legs began to get really heavy. We couldn't have been in abnormally bad shape because even the dog was winded and looked a bit tired. We would stop to drink a bit of water and catch our breath every now and again which helped immensely.

About an hour after that is when the trail got really gnarly...well, the trail actually disappeared. At this point, Coqi informed us that we basically had to scale the rocks beside the waterfall in order to make it up to the lake. To complicate the situation, mother nature decided to add in a dash of rain. Needless to say, at this point, we could see the value in hiring a guide. At least there would be somebody there to get us help when we fell off of the side of a 60 meter waterfall.

So we started up the side of this waterfall and, impressively, the dog came with us. We were basically rock climbing (using all fours) without safety gear to get to this lake. At one point, the dog even got to a point where she couldn't get out of and our guide had to assist her up the mountain.

Luckily, we made it to the top of the waterfall and were able to get a glimpse of the lake before the skies really opened up on us. The view was fantastic!..but our headaches persisted so we decided to start back down only after about 20 minutes at the top.

The way down the waterfall was more sketchy than the climb because you were staring at how far you would fall if you miss-stepped or slipped. Once we cleared the waterfall, the hike down was a much welcomed break to the cardiovascular system, but the constant downhill was a bit hard on the knees and legs.

When we finally returned to the road to catch the mini bus back to town, we had hiked 18 kilometers, and climbed about 1 kilometer of altitude in about 8 hours walking. By the time we got to the mini bus we were walking like we had arthritis. Coqi made us feel better when he told us that Lake Churrup was the most difficult day hike in the area and we had actually done it in pretty good time.

After gorging ourselves with pizza and water we caught the overnight bus to Lima...we've never slept so soundly on a bus.

We're in Peru...Here's a Map

Check Out These Boobies

After two weeks of killing time on the Ecuadoran coast it was finally time to head to the Galapagos Islands. My two biggest concerns before the cruise (which, by-the-way, is NOT cheap by any standard and non-refundable) were catching dengue fever or getting food poisoning. Luckily, I was able to steer clear of dengue. Bad news was that I came down with a solid case of food poisoning the night before we were supposed to catch our flight to the Galapagos.

After a sleepless night I wasn't sure if I'd even be able to make it to the airport. Thanks to Brandon and the pharmacy system down here I was able to feel well enough to stand up and take a taxi to the airport. The pharmacies down here are great! You just tell the pharmacist your symptoms and they give you what you need. You don't need a prescription from a doctor and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

Well, we made our flight, the meds kicked in, and I made it to the islands feeling much better. From the airport we were bussed to the dock where our yacht awaited us...the 89 foot "Guantanamera". Including us, there were 16 passengers. Due to the fact that touring the Galapagos is not cheap, the majority of yachts seemed to contain retirees. We were lucky to have a relatively young crowd on our boat (20's - 30's). There were people from Ireland, France, Spain, Australia, Canada, and Holland.

Well, where do I even start with trying to describe the Galapagos Islands? Basically, they are a chain of volcanic islands (many still active) that sit on and around the equatorial line. Because of their position on the globe, there are three different ocean currents that pass through the islands. The combination of the ocean currents and the isolation of the islands led to the development of unique wildlife...many species are found nowhere else in the world. The Galapagos Islands are probably best known for their role in the development of the Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

Needless to say, Brandon and I were SUPER excited to get onto some islands, check out the animals, and take some killer pictures.

Funny story...

The first day a half was great! We were able to get some great shots of sea lions, different types of iguanas, and birds. Then, the fateful wet landing on the afternoon of the second day. Like the few previous landings, this seemed just as simple. The dingy pulls up to the beach and everyone hops out in ankle-deep water.

Brandon was the first to get off and being the gentleman he is, he gave me his hand to assist me off of the boat. Turns out, I'm not as sure-footed on boats as I'd like to believe. Those of you who were with us at Buccaneer Weekend in Catalina would probably agree.

Well, I had my new, kick-ass digital camera (remember my old one was stolen in Costa Rica last year) in its case, securely attached to my belt so that it wouldn't fall in the water...what better place to put it?

I took one step onto the tube of the dingy and was fine. I decided to push my luck with a second step on the wet dingy tube rather than stepping off of the boat and...whoosh...my foot slipped out from under me and I found myself totally soaking wet in ankle deep water. Of course, I was laughing about the scene until Brandon pointed out that I had the camera on my side that was completely soaked.

I had hope that the camera would be fine because it had been in the case and BARELY any water had touched it. Turns out technology is pretty sensitive...the camera turned on for a split second, but that was it. It was like watching a dying person take their last gasping breath. We spent the next 6 days walking around like outcasts without a camera in the Galapagos.

BUT, not all was lost! The animals and scenery were unforgettable. You could walk up to ANY animal on the islands and they wouldn't flinch. I've never been a huge aficionado of birds, but there were some great species out there. We saw blue footed boobies, red footed boobies, Nazca boobies, frigate birds, finches, flamingos, and huge albatross. As for land roamers, we were able to see 200 kg tortoises and huge land iguanas.

We were able to do the best snorkeling either of us had ever done in our lives. We swam with penguins and sea turtles, played with sea lions, hovered over manta rays and eagle rays, and saw tons of beautiful fish...even the fish wouldn't swim away from you. But I'd say the highlight of our snorkeling outtings was running into hammer head sharks.

I've seen lots of reef sharks while snorkeling or scuba diving, but hammer heads are another story. They're BIG and they're FAST!! I'll admit is was a bit freaky because in my previous experiences with sharks they were usually just relaxing and cruising along the bottom. With hammer heads it was quite an experience.

I was actually really lucky to get a good look at three who swam be me at about a distance of 6 feet. Brandon was right next to me, but was looking the other way and missed the up-close view. By the time I could get his attention, they had almost disappeared into the blue...that's how fast they move. It was AMAZING, but I'll admit that being in the water with an animal that big and that fast is a little intimidating.

Other than our camera casualty (which we replaced in Lima), we had a wonderful experience in the Galapagos. Hopefully, we can get some people we met on the boat to share their pictures with us. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience (I'm not just saying that because it was expensive) and would recommend stopping by if you're ever in the area :)

Ruta del Sol

After spending about 1 month in the Andes, Brandon and I decided it would be a good idea to get our pale selves back into the sun before we headed off to the Galapagos Islands. We didn't want to be nursing sunburns instead of enjoying the wildlife.

Long story short, we found ourselves on the "Ruta del Sol" on the coast of Ecuador. Turns out, the "Ruta del Sol", or route of the sun, in english, isn't so sunny until the middle of December when the rainy season ends. We were there just before the sunny season was supposed to start.

After a suicide bus ride from the jungle (about 24 hours on 2 buses) we plopped down in the north, in a tourist town called Atacames. While it wasn't exactly our speed (a bit full on with touts and loud, tacky beach bars lining the beach), we did enjoy being back by the ocean for the first time since we left home.

From there, we headed down to a town on a small island called Muisne. We have been using an old guide book so not everything we encounter is what we expect from our reading. Muisne was one of these incidents. As far as our book was concerned, "Muisne has a long, wide, usually empty beach backed by a few sandy little hotels and simple restaurants." Sounds charming, right?

When we arrived we figured out exactly WHY the beach tends to be empty. Muisne was one of the sketchiest places we have found ourselves. We had a hunch that there was something fishy about this town when we pulled up, but we decided to give it a chance. Sometimes first impressions of a place can be totally off.

From the very first minute we stepped foot off of the bus we were bait for the crack addicts and hustlers that run this town. We ended up paying WAY too much for the 30 second boat ride from the dock to the island because the asshole told us he would take us around to the front of the island where the hostels were. Turns out that's impossible because there's nowhere to dock on the other side of the island and there's some substantial surf which makes it impossible for a beach landing. But of course they guy doesn't fess up to this until we're halfway across the channel and we've already agreed to a price.

After our pleasant little boat experience, we start the 1 mile walk to the other side of the island where we could find one of the "sandy little hotels." While walking we were lucky enough to run into "Cracky Crackerson" as I'd like to call this guy. He had dreadlocks, smelled like he hadn't been introduced to the concept of a shower, was missing a number of teeth, and had a permanent tan from sleeping outside.

Brandon was nice enough to respond to the guy's "Buenas dias" and then we found we were blessed with "Cracky's" company for the remainder of the walk to the other side of the island. Long after we stopped responding to his questions and attempts at pointing us in the direction of a "good" hotel he informed me that it was only appropriate that I give him a tip for his services (for what...following us around with a foul odor?). I just ignored "Cracky" and we headed down the beach (which really was deserted) to find a place to stay. The place looked like it used to be a popular tourist hangout, but had fallen off the map and hadn't been touched for years.

Brandon and I checked out one hostel and decided to get the heck out of dodge. This place was a hole. We hopped on a ferry back to the mainland (paid the appropriate rate) and caught a bus south. Three buses, a night in a fishing town called Perdernales, and a day and a half later, we ended up in a cool surf town called Canoa.

From the get-go, Canoa had a much more mellow, welcoming vibe. Get this, in our first walk around Canoa we ran into an American who lives in Ecuador. When we told him we had just come from Muisne his reaction was, "You shouldn't have been there in the first place!" Apparantly, our feeling that the town was sketch was spot on. Turns out robbing and mugging of tourists happen regularly AND tourists have been murdered there in recent years.

After confirming that our suspicions of Muisne were right we headed for a place to stay. While looking around, we ran into a friendly, loud American named Annie. She pointed us in the direction of a clean, mellow place to stay with plenty of hammocks...AND the price was right.

After we settled in, we ended up chatting with Annie for quite some time. She was quite a character! Get this, she's been cycling around the world for 20 years. She rides a mountain bike and camps in order to make her money go as far as possible. She hails from Miami, Florida where she varnishes boats and crews for boat deliveries from time to time. As you can guess, she and Brandon had plenty to talk about.

Like us, she works for a few months and then takes off for an extended amount of time. She's been all over and has tons of great stories from her travels.

One thing I've always been curious about is what travelers did for money before banks were automated and ATM's were worldwide. I asked her what she used to do for money before the invention of the ATM. Turns out, she would carry all of her money (thousands of dollars) in the soles of her shoes. I thought this was an ingenious idea, but turns out some theives knew about this tricky little hiding place and she had had her shoes stolen once.

We ended up hanging with Annie for a few days and when we decided to leave the sun FINALLY made an appearance on the Ecuadoran coast.

As we meandered down to the south the sun would come and go and we were able to enjoy a few days in Puerto Lopez and the backpacker town of Montañita. Then, finally, it was time for us to get to Guayaquil to catch our plane to the Galapagos.

Pirhana Fishing...or Should I Say Pirhana Catching

While in the Jungle we were able to do and see some cool stuff. For instance, we met a real, live Shaman. A shaman is a kind of witch doctor. He heals people with spiritual and natural medicine. Interesting fact: to this day, Shamen intake hallucinagenic plants in order to diagnose and treat their patients...any takers for this alternative medicine?

We also saw a ton of cool animals. But in order to keep your reading attention, here's our top five list...

5. Three different types of Monkeys...all were polite and didn't throw poop at us. We also saw a relatively fresh dead monkey while hiking. It's pretty crazy (and gross) how quickly nature takes care of decompsition. Sorry, we didn't take a photo, but the monkey looked like it was still moving because of the amount of flies and mosquitoes covering its body.

4. Baby Anaconda...relieved to not run into a full size adult. Apparantly, they've been spotted as large as 12 meters AND small children HAVE been eaten.

3. Pink River Dolphins...we were really fortnate to see one of these guys. They are much smaller than the dolphins you see around the California coast. It's amazing that they are able to survive in a body of water containing so many predators.

2. Caymen...speaking of predators, I'm betting these guys could do their fair share of damage. According to our jungle expert, it's much easier to see caymen during the dry season because they all congregate to the few, small watering holes because it's their only option. Our guide decided it would be a good idea to go caymen hunting at night. Remember, our boat was made out of a tree and barely floated higher than the surface of the river. These guys are pretty creepy...especially at night because you can only see their red eyes reflecting the light of the flashlights. As soon as we saw the caymen go under water we were out of there pretty quick...thank goodness!

Last, but not least. Drum roll please....

1. Pirhanas...okay, you might be thinking Pirhanas are cool, but with the vast variety of animals in the jungle, why are they number one on our list?

Here's how we answer that question...because we got to catch them! (and eat them if we wanted to.)

Using tree branches as rods and red meat as bait, we sat in our small tree canoes in a lake where it wasn't safe to swim. At first we were only getting bites of lakeweed, but as soon as it started to pour down rain the baby pirhanas started chomping (literally) at the bait. It was crazy! We could hold the meat just above the surface and the little guys would jump out of the water to get at the meat. Don't worry we threw back all of the babies.

Once the rain let up, we decided to paddle over to a different part of the lake in hopes of catching some big pirhanas. Our luck didn't seem to follow us. We sat for a solid hour before we even got a tug. Finally, our guide caught a big guy! I guess his friends weren't too far behind him because a few of us got some solide tugs on our lines. The bigger pirhanas definitely put up a fight disproportionate to their size.

Once we finally got these guys into the boat, the next challenge was keeping the fingers away from their jagged teeth while taking out the hook. Personally, I gave this resposibility to our guide...figure he could us the practice :) But, other, more brave (or stupid...there's a fine line dividing the two) fisher-people attempted to unhook the big pirhanas by themselves.

Unfortunately, there was one casualty. The incident went down as follows...Roisin (pronounced RO-SHEEN, not raisen) a very nice girl from Ireland, wasn't in the same canoe as the guide when she caught a big pirhana. She needed to get the thing off of the hook and her brother told her she'd be fine so she gave it a shot. The picture at the top illustrates how this story ended. That's her bloody finger and her brother's the guys smiling at the bottom of the picture. Check out the teeth on that fish!! Luckily, she was a tough Irish girl and made it away with only a flesh wound and a great story to write home about.

After we had our fill of Irish-girl-eating-fish, we decided it was time to call it a day. At this point, our guide informed us that we had at least a two hour paddle back to camp. After we confirmed that he wasn't joking, we came really close to understanding the phrase, "up a river without a paddle".

Okay, yes, we did have paddles, but we had become comfortably accustomed to our tree-boat with the 40 horsepower engine. Three near-miss accidents with other boats on the river, 2 and 1/2 hours, and one gnarly sunburn later we made it back to the lodge. Lunch never tasted so good. We were all super sore the next day. Gracias a Dios for 4 stroke Yamaha engines!

This Isn't Disney's Jungle Boat

After we finally figured out the Galapagos situation we decided to spend some time in the jungle. While we knew we were going to be somewhat remote, we didn't have any idea how far from civilization we would actually be.

From Quito, we took an overnight bus to an oil town called Lago Agrio. From there, we took a taxi for about three hours towards the Peru and Columbia borders. As I just said, this area of Ecuador is prime oil real estate. Along the side of this dirt road there were miles and miles of pipeline to move the oil out of the jungle...a pretty extensive set-up. Our taxi ride came to an end when we reached the bridge that marked the beginning of the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve...aka part of the Amazon Jungle.

From there, we jumped into a 30 foot boat carved out of a Sequoia Tree. While a Sequoia IS an extremely large member of the tree world, there isn't a lot of wiggle room (especially for 10 people) inside of half of its diameter. With all of the passengers and all of the luggage the hull was only about 3 inches above water level...when we took a turn a bit too sharp, water would rush into the boat. But, this boat wasn't totally "heart of darkness" style...it did a 40 horse power Yamaha engine.

The boat ride was about 2 and a half hours of ducking under trees and vines while the driver weaved around logs and debris floating in the river. The skill of the boat operator was IMPRESSIVE to say the least. It must take a good part of a lifetime to learn all of the in's and out's of this river. We were lucky that we were there during the wet season because during the dry months it apparently takes about 10 hours to make the same trip.

We arrived at the lodge safe and sound and most of the way dry. This place was absolutely wonderful...such a nice change from the city noises. With the amount and activity of animals, the jungle had a whole host of noises of it's own. It was actually pretty loud at night, but it was a relaxing type of noise. We slept wonderfully wonderfully underneath our much needed mosquito net!

Carnival...Brazil...who's coming with us?

Just wanted to plant the seed...looks like we might already have one taker. If you're thinking of entertaining the idea of Carnival in Brazil, it's the very beginning of February. Email us if you're into it and we'll start making moves towarads coordinating.

Cotopaxi and Mountain Bike Luging

Today, we spoiled ourselves and took a mountain biking tour up to El Volcan Cotopaxi. Fun Fact: At 5897 meters, Cotopaxi is the 6th tallest active volcano in the world.

We lucked out and caught some great weather in the morning. We were able to see the summit of the volcano from it's base. After enjoying the view and taking our fill of pictures, we hiked up to the refuge at 4800 meters (15,748 ft). The refuge is, basically, the starting point for the people that hike to the summit of Cotopaxi.

Even after hanging in Quito which is at 2800 meters, we were definitely feeling the altitude. To top it all off, the trail was basically straight up the mountain. After we reached the refuge we traversed over to check out a glacier. Turns out the glaciers in the region are slowly receding...global warming sound familiar?

After lunch, the trip got a little interesting. As we were headed down from the refuge to grab our bikes the weather took a turn for the worse. The clouds rolled in and hail started pelting us...in the face.

Our guide voiced his concern of riding downhill given the icey conditions, but we all thought..."what the hell...let's get what we paid for." We took off down the hill with our poorly adjusted bikes and safety helmets.

At the beginning it was a blast! The dirt road was a bit slippery, but we managed to not eat crap.

About a half hour later, we were singing a different tune. There was enough hail on the ground to make it really icey and I couldn't feel my fingers...the fingers in charge of breaking the bike...the bike that was close to the edge of a cliff.

My fingers went past the no-feeling stage and were well into the painful stage when I noticed that I was totally soaked. Cold, recovering from the flu, and envisioning frost bitten black fingers, Brandon and I decided it might be a wise choice to flag down the guide and hop into the truck. The majority followed our lead, but two guys DID end up making it all the way down to the meeting point. Good on em!

Great fun, but we're ready for some warmer weather. We're off to the Amazon on Saturday.

Up the TeleferiQo..get it teleferi-Quito

Well, we're still in Quito finishing booking our Galapagos trip and waiting to head into the Amazon. Today, we found a pretty cool way to see the city. It's a cable car that goes up to 4500 meters. Check out the view if you can see past our heads.

We found the middle of the world...according to Ecuador

Turns out the middle of the world falls in Ecuador... well, technically in the Galapagos Islands. We're both not exactly sure how they figured that the middle of the world was here. Yes, we do understand that the equator cuts through Ecuador, but not sure how it's figured to be the middle of the world.

A few people have explained that on the equator and every ninety degrees longitude around the world there's only water, EXCEPT for where the Galapagos sits on the world's grid...hence, what make more sense than to build a center of the world monument on mainland Ecuador?

On top of that, there's not one, but TWO centers of the world in Ecuador. The first monument was build in the 1700's and was figured using the navagational tools of the time. The second was built in the age of GPS. Impressively, the two are only 240 meters apart.

The monuments lay just north of Quito so Brandon and I decided to kill some time and check it out. (There's an entire backstory as to why we're back in Quito. Let's just leave at poor prior planning and Guayaquil sucks...BUT we DID FINALLY book a Galapagos trip.) We checked out the first monument which was a great place to take some fun pictures and pay way too much to visit a small museum.

The second, more recent monument was actually really fun! We had a tour of some old indegenious building and burrial sites (more like of what's left of them). We learned a bit about how they lived and what their belief systems were. Did you know that an egg captures all the elements of the earth? Yolk - Fire, White - Water, Membrane - Wind, Shell - Earth...interesting, huh?

Speaking of eggs...did you know that you can balance an egg on a nail at the equatorial line? Well, I will say it takes a bit of skill, so maybe not everyone can do it, but we did :) We also witnessed the coriolis effect by watching water spin counter-clockwise south of the equator and clockwise in the north. Cheap thrills, but we felt like it was money well spent.

Pets are food too!

We happened to luck out and be staying in Cuenca during their version of the 4th of July. Their independence day happens to be the 3rd of November, but there was a solid week of festivities leading up to the actual day...parades, art shows, markets, and it wouldn't be a latino holiday without an excessive amount of fireworks.

Through our spanish school we learned how to make special food and drinks that Cuencanos consume on these special occasions. One delicacy that everybody recommended is called Cuy. Everyone says it has a unique taste and people only eat it on special occasions because it's rather expensive.

If you're wondering what Cuy is, well here it goes...Cuy is more commonly referred to as GUINEA PIG back home. We had seen rotisserie spits with whole guinea pigs (teeth and all) roasting on a few occasions throughout our trip, but weren't exactly sure how we felt about actually eating one.

Well, after lots of questions about Cuy we finally decided, "When in Ecuador..." Thursday, we sacked up and had Cuy for lunch. The restaurant was great...they let us go out back and become familiar with what we were about to eat. While the site of guinea pigs lined up on a spit was a bit disturbing, the smell was actually really great.

At the table we had our choice of cuy sections with legs, paws, and even the head. I opted for a piece that was a little less obvious. The spanish instructor that accompanied us to lunch suggested that we eat the skin and all.

We did...surprisingly, once you get over the initial idea of eating a cute, furry creature, guinea pig IS really tasty. And the masses were right, it's unlike any other meat I'd ever tasted.

Into Cajas National Park

We've been in a city called Cuenca, Ecuador for the last couple weeks studying spanish. School is going well and we have a great teacher. The city's nice, except on Sundays...it's an absolute ghost town.

Last Sunday, we decided to get out of town and head to the Cajas National Park just outside of the city in order to keep ourselves entertained. We ended up going with our salsa teacher (yes, we're taking salsa classes) and two other girls we had met through school. We were under the impression that we would do a bit of walking, but mostly chilling out by one of the lakes.

WRONG...turns out our salsa teacher is also a park guide in his spare time. We all shared a taxi to an obscure section of the park. The last group of people we saw was a bus full of students at a roadside restaurant. We started into the park on an uphill slope...keep in mind, at this point, we were at about 12,000 feet...the slightest incline definitely got the heart pumping. When we first started walking, I felt like a had a slight case of altitude sickness, but after a solid dose of water and about ten minutes walking I felt much better.

About 30 minutes into our hike we arrived at a lake and the last few people we'd see on our trek. The scenery was very different from what I expected in the Andes. Instead of pine trees the terrain was what I imagine a tundra would be like (except we were in the mountains). The plants were short and the ground was squishy with a hard crust of short grass on the top. At points the ground was just flat squishy (I don't think our socks will ever be the same color again).

Cajas national park is known for it's numerous amount of lakes. After we were done taking in the sights of the first lake we headed to another...and another...and another. Luckily, Brandon and I had plenty of water, but we neglected to bring any kind of food. Remember, we thought we were going to be hanging out in a tourist mecca.

The further we went, the trails became smaller and smaller. Eventually, I think we were just on rarely used animal trails. The scenery was amazing and the sound of nothing but the wind was a great change from the city.

About 6 hours, 7 rivers, 5 lakes, and 2,000,000 mosquitoes later we finally made it to another part of the highway. It only took about five minutes before we hitchhiked a ride into town in the back of a Puerto Rican family's truck.

All in all, it was a day of firsts for us. Number one, neither Brandon or I had done any "real" hiking in the middle of nowhere. Number two, neither of us had ever tried to hitchhike before.

When we got back into town first item on the agenda was FOOD and then it was all we could do to shower before collapsing into bed.

Speaking of Safety Measures...

On our way from Quito to Cuenca we decided to take a detour and check out a train that goes down a mountain called "Nariz del Diablo"...in english, The Devil's Nose. We had heard that this ride was beautiful, but slightly hair-raising. The first reason is that the train switchbacks down the steep face of a mountain and, secondly, that they allow people to sit on top of the train cars.

When we arrived we were a bit disappointed to find out that they no longer allow passengers to sit on top of the train because two people had been decapitated during the ride in recent years. The passenger cars were filled so our next best option was a cargo car. We actually, ended up having a better view because our windows were from floor to ceiling.

We began moving out of town toward the edge of the mountain when, BAMM, the train came to an abrupt stop. Apparently, there was a pile of logs set too close to the train tracks and the train ran over a couple and derailed. Immediately, the train's crew began working to get the car back on the track. It wasn't long before a good portion of the town's on-lookers began pitching in to help get this train on the track.

About two hours later and two feet further away from the train track we began to think this trip down the mountain wasn't going to happen. We also knew that a refund was less than likely.

Amazingly, they managed to get the car back on track and we began our journey down the mountain. The ride yielded beautiful views and there were plenty of points where there wasn't much more dirt under us than the width of the track. Thank goodness we hadn't derailed further down the mountain because if we had, there wouldn't have been anywhere for the train car to go but down.

We made it all the way down the mountain and most of the way back up when we felt the familiar halt we'd experienced at the beginning of the trip. We had derailed AGAIN! Expecting a similar timeline for repairs, a handful of people began walking back into town. Surprisingly, the crew had the train back on the track and moving in about 10 minutes. We were satisfied with our decision to stick with the train when we passed the people who decided to hoof it.

Guess what happened another five minutes after we started moving...yep, we derailed AGAIN!

At this point Brandon and I joined the faithless group of walkers. We made it most of the way back into town when we heard the train coming from behind us. Luckily, the engineer slowed down so that we could jump back on the train.

And there's another thing we can check off of the list of things to do before we die...jumping onto a moving train.

La Basilica

The second highlight of our day in the Quito was the Basilica. It's a huge church at the north end of Old Town that sits on a slight hill.

The city of Quito basically sits in a valley surrounded by the Andes mountains. Therefore, the view from this church's clock tower (about 400ft high) is pretty killer.

Like most countries outside the U.S. safety measures are a bit more relaxed. Needless to say some of the rebar ladders at the top felt a bit sketchy. Thank God we weren't up there at the top of the hour.

Chicken Heart Soup...mmm

After cleaning ourselves up from the plane ride and catching a good night's sleep, Brandon and I decided to explore the city of Quito. The city is just like any other big city in the world, but there's a new part of town and an old part. We ventured over to old town via trolley and checked out a few parks and an Andy Warhol exhibit at a museum (it only cost $1 each).

The first highlight of the day occurred while we were having lunch. In Ecuador, lunch is the largest meal of the day. Most times lunch is a set menu consisting of soup, main course, dessert, and juice. At $1.30 per person we weren't exactly sure what to expect.

The first course came out (soup) and looked just as innocent as any other soup I'd seen in my 27 years on this earth. At first taste it was pretty delicious. At about my third spoonful into the soup I came across a piece of meat that looked a bit curious. Not feeling too daring I dumped the meat back into the soup and tried for another spoonful. Yet again, a strange looking piece of meat was on my spoon...this was different than the first, but was strangely similar to the first. Upon further examination of both pieces of meat I found an aorta on each. Not wanting to come to terms with what might have been marinating in my lunch, I had Brandon take a closer look and he confirmed that I had two chicken hearts in my soup.

Did I eat them? Hell no. Just couldn't stomach biting into atriums and ventricles. Did I eat the rest of the soup? Of course...I wouldn't let the entire $1.30 go to waste.

We've Arrived in Ecuador

Hey All!

We're done working for 2007 and, now, we're on the move again. What an exhausting 5 months :)

We arrived in Quito, Ecuador this afternoon. Brandon and I both agree that so far this is looking to be a much easier than the trip with the van. Just imagine, it only took us 9 hours to get here and we didn't get lost once.

On top of the speedy travel, our spanish isn't as bad as we thought it would be. So far we've been able to manage our way around the city pretty easily.

Still trying to decide what our next step will be...we're thinking possibly the Galapagos Islands or getting into a Spanish School/Volunteer Program (but not exactly sure where we'd like to settle and study).

If any of you have traveled here and have any helpful advice we'd really appreciate the help.

This is How We Roll

Shot Out to the Lifeguards

Mexico's No Bull

Semana Santa

I know what you might be thinking... Semana Santa? Christmas was four months ago.

Well, down here in Central America Semana Santa is the biggest religious celebration of the year. It starts on Palm Sunday and lasts through Easter.

Antigua, Guatemala is known throughout Latin America for it's huge processions. We were able to see the big kick-off procession this last Sunday and, let me tell you, it was impressive. The procession started at 8 am and continued until well after 10 pm. People from all over came to Antigua to be a part of this procession...the city was packed.

As you can see in the picture, there were men in purple robes all over the city. The women dressed in white blouses with black skirts and covered their hair with black shawls. The streets were also decorated with intricate art work made of either colored saw dust or leaves and flowers. There was also no lack of incense in the streets.

The most impressive sights were the big wood platforms bearing scenes from the bible being carried (yes, I said carried) throughout the city. These structures looked like they weighed a couple tons and were carried by about 100 men. There were also smaller bible story platforms carried by only women. Apparently, it's a very big honor to be able to carry these platforms and people pay a good sum of money to be a part of the procession.

The platforms were followed by a street filled with people and live bands playing unique, half tempo music. The square in front of the church was packed with food stands and onlookers. We found the best churros we've ever tasted in the square...made completely from scratch. Brandon and I were able to see the procession at many points throughout the day...they covered every square inch of Antigua.

These catholics don't mess around.

Passing Through Nicaragua

Here's a picture of the van parked in front of Isla Ometepe in the middle of Lago Nicaragua. And, yes, there are two volcanoes on the island.

Hot Times

From El Salvador we headed north to Antigua, Guatemala. You might have heard of this place at your local Starbucks. For those of you who a fans of the bean, this place has amazing coffee. It's a great little colonial city that's been overrun by tourist in the last few years. Therefore, it has a strange authentic yet manufactured feel. Hence, great food, cool shops, tons of spanish schools and higher than normal prices...but we'd totally recommend a visit to anybody.

This city is nestled between three different volcanoes. Believe it or not we took the opportunity to climb one of them...Volcan Pacaya. Well, given our last two run-ins with robbery, we had to cough up the money for two new pairs of shoes, but it was completely worth it.

The initial part of the hike up was super steep. Brandon and I think that these Guatemaltecos are smarter than many give them credit for. While we were hiking up this steep section, men were following us with horses taunting, "Taxi, nececita un taxi? Horse is bueno." Let me tell you, hiking at altitude when you've been at sea level for the last couple months isn't so easy on the lungs. We toughed through the really steep section and made it to the more reasonably inclined trail without caving in for a "taxi"...but there were plenty of others who took the men up on their offers.

After about an hour and a half of hiking we arrived to the lava crusted section of the volcano. Our guide informed us that this volcano had been oozing lava regularly since April of 2006. We walked over some hardened rivers that had been running hot just the day before...Pretty cool (or should I say hot?)

Finally, we made it up to hot magma. We were able to get about ten feet away until we felt like a marshmallow on the fourth of July :)

As the sun started to set, the lava started to look more and more impressive. The darker it got, the brighter the lava looked. At points the situation seemed kind of sketchy because pieces of hot lava rocks would break from the river and topple down the volcano...in our direction. Luckily, nobody was hit, but our guide did inform us that if we found ourselves in the path of one of these hot boulders we should run...sounded like a fail proof plan to us.

We stayed at the lava rivers until night fall and then hiked down the volcano in the dark. Mind you there were horses (taxis) on this trail earlier...hence we stepped in lots of horse crap on the way down. Horse crap aside, it truly was a great experience to be able to experience the power of the earth in such close range.

Corrupt Cops (2) - Us (2)

After two brushes with corrupt cops and twenty-seven dollars poorer, we've finally figured out how to avoid highway extortion.


Just call the cops on their bluff!

We ran into a couple opportunistic cops in northern Nicaragua and on our way back through Honduras. It always starts the same...

"You've broken the law, we're going to have to take your licence and impound your car because the bank where you would pay this ticket is closed."

It just so happens that we've broken the same law the last two times we've heard this spiel...lack of a fire extinguisher and reflective triangles in our car.

The act is the same every time. They try to pull the good cop vs bad cop routine. One guy breaks the news that he's going to write you the ticket, take your license, and impound your car while the other gives you the option to pay the ticket on the spot and be on your way.

We've discovered that if you just tell the cops you'll take the ticket and that you have plenty of time to deal with the bank it takes a bit of steam out of their act.

Yes, it does take a while to get them to cave in, but the last two times we've stuck to our guns and haven't gotten a ticket or had to pay the cops. Pretty sweet...hopefully, this works the rest of the way home.

Nicaragua = Lighter Vehicle & Good Waves

We headed up to Nicaragua and a town called San Juan del Sur after spending time Costa Rica. San Juan was a nice enough tourist town with some beautiful beaches to the north. Brandon was still recovering from dengue so we coughed up the money for a hotel room (with secure parking) so that we could lay low and chill for a couple days.

Here, we found out that secure parking with a security guard doesn't guarantee a car's safety. Brandon woke up early the second morning we were there to go to the car to get his medicine. He woke me up with the bad news that our car had been pillaged once again. This time it looked like the entire neighborhood went shopping in our car. They took almost all of Brandon's clothes, all of our food, cooler, hammock, backpack, shoes, fins, masks and snorkels, Brandon's GPS, our crappy CD player, our burned CD's, they even took our ziploc bags and dish soap. Luckily, we had our surfboards in the room and were also able to protect our important documents and money.

We spent the majority of the next day filing a police report...not exactly sure why we bothered seeing as how the chances of the police making an effort to locate our belongings is slim to none. The hotel took minimal responsibility for our loses...we were able to get a refund for one of our night's stay and that was about it. Not sure whether the security guard kept his job or not.

On the bright side, if this keeps up we'll have a lot less to unpack when we get home :)

From San Juan del Sur we drove north to a pretty remote surf break called Popollo. We were able to catch some great waves. It was about 6-10 ft faces with a howling offshore wind. The drop-in's were reasonably steep, but the wave backed off a bit after that which made the rides really fun. Turns out that Nicaragua is the land of offshore winds because of the huge lakes in the middle of the country.

After Popollo we traveled further north to visit a couple we had met in El Salvador. They had just landed a job managing an Eco Surf Lodge in the north of Nicaragua called Los Cardones. The lodge was very interesting...only solar power and compost toilets.

We were only able to stay a couple days because the prices were a bit higher than our budget could afford, but it was totally worth breaking the bank. The lodge was really the only place to stay in the area, therefore, the waves were the most uncrowded we've seen in this trip.

The picture at the top is of one of the secluded breaks close to the lodge. This break is called Hemorrhoids. Brandon was finally able to use his 6'6" surfboard. There was also a great long board beach break out front which I was able to enjoy.

Now, we find ourselves back in Suzal, El Salvador. We decided to scratch spending time in Honduras given Brandon's touch of dengue. Honduras has a slight problem with dengue and we didn't want to take the chance of him catching it again...that's when the disease gets dangerous.

It's great to be back staying with the family we got to know the first time we were here. They're really great people! Tonight they're cooking dinner for Brandon and I...good times :)

Brandon Caught Dengue Fever

After our second experience with robbery, we hung out in Dominical, Costa Rica for few days. After we had our fill of that town, we headed up to Playa Guiones on the Nicoya Peninsula to visit some of Brandon's family friends who live in the area.

The morning after we arrived Brandon started showing flu-like symptoms...tired, no appetite, slight temperature, lethargy, and aching in his joints. His friend suggested that we go see the doctor because there had been a nasty stomach flu going around. We had a weekend full of festivities ahead of us so we heeded his advice and made the trip to the doctor to nip this thing in the bud.

Long story short, after a blood test the doctor diagnosed Brandon with Dengue Fever. The good news is that we caught the virus early so Brandon's symptoms aren't horrible. After talking with the doctor and a bunch of Ticos, we found out that Dengue is actually pretty common down here AND very treatable the first time a person gets infected. We just have to take care that he doesn't catch Dengue again within the next year...that's when there's potential for hemorrhaging.

Looks like Brandon won't be donating blood this year...

If any of you are interested, we've posted a link with more information about Dengue Fever. Just click the link below.

Robbed in Costa Rica...AGAIN!

I bet some of you are thinking, "What do they mean, 'AGAIN!".

Well, for those of you who didn't know, Brandon and I were robbed while on vacation in Costa Rica about 2 years ago. It was a major pain in the ass. Our car was broken into while we were on a beach...novice move on our part. They got all of our cash, credit cards, and passports. Luckily, we were able to have money wired to us in order to get to San Jose and the American Consulate. Believe me, it's not how they portray it in the movies...you know, where you come running in screaming, "I'm an American!" We showed up on a Saturday morning to find out that American Embassies and Consulates evolved on a regular Latin American business schedule...9-5 Monday-Friday with a two hour lunch break. Needless to say, we spent the rest of our vacation in the capital waiting for our new passports.

As for the most recent robbery, we were much better prepared. Given our previous experience, we had taken precautions as far as kill switches and lock boxes to secure our credit cards and important documents before we left for the trip.

Well, it always starts with, "I'm just gunna run in for a minute." Here's how it went this time...we were on our way to Dominical from the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica. We stopped off in a city called San Isidro del General, about 30 km from Domincal to stock up on food. We parked the van in front of the main entrance of the Super Mercado and secured the vehicle. Keep in mind, this is on a busy street at 5:30 in the afternoon.

When we came out with our groceries we notices that the surfboards had been moved from where we had left them. We both felt that sinking feeling in our stomachs associated with just realizing you have been robbed.

The culprits popped open one of the back sliding windows and punched out the metal screen to unlock the driver's door. We could tell they had rummaged through the glove box, refrigerator, cooler, and backgammon set only to get away with my camera (luckily, we had just uploaded our pictures in Panama City), Brandon's sunglasses, our medicine bag, and a handful of change from different countries. It was to our benefit that we had the surfboards inside the car making it incredibly difficult to get to anything.

Overall, I think the robbers were pretty disappointed with their plunder. For us, the robbery was an annoyance, but at least we still have all of the important things to keep traveling without another visit to the Consulate.

Check Out the Photo Album

We've finally posted more pictures...check us out :)

From top to bottom...the first album is Belize, 2nd is Panama, 3rd is El Salvador, and last, but not least, is the lovely country of Mexico.

The Panama Canal

So we decided that our most southern point on this road trip would be Panama City and the Panama Canal.

We checked out a bit of the city, the Panama Canal museum, and the Miraflores Locks. The history of the canal is pretty interesting. Get this...the canal was finished 6 months ahead of schedule and about $6 million under budget...my how things have changed :) We also learned that the canal is 87km long and takes a ship about 8 hours to pass from the Carribean to the Pacific.

This is a picture of a huge cargo ship entering the locks. The ship only had about 2 feet clearance on either side. The structure of the locks are pretty amazing...especially when you reflect on the fact that they were finished being built in 1914.

Carnival in Panama

We were lucky to roll into Panama just in time for the biggest night of Carnival. We celebrated in a town called Pedasi on the Azuera Peninsula.

This particular town celebrated in the traditional manner. There were two Queens...one from the north of town and one from the south. This particular picture is one of the Queens with her court and live band. There were also tons of people supporting their Queen by dancing in front and behind the floats.

The two Queen teams circled the square for hours competing by dancing and singing different songs. We were told that most of the songs badmouth the opposing Queen.

We had a phenomenal time drinking the Panamanian form of rum called caña and chatting with a bunch of locals and ex-patriots.

After the Queen and their teams were done the fireworks came out in full force. Latinos and their explosives...a deadly combination :) Luckily, everyone still had all of their fingers after all the fireworks had been lit.

From fireworks to the discoteca...we danced til 3 in the morning! Remember, we´ve been camping a lot so 11pm is usually pushing it for us, but powered by caña we had not problems keeping up with the Panamanians :)

Overall, a great time...would recommend Carnival down here to anybody.

Extortion on the Road

So as I said the other day, we decided to drive straight (more or less) to Panama and then work our way north for the remainder of the trip. It took us about four days to get from El Salvador to Panama. Let me make it clear that these were four LONG days...don´t forget, we crossed four boarders in three days.

We had been having relatively good luck with boarder crossings throughout the trip so we figured crossing from El Salvador to Honduras would be relatively the same. WRONG...Honduras seems to be the most corrupt country we've been through so far.

Here's a little back story...at most boarders down here there are tons of men and kids who are more than willing to take your money to "escort" you through the boarder. Basically, we need to get a permit to bring the car into every country. These people will take the paperwork and go through the whole process for you. We had been doing just fine by ourselves so we refused any help from the men on the Honduran boarder.

Long story short (and $60 U.S. later) we found out that absolutely EVERYBODY is in on the scam in Honduras. The permit official handed our paperwork to one of the "escorts" and we ended up having to pay and absurd amount of money and waiting two hours to get our car into Honduras.

About 30 minutes into the country we had our first experience with corrupt cops and extortion. We were pulled over at a police check point and the cop said he was going to have to write us a ticket that we would have to pay at the bank back at the El Salvador/Honduras boarder. Keep in mind we were trying to make it to Managua, Nicaragua before the sun went down. We were going to lose too much time if we were to head back. Guess what the ticket was for...Brandon not wearing his seatbelt. Also keep in mind, riding in the back of a truck is a major mode of transportation down here. While this cop was harassing us, trucks full of people packed into the beds were passing by the check point.

Twenty dollars later and feeling quite violated we were on our way without a ticket. Hopefully, karma will meet up with that cop one day. We crossed the boarder into Nicaragua before nightfall and made it to Leon.

We continued south through Costa Rica and into Panama without hitting anymore snags. That was until we were on the peninsula in Panama the last day of Carnival.

We decided to head to a town called Las Tablas after talking to the owner of the hotel we had stayed in the night before. The town was packed with people and no places to stay so we hit the road to another town further southeast called Pedasi. It was just our luck that enroute a transit cop pulled us over from the front...we've come to find that being pulled over from the front is always a bad sign.

He gave us a huge spiel about how we didn't have all the correct permits and he was going to have to tow our car and we wouldn't be able to pick it up until two days later because of the Ash Wednesday holiday. His story quickly changed when we started to consent to towing the car. Forty minutes and seven U.S. dollars later we were back on the road with a "warning" and instructions to get to the transit office Thursday morning for the correct permit.

On Thursday, we weren't surprised to find out this cop was full of crap. Turns out you only need the transit permit if you have your car in the country for more than 90 days...we had only been in for 3. I believe karma has another corrupt cop to take care of...

Oh well, I guess we figured shadey people would be part of our trip down here. Until Honduras and Panama, we had just been lucky. Bottom line, if the cops want money they'll find a way to get it.

The Past Month...Guatemala, El Salvador, & the Frickin Car!

While we were happy to leave Belize, we had little idea what would be in store for us. Shortly after dropping Jason off at the airport in Belize City, Pepe (the van) started running poorly but I assumed that is was bad gasoline. I have always assumed that third world gasoline is very poor quality, and full of water and dirt. After the worst road on the planet (the sixty mile muddy uneven dirt stretch from Belize to Guatemala) I had pretty much decided that this problem wasn´t going to be fuel related. So we pulled into a town called Flores to find a mechanic that could fix the problem. Well, Latin America is very different in it´s automotive services...all you have to do is show up, and nine times out of ten, they just tear into the problem with highly evolved testing equipment. These tests consist of tasting the gas, testing the spark with bare skin, and countless adjusting and listening. After several hours of looking, the mechanics said that we would have to go to Guatemala City for real testing equipment. We got a hotel for the night and in the morning we started the seven hour journey into the city.

So now that the car has made it to Guatemala City we find a mechanic and he prods and probes for at least seven hours and says that he's fixed it and that the problem was dirt. Now I'm not a mechanic, but dirt being the sole reason a car running poorly sounds fishy to me. Nonetheless, the car was running fine so we were happy.

The car is happy, we are happy, and two full days of mechanic service has set us back $70 USD. Finally, we are on the road to El Salvador, where we will spend a couple weeks due to the fact that we won´t be going back through El Salvador on the way up north. On the road we discover that after about five hours of driving that the car isn´t really fixed, and that we are going to need to try again in El Salvador. The search for a mechanic that knows a thing or two about Vanagons in El Salvador is kinda tricky, and after about one week, four shops, and three trips to San Salvador (The Capital of El Salvador) we got the car fixed.

So we had been staying in this little village on the beach called Sunzal, and we were very to just chill for a couple days without having to go and sit at a mechanic shop for eight hours a day. We surfed, read, took a week long Spanish course, and enjoyed ourselves. Also while we were in Sunzal, we celebrated my birthday, and after about two weeks of staying in one spot we had made a few friends...one of them had the same birthday as me. Needless to say, my birthday turned out to be a good party. The next night everyone decided to go into the capital to watch a football match(soccer)...Costa Rica Vs. Honduras. I was hoping for some crazy fans, but that didn´t happen. However, we did get to ride home in the back of a pick up truck for one of those real Latin experiences. After a couple more days at the beach we decided it was time to push on and head up to the mountains for a couple days for some culture, and museums.

In the mountains we visited several places with some good art. There was also a lot of history about the civil war...a very heavy experience. The first town we visited is called Suchitoto, it is a small colonial town with beautiful architecture, and a lot of war history. while we were there, we went on a hike into the mountains to see some old FMLN (Gorilla) camps and where quite a lot of the fighting occurred. The next day we went to Perquin were the civil war museum is. The museum did a great job of portraying how many people were actually affected by the war.

I´m an Aunt!!

Landon Scott Mariano...

was born on January 29, 2007.

My sister, Alicia, gave birth at 6:11PM. Her husband, Charles, was there too :)

Landon was 9.1 Pounds 19.4 inches...whadda big baby!

Can´t wait to get home and meet him!

The Past Month...Belize

So I guess we left you last in Belize...

We picked up Jason after our last post and then proceeded to tour the country for the next couple weeks. Unfortunately, we were welcomed into the country with the same cold front that had been affecting the U.S. with unusually cold weather. It rained for most of our time in Belize, but we still tried to make the most of if.

We started up in Corozal and then headed out to the cayes (islands) for some sun, snorkeling, and diving. Well, two out of three isn´t bad...in our weeks on the islands we caught, maybe, a day worth of good weather. On the bright side, Jason was able to get his basic diving certificate and Brandon and I were able to join him on a couple dives (sidenote: the water outside the reef was insanely choppy...everytime we stopped the boat I had about 3 minutes to get under the water before I´d loose my lunch). Due to the amount of wind and rain, the visibility was absolutely horrible (I´m talkin' should've-gotten-a-refund-horrible) so we decided to scratch the expensive dive trip out to the blue hole...bummer!

Well, we got sick of sitting in Chinese restaurants all day waiting for the rain to let up so we decided to head back to the mainland for something that wasn´t totally weather dependent. We took a boat out to some Mayan ruins called Lamanai. The ruins were nice, but the boat trip was awesome! There were parts where it looked like we were going to hit a dead end going 35 mph and our driver would swerve left and, suddenly, there would be more river ahead of us. We'll try to post a short video clip of the ride.

That night we camped by the river...the crocodile filled river. Our captain, Edgar, and his buddies that work on the river told us tons of stories about close encounters with crocodiles. These guys were nuts! Get this...they go free diving in the river to find Mayan artifacts (mostly arrowheads). Try to imagine, the water in this river is muddy and murky, the bottom is silty, and the chances of running into a 6-15 foot crocodile are high. They don't even sell what they find. They believe what they find is priceless because of the guts it takes to actually find these artifacts...really interesting guys!!

Well, the rain continued so we headed out to a national park called Jaguar Paw to do some cave tubing. It had been raining hard for a week or so before we arrived to ride this river. We showed up in the morning and our guide hurried us up to the top of the trail so that we could get through the cave before the river was too high and we couldn't clear the ceiling of the cave. I´m not gunna lie, I was a bit sketched out (I´m pretty sure our guide was too). When I asked him what the chances were that we would make it through the cave he said, "I think about 50/50." He followed with, "If the water is too high we can get off our tubes and go under water." Brandon and Jason seemed to be fine with this news, but my anxiety level rose a bit...by the way, our guide couldn't swim. To top it all off, the other groups cancelled because of the potential danger of the river.

Belize it or not, we made it out...with about 1 foot above our heads to spare. After the fact, our guide admitted to us that he had never been in the cave when the river was that high...I'm glad he waited 'til after to break this news. The cave was great...besides the rising level of the river, there were underground waterfalls, bats, and good platforms to jump off of. We also have a short video of the river that we'll try to post.

When we came out of the caves, the clouds had parted and the sun sneaked out so we headed for the beaches near Placentia...we couldn't send Jason home without a tan :) We lucked out and found a great place to camp...the place was appropriately named On Da Beach Campin'. A great couple from Oregon, Bill and Lisa, ran the business. The sun managed to stay out for the next five days and we celebrated Jason's 23rd birthday with everyone who was staying at the campground.

As the sun lost the battle and the rain started to pour we headed back to Belize Airport to drop off Jason via one night in the jungle. We found a cool spot called Caves Branches where they had the coolest outdoor showers I've ever seen and kerosene lanterns for light at night. We decided to go for a quick hike in the morning before we had to head to the airport. Bottom line, it was slippery and we sent Jason home with an arm full of thorns...oops, sorry Jason.

After saying goodbye to Jason, Brandon and I were ready to get out of Belize. Major problems...#1 it's a really expensive country, #2 we were lucky to have consistent run-in's with crackhead garifuna men (decendents from a slave ship that sank off the coast of Belize). They were always either trying to sell us drugs or looking for a free handout.

We spent the night in a town near the border and then headed to Guatemala the next day...