tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56684643669168263452024-03-20T06:37:28.994-07:00South for the WinterPiperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10861110738550537371noreply@blogger.comBlogger25125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5668464366916826345.post-59367487406725282502014-12-13T06:46:00.002-08:002014-12-13T06:46:45.494-08:00Chile Pt. 1 (in mostly words)(Disclaimer: for whatever reason we didn't take many pictures in Chile Pt. 1, but Chile Pt. 2 will have tons!)<br />
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We got over the border from Bolivia into Chile with no problems.
We found ourself in the town of San Pedro de Atacama in the middle of
the Atacama desert, the driest desert in the world. The first order
of business was finding a hostel. Compared to Bolivian prices,
everything in Chile is unbelievably expensive (although most stuff is
still cheaper than the U.S.) The cost for a hostel seemed way too
expensive so we pulled out our tent and camped for about $8 each
(camping in Chile cost us more than a hotel room in Bolivia!) No
matter, I was happy to be back in Chile.<br />
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You can do all sorts of awesome tours and excursions out into the
desert in San Pedro. There are hot springs and amazing valleys and
canyons and mountains, it is a really cool place. However, we were a
little "toured out" from our 3 days in the Salt Flats and I
had already seen a lot of it anyway (because I spent a weekend there
last time) so we decided to just take it easy for a day and then hit
the road for Santiago. Originally, I had wanted to make several stops
on the way down from San Pedro to Santiago, but we were starting to
feel really pressed for time. Instead, we got a direct bus and headed
out the next day. It takes 23 hours to reach Santiago, so by the time
we pulled into the bus terminal we were REALLY happy to be there and
to get off the bus. The bus ride was really not bad though, except
they played crappy movies the whole time. The icing on the cake was
when they played the movie Godzilla for the SECOND time. Luckily we
only had to watch part of it the second time because we arrived in
Santiago.<br />
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We spent 6 days in Santiago, and it was so much fun. We stayed with my friend from study abroad who now lives there, Cara, and her Spanish boyfriend, Xabi. They were amazing hosts and we were so happy to take a break from hostels for a bit.<br /><br />The first day we got in, we chatted with Cara and Xabi for awhile and then went and visited my host family for "once" (pronounced "own-say"). Once is a uniquely Chilean thing. Chileans eat dinner really late, around 9 or 10, so between 3-6pm everyone sits down for a small meal, usually just tea or coffee and bread or crackers and jam. It was so fun to see them again. When I left Santiago, Cristobal was only 12 years old and now he is 14. I've seen pictures on Facebook so I knew he would look older and be taller, but I was not ready for the man voice he greeted me with! Anyway it was awesome seeing them again. They don't speak much English, but Keegan did a great job keeping up with the conversation in Spanish. It was really fun.<br /><br />The next two days we slept in pretty late and I gave Keegan the whirlwind tour of Santiago. We went to La Vega, which is a giant market. We got Terremotos at La Piojera, the oldest bar in Santiago. (Terremotos, "earthquakes", are a drink made of wine and pineapple sorbet. They call them terremotos because they are highly alcoholic but don't taste very strong and drinking them leads people to fall on the floor like in an earthquake.) We saw the main plaza, Plaza de Armas, but it was under construction. The rest of the time we just walked through some of my favorite neighborhoods and parks near the city center and stopped at all my favorite restaurants and ice cream shops along the way.<br />
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<i>One day we jogged up to the Virgen statue that overlooks Santiago</i> </div>
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<i>View from the top</i> </div>
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<i>Candles lit at the church at the top</i> </div>
<br /><br />We also spent one night out in Valparaiso, a port city about an hour by bus from Santiago. We stayed on a nice hostel with an amazing breakfast. We went to a brewery and just generally explored the town. Valparaiso is known for its colorful buildings and beautiful grafitti murals.<br />
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<br /><br />We spent our last days in Santiago preparing for our trip to Patagonia. Food in Santiago is much cheaper and more plentiful than down south so we bought almost everything we needed for the trip in Santiago. <br /><br />Our last night in town, Cara and Xabi invited us to go with them to a Chilean-style asado with some guys from Xabj's soccer team. An asado is basically just a barbecue where massive quantities of meat are cooked and consumed. They are awesome and very Chilean. Again, everyone there spoke almost exclusively Spanish except us and Cara, but Keegan did great keeping up with the conversations. <br /><br />The next day we made the final packing preparations, said good bye to Cara and Xabi, and hopped on a plane bound for Punta Arenas, the closest airport to Patagonia. (Thankfully, we had decided ahead of time to take the 4 hour flight instead of the 30-40 hour bus ride.) Staying in Santiago for so long totally rejuvenated us. We had awesome hosts, we ate tons of great food and overall just had a really wonderful time. I was so happy to be back, even just for a short while.<br />
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Piperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10861110738550537371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5668464366916826345.post-54189469866991718742014-12-07T17:00:00.000-08:002014-12-08T16:18:41.638-08:00Salt Flats!! In (mostly) pictures<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">We got into
the tiny, dusty town of Uyuni around 7am. We were really well-rested because we
had sprung for the nice seats on the bus for the first (and only!) time. It was
amazing because the seats fully recline and are extra wide. We had booked a tour in
La Paz, so we found the office and then went out for breakfast. At 10:30, we
met our driver and headed out on the three day tour through the largest salt flats in the world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><u>Day One</u></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">For some
reason, our tour group changed a lot. We started out with a really nice
Bolivian professor and his Norweigan friend. They only stuck with us for the
first day, which was a bummer because I got to practice a lot of Spanish with
him. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The first stop on the tour was the train cemetery. Uyuni used to be a
major railway hub, but for some reason it isn´t anymore. Someone built some
swings and a bunch of people added graffiti and they turned it into a tourist
attraction! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i>Swings!</i></div>
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<i>The grafiti says "I need a mechanic with experience", haha.</i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Next stop
was the “ojos de agua” (eyes of water) which was a crazy area where hot water
is constantly bubbling up from the ground and forming little ponds of water in
the salt. We also stopped, at the Bolivian professor’s insistence, to check out
a massive llama farm. Then we got our first glimpse at the massive salt flats.
They go as far as the eye can see. Closer to town men work all day mining
the stuff so it can be used for building and making souvenirs and I think some
of it even gets shipped out as table salt. We went to lunch and picked up a kid
from France and a fiercely patriotic guy from Switzerland who would stay with
us the rest of the trip. We also stopped at a really elaborate hostel made
entirely of salt and took some funny pictures.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i>Llamas</i></div>
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<i><br></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3nCsmbCzbMP8ue0YSRf7lxQmIOXUmQMRUZGG790BWce14Hd-p0qZW_oiG_f3P8yi-2acC_nrd1Ft2twujZ0jnrKfCs8uwXbpshjK2MqsTRfnJX-EhpNw4BdxVPEsPnsKndna8zdzMazc/s1600/WP_20141105_091.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3nCsmbCzbMP8ue0YSRf7lxQmIOXUmQMRUZGG790BWce14Hd-p0qZW_oiG_f3P8yi-2acC_nrd1Ft2twujZ0jnrKfCs8uwXbpshjK2MqsTRfnJX-EhpNw4BdxVPEsPnsKndna8zdzMazc/s1600/WP_20141105_091.jpg" height="360" width="640"></a></div>
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<i>Salt waiting to be transported</i></div>
<br>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrsCaRqi7bp4fU0_uyqP3BMO-llZQRZD5kWaKLVBy-timFeP2tG8N8Z6zIW3kYMLrrvw5xdW6X7FtAYdsfGtTQAOXoAGyenz6tpH1JobY2e7a4rJ4v5hIutsZhQ1TsafL9zMPRnf9fIMU/s1600/WP_20141105_094.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrsCaRqi7bp4fU0_uyqP3BMO-llZQRZD5kWaKLVBy-timFeP2tG8N8Z6zIW3kYMLrrvw5xdW6X7FtAYdsfGtTQAOXoAGyenz6tpH1JobY2e7a4rJ4v5hIutsZhQ1TsafL9zMPRnf9fIMU/s1600/WP_20141105_094.jpg" height="360" width="640"></a></div>
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<i>As far as the eye can see</i></div>
<br>
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</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtCvOJndacbCTYj1rstORPZ21b4X72F3asxAkJOo8O_Uqmd7qim3R7ciDREgpCPSqFbs593X6a7V5SbLIM3ZbeFaEu2IdxA5ZsK_2s3-MnBj98BqzS1EW7N5WYxb_TAbMlE8q_H9hyWhY/s1600/WP_20141105_074.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtCvOJndacbCTYj1rstORPZ21b4X72F3asxAkJOo8O_Uqmd7qim3R7ciDREgpCPSqFbs593X6a7V5SbLIM3ZbeFaEu2IdxA5ZsK_2s3-MnBj98BqzS1EW7N5WYxb_TAbMlE8q_H9hyWhY/s1600/WP_20141105_074.jpg" height="360" width="640"></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8iRCvKL7g4wuoAeHqS_TEVh3qC2tZwvX2EpWzQyxDkxyWHsRaxtmMzDqBnqXuw4IGQq5rmSFtyq8n2OhGSjEoepSdzWE_-gqOBQOcRJZFrzRBFol38AoeP5uhIo8qw-t7R2EUyk2kVQ4/s1600/WP_20141105_105.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8iRCvKL7g4wuoAeHqS_TEVh3qC2tZwvX2EpWzQyxDkxyWHsRaxtmMzDqBnqXuw4IGQq5rmSFtyq8n2OhGSjEoepSdzWE_-gqOBQOcRJZFrzRBFol38AoeP5uhIo8qw-t7R2EUyk2kVQ4/s1600/WP_20141105_105.jpg" height="360" width="640"></a></div>
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<i>Everything is made of salt!</i></div>
<br>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixC-BBhelOMUV72N2OXb8MGsjgSKebeVjIJ5QmEvv9qIF8f6ksIz5qy2XawVUJTPC0cphDUDKLfpBmtXb5E0liEH2MeC2OgBitabMMCwZ-zs_1DRmHnO_9snYemCl4F5jjICl6OUVACps/s1600/WP_20141105_107.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixC-BBhelOMUV72N2OXb8MGsjgSKebeVjIJ5QmEvv9qIF8f6ksIz5qy2XawVUJTPC0cphDUDKLfpBmtXb5E0liEH2MeC2OgBitabMMCwZ-zs_1DRmHnO_9snYemCl4F5jjICl6OUVACps/s1600/WP_20141105_107.jpg" height="640" width="360"></a></div>
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<i>You don´t have to be very far away for the perspective to get totally thrown off</i></div>
<br>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOyQyT_sr_rl3zl-NeeYtsEhgZKbUH9RJcatrVE5VoG6fyHlZ2i6yV15W9oTO1MawE1YFDwOczCsdAKwneUsClr6Mkj7M75KTVtVn17nfVRlLOROaoAXvsCqrixl49NeiW8e05eYDdQh4/s1600/WP_20141105_112.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOyQyT_sr_rl3zl-NeeYtsEhgZKbUH9RJcatrVE5VoG6fyHlZ2i6yV15W9oTO1MawE1YFDwOczCsdAKwneUsClr6Mkj7M75KTVtVn17nfVRlLOROaoAXvsCqrixl49NeiW8e05eYDdQh4/s1600/WP_20141105_112.jpg" height="360" width="640"></a></div>
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<i>This is what it looks like while the photo is being taken.</i></div>
<br>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmIALWD3maeO0Op__ipQgoVOFCQQW7GkN_KgQIkG7p-nSTPMQDw4K2d6SA0ztccwdtLS3I7HHTqCiiqHby8fAzj8fSYujCq5Aj0U9P5H6i6v527wCT_pzCyw5ig0wlw9r0roq4RCLwfe0/s1600/WP_20141105_117.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmIALWD3maeO0Op__ipQgoVOFCQQW7GkN_KgQIkG7p-nSTPMQDw4K2d6SA0ztccwdtLS3I7HHTqCiiqHby8fAzj8fSYujCq5Aj0U9P5H6i6v527wCT_pzCyw5ig0wlw9r0roq4RCLwfe0/s1600/WP_20141105_117.jpg" height="640" width="360"></a></div>
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<i>Turns out pretty great, but the shadows mess it up!</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The last
stop of the day was out to the Isla de Pescado (Island of Fish) which is a
giant fossilized coral island. Here we also said good bye to the Bolivian and
Norweigan and picked up another couple that spoke French and Spanish but not
much English. Unfortunately, everyone in the group now spoke French but us.
Actually I could follow along a little, tiny bit with their conversations
because French and Spanish are fairly similar. Mostly, it just made dinner
conversation really difficult though.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2hK1Ut2CdYpq-6TrFWgQDSXOsG9mEgHqpFDGEOoukMBntqcFIvasx1xD1DzUqasozbVXBEz8k6HgakD0EHAhaGU7OEBJLuf9YcfYKa6sPIy4aq7Kq4OcXUxzaLHFbN59x0fZi0d4bC18/s1600/WP_20141105_135.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2hK1Ut2CdYpq-6TrFWgQDSXOsG9mEgHqpFDGEOoukMBntqcFIvasx1xD1DzUqasozbVXBEz8k6HgakD0EHAhaGU7OEBJLuf9YcfYKa6sPIy4aq7Kq4OcXUxzaLHFbN59x0fZi0d4bC18/s1600/WP_20141105_135.jpg" height="360" width="640"></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0AoLasO6OfSJ_XxSypvF9vE6xwLn-wmPwwVdmPacf4Ycw1R0V589H5jdrPRkCwZhRbYFjqtyOX-V6WbFU-MdpH-X5hrmeSoJEQuXK-J4008iYuab6jyHKc9OEgI0XmN0k59Up5hEVCyo/s1600/WP_20141105_143.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0AoLasO6OfSJ_XxSypvF9vE6xwLn-wmPwwVdmPacf4Ycw1R0V589H5jdrPRkCwZhRbYFjqtyOX-V6WbFU-MdpH-X5hrmeSoJEQuXK-J4008iYuab6jyHKc9OEgI0XmN0k59Up5hEVCyo/s1600/WP_20141105_143.jpg" height="360" width="640"></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdUdWyPh7PN1wtCMep3gqcn4MRhQpQM052OTBS4u79ygYoaM1_BkpuzeT8j4LJBKy2P99vkE9KiPAEPrhjCOTZ2SbUPFA1AtD_OUJgN3tOFgHnn8wZ3bpvfJjQAhCCge07c61rg-u7OFE/s1600/WP_20141105_155.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdUdWyPh7PN1wtCMep3gqcn4MRhQpQM052OTBS4u79ygYoaM1_BkpuzeT8j4LJBKy2P99vkE9KiPAEPrhjCOTZ2SbUPFA1AtD_OUJgN3tOFgHnn8wZ3bpvfJjQAhCCge07c61rg-u7OFE/s1600/WP_20141105_155.jpg" height="360" width="640"></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj20fOIsV8vL7dyYqEzarxtbSHydl6qU0gt1RypmdWk6-47r8Lny3IgxNVswEMGvXzA202V3A0SZ1o7AF5FI9y2vtlyFQjaIG1E3Tukd6bwsHAs7eHNSjAOddCV5SrZJ422HtrZqA9hApw/s1600/WP_20141105_176.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj20fOIsV8vL7dyYqEzarxtbSHydl6qU0gt1RypmdWk6-47r8Lny3IgxNVswEMGvXzA202V3A0SZ1o7AF5FI9y2vtlyFQjaIG1E3Tukd6bwsHAs7eHNSjAOddCV5SrZJ422HtrZqA9hApw/s1600/WP_20141105_176.jpg" height="360" width="640"></a></div>
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<i>The cacti were all in bloom which made everything extra beautiful!</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">After the
island we drove for awhile to our first resting point for the night, another
hostel made totally of salt! The tables, chairs, bed frames, and walls were all
made from salt!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><b><u>Day Two</u></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">We woke up
at 6am and drove a long ways (the salt flats can be seen from space so the
distances between things are realllly far!) On the drive we saw two blue
lagoons, a green lagoon and a yellow pond. Something about the minerals here
make the ponds different colors I think. Anyway, really cool! We ate lunch by a
big pond filled with pink flamingos.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL64KbcmZ0a0qIk0LEmYUyp4iadVpiaOM5P-zAUsybc6uHn-pKXKb9NYlCFvcwxKD9p9BnSgjWzlel3173XDy92Npw0yaaopIgD6tyLaVjr0ryjfmsLykFMDCBH0m3QxAwXTKPux8KXic/s1600/WP_20141106_046.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL64KbcmZ0a0qIk0LEmYUyp4iadVpiaOM5P-zAUsybc6uHn-pKXKb9NYlCFvcwxKD9p9BnSgjWzlel3173XDy92Npw0yaaopIgD6tyLaVjr0ryjfmsLykFMDCBH0m3QxAwXTKPux8KXic/s1600/WP_20141106_046.jpg" height="360" width="640"></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1UpaxIkJDWFCSfaTqrm3g0fLf3jAWn3sQGtDLUHh7rcTIh5bbDbPJN6Xc6lUG63tPJ8goilliXmE1ioiXqEoo7unm6sJ4uIc7wzIAlCR4wmuN99kC3G3sc-tY-lildCY0xWo9s8FJvu0/s1600/WP_20141106_064.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1UpaxIkJDWFCSfaTqrm3g0fLf3jAWn3sQGtDLUHh7rcTIh5bbDbPJN6Xc6lUG63tPJ8goilliXmE1ioiXqEoo7unm6sJ4uIc7wzIAlCR4wmuN99kC3G3sc-tY-lildCY0xWo9s8FJvu0/s1600/WP_20141106_064.jpg" height="360" width="640"></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFfVfF8k_8Na3idUQknNmybCjoOjIGId__M9ZCuZH66WBw-q1c7ekp0OYDcTXAKsOJQbXApDNXZLgN6Gpxyjp4JMAtQQyXgW72_mbLiX781yB_FAcCGQ6GdYh2Nijry-DFpYnla8gaDoI/s1600/WP_20141106_099.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFfVfF8k_8Na3idUQknNmybCjoOjIGId__M9ZCuZH66WBw-q1c7ekp0OYDcTXAKsOJQbXApDNXZLgN6Gpxyjp4JMAtQQyXgW72_mbLiX781yB_FAcCGQ6GdYh2Nijry-DFpYnla8gaDoI/s1600/WP_20141106_099.jpg" height="360" width="640"></a></div>
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<i>Spotted a herd of llamas on the drive</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">After lunch
we kept driving until we got to a crazy rock garden. The entire area for miles
and miles was barren except for this one spot filled with enormous rocks.
Thousands of years of erosion by the wind have given the rocks really unique
shapes, including one that looks like a tree.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><br></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVWRv-d_T90T9-oK0KvkESMSJ6m52HJA9x2VuEz6E89pSbvvNcyCxDfWx3_kG9G6vV7TN-XHuwrhqI6SFiwqe2CXuTOwrJ3MrXRww2ZFQZHFXq-ijyEx0CXo36OxVXNkrttVv7S8R7GDQ/s1600/WP_20141106_140.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVWRv-d_T90T9-oK0KvkESMSJ6m52HJA9x2VuEz6E89pSbvvNcyCxDfWx3_kG9G6vV7TN-XHuwrhqI6SFiwqe2CXuTOwrJ3MrXRww2ZFQZHFXq-ijyEx0CXo36OxVXNkrttVv7S8R7GDQ/s1600/WP_20141106_140.jpg" height="360" width="640"></a></div>
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<i>Driving</i></div>
<br>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCIcDlvKUpyzs-ha4CyevM_Ip9elqUQTn6hVUW8AO5gFkfgv5ym0y9ArJyVraTn6TdJZZxXdGhBbGhkhh4CxgJZDccqELipmdTOKee8I7lW9cbtI4nFxtTGuovc9V-ubC24Yznchx708E/s1600/WP_20141106_146.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCIcDlvKUpyzs-ha4CyevM_Ip9elqUQTn6hVUW8AO5gFkfgv5ym0y9ArJyVraTn6TdJZZxXdGhBbGhkhh4CxgJZDccqELipmdTOKee8I7lW9cbtI4nFxtTGuovc9V-ubC24Yznchx708E/s1600/WP_20141106_146.jpg" height="360" width="640"></a></div>
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<i>Rocks!</i></div>
<br>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg1KcngDiQSDeyG-hpxCPtZb-9aFzNOUo0ZvTsYCp0ZDs56IA3peZfzwSJC5vT0UoZFcRUpaKffRNRxu8PLaZa619ZzyDm8f9RuuE4KVHFVvND5H65QWy330nvwsdHO3cCY45i-2GGcu8/s1600/WP_20141106_152.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg1KcngDiQSDeyG-hpxCPtZb-9aFzNOUo0ZvTsYCp0ZDs56IA3peZfzwSJC5vT0UoZFcRUpaKffRNRxu8PLaZa619ZzyDm8f9RuuE4KVHFVvND5H65QWy330nvwsdHO3cCY45i-2GGcu8/s1600/WP_20141106_152.jpg" height="360" width="640"></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUrNiLnzhnwuLmpBSjfaS5o_w71AyjNTKR84emv3e8HLW_ZieO9bJWIps5MzTTT2jXF1jVzdQrN6lWvv7Gpz2Z6B9olmXwoxN1REXsyeDNoKnKAJ3q8DazYZQC2KImhVDvXHRmxdR-cYU/s1600/WP_20141106_164.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUrNiLnzhnwuLmpBSjfaS5o_w71AyjNTKR84emv3e8HLW_ZieO9bJWIps5MzTTT2jXF1jVzdQrN6lWvv7Gpz2Z6B9olmXwoxN1REXsyeDNoKnKAJ3q8DazYZQC2KImhVDvXHRmxdR-cYU/s1600/WP_20141106_164.jpg" height="360" width="640"></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTtdoltIqJtREFCT32WV_VsKvGeuZvgViuyausKK4STPjj9bAPh_WlLtodxoRm94Cs4eVIMb9pnv7cwrFhvZwjD5dcRBOVyLbSrB4NQDyQbU0uoyWXypbUF5IdDGxFDkhtJdN8V_H7QrY/s1600/WP_20141106_180.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTtdoltIqJtREFCT32WV_VsKvGeuZvgViuyausKK4STPjj9bAPh_WlLtodxoRm94Cs4eVIMb9pnv7cwrFhvZwjD5dcRBOVyLbSrB4NQDyQbU0uoyWXypbUF5IdDGxFDkhtJdN8V_H7QrY/s1600/WP_20141106_180.jpg" height="360" width="640"></a></div>
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<i>Piedra de Arbol (Rock Tree)</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">A
description of this day wouldn´t be complete without describing the music we
listened to the whole time. I have no idea where our guide found his music, but
we listened to really terrible 80s music for awhile, then traditional Spanish
music for awhile, then some American pop music, followed by several songs of
Eminem. Once we had listened to everything once, we went back and kept the
terrible 80s music on repeat for the rest of the day. It really made the tour
quite unique and also nearly drove us crazy. By the end we were singing along
because we knew all the words.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">That night
we stayed in a much less nice hostel, BUT it was on the edge of a stunningly
bright red lagoon filled with flamingos. It was way cool.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRfbD-xWimBaiAMf5sNNE2Al1wgQFsterrQlpDtrLHH2UsAvmkVLlizI69Hjdka1vCX5JIntqV4OlyUNSMvuEFE0690UWor7V_ORsrKq3RmBuNeCwZeAWWugowzpIRXejMfDjDot8W8m4/s1600/WP_20141106_185.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRfbD-xWimBaiAMf5sNNE2Al1wgQFsterrQlpDtrLHH2UsAvmkVLlizI69Hjdka1vCX5JIntqV4OlyUNSMvuEFE0690UWor7V_ORsrKq3RmBuNeCwZeAWWugowzpIRXejMfDjDot8W8m4/s1600/WP_20141106_185.jpg" height="360" width="640"></a></div>
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<i>Bright red lagoon</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8ZFEZq9GepLVqVUTuMnjsmqA3N-QiQ1bXskBipp-W9tONHod5iB1LBHKR_6ooY1MB9V9Nes1sKEeOhi8qpfkkyEx7epHBvh4YTQaijye2tRmWW0RF9KpjT5heJNWEAu8SEcTbpYOA8Hc/s1600/WP_20141106_186.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8ZFEZq9GepLVqVUTuMnjsmqA3N-QiQ1bXskBipp-W9tONHod5iB1LBHKR_6ooY1MB9V9Nes1sKEeOhi8qpfkkyEx7epHBvh4YTQaijye2tRmWW0RF9KpjT5heJNWEAu8SEcTbpYOA8Hc/s1600/WP_20141106_186.jpg" height="360" width="640"></a></div>
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<i>Five-star lodging!</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAyDJtVIad2Nq2B95LwnWdMcIpSausKkdqhsaBpwEOH4FRxeEbmNT4oYsXe-cmM37eGhW1nAceS0C_-rMXyFpxxkUsiCGSFuW6h6nRCtduRGKTrCsx8j2RIqr2Dv3LTQpNbZxeyjz0RWM/s1600/WP_20141106_194.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAyDJtVIad2Nq2B95LwnWdMcIpSausKkdqhsaBpwEOH4FRxeEbmNT4oYsXe-cmM37eGhW1nAceS0C_-rMXyFpxxkUsiCGSFuW6h6nRCtduRGKTrCsx8j2RIqr2Dv3LTQpNbZxeyjz0RWM/s1600/WP_20141106_194.jpg" height="360" width="640"></a></div>
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<i>But the lake is pretty dang cool.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFxFcgp-sY7GXNhenqvmwb3tFjMqdvwPbpgJGc4x39l3CM7Hi-4rSPbpPvOiAh0nZIGhnVECX2y3A4GUL-utICl_ZRZpxaPDAJtMr5YJUuJCaZcsdnb4vkZjlv95RonZUBS7WXIC3zv8M/s1600/WP_20141106_210.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFxFcgp-sY7GXNhenqvmwb3tFjMqdvwPbpgJGc4x39l3CM7Hi-4rSPbpPvOiAh0nZIGhnVECX2y3A4GUL-utICl_ZRZpxaPDAJtMr5YJUuJCaZcsdnb4vkZjlv95RonZUBS7WXIC3zv8M/s1600/WP_20141106_210.jpg" height="360" width="640"></a></div>
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<i>A woman was doing research on diseases in the flamingo population. Keegan got to nerd out with her for awhile and I got to translate</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr84L5Y1Om0sWC-U5chTnnLXLilWUJxjJ30MYEB3t8ZfDPQrtjAP64V2HLwMiPNZqVHxTeGd1DDWB8cZZXEBVNDyw8DLo12jR9YURdE39yhDS4yXvgDv_dzSA76q1zj0kGg5L8YDgHzr8/s1600/WP_20141106_230.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr84L5Y1Om0sWC-U5chTnnLXLilWUJxjJ30MYEB3t8ZfDPQrtjAP64V2HLwMiPNZqVHxTeGd1DDWB8cZZXEBVNDyw8DLo12jR9YURdE39yhDS4yXvgDv_dzSA76q1zj0kGg5L8YDgHzr8/s1600/WP_20141106_230.jpg" height="360" width="640"></a></div>
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<i>It was cold outside!</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN2yEhH8x481rP3cs8dATngZVQ7UacPI2AsN2yLUMKxmENQhkzDMyJFreYpMy6jKZ4LQMnsi31j6080ojiRYQv_tsa1vZl8kRb3D2U98GkwhrE0ZBLMLUrLa3mOWT-ZAlZbD8yjsmS9LE/s1600/WP_20141106_238.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN2yEhH8x481rP3cs8dATngZVQ7UacPI2AsN2yLUMKxmENQhkzDMyJFreYpMy6jKZ4LQMnsi31j6080ojiRYQv_tsa1vZl8kRb3D2U98GkwhrE0ZBLMLUrLa3mOWT-ZAlZbD8yjsmS9LE/s1600/WP_20141106_238.jpg" height="360" width="640"></a></div>
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<i>Not the best quality, but we got to see the moon rise and it was beautiful</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgIgIttXbXpZ_9zBarjNgYd_gmSlpbmPnHNn-w6X2wKfAWa1MT1KrMBRzK32pBvL-Qram1C5NLgjMynRSF8VmvmeYgxUwmHxU6-hjjVBIYa80n4RhQs2d8Xrc6Gtv4C3xhh6iRE0P5Fa0/s1600/WP_20141107_016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgIgIttXbXpZ_9zBarjNgYd_gmSlpbmPnHNn-w6X2wKfAWa1MT1KrMBRzK32pBvL-Qram1C5NLgjMynRSF8VmvmeYgxUwmHxU6-hjjVBIYa80n4RhQs2d8Xrc6Gtv4C3xhh6iRE0P5Fa0/s1600/WP_20141107_016.jpg" height="360" width="640"></a></div>
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<i>And the sunset</i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><u>Day Three</u></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We woke up
even earlier on day three, 4am! We got to see the sun come up over the
mountains, which was gorgeous. Unfortunately, we were driving east so the sun
was really bright on the windshield. Our driver was a grumpy, badass old man
and was not deterred at all, he just stuck his head out the door and kept
driving.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The first
stop was to some awesome geysers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvr2kaO0c52FlF1onR2gxxsWXhoTtCuaEfGdHlogR9YvPu6gprbC3kh3mfDQlQF9i8QJhWQWs1u-nDZ6uQiOQ5IxA9HAk37xWPBbjSjHiKeyfBpRiMxU4YGQqvzUaxucWPTTCNUxMDmuM/s1600/WP_20141107_022.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvr2kaO0c52FlF1onR2gxxsWXhoTtCuaEfGdHlogR9YvPu6gprbC3kh3mfDQlQF9i8QJhWQWs1u-nDZ6uQiOQ5IxA9HAk37xWPBbjSjHiKeyfBpRiMxU4YGQqvzUaxucWPTTCNUxMDmuM/s1600/WP_20141107_022.jpg" height="360" width="640"></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvaaVpmQWt9FF50wkdZ4WQDprhvXVuu3plYijSNX1h1RLw8MLItXo7CRfAjPRf7sMBXesAjc6E8XzChtFIXXNFz5cqVydSSTpXbvrhH_uW31jr8E6406UGYn5Dj16R_r9EBvvCd_29Org/s1600/WP_20141107_034.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvaaVpmQWt9FF50wkdZ4WQDprhvXVuu3plYijSNX1h1RLw8MLItXo7CRfAjPRf7sMBXesAjc6E8XzChtFIXXNFz5cqVydSSTpXbvrhH_uW31jr8E6406UGYn5Dj16R_r9EBvvCd_29Org/s1600/WP_20141107_034.jpg" height="360" width="640"></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1w80-t5Q_lpiqwnwvtCOaz_Duy0kcBbXB1xYYJLaVS4Br3c8N3Qwj93K9QhTWEhnLnH77E4h1AlH9ZtNwaeL_M9Y-RBZZVg2UvY9Hnx5eKbgX1rdCHaZKgQfRsm4LzTe04rYoxf-A-Q8/s1600/WP_20141107_036.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1w80-t5Q_lpiqwnwvtCOaz_Duy0kcBbXB1xYYJLaVS4Br3c8N3Qwj93K9QhTWEhnLnH77E4h1AlH9ZtNwaeL_M9Y-RBZZVg2UvY9Hnx5eKbgX1rdCHaZKgQfRsm4LzTe04rYoxf-A-Q8/s1600/WP_20141107_036.jpg" height="360" width="640"></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-Lo4tCCQkoV8NPVSE7X8sEWGIehWdF4C5BlqdwLmIxgj9B7-tydGvsa0iA1eLop4O0QBVJ_kfkVzlmYIjbNo3cXNlVzvQLvLvfc1X9K6iIaDLonCfzw1TCCrS1_Cy4idE3Zm4teOYb9g/s1600/WP_20141107_037.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-Lo4tCCQkoV8NPVSE7X8sEWGIehWdF4C5BlqdwLmIxgj9B7-tydGvsa0iA1eLop4O0QBVJ_kfkVzlmYIjbNo3cXNlVzvQLvLvfc1X9K6iIaDLonCfzw1TCCrS1_Cy4idE3Zm4teOYb9g/s1600/WP_20141107_037.jpg" height="360" width="640"></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Next we got
to sit in a natural hot spring for awhile. The previous night and all morning I
was freezing, but sitting in the hot springs warmed me up for the rest of the
day. It was so relaxing and nice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Finally, we
got to the last stop which was the border with Chile. Half the tour was driving
back to Uyuni, but we were getting off here. We said good-bye to our
Francophone friends and hopped on a bus bound for San Pedro de Atacama, a town
in the north of Chile. The bus ride was 45 minutes so Keegan fretted about the
border crossing (international borders cause him unfathomable amounts of
stress) and I tried to distract him by talking about what an amazing experience
the three day tour was. We had seen some beautiful country, learned some French
and some 80s songs, and now we were bound for Chile!<span style="color: red;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Piperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10861110738550537371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5668464366916826345.post-13990968817392166992014-12-07T15:34:00.001-08:002014-12-07T15:34:34.921-08:00La Paz and the Journey to La PazGetting to La Paz was a very exciting, three hour bus journey. 80% of the bus ride passed normally, however at one point they tell all of the passengers to get off the bus, basically without explanation. Luckily, I had done this before so I was able to assure all the English-speaking passengers that nothing was wrong. What we were doing was taking a ferry across a part of Lago Titicaca. Most countries build bridges for this, but it is a major source of revenue for the towns on both sides to make everyone get off the bus and pay to be ferried across the lake, so I guess they just never got around to building the bridge. Anyway, this translates to a lot of excitement and uncertainty.<div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRTaPqJV2KeL-pEcmAyA1OoFroxCEED7T01grmjHbJAZ_7PdHAcAQTiMRFmgPIhia3JR-2kMwG0H-SH1O7UNjulXNwqTKfVefqFhIFCHxTBk2nUtCBF8OoGOEr4Ku7I63QwP5vzs2KRpQ/s1600/WP_20141101_020.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRTaPqJV2KeL-pEcmAyA1OoFroxCEED7T01grmjHbJAZ_7PdHAcAQTiMRFmgPIhia3JR-2kMwG0H-SH1O7UNjulXNwqTKfVefqFhIFCHxTBk2nUtCBF8OoGOEr4Ku7I63QwP5vzs2KRpQ/s1600/WP_20141101_020.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>The people are taken on a small boat and the buses get taken on these big barges. Our bus was the big orange one. Our bags were still stored underneath so we were glad it arrived on the other side!</i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">After the
bus was safely ferried across, we again hit the road. Another aspect of the
journey that you don´t expect is that as you pull into La Paz you get a really
cool view of it because it´s situated down in a valley. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2a7c8VEzM5gx7a4uQ1PNb7nup_HWxWFxIG5eIVMiVY4juPA8UAk1R2jXe-cs4w4kz2uC6jx-eQ4aIDTDvJLsTr5wGzjish7Cd1iQRDRbeK05ON-7lwmuYP0aHrwhvL2GcJPiVf0hOYc4/s1600/WP_20141101_025.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2a7c8VEzM5gx7a4uQ1PNb7nup_HWxWFxIG5eIVMiVY4juPA8UAk1R2jXe-cs4w4kz2uC6jx-eQ4aIDTDvJLsTr5wGzjish7Cd1iQRDRbeK05ON-7lwmuYP0aHrwhvL2GcJPiVf0hOYc4/s1600/WP_20141101_025.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>This is only a small part, the city is actually enormous</i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The second thing you
see is a giant statue of Che Guevara crushing an eagle. I guess that is in
keeping with the theme of making Americans feel as unwelcome as possible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIXULU9MD9FOA8P0m3QtYbdo6q9Lb_ktUunNePKZ4D_4uXEBdbxBoXN6vSj9VQUMVCBfJJKZpB2Rozcju9Qkld9dKft4GnMmfrmYpUZ_gnN1lfu8DlvuG38tPYqc1Jox9HOGWxV2CzMR4/s1600/20141101_195716483_iOS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIXULU9MD9FOA8P0m3QtYbdo6q9Lb_ktUunNePKZ4D_4uXEBdbxBoXN6vSj9VQUMVCBfJJKZpB2Rozcju9Qkld9dKft4GnMmfrmYpUZ_gnN1lfu8DlvuG38tPYqc1Jox9HOGWxV2CzMR4/s1600/20141101_195716483_iOS.jpg" height="640" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We spent
about three days in La Paz mostly resting from our whirlwind travels through
Peru. My roommate, Isaiah, lived in La Paz for 4 months so he gave us a good
list of things to do. We spent some time in a really neat little plaza that had
cafes all around it. The plaza was extra interesting because it was filled with anti-Chilean posters that were as tall as buildings. (Quick history lesson: around the turn
of the 20<sup>th</sup> century, Chile and Peru went to war. Bolivia came in on
Peru´s side towards the end and Peru ended up losing. Chile took a good chuck
out of southern Peru and western Bolivia for its spoils, which meant Bolivia no
longer had access to the ocean. Recently, Bolivia has asked Chile for the land
back and Chile said no. I think Bolivia is trying to take Chile to the ICC, so there is a lot of hostility right now.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt0rcTaqUNF4AdeRMwhMid7oF9aTmeq0QZswY7H0tJtbyF1aiQRnB8e-QM8gls1wPZ6ft7o1wyigk_YKvGiCz6iLoCw1ELQUJRmnnbFWdNEIHvhuiklN5TxZu8DWJBoG8IC00NoXznaqw/s1600/WP_20141103_001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt0rcTaqUNF4AdeRMwhMid7oF9aTmeq0QZswY7H0tJtbyF1aiQRnB8e-QM8gls1wPZ6ft7o1wyigk_YKvGiCz6iLoCw1ELQUJRmnnbFWdNEIHvhuiklN5TxZu8DWJBoG8IC00NoXznaqw/s1600/WP_20141103_001.jpg" height="400" width="225" /></a></div>
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<i>"Our demand asks the ICC to rule that Chile has the obligation to negotiate sovereign access to the Pacific Ocean"</i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">There is also a really awesome, pedestrian-only part of the city where the streets are really narrow and it is filled with artisan shops and museums. It´s really neat and colorful.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidj3K41BMONhQgl9ikv7jIEvUgClIg6HTtgJROnGPudaYjVtvRPTt2UKik0e9YbwYMh2WcsIzfmIiPREBdJ4SqTS16m7rgET-aHzkRrflUHvxdlx_ClXEBG2jSa8FyaZmI98dEJGGWRLs/s1600/WP_20141102_004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidj3K41BMONhQgl9ikv7jIEvUgClIg6HTtgJROnGPudaYjVtvRPTt2UKik0e9YbwYMh2WcsIzfmIiPREBdJ4SqTS16m7rgET-aHzkRrflUHvxdlx_ClXEBG2jSa8FyaZmI98dEJGGWRLs/s1600/WP_20141102_004.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">La Paz was
a very interesting city. It is also the highest capital city in the world,
sitting at over 13,000. However, we didn´t stay long because we were eager to
see what else Bolivia had to offer. At the end of the third day, we hopped on a
bus bound for the southern Bolivian town of Uyuni: the gateway to the largest
salt flats in the world!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Piperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10861110738550537371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5668464366916826345.post-54836859597673021512014-12-03T04:08:00.001-08:002014-12-03T04:08:50.623-08:00Heading to Bolivia<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">One overnight bus later, we arrived on the
border of Peru. We immediately grabbed another bus and headed for the border. Our destination was Copacabana, a little town on the shore of Lake Titicaca, the largest navigable high altitude lake in the world! </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">One thing about
Bolivia that you don't expect is that it does its best to make Americans feel
unwelcome from the beginning (not the people, they are wonderful, just the government.) At the border crossing (which is an experience in
and of itself because you have to walk yourself from the Peru check-out over to
the Bolivia check-in, which are about 400m apart) there is a line for “everyone
else” and a line for Americans. The lines are separated because everyone else
just goes and gets a stamp in their passport; Americans have to pay a $135
reciprocity fee and also have to find out that all the other visa materials
that the Bolivia government says are required aren't checked at all. I think
they make it as difficult as possible just for fun. They tell you that you need
proof of yellow fever vaccination and copies of your passport photo and all
sorts of random stuff and then at the border they only ask you for a form and
the money. Worse still, the fee has to be paid in US dollars or else they give
you a horrible exchange rate to pay in local currency. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i>Bye Peru!</i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">After border crossing, we came into the
town of Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca and were told that there was
a 1 Boliviano fee to enter the town (equivalent to like 13 cents.) There is no
such thing as a damn town entrance fee!! The people in front of us told this to
the collection man and he said they could stay on the bus if they wanted. I was
not happy, but also not willing to argue over 13 cents. When we finally got to
town, we were feeling particularly cheap since we’d just spent over two days
budget in about 20 minutes. We found the cheapest lodging we could at $4 each. Unfortunately, we
quickly realized that “the cheapest hotel you can find” in Bolivia isn't probably
the best option. Saying it was ‘not that clean’ is an understatement.. Saying
it was ‘the grossest place we’d stayed yet’ is probably not an overstatement.
But it worked for the night, and they let us use their kitchen which ended up
being hilarious. The kitchen was not really for guest use, it was more for the
family so we tried to be as unobtrusive as possible. The owner lady thought our
meal of quinoa stir fry was hilarious for some reason. The kitchen had no
running water so cooking, and especially cleaning afterward, were really
difficult. I did the cleaning and didn't do it right the first time. The lady also thought that was hilarious. Basically she was just really confused by us gringos.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The next day we found a nicer place and explored
the town a bit. We rented kayaks and went out on Lake Titicaca for awhile. At
sunset we hiked up to the hill overlooking the lake and it was gorgeous. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i>Out on the lake</i></div>
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<i>Hiking up to see the sunset. On the way up you get to learn about the stages of Jesus´ crucifixion</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXBvjjU7d1AkFwUSiXdblxQRURiaSEeAGDUefeOIWYByXcPqxu_2ZzwR2HD-P8OH2k8RM5NmvkgP0pKlc9Xk6zw0krp2LUWsIuwTVhtfLJxXlvm3FqJs5P10F55Ztyo2N81YOrMnxNH0U/s1600/WP_20141030_063.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXBvjjU7d1AkFwUSiXdblxQRURiaSEeAGDUefeOIWYByXcPqxu_2ZzwR2HD-P8OH2k8RM5NmvkgP0pKlc9Xk6zw0krp2LUWsIuwTVhtfLJxXlvm3FqJs5P10F55Ztyo2N81YOrMnxNH0U/s1600/WP_20141030_063.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Waiting for the sun to set</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-ZuH6LzMfc_FEl-CMofrj5k52fBSSEK5q-AW7SmzoGw71uxUmWVnqdzW58Kj2JEd7xW43RbHlonsUJ_43tKomEQgt2GoWdJ8Xv-Gusy0FlffyyIQ5AUV7tXmmcUzzuyfVO890bl3PvC0/s1600/WP_20141030_070.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-ZuH6LzMfc_FEl-CMofrj5k52fBSSEK5q-AW7SmzoGw71uxUmWVnqdzW58Kj2JEd7xW43RbHlonsUJ_43tKomEQgt2GoWdJ8Xv-Gusy0FlffyyIQ5AUV7tXmmcUzzuyfVO890bl3PvC0/s1600/WP_20141030_070.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>The town of Copacabana</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6LYRJvFhFEIKvEpZgpTskP90by93R-7IpZce62073UoTDJiPCNe99RAqKMTg3sgVQJvCfqPKG6E1ss_WXL58WQuMfaLLS385K-2AR8vXwCzN8l28-7qSOQ_ccHlzWhKSUjRSbYJHbdBQ/s1600/WP_20141030_071.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6LYRJvFhFEIKvEpZgpTskP90by93R-7IpZce62073UoTDJiPCNe99RAqKMTg3sgVQJvCfqPKG6E1ss_WXL58WQuMfaLLS385K-2AR8vXwCzN8l28-7qSOQ_ccHlzWhKSUjRSbYJHbdBQ/s1600/WP_20141030_071.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Lots of boats out on the lake</i></div>
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<i>Finally the main event!</i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">We were happy just to rest in Copacabana, since we traveled through Peru pretty quickly and had taken a lot of long bus rides. The first two days we didn´t do much, but the third day we took a boat out to the
Island of the Sun (Isla del Sol) which is one of the most sacred places in
Incan society. The legend has it that the Sun God was born there. We
took a 45 minute (mandatory) tour and learned all about the island’s past and present
inhabitants. Actually, the people that live there now are just about as
fascinating as the Incans. There are no cars on the island and there is rarely
electricity. Everyone learns three languages: the local Aymaran language, then
Spanish, then English, and most people subsistence farm. After the tour we
hiked the length of the island which took about 2 hours. We picked up a
companion from Argentina and hiked with her the whole way. On the north end of
the island we got some pizza and found a hostel. Probably for the rest of my
life I will not pay less than what we paid that night for the hostel: $2.75 each
for a private room that was clean and warm. We did get one big surprise that
night (which happened to be Halloween!) which was that there was no electricity
at all on the island. We bought a candle from a little store and played cards by candle
light. Actually a pretty fun way to spend a Halloween. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i>The tour guide had us make our offering to this giant sacred boulder that represents where the sun god was born, the leaning one is Keegan's offering </i></div>
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<i>There were lots of cool Incan ruins and even a few from the people that lived on the island before the Incans!</i></div>
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<i>View from the hike</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIGyHC0rVORewSAAb03EeNR024_6pAzCym4CO831u69VzNS9BS0PSDvBemaqFiPmJ9z-LS173NvgNZtnFcQeKiHyOUdDjZxpl5DUyFeivuG1j_Mlavt6gE6RjcKZ9tNWd4OlZa8un57Hg/s1600/WP_20141031_035.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIGyHC0rVORewSAAb03EeNR024_6pAzCym4CO831u69VzNS9BS0PSDvBemaqFiPmJ9z-LS173NvgNZtnFcQeKiHyOUdDjZxpl5DUyFeivuG1j_Mlavt6gE6RjcKZ9tNWd4OlZa8un57Hg/s1600/WP_20141031_035.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a><i>Cards by candle light!</i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The next day we caught the ferry back to
Copacabana. We learned that La Paz (the capital city and our next destination)
was only 3.5 hours away so we hopped on an afternoon bus and headed out. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Despite its best effort to steal all our
money, we had a really good first few days in Bolivia!!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Piperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10861110738550537371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5668464366916826345.post-63857882245026483612014-11-28T11:37:00.000-08:002014-11-28T11:37:41.894-08:00Cusco and Machu Picchu<div>
From Ica, we hopped on a night bus to head to Cusco. We got into Cusco mid-afternoon and found a good hostel. That night we went out for the final stage of my birthday celebration (I really milked it for all it was worth.) We went and got sushi in the tourist district and it was so good. South American sushi is my favorite kind of sushi because they don't care much for authenticity and the sushi is usually filled with cream cheese. Delicious.<br />
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<i>We got the "Dragon", it did not disappoint. Awesome birthday dinner!</i></div>
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The next day we booked our Machu Picchu tour and explored the city. My favorite thing in Cusco is this big indoor market on the outskirts of the tourist area. The market has some tourist shops, but also a meat section with gross dead animals, and a juice section where you can buy freshly-made fruit juice for about $1. (Literally the lady will peel the fruit and blend it right in front of you.) At the back of the market are the food stalls. A full plate of really tasty Peruvian food will run you about $1-$2, it's awesome. Needless to say, we ate here several times. </div>
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<i>Plaza in Cusco</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJEkA0URh3CG27RTGJp-VNN1KXeJOO9_itXIh-s1hN-UnteplHFlONEUVHI93IVSI7TQZsFXxM8_swlzFO8L7A26O0Mh5LiDLJSRyVQyGIjTBmZI6AXSGwqtxU35ZAo_pt786FE6uoggA/s1600/WP_20141023_020.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJEkA0URh3CG27RTGJp-VNN1KXeJOO9_itXIh-s1hN-UnteplHFlONEUVHI93IVSI7TQZsFXxM8_swlzFO8L7A26O0Mh5LiDLJSRyVQyGIjTBmZI6AXSGwqtxU35ZAo_pt786FE6uoggA/s1600/WP_20141023_020.jpg" height="640" width="360" /></a></div>
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<i>Market in Cusco</i></div>
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Our third morning in Cusco we woke up before 6am and hit the road for Machu Picchu. There are lots of ways to get to Machu Picchu and the more you pay the faster and more comfortable your journey will be. Of course, we spent as little money as possible and the journey took all day. Step 1 is the van ride. It takes about 6 hours and the road is not paved. About half of the kids in our van got car sick, which made for an unpleasant journey. We stopped for lunch half way and the food was good but I got attacked by sand flies while we ate (they never get Keegan! Just me!) Around mid-day we arrived at the end of the road. From here the van drops you off and you hike for about 5 more hours along a trail. We are fast hikers so we got in while it was still daylight. The hike takes you through a valley surrounded by amazing views on both sides. It is really incredible. The town at the base of Machu Picchu is called Aguas Calientes and it is horribly touristy: the food isn't very good and it is all super expensive (like the cheap beer at every restaurant costs $7, not having that!) But no matter, it is surrounded by gorgeous, dramatic mountains and a river cuts the town in half.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ1b86bnbGe8txFpEjeSXuVBIM0gqZ88aLIqxyD4sJJIpAqTc-bp6EVz8uClZ3rajjmCSxw6llaFIXT5vgoR8Z_FWcmw7To2pUy2erwihmDJ0kJw7LgY4VWfkX4U_jCm9CG3mKjHaGOws/s1600/WP_20141025_041.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ1b86bnbGe8txFpEjeSXuVBIM0gqZ88aLIqxyD4sJJIpAqTc-bp6EVz8uClZ3rajjmCSxw6llaFIXT5vgoR8Z_FWcmw7To2pUy2erwihmDJ0kJw7LgY4VWfkX4U_jCm9CG3mKjHaGOws/s1600/WP_20141025_041.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>The mountains are so sheer and the clouds and rain make everything look green and mysterious</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha7N37z7IQzvllQVtht3YPtXFXtxbywVudCU7VdmjEy6ELtJDNEYZmAaTw4r5dQCakuM8w9MyDF-4UOYRlKTqbCz2hZXndEc3Gh_-H_VUoP4iCXD3xoTgqw6X6GHQr6rwC9tTNBQAuV0c/s1600/WP_20141025_042.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha7N37z7IQzvllQVtht3YPtXFXtxbywVudCU7VdmjEy6ELtJDNEYZmAaTw4r5dQCakuM8w9MyDF-4UOYRlKTqbCz2hZXndEc3Gh_-H_VUoP4iCXD3xoTgqw6X6GHQr6rwC9tTNBQAuV0c/s1600/WP_20141025_042.jpg" height="640" width="360" /></a></div>
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<i>We hiked mostly along railroad tracks that don´t run trains anymore</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA8wRqZkRe3tlkdhmjG9ftRBaYEYmx38qknQRYco1mCIlYaX6O63n_N0vSCVBcXdd3p2BJhwuYASnbSe3pynD2eRFmEsdqizYTCkVvIDPKN8_6eUgwUSEIg5mE62toe6SesLXq5Z62ATU/s1600/WP_20141025_044.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA8wRqZkRe3tlkdhmjG9ftRBaYEYmx38qknQRYco1mCIlYaX6O63n_N0vSCVBcXdd3p2BJhwuYASnbSe3pynD2eRFmEsdqizYTCkVvIDPKN8_6eUgwUSEIg5mE62toe6SesLXq5Z62ATU/s1600/WP_20141025_044.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL6qXOa-NJBFSfBPxpOux0gd1LY-aMr7By3YONfzmHEACc_8YJIosK97RzFXeulFe_TSSfSSl8I3ZMtp3AONen3N-SX6_o4xTUqNlynZDFlVhdRKw6H3tKAPWT-zCcRv4mdC9zWE5MIR0/s1600/WP_20141025_046.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL6qXOa-NJBFSfBPxpOux0gd1LY-aMr7By3YONfzmHEACc_8YJIosK97RzFXeulFe_TSSfSSl8I3ZMtp3AONen3N-SX6_o4xTUqNlynZDFlVhdRKw6H3tKAPWT-zCcRv4mdC9zWE5MIR0/s1600/WP_20141025_046.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Kind of sketchy, but the river was pretty!</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCOMmCe86an5hz8z6tCwd912v1mI9ZMExlNoZFdHmrVSGDePLvEIboNvNGI7RMgZMyd2JUtYL8vVY9TJM-X5U7cVFLhQCb34iXzasza5wVptkg9zEqH9EpBgBnOgwfiFKJQVqUYsMpnYs/s1600/WP_20141025_082.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCOMmCe86an5hz8z6tCwd912v1mI9ZMExlNoZFdHmrVSGDePLvEIboNvNGI7RMgZMyd2JUtYL8vVY9TJM-X5U7cVFLhQCb34iXzasza5wVptkg9zEqH9EpBgBnOgwfiFKJQVqUYsMpnYs/s1600/WP_20141025_082.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Just before we arrived in town</i></div>
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After dinner we pretty much immediately went to bed. This being my second time at Machu Picchu I knew the “trick” to doing it right. There are two ways to get from the town up to the site: 45 minutes hiking which is free or 20 minutes in a bus which is about $25. You can probably guess which one we chose. The next morning we woke up at 3:30am so we could be one of the first in line when the bridge opened to let people on to the hiking trail. The bridge opened at 5 and we hurried to the top. The “trick” is that if you are fast enough up the trail you can beat the first bus load of people and you have the park to yourself for the first 20-30 minutes. We made it up in 30 minutes and were 2nd in line (one cross country runner from Arizona State beat us!) When the park opened at 6 we were the first ones in.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwJJi6pBflaNam5lCRDIShlateBaUIoW07u6awdUqaNzR23BPxGTcws_wPxfQQEm_3Sl8NVxeP-aY7cm14PHXgUMS5G72HMTGpqAcXVcxhm9-6p_62Txe9cpF9x-X_2dz-VeiBGFrBeyk/s1600/WP_20141026_012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwJJi6pBflaNam5lCRDIShlateBaUIoW07u6awdUqaNzR23BPxGTcws_wPxfQQEm_3Sl8NVxeP-aY7cm14PHXgUMS5G72HMTGpqAcXVcxhm9-6p_62Txe9cpF9x-X_2dz-VeiBGFrBeyk/s1600/WP_20141026_012.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>We had a beautiful view once the sun rose</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqr8L0JzP872aXV84CgHjq3N3WDq6FPrJ2HVtJenOSBp-jzPsoj4Fp0k_tODlO5Ihqacl6iB0_91OXobhkZ3VBvu1BP6TS5PExklvK8lugCX6-6_i01kNpY9PIzU6TWx-TJH472OBnnXw/s1600/WP_20141026_016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqr8L0JzP872aXV84CgHjq3N3WDq6FPrJ2HVtJenOSBp-jzPsoj4Fp0k_tODlO5Ihqacl6iB0_91OXobhkZ3VBvu1BP6TS5PExklvK8lugCX6-6_i01kNpY9PIzU6TWx-TJH472OBnnXw/s1600/WP_20141026_016.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Look at all the suckers in line behind us!</i></div>
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We stayed in the park for 8 hours and Keegan took over 400 photos (don´t worry, only the best make the blog!). I think Machu Picchu is one tourist attraction that can never be over-hyped or quite captured in a photo. It is so stunning, you can sit for an hour just taking in everything.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzuNgqnCDExDc89JCVijx3Qt0fj-yGQ9RbqNjJ3xpdkkDVlqT95VV1_-GBVdFSh1ydWeQRUromLjFPCYcY0vXxM_Lr4JusrZ1nWT-zS3fTWAlPgxYAJiG29nBVblJWgGfiIQz8QIRkroE/s1600/WP_20141026_028.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzuNgqnCDExDc89JCVijx3Qt0fj-yGQ9RbqNjJ3xpdkkDVlqT95VV1_-GBVdFSh1ydWeQRUromLjFPCYcY0vXxM_Lr4JusrZ1nWT-zS3fTWAlPgxYAJiG29nBVblJWgGfiIQz8QIRkroE/s1600/WP_20141026_028.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Pretty cool to get to see it with no people </i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixlIxzIYrdPQ8nDRh30pxjB1iX0_2JdQFYtb8deU-FKz-AiSysm1uOF-lML-a87LHi1oNF5eQokAuNvq76jRJaWUjhTX-ZEmi1atsn-Eop82CPRe9sVNlCDG3an9EI-o-U2TNQkAFTs60/s1600/WP_20141026_030.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixlIxzIYrdPQ8nDRh30pxjB1iX0_2JdQFYtb8deU-FKz-AiSysm1uOF-lML-a87LHi1oNF5eQokAuNvq76jRJaWUjhTX-ZEmi1atsn-Eop82CPRe9sVNlCDG3an9EI-o-U2TNQkAFTs60/s1600/WP_20141026_030.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpzhSP2pkNk_TnEwjvCVnY7sTXmGn-mt4JG0mC2Jj7e3_ZJv0vRsskMII0vZbkj5a5TQ38E3goADBMIxdGySniWT2C966zxBj6t5RVJyhbONTdS_VvLGrfYnBlmUes7BXPcEr_lED951k/s1600/WP_20141026_039.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpzhSP2pkNk_TnEwjvCVnY7sTXmGn-mt4JG0mC2Jj7e3_ZJv0vRsskMII0vZbkj5a5TQ38E3goADBMIxdGySniWT2C966zxBj6t5RVJyhbONTdS_VvLGrfYnBlmUes7BXPcEr_lED951k/s1600/WP_20141026_039.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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We were supposed to take a tour but we were having so much fun exploring on our own that we never bothered to find our tour group. I did remember a lot of stuff from the last time I took the tour, although I'm pretty sure the tour guides just make a lot of it up anyway. We did spend some time eavesdropping on other groups and learned a lot that way.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwXPkP4BQ7_wYEfrUUS1MVm5FuQ_uy5-dreCe55N0WfOncdH1XqrCVzATcbis2My9x1deuPoZXpuMjrlDtQKlEcehFrT8uHJamnDVVL06zUGk73w70dwXyrdE_3vv3RUf313rbjn5pWbc/s1600/WP_20141026_041.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwXPkP4BQ7_wYEfrUUS1MVm5FuQ_uy5-dreCe55N0WfOncdH1XqrCVzATcbis2My9x1deuPoZXpuMjrlDtQKlEcehFrT8uHJamnDVVL06zUGk73w70dwXyrdE_3vv3RUf313rbjn5pWbc/s1600/WP_20141026_041.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Rock terraces</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKMGWKO5Kjmo_R5HcJY-AaGVyhr3RtOxAu3IpP_Yc_dt2GLI7MQ7qELTtR87C4TA51E-to6Qdqtq5qY8yN2qv4nlMReG15QaDGDEbe5n1UrPmAI84HginRKss5oio2FLeufe8L9y7RGro/s1600/WP_20141026_057.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKMGWKO5Kjmo_R5HcJY-AaGVyhr3RtOxAu3IpP_Yc_dt2GLI7MQ7qELTtR87C4TA51E-to6Qdqtq5qY8yN2qv4nlMReG15QaDGDEbe5n1UrPmAI84HginRKss5oio2FLeufe8L9y7RGro/s1600/WP_20141026_057.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Machu Picchu actually wasn´t finished, on the left you can see the rock quarry</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglw7jmNx00ygd5-htCnfXyKjLxkknMQegcYde4n6cLpmlRe3iLPgZ7sumUkOoVc3QX91nWLVZIPpEvVqdoWR4o4Dn4kKVK5NdaM5peYMkaZZghFOd5On8RwPDpOznscnh1mrIqbZvE3V4/s1600/WP_20141026_099.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglw7jmNx00ygd5-htCnfXyKjLxkknMQegcYde4n6cLpmlRe3iLPgZ7sumUkOoVc3QX91nWLVZIPpEvVqdoWR4o4Dn4kKVK5NdaM5peYMkaZZghFOd5On8RwPDpOznscnh1mrIqbZvE3V4/s1600/WP_20141026_099.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Huyana Picchu in the background</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh55EACTi3MuIxJr9TQ1BnP-hlGKW7F3FxuRaxCIOmpv80SvbQSleqQMxc3HqHcXfAIiLvF1dhMPhJQ0xOMati-PTfb30kT_0qlBghyp1q9Chay97vhzjYWEyLgy8UwwJmCDir7zln1BEU/s1600/WP_20141026_145.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh55EACTi3MuIxJr9TQ1BnP-hlGKW7F3FxuRaxCIOmpv80SvbQSleqQMxc3HqHcXfAIiLvF1dhMPhJQ0xOMati-PTfb30kT_0qlBghyp1q9Chay97vhzjYWEyLgy8UwwJmCDir7zln1BEU/s1600/WP_20141026_145.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>The rock walls were so impressive</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqA0S6D1ikhd6odrI-shzwZYKhDNZ-meJPOwnYQzbknEytbvgD5YvuDfrN0bHh07F4Uzovlbr86gXhxxpFamakAztjmx-wdvychRWxOXJ6R_jqsH06WwHQBaJq0dZUy32c6iNoD3lGfZY/s1600/WP_20141026_183.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqA0S6D1ikhd6odrI-shzwZYKhDNZ-meJPOwnYQzbknEytbvgD5YvuDfrN0bHh07F4Uzovlbr86gXhxxpFamakAztjmx-wdvychRWxOXJ6R_jqsH06WwHQBaJq0dZUy32c6iNoD3lGfZY/s1600/WP_20141026_183.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Windows are really important here because the most sacred god was the Sun God</i></div>
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<i>Keegan really liked the rock walls</i></div>
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<i>they were some llamas roaming</i></div>
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<i>Not everything has been restored yet.</i></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;"><i>Since we had so much time, we also hiked out to the Incan Sun Gate, which was the original entrance to the city. Definitely not for those fearful of heights, but the view was pretty awesome!</i></span></div>
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A typical thing to do in Machu Picchu is to climb Huyana Picchu which is the tall mountain in the backdrop of the photos. We tried to get tickets, but they sell out about a week in advance because only 400 people are allowed per day. As a consolation we were able to buy tickets to climb Machu Picchu Mountain, which is actually taller than Huyana Picchu but doesn't have any ruins on it- just a great view from the top. </div>
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<i>Everything is stairs there, we probably hiked 1000 steps by the end, my legs were dead on the way down</i></div>
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<i>We made it to the top! Machu Picchu Mountain</i></div>
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<i>It looked small from way up here!</i></div>
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By 2pm it started to get cloudy. We really didn't want to leave, but we also didn't want to hike down in the rain. We hung out a little longer and then finally headed back down the mountain. We grabbed the cheapest dinner we could find (pizza) and fell asleep early.<br />
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<i>Clouds brewing over the guard house</i></div>
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<i>Last look on the way out</i></div>
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The next day we hiked back down and met the van. Keegan is convinced our driver thought he was trying out for NASCAR because he drove like a crazy person. There was also a landslide on the road at one point so that was a bit precarious. Overall, Keegan was certain we were going to die and I took a nap. </div>
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We made it back to Cusco safely and spent a day resting and organizing before jumping on a night bus bound for Bolivia!</div>
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Peru was great, but too short. I would have liked to spend a little more time there, but we really want to make sure we have some time at the end for Argentina too so we only hit the highlights. Compared to where we've been, there were SOO many tourists, it was kind of shocking (compared to, say, Colombia where we hardly ever saw other foreigners.) We still saw and did some amazing things and met some great people along the way.. Time for Bolivia! </div>
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Piperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10861110738550537371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5668464366916826345.post-2121757164135329642014-11-25T09:12:00.000-08:002014-11-25T09:12:16.539-08:00Ica, Huacachina, and Birthday celebrations!Wow, I am reallllly behind on the blog, but determined to catch up! <div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF2NkjiNPVXGwAtbCgBYgJivKnvWptdem4wGIHOUOfzT1nxHQfFN-sDQQ0nlkjqAYHiCMqTEoHo7rAjm9R7zIB5RwqCFT4HQIiTuPxfV0NAR5lgI9KHjx5wvJwn_6k2Y-PZglNXOsquQQ/s1600/map.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF2NkjiNPVXGwAtbCgBYgJivKnvWptdem4wGIHOUOfzT1nxHQfFN-sDQQ0nlkjqAYHiCMqTEoHo7rAjm9R7zIB5RwqCFT4HQIiTuPxfV0NAR5lgI9KHjx5wvJwn_6k2Y-PZglNXOsquQQ/s1600/map.png" height="320" width="239" /></a></div>
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We were pretty dead when we finally arrived in Ica. Like Trujillo, Ica is really just a dirty city but a few kilometers away there is the tiny tourist town of Huacachina. The first day we were so tired we just crashed in a cheap hotel for the night and passed out. The next morning we grabbed a cab and headed over to Huacachina.</div>
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Huacachina is kind of a strange place. Ica is squarely in the middle of the desert, but Huacachina is built around a little desert oasis. The town is tiny though. The whole thing could probably fit on a big city block. Hostels and restaurants surround the oasis and otherwise there is just sand dunes as far as the eye can see. Unfortunately, there is nothing but tourism so everything was kind of expensive by our standards.</div>
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The first afternoon we decided to book a sand buggy/sand boarding tour because that is kind of the main attraction in Huacachina. We didn´t have the highest expectations for the tour, but it turned out to be incredible. The tour agency did a great job of placing similar people in the buggies so families and kids were in separate buggies and we were paired mostly with the other 20-somethings. We didnt realize it at first, but this meant that our driver could really let loose over the dunes. We dont have many pictures from this because we were holding on for dear life. To give you an idea, it was like being on a roller coaster that was controlled by a 25 year-old adrenaline junkie that was trying to give us a good thrill. Keegan and I managed to grab front row seats which made it even better. There were defintely a few times we thought we were goners, but the driver knew the dunes really well and kept us safe.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwO84OmfsP1Dza1g61FHnkraqS0tk0v9L1GkeX56gb0cbeywSDEKY7U6xfAUfBLc6H3eb2Zh0aS8bw85BSaLXb8JDSuStazOB-uSYDgh_4EGXPfkaRassvOm0SDSHuy6_tXxVnLQqoYUI/s1600/WP_20141021_011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwO84OmfsP1Dza1g61FHnkraqS0tk0v9L1GkeX56gb0cbeywSDEKY7U6xfAUfBLc6H3eb2Zh0aS8bw85BSaLXb8JDSuStazOB-uSYDgh_4EGXPfkaRassvOm0SDSHuy6_tXxVnLQqoYUI/s1600/WP_20141021_011.jpg" height="640" width="360" /></a></div>
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<i>So much sand</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNRS60s9-Nxs0A-SUIKNi24xKm1U77X0sPHFrXu-BVBA8W7MtD5DUSy6idhsmOPWdk6Jb39QIaRvqw0zx83URhe7eXa1ICib_TnibHHn98Bo3SLE8QoHmuOBN5coxbFgAz3oqgQxPWE_I/s1600/WP_20141021_016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNRS60s9-Nxs0A-SUIKNi24xKm1U77X0sPHFrXu-BVBA8W7MtD5DUSy6idhsmOPWdk6Jb39QIaRvqw0zx83URhe7eXa1ICib_TnibHHn98Bo3SLE8QoHmuOBN5coxbFgAz3oqgQxPWE_I/s1600/WP_20141021_016.jpg" height="640" width="360" /></a></div>
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<i>In every direction</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXHOH5cJLfwK19Rr6cyqvwVtMT2axrSReJpG8ro_NWsROgj034uqTw8AZSOUeDq-tkxIc3rFqS-3MX4iaCcxEuO4DbhOmSVcv5rb2YP5pS0NOt2ADG4nK-XbW5jtJi6C8gc98IkssvpA4/s1600/WP_20141021_017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXHOH5cJLfwK19Rr6cyqvwVtMT2axrSReJpG8ro_NWsROgj034uqTw8AZSOUeDq-tkxIc3rFqS-3MX4iaCcxEuO4DbhOmSVcv5rb2YP5pS0NOt2ADG4nK-XbW5jtJi6C8gc98IkssvpA4/s1600/WP_20141021_017.jpg" height="640" width="360" /></a></div>
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<i>The dune buggy</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPOpHgNwZMtznxJ4EF_Y7AGpGo77Oq_jWgRpk57gaGBEpeC3GDHXxZV_09NVw_-Wz3i3H7wFmLz3eZcwsVO3kPmJXewRagIsnM-WsNxNU4HDoWWvFIWXOCnRQiCk8hETSK1lzWKm7uxw0/s1600/WP_20141021_021.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPOpHgNwZMtznxJ4EF_Y7AGpGo77Oq_jWgRpk57gaGBEpeC3GDHXxZV_09NVw_-Wz3i3H7wFmLz3eZcwsVO3kPmJXewRagIsnM-WsNxNU4HDoWWvFIWXOCnRQiCk8hETSK1lzWKm7uxw0/s1600/WP_20141021_021.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8h4Ai2zU1PlA_xF2xDbnNLHxHH-11lxnQDhQo1TNOnZ9kPEOkQW6LOr6-gNXd2n7j2bbnG_aXq8JYqUeJGC4tp-QuL7DcpvdzkvckHXlVvZGeu41BdO1DDpNlyhmMFqPIUVwPVLraazk/s1600/WP_20141021_030(2).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8h4Ai2zU1PlA_xF2xDbnNLHxHH-11lxnQDhQo1TNOnZ9kPEOkQW6LOr6-gNXd2n7j2bbnG_aXq8JYqUeJGC4tp-QuL7DcpvdzkvckHXlVvZGeu41BdO1DDpNlyhmMFqPIUVwPVLraazk/s1600/WP_20141021_030(2).jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>it was also really windy</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEqTniI77ZtHYIyt_OSy_lgVX_QV5ZTVQQxWAGibx0P0KNA1hbc7ZKsrgLXij70HKaEeTZtxX1ebNvPnAoQmUtJoUSVTkWtijsDGFEyRg4gVc2vsKrXG0lSmuZ4NCtdO1VZwcVmHrMjGY/s1600/WP_20141021_047.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEqTniI77ZtHYIyt_OSy_lgVX_QV5ZTVQQxWAGibx0P0KNA1hbc7ZKsrgLXij70HKaEeTZtxX1ebNvPnAoQmUtJoUSVTkWtijsDGFEyRg4gVc2vsKrXG0lSmuZ4NCtdO1VZwcVmHrMjGY/s1600/WP_20141021_047.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>The first sandboarding hill was enormous, they sent us down on our stomachs so we didnt die</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeWxMdVKHnH9dKNljJJrkrz20VfTSCbyFrYWLb9FUSbQFWBXpBsMwrOGGVvmAi3-18_P2QQclIkyx784weUeXYyZF0jqhCZFsflZ-qYun1etvKMvtrOMjWHIOGQy889rDAscbibZSg-ak/s1600/WP_20141021_049(3).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeWxMdVKHnH9dKNljJJrkrz20VfTSCbyFrYWLb9FUSbQFWBXpBsMwrOGGVvmAi3-18_P2QQclIkyx784weUeXYyZF0jqhCZFsflZ-qYun1etvKMvtrOMjWHIOGQy889rDAscbibZSg-ak/s1600/WP_20141021_049(3).jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>I think riding on your stomach is actually more fun. Falling on sand is not nice.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxukUTUaozlFsqpfkdcUSOjEo_v-sHm_SCiwYtNNIBTGXbDgECBkUdWvKQf3gd00Ul4I82f9785HjNuAfzETM6I3r7KcueDua9WEi31jeuP01jcYhv_Gw_mD4Uw2rRcEEHHSvZmbHftRw/s1600/WP_20141021_058.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxukUTUaozlFsqpfkdcUSOjEo_v-sHm_SCiwYtNNIBTGXbDgECBkUdWvKQf3gd00Ul4I82f9785HjNuAfzETM6I3r7KcueDua9WEi31jeuP01jcYhv_Gw_mD4Uw2rRcEEHHSvZmbHftRw/s1600/WP_20141021_058.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Keegan getting ready to ride</i></div>
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<i>Keegan was way better than me sadly</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeNJIs2iGXQl3QN7ArMb9UQzCRvbhiF0x48uDq7pKdcIwau7FG3aWDzDzDJhIlgSn3017e7lgPydSFaX2Bg4tc7efOsdgNyjc7lhLRaQjACUR_JG_PZWpQgVHngsuEiEu3YNDqCVwldvc/s1600/WP_20141021_056(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeNJIs2iGXQl3QN7ArMb9UQzCRvbhiF0x48uDq7pKdcIwau7FG3aWDzDzDJhIlgSn3017e7lgPydSFaX2Bg4tc7efOsdgNyjc7lhLRaQjACUR_JG_PZWpQgVHngsuEiEu3YNDqCVwldvc/s1600/WP_20141021_056(1).jpg" height="640" width="360" /></a></div>
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<i>Probably not a textbook position</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6GJaC0jWtQh8pCmfI-z4oWyK3U2-GcjKPYX_24dQLEkYeMb3Zj2ZcCTlRbzNdQTsjgV66b1EZOOBhxBnPu1SXbk5WBm1P2W-e6Ci6AFVUFESESkFkXNjFufTCMILRLMrwsQjEoXgqbKY/s1600/WP_20141021_062(13).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6GJaC0jWtQh8pCmfI-z4oWyK3U2-GcjKPYX_24dQLEkYeMb3Zj2ZcCTlRbzNdQTsjgV66b1EZOOBhxBnPu1SXbk5WBm1P2W-e6Ci6AFVUFESESkFkXNjFufTCMILRLMrwsQjEoXgqbKY/s1600/WP_20141021_062(13).jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>I never looked this cool because I always came down covered in sand</i></div>
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The sandboarding was really awesome. I´ve sandboarded in the past, but never with a tour agency. There is one really big difference on a tour. When you are by yourself, you have to hike back up the dune each time, when you are with a tour, they drive you back to the top. As it turns out, I prefer the tour method much more.</div>
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We left the tour totally wiped out of adrenaline and fully covered in sand from crashing on the sandboards. That night we got milkshakes to celebrate that the next day was my birthday!</div>
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For my birthday we just laid low by the oasis and drank coctails. We hiked up the dunes behind town for the sunset and had really amazing views. (One thing they don´t tell you is that for some unknown reason, bees bury themselves in the sand so it is a really bad idea to walk barefoot. We didn´t hear about this, so I pretty much immediately got stung on the bottom of the foot. I have not had good luck with insects!!) That night we jumped on a bus bound for Cusco.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6bmVhf1TvrYV3Tmh3-ORJz2oapRrn8II5FQDaywtE1pvr4AgMo20xby_2TiPQOSQ75Qulnvfl1YlJhCQNgfkQ9_QoZtAWMBhwVRg0XdT1NlqzekH6bfTBmZv-YJz4JxHgD_srEq3BGTI/s1600/WP_20141022_016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6bmVhf1TvrYV3Tmh3-ORJz2oapRrn8II5FQDaywtE1pvr4AgMo20xby_2TiPQOSQ75Qulnvfl1YlJhCQNgfkQ9_QoZtAWMBhwVRg0XdT1NlqzekH6bfTBmZv-YJz4JxHgD_srEq3BGTI/s1600/WP_20141022_016.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>View from the top of the dune of the tiny little town</i></div>
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<i>Sunset on the dune made for some beautiful photos</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEholnJiGlCUjnfCPHFbRCqgoL9CqHIBsP_iEADMBWNBv5IJtFA2FnfSTIvAV1KrFShBRWH3FFvU0RSnFiqd36EowfjIUNZmNg0Cg-7eXYM6QV5y1ItCMZ2CwPF_AtsUq2P4VRY4szRh4do/s1600/WP_20141022_028.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEholnJiGlCUjnfCPHFbRCqgoL9CqHIBsP_iEADMBWNBv5IJtFA2FnfSTIvAV1KrFShBRWH3FFvU0RSnFiqd36EowfjIUNZmNg0Cg-7eXYM6QV5y1ItCMZ2CwPF_AtsUq2P4VRY4szRh4do/s1600/WP_20141022_028.jpg" height="640" width="360" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPynkCpcTrg7zNi6qiTC4i-A0HkfsbYtxxcK2Zch8vgxv2rTxT6avb1-3DgmpZZBnXcyeCsfka7Ittka7snYA1cVn-U33d55uZlA4bWKBD7UkBumBj1lgS-X4Pxdi8b0MYBpkPkEoEHw8/s1600/WP_20141022_032.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPynkCpcTrg7zNi6qiTC4i-A0HkfsbYtxxcK2Zch8vgxv2rTxT6avb1-3DgmpZZBnXcyeCsfka7Ittka7snYA1cVn-U33d55uZlA4bWKBD7UkBumBj1lgS-X4Pxdi8b0MYBpkPkEoEHw8/s1600/WP_20141022_032.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>It was windy though!</i></div>
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We weren´t in Ica very long, but it was a nice stop over to break up a long bus journey and we also managed to have a ton of fun.</div>
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Piperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10861110738550537371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5668464366916826345.post-58804335011036465832014-10-28T15:02:00.001-07:002014-10-28T15:02:05.133-07:00Northern PeruOne uneventful border crossing and 19 hours on the bus later, we arrived in Trujillo, Peru. We didn´t really know what there was to do in Trujillo, but we had reached our busing tolerance and decided to call it quits for a bit.<br />
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<b>Trujillo/Huanchaco</b><br />
Turns out Trujillo is an urban, dirty city. Not to worry though because for about thirty cents you can take a bus out to a little tourist beach town named Huanchaco just a few kilometers away. The best thing about Huanchaco was that they served Peruvian food and not Ecuadorian food! Obviously, we were not suprised by this fact, just really, really happy because Peruvian food is significantly better than Ecuadorian food.. like they aren´t even on the same scale. Our favorite Peruvian food is called lomo saltado, which is basically a beef stir-fry served over rice and french fries. They also have great ceviche and grilled chicken and other strange dishes and it usually costs between $1-$5 for a full meal!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpIjn0Wy7tjRpT_59QcdrxteurDC3wTVSkF2zpG5eDI7umeOfIo-jJavQvd-WHzZzDkon1p9Kky3cdKJ0_vHJ8Qm8VEigqgY181u4pjLrLhStsYRVrtZYJf1RIURFShngLViOfEL42OGY/s1600/WP_20141016_010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpIjn0Wy7tjRpT_59QcdrxteurDC3wTVSkF2zpG5eDI7umeOfIo-jJavQvd-WHzZzDkon1p9Kky3cdKJ0_vHJ8Qm8VEigqgY181u4pjLrLhStsYRVrtZYJf1RIURFShngLViOfEL42OGY/s1600/WP_20141016_010.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Sunsets on the beach!</i></div>
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<i>The native people use these really cool canoes made of reeds to go fishing. I am pretty sure this tradition dates back to before Incan times.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirCiEqen-L72_m6oS6mTyfrZTOVVM2oCVtbhu7DyPQfLDBcBPvwthT8-5Oqh1O-jkz9k6sgvjVY2WRqPU00tv4Gl86MaoJMvVtk5WKCOhxuhY3hjlwSBemgxvCyrHaTxUnTBw_foAgCJA/s1600/WP_20141017_034.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirCiEqen-L72_m6oS6mTyfrZTOVVM2oCVtbhu7DyPQfLDBcBPvwthT8-5Oqh1O-jkz9k6sgvjVY2WRqPU00tv4Gl86MaoJMvVtk5WKCOhxuhY3hjlwSBemgxvCyrHaTxUnTBw_foAgCJA/s1600/WP_20141017_034.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>More sunsets!</i></div>
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We pretty much just messed around and rested for 3 days, but it was really nice.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLbAcNRqBpj-3A6jRbqTMs5kJzr3GvmUhS9aaAJcG17lKM_YBrzrDla2MmPo2n7y9LQc43bCM5CYF7FGMFjC6xWv4skgj0786Cn31PgcLd7DEOoZ6zh9sZoH1Srq0f94XjstWf5dvPqn8/s1600/WP_20141016_039.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLbAcNRqBpj-3A6jRbqTMs5kJzr3GvmUhS9aaAJcG17lKM_YBrzrDla2MmPo2n7y9LQc43bCM5CYF7FGMFjC6xWv4skgj0786Cn31PgcLd7DEOoZ6zh9sZoH1Srq0f94XjstWf5dvPqn8/s1600/WP_20141016_039.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Keegan had his first Pisco Sour, a mixed drink native to Chile and Peru. It is made of pisco (a grape based liquor), egg whites, lime and other magic delicious ingredients.</i></div>
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I also gave Keegan a haircut because it was time...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTH-y10-6ve1t6K3g0aQ8Ha6Au226LqDXI1WM3IH5vNr29rm7NWl1RhRZl5qx12yH4Yqw3SpB-_aNA-IeQNeObLjVNfoInYemBxkZB2lM4d3bH8Rt_VY_WgJVhIciGmamS25jNVcX4_YI/s1600/WP_20141017_024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTH-y10-6ve1t6K3g0aQ8Ha6Au226LqDXI1WM3IH5vNr29rm7NWl1RhRZl5qx12yH4Yqw3SpB-_aNA-IeQNeObLjVNfoInYemBxkZB2lM4d3bH8Rt_VY_WgJVhIciGmamS25jNVcX4_YI/s1600/WP_20141017_024.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Before.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnjUW0IvnQKxp4Fa8R3W4g7tJH-W7LY5OSQtimTzom57S8RxgPXcD1ZF_ie5MplupCw2BrVEI0sfqaPXDHaeIhUfZCainh5K9Cnr-qZ67o_2-DoAWw_C9JMEDxJ9is3_YdLNwPqZwb5Yo/s1600/WP_20141017_028.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnjUW0IvnQKxp4Fa8R3W4g7tJH-W7LY5OSQtimTzom57S8RxgPXcD1ZF_ie5MplupCw2BrVEI0sfqaPXDHaeIhUfZCainh5K9Cnr-qZ67o_2-DoAWw_C9JMEDxJ9is3_YdLNwPqZwb5Yo/s1600/WP_20141017_028.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>During.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiOzQhXSnCR0bgbWsZW4rycstzFnMRFU0I-7LYYXqTMTJC64dz9kDzlouEyBz3l1ePn99DZz38G7Pet_gorqRNP4Wl5yS5j9lEnURwd5EaKzoCk4fYJmXvIIswe4hAnfnSgX6GDiRfGgo/s1600/WP_20141017_031.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiOzQhXSnCR0bgbWsZW4rycstzFnMRFU0I-7LYYXqTMTJC64dz9kDzlouEyBz3l1ePn99DZz38G7Pet_gorqRNP4Wl5yS5j9lEnURwd5EaKzoCk4fYJmXvIIswe4hAnfnSgX6GDiRfGgo/s1600/WP_20141017_031.jpg" height="400" width="225" /></a></div>
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<i>After! </i></div>
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The only other thing we did in Huanchaco was to visit the pre-Incan ruins of Chan Chan. Apparently it is among the largest remaining adobe ruins in the world. We didn´t feel like springing for a guide, so I can´t tell you much more than that. It checks out though, the ruins spread for 6 square kilometers!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHf92ubMUlqdiPFMviHhqYCy2doeK37CgIqoS0MONgxblEUiDSWjbbZAk-fYfwvrObnDJPrmwr5NBMsFgQuUNtVKiI-S-8el1OvkuwFYuY1wtOjdgE0XrTObDuL2hDsPTRRmfZSmLYcPY/s1600/WP_20141017_014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHf92ubMUlqdiPFMviHhqYCy2doeK37CgIqoS0MONgxblEUiDSWjbbZAk-fYfwvrObnDJPrmwr5NBMsFgQuUNtVKiI-S-8el1OvkuwFYuY1wtOjdgE0XrTObDuL2hDsPTRRmfZSmLYcPY/s1600/WP_20141017_014.jpg" height="640" width="360" /></a></div>
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<b>Huaraz</b></div>
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After 3 days we figured it was time to move on, but we didn´t have a plan. We met a group of travelers (2 girls from University of Washington, a guy from Vail and a guy from Canada) who convinced us to go to the nearby town of Huaraz with them. We hopped on a night bus and arrived the next morning. We found a really cheap hostel and a pretty cheap tour to take us the next day on a hike out into the national park. Huaraz is apparently known as the Alps or the Switzerland of Latin America. It definitely did not disappoint.</div>
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The goal of the hike was to reach a high mountain lake called Laguna 69. The hike started at 12,800ft and ended over 15,000ft. Keegan took 1000 photos so I´ll let them do the talking.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWAgRvBmZRwtnqsmSzXIiVncrdTKhZ94vfriTgkrnvQKHZ0Uy4hmIrpoFn9uieH09oh4UKjNPOo8ZKqYjq1KQSp9xEQWd8hfcIYToTuauyoJ2H_muCA7ImlWh90PJklnuwylXQ_mNzGxU/s1600/WP_20141018_027.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWAgRvBmZRwtnqsmSzXIiVncrdTKhZ94vfriTgkrnvQKHZ0Uy4hmIrpoFn9uieH09oh4UKjNPOo8ZKqYjq1KQSp9xEQWd8hfcIYToTuauyoJ2H_muCA7ImlWh90PJklnuwylXQ_mNzGxU/s1600/WP_20141018_027.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWbDet-YODAtFvE78tf76MBkF335C2ncywLMC3ztiARXNhf2icWxj5l9aE5UFHDlTFgB1eSN49itDdtmG_QXcTNJXtxl6aBwj3WDyU1Ba2n4dJqJRO7UwelsP66EIdketzGI4JrF0JPcs/s1600/WP_20141019_005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWbDet-YODAtFvE78tf76MBkF335C2ncywLMC3ztiARXNhf2icWxj5l9aE5UFHDlTFgB1eSN49itDdtmG_QXcTNJXtxl6aBwj3WDyU1Ba2n4dJqJRO7UwelsP66EIdketzGI4JrF0JPcs/s1600/WP_20141019_005.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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Not the Laguna! Just a lake we stopped by on the way.</div>
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It was cold! But I got this awesome Marmot knock-off jacket for $20 at a market in Huaraz (Keegan´s is knock-off Colombia. We know they are knock-offs because the zipper on Keegan´s men´s jacket says "LOVE". But they are waterproof, warm and cheap so we don´t care.)</div>
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There are lots of glaciers on the tops of the mountains, so down below there were lots of neat rivers and waterfalls.</div>
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And lots of cows.</div>
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Not the lake either, but we were about 45 minutes away still and we kind of wished it was the lake.</div>
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As we got closer, we got into the glaciers.</div>
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First peak at the lake!</div>
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It was SO beautiful and blue. We were the first people to the top by about 20-30 minutes so we had it to ourselves! In the middle of the picture is a big waterfall running down from the glaciers.</div>
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Another cool thing was that every 5 minutes or so you could hear the glaciers cracking. Makes you feel pretty small thinking about those enormous glaciers!</div>
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We had avocado sandwiches and cookies for lunch</div>
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We were hot from hiking at first, but right after this picture we threw on every warm thing we had brought.</div>
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The hike was amazing and beautiful and a great work out. That night we jumped on a night bus to Lima. Since we have a layover for a few days in Lima at the end of the trip, we decided not to stay. We immediately hopped on a day bus bound for the town of Ica in south/central Peru. Lots of busing! We forgot to account for the fact that the southern part of the continent is huge so I think long bus rides are going to start being the norm unfortunately.</div>
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<br />Piperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10861110738550537371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5668464366916826345.post-87640304839683084712014-10-28T13:59:00.000-07:002014-10-28T13:59:04.236-07:00Passports!!<span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;">We arrived in Guayaquil, dirty and tired, </span><a href="x-apple-data-detectors://0" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;" x-apple-data-detectors-result="0" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors="true">at 7am</a><span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;">. We headed to a hostel to drop our bags off and then hopped in a cab to the U.S. Embassy. What we did not realize was that it was Colombus Day, so after 30 minutes in a cab we arrived to find the embassy all but abandoned. Blasted! </span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;">There isn´t really anything cool to do in Guayaquil. It is the biggest city in Ecuador, but for tourists it is pretty much just the gateway to the Galapagos.</span><br />
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<i>There is a park in the middle of the city with giant iguanas, so that was pretty cool</i></div>
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The next day we went back to the embassy and finally, actually got our passports!!! As a bonus, the man at the Quito embassy had thought to order us the one with extra pages, free of charge. </div>
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In conclusion, Guayaquil is not that exciting. We hopped on a night bus that night, bound for Peru!! </div>
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Ecuador was so beautiful, awesome and fun, but we were happy to have passports so that we could continue on our journey southward. (We still have a lot of ground to cover over the next 2 months!)</div>
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Piperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10861110738550537371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5668464366916826345.post-40955879935177536122014-10-24T21:03:00.001-07:002014-10-24T21:03:39.718-07:00Latacunga, for real!We got into Latacunga at a decent hour and managed to easily find the only backpacker hostel in town. It was particularly important to find a backpacker hostel in Latacunga because they will hold your bags for you (very important since we were about to embark on a 3 day trek, we didn´t want to be carrying anything unnecessary.) This was actually a big accomplishment for us because 90% of the time we set out looking for one hostel or hotel, but end up giving up and checking into the first one we find. Since Latacunga only has one backpacker hostel, the stakes were high.<div>
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Latacunga is just the jumping off point for the "Quilotoa Loop", our goal destination. We stayed one day in the town to get prepared for the hike, and then took off on an early morning bus the following day. The loop takes 1-4 days depending on what combination of buses and hiking you do, as well as how much of the loop you do. We aimed for doing the full loop in 3 days (and we actually did it!)</div>
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It didn´t take long on this adventure for excitement to strike. The bus was supposed to be 25 cents from Latacunga to Saquisili. I was misinformed and paid 60 cents for Keegan and I, which the bus driver accepted. Keegan was sitting in a different seat and didn´t realize I had paid for him, so he paid another 30 cents. The lady sitting next to Keegan was OUTRAGED that the bus driver overcharged us. I heard her talking to Keegan and I told her that, indeed we had been ripped off. She turned to Keegan and aggressively said "te ayudo" (I am going to help you.) She starting inciting the passengers around us and the outraged mounted. She demanded the bus driver give us the extra money back and he eventually (since he really had no choice) gave us 25 cents back. The lady seemed satisfied (she didn´t see how much I had paid, so she didn´t realize we were still short 15 cents) and we were definitely satisfied because.. yeah it was 40 cents.</div>
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So we get to Saquisili after about 20-30 minutes. We were really fortunate that the timing worked out such that we could visit the enormous Thursday market in the town. The market was particularly fun because it was in no way oriented towards tourists. Instead of every person trying to sell us some trinket, we were largely ignored and just got to be bystanders of the action. There are 7 or 8 plazas that host different aspects of the market. Because we had limited time (arrived at 9am and had to leave on the only bus out at 11am) and maps are definitely not available, we only found 3 of the plazas. However, in the three plazas we saw people selling everything imaginable, it was basically like Walmart, only with MORE stuff! One thing that you couldn´t find at Walmart is all of the live animals. There were tons of live animals for sale including rabbits and guinea pigs (yep, guinea pigs are an Ecuadorian delicacy! We actually never tried any because it is pretty expensive) and of course, chicken, cows, pigs, llamas, etc. The only thing we bought was lunch in one of the plazas, which was delicious and more importantly, incredibly cheap.</div>
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(pictures are limited because they had to be taken in stealth mode since we were trying to be as non-intrusive as possible.)</div>
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<i>lunch</i></div>
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<i>someone´s lunch, but not ours!</i></div>
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<i>Beautiful views from the bus</i></div>
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So then, we boarded the next bus ($2) to Isinlivi, 3 hours away. When got off the bus and watched it drive away, we both secretly got a little nervous. I had verified in Spanish with the bus assistant and passengers that this was Isinlivi,but it pretty much looked like a ghost town. Two kids were playing across the street from us, and, as a Hail Mary, I asked them if they knew of a hostel nearby. They said, "yeah of course, just down the way" but we were still super doubtful. Sure enough though, within one minute we found the hostel which was actually incredibly nice and had a beautiful view of the valley. Not only was the hostel nice, but it was cheap and completely empty save for one super hospitable Belgian girl that was volunteering there. We paid $18 each which included a bed, unlimited and helpful trail maps (we lost the one we had originally been given basically immediately in Saquisili), a 3 course dinner and a full breakfast. The dinner was possibly the best thing we have eaten so far.</div>
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<i>View from the hostel</i></div>
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<i>llamas everywhere</i></div>
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(A funny aside: somehow I missed the fact that the dinner was three courses. The first course was a pot of lentil soup. I looked at how small it was and thought "Wow I am going to have to eat a lot of soup if I´m not going to starve." My fourth helping in, Keegan and the Belgian girl looked at my like I was insane and asked how I was going to have room for the rest of the meal. Oops! Big mistake too because the main course was some sort of delicious cheesy chicken lasagna thing. I made room though, I just fell into a food coma afterwards.)</div>
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We slept hard that night and woke up early to hit the trail. A lot of places online told us we should buy some small candy to give to the kids along the way, so we hit a store on the way out of town (more like part tiny store, part one bedroom house) where we were sold 20 pieces of candy for $1 by an adorable old woman. And then we hit the trail!</div>
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The map was wonderful and we didn´t get lost hardly at all. We were told to expect 4-6 hours of hiking. We were pretty proud of ourselves when we arrived at the next town in just under 4 hours! The hike was really difficult though, we started at 9,700 feet and ended at 10,500. The hardest part was that it started to downpour about 45 minutes out. We arrived in Chugchilan incredibly tired and hungry.</div>
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Chugchilan is the second most touristy of the towns on the loop (and by that I mean there are more than one option for hostels because people can arrive by car without actually hiking.) We opted for one that was mid-range expensive, $15/night including breakfast and dinner. The town of Chugchilan was tiny, but not a ghost town like Isinlivi. After a warm shower and a mini nap, we explored the town which took approximately 15 minutes and then went back to the hostel.</div>
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Nothing really eventful happened that night (the dinner was a predictable one course with dessert, so no problems there for me.) We slept like logs and prepared for the next leg of the journey. Foolishly, I thought this leg would be easier, but I was definitely wrong.</div>
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This leg of the journey was where the altitude gain comes in. We started at 10,500 feet and ended above 12,800. The part that you think is the hard, altitude-gaining part (15 steep switch backs) is actually NOT the hard part! That comes at the very end when you have to scale to the top of the volcano. It rained again, but not quite as bad as the day before luckily. </div>
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<i>When the rain came in we were just outside of a small town, so we sought refuge under a covered cement soccer court to put on our rain gear. Some boys aged 7-9 were playing soccer and REALLY wanted us to play with them. I first placated them with candy, but eventually caved. I was so tired from hiking and the altitude I could only play for a few minutes before I was totally winded. They were happy to have the attention though.</i></div>
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We arrived in the tiny town of Quilotoa thoroughly exhausted. Mercifully, about 30 minutes out, you get a little teaser to remind you what you did this whole hike for in the first place! It pretty much takes your breath away when you get the first view of the lake.</div>
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<i>We still had to walk half way around the crater but at least we would get to have this view.</i></div>
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We jumped into the first hostel we found, which was probably not the best idea. Quilotoa is the most touristy town and actually has some nice hostels, but we did not stay at one of the nice ones. For $10 a night (plus dinner and breakfast) we got a bed with a private bathroom, but no heating. A big issue since its pretty dang cold at night. We thought we were going to freeze, but luckily the bed had 5 huge, thick blankets on it, so we managed to stay pretty warm. It was actually really fun staying there though because it was much more like a homestay. We were the only guests and we ate dinner with the family (mom, dad, older brother around 18, younger sister who was 9.) We watched a Mexican tv show with them at dinner and got to chat with them in Spanish a bit too. (Great side story: the tv show they watched was actually borderline racist against the U.S.! One character was named "Super Sam" and he looked very similar to Uncle Sam. He fought unsuccessfully tried to fight villains with a bag full of money as a weapon, although he never defeated anyone- the main character always had to save the day, and he could always be distracted by someone telling him there was money to be found somewhere. Keegan and I watched for awhile and then we were like "hey wait!!)</div>
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We knew that we were too exhausted to hike down to the lake that day (I think my legs would have given out and they would have had to drag me out with a mule) so we just looked down from above as the sunset. Definitely not a bad view.</div>
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<i>We got so lucky, the clouds cleared for just a few minutes so you could see some of the volcanoes in the distance!</i></div>
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The next morning, we felt a little better and headed down to the lake. I really wanted to rent kayaks to paddle out, but the place wasn´t open yet.We were trying to make a bus that left at 10am so we didn´t have time to wait around.</div>
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<i>More llamas, for good measure.</i></div>
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Even the best laid plans don´t work out though. It was a Sunday, and on Sundays the bus schedule is different and consequently, no one seemed to know it. The 10am bus never came and we started to doubt whether we´d get on a bus. Lots of pick-up truck drivers will taxi people between towns so we hopped in one for $2.50 each. By the time we got to the next town, Zumbahua, we had picked up 4 more passengers (ya it was crowded.) From there it worked perfectly, we only waited about 5 minutes for the bus back to Latacunga. After about an hour and a half we arrived in Latacunga, retrieved our bags from the hostel, and found a night bus to take us to Guayaquil so we could finally pick up our new passports!! <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>For the visual learners out there: We went counterclockwise starting in the bottom right (Latacunga). The first day we took two buses. The second day we hiked. The third day we hiked. The last morning we took the truck and the bus back.</i></div>
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<i>One last picture!! Agh, so beautiful!</i></div>
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Piperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10861110738550537371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5668464366916826345.post-70117516043093555902014-10-13T10:34:00.003-07:002014-10-16T19:12:18.364-07:00Latacunga... eventuallyWe boarded a bus from Baños bound for Quito that would drop us off in Latacunga, the gateway to a great hiking loop we have been really excited about doing. The plan was to spend 3 days hiking the loop and then to head back to Quito to pick up Keegan´s debit card, which we found out had just been delivered to our hostel there. 2 hours into the 3 hour journey Keegan looked at my still very swollen foot and asks if it wouldn´t be better to go to Quito first to pick up the card and give my foot an extra day to heal. Seems logical to me. We stay pay the bus driver an extra dollar fifty each and in 3 more hours we arrive in Quito. Talk about spontaneity.<br>
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After checking back into our hostel we are told, to our dismay, that the debit card has not arrived. Shit. We retreat to our room to investigate. When we log into the wifi we immediately receive emails that our passports are ready, over a week early<span class="st">!</span><span class="st"> Great news! </span><span class="st">(Unfortunately we had them shipped to Guayaquil in the south, so we have to go chase them down there later.) Even better, 15 minutes later Keegan´s debit card arrives. Hurray</span><span class="st">!</span><span class="st"> So, feeling very happy, we settle into our room for a chill night because we have big plans for the morning: riding the TeleferiQo </span><span class="st">(</span><span class="st"></span><span class="st">a gondola that leaves from Quito</span><span class="st">)</span><span class="st">, climbing Volcan Pichincha </span><span class="st"></span><span class="st">(</span><span class="st"></span><span class="st"></span><span class="st">at 15,696 feet)</span><span class="st">, and then getting an afternoon bus to Latacunga. We met our roommates that night, an American guy and a friend he´d picked up whose name we never learned because he was introduced to us as The Italian Rambo. The description fit, the dude was massive and seriously a character. He carried his backpack on his shoulder, he always had a massive leatherman knife strapped to his waist, and he showed us where he stored his money: in a flap sewed into the back of his underwear. Italian Rambo heard of our plans to climb Pichincha the next day and invited himself </span><span class="st">(and later his Swiss friend, Sara, who was staying at a hostel just down from ours</span><span class="st">.) We couldn´t really say no because he is Italian Rambo.</span><br>
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<span class="st">The next morning we hop out of bed early and head for the TeleferiQo. Italian Rambo, as it turns out, is afraid of heights. So that was an interesting and hilarious character development. The TeleferiQo drops you off at 13,400ft and that is where we began to hike. Unbeknownst to us, we IMMEDIATELY took the wrong trail </span><span class="st">(labeling trails doesn´t really seem to be a priority in Ecuador</span><span class="st">.) After about 30-40 minutes of hiking we can see the trail we should be on and we can also see that we are not really on any trail at all. At this point Italian Rambo is really struggling with the altitude. Muscle mass doesn´t matter when you are from Sicily and you don´t pack enough water or snacks. It is also at this point that Sara tells us she has had knee surgery and might not be able to make it to the top.. double face palm. Because we still want to make it to Latacunga at a reasonable hour, we kindly leave our friends behind and highly encourage them to turn back, which they eventually did. Heading off solo we make way better time and start getting into some serious hiking. As will happen when you are over 14000ft, the weather turned sour quickly. Another group of hikers told us we were only 15 minutes from the top, so we pushed on at the point where we were about to throw in the towel. 10 minutes later the rain gets heavier and fog starts to move in so thick that we can´t see the trail for more than 15 feet. That was our cue. We were probably only 5 minutes from the top but we didn´t know the way, it was´t well marked, we certainly couldn´t see it, and we still had to hike down. We called it quits</span><span class="st"></span><span class="st"> (</span><span class="st">there are always other days and other peaks) and high-tailed it out of there. What took us 4 hours to get up, only took about an hour to get down. </span><br>
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<i>Early in the hike we got charged by a damn llama! I didn´t even know llamas did that. The only reason this is significant is because I turn around as the llama is coming at us and Italian Rambo already has his knife out somehow. I actually had to say "Do not stab that llama" and he actually replied "why?" Italian Rambo was an amazing creature. (No llamas or people were hurt luckily.)</i></div>
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<i>You´ll notice me off in the middle of no where. This was us getting back on the right trail and also the point where we left our friends behind.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifleSU7bb1c2Ud4tIzxsvAxd_MGKctNymRAX6kjU7jbxKuvmBR_j0wIXzpudJMaX-pmKdmKWynuXznz5hCJbBdLcoDOne-Hk5n9VTuN3kzdSvC6CQ9tMp_csUBidZKbmGDhrYZG1uutvo/s1600/WP_20141008_018.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifleSU7bb1c2Ud4tIzxsvAxd_MGKctNymRAX6kjU7jbxKuvmBR_j0wIXzpudJMaX-pmKdmKWynuXznz5hCJbBdLcoDOne-Hk5n9VTuN3kzdSvC6CQ9tMp_csUBidZKbmGDhrYZG1uutvo/s1600/WP_20141008_018.jpg" height="360" width="640"></a></div>
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<i>The fog moved around a lot. One minute was clear, the next was super foggy again.</i></div>
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<i>Somewhere in there was our destination</i></div>
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<i>Blue skies kept making us hopefully, but they were just trickery!</i></div>
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<i>We think just over that ledge was the top, but we couldn´t see anything and we couldn´t be sure. Not worth the risk.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-4oB9JvgOt3KLUHEyFncxw1HAe2hXpi5oaREXek_Ie6rO8DbWVNG_SPZNBOBe-uU4ZgdBOaYNNBmcg8_Ajzc9ijGfNCnf8ae5BF9MsOQ8bcaAwDi2M-Dp-s9wqj8YbXIIoWMsykbIiRI/s1600/WP_20141008_048.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-4oB9JvgOt3KLUHEyFncxw1HAe2hXpi5oaREXek_Ie6rO8DbWVNG_SPZNBOBe-uU4ZgdBOaYNNBmcg8_Ajzc9ijGfNCnf8ae5BF9MsOQ8bcaAwDi2M-Dp-s9wqj8YbXIIoWMsykbIiRI/s1600/WP_20141008_048.jpg" height="640" width="360"></a></div>
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<i>Luckily we packed a lot of snacks, water and warm clothes so we could keep smiling despite the weather.</i></div>
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<span class="st">We jetted back to the hostel to get our bags and then piled onto a very crowded public transport down to the bus terminal where we hopped on a bus bound for Latacunga. This time we would definitely make it to Latacunga, the place we were most excited for in Ecuador, without any more delays</span><span class="st">!</span><span class="st"></span><span class="st">!</span><span class="st"></span><span class="st">!</span><span class="st"></span><span class="st">!</span><span class="st"> </span><span class="st"></span><span class="st"></span><br>
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<i>This is all we´ve got between the two of us. Makes packing up pretty easy!</i></div>
<span class="st"><br></span>Piperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10861110738550537371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5668464366916826345.post-34521431980586159382014-10-13T10:16:00.000-07:002014-10-14T08:47:57.526-07:00Baños: Crazy guides, friendly Brits and a dog named PerroAfter Tena we spent a whirwind three days in Baños. Our goal here was to go waterfall rappeling also known as canyoning, since neither of us had ever done it and it sounded neat.<br>
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We got in around midday and grabbed some lunch before wandering to find a hostel. Having not planned ahead, as per usual, we were lucky to get a hostel in the center of town on a Friday. <span class="st">(We were only half lucky though because the hostel was booked full for the next night, as with most of the rest in town. Luckily we found one hostel that had a patch of grass and they let us pitch our tent for the next two days.) </span>Baños is not only a destination for foreign tourists, on the weekend it swells with Ecuadorian vacationers as well. First things first we hopped across the street and booked our canyoning tour for the next day. Then we set about exploring Baños. The town is tiny, but gorgeous and chock-full of neat things to see. Every other shop in town is a candy shop and the primary thing they sell is meloncocha, which is basically salt water taffy. One dollar got us a big bag full of all different flavors. Keegan is starting to worry that he is losing weight so he inhales all food that gets too close to him. Therefore I only got a few melonchas, but from what I had they were delicious. We also hiked over to the edge of town, where a beautiful waterfall crashes down from a hundred feet above.<br>
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<i>Yum, meloncocha</i></div>
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<i>Just to the left are the hot springs Baños is famous for. We attempted to go, but they were really full and dirty looking so we passed on that one. The waterfall is gorgeous though!</i></div>
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<i>October is the Month of the Faith, so these faithful citizens celebrated by following a marching band around town and carrying big statues of idols</i></div>
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The next day was the big canyoning tour, and we were super excited. Our group was great. A friendly Brit named Sam and a Chinese family that had recently relocated to Quito because the father worked in the Chinese embassy. It definitely made what we were doing seem slightly less intense because the 40 year old parents and the 9 year old girl always went first. It was still kind of scary though<span class="st">! We got to rappel four waterfalls: 8, 15, 25, and 30 meters tall. The 25 meter one we actually only rappeled half way and the second half you ride a make-shift zip line down.</span><br>
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<i>We are on the left, Keegan´s suit looked like the pink Power Ranger and he acted accordingly</i></div>
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<i>No style points here. Wet suits are just not going to be flattering.</i></div>
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<i>I had to keep one of this little girl to show everyone how freaking adorable she was. And brave too! </i></div>
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<i>This is the zipline part. The scary part was the jump and the hope that the makeshift zipline would hold. (Spoiler alert: it held just fine and we all survived.)</i></div>
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<i>Go go Power Ranger!</i></div>
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<span class="st">Our guides were super friendly and they loved that I spoke Chilean Spanish so they told us the first drinks were on them down at the bars. Baños is known as a party town and it was Saturday night so we happily took the guides up on their offer. Big mistake. The <i>free drink </i>was actually a shot called the <i>Flaming Bob Marley</i> and it was supposedly some sort of cane sugar alcohol, but it just tasted like sugar. Our hangovers the next morning agreed.</span><br>
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<span class="st">We ended up spending all of Sunday inside watching movies with our British friend Sam and his travel companion Cal. Sadly, it wasn´t due to the hangover but to the fact that my foot had swollen up like a potato. When we were doing the safety talk before canyoning the day before I could feel bugs biting my ankles and I tried to brush them away but apparently unsuccessfully </span><span class="st">(since I was wearing shoes and a wet suit the only part of me that was exposed was my ankles.) Well whatever these bugs were, I am allergic so Sunday was a rest day. </span><br>
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<i>I joked that it looked like a Botero drawing, the Colombian artist that draws everything incredibly fat. It would be another 3 days or so until I saw my ankle bones and foot veins again!</i></div>
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<span class="st">The next day, I had to get moving. Despite my foot still being pretty swollen we decided to hike up to the Casa de Arbol, the Tree House. An 8k hike up to a big swing. The hike took us awhile because of my foot and because we got lost several times. It was made better though because right in town we picked up a travel companion, a dog we affectionately named Perro. </span><span class="st">(Perro is just Dog in Spanish, not creative but it worked.) We were pretty sure Perro was not a normal street dog because he was 1</span><span class="st">) </span><span class="st">way bigger than most street dogs, 2</span><span class="st">) way dumber and seemingly less survival-minded than most street dogs and 3</span><span class="st">) way too clean </span><span class="st">(before the hike that is.)</span><br>
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<i>Perro in all his glory. He started out the hike really peppy, but he was dragging by the time we got to the top.</i></div>
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<i>I was also dragging a bit. My foot barely fit in my hiking books!</i></div>
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<i>Beautiful Baños. Supposedly the tallest mountain in Ecuador is somewhere around here, but it was so cloudy we never saw it!</i></div>
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<i>It rained for awhile, but we didn´t mind and neither did Perro</i></div>
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<i>This is partly how Perro got so dirty. Both on the way up and on the way down, he was so hot he just plopped himself in this big mud puddle. Not a care in the world.</i></div>
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<span class="st">The tree house was awesome even though it is supposed to be a look out and we couldnt see anything because it was so cloudy. The people at the top loved Perro and the fact that he´d followed us for over 2 hours and the fact that we had named him Perro.</span><br>
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<i>The tree house, nothing fancy and definitely no beautiful views, but it was good to get my blood pumping again.</i></div>
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<i>Keegan and Perro</i></div>
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<i>Piper and Perro. He liked me more than Keegan because I fed him the rest of my corn cob</i></div>
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<i>The main attraction of the Tree House! The swing into the abyss!</i></div>
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<span class="st">When we got back into Baños we started worrying about how we were going to get Perro back to his owners. If it weren´t for his size he would surely have been attacked by the other street dogs who kept growling at him and, even more terrifying, he clearly did not understand the danger of wandering into the street </span><span class="st">(taxis stop for no one here.) So we decided to walk back to the area where we found him. About 1 block short of where we found him, a little girl gasps and runs out and throws her arms aroud Perro. She hurriedly</span><span class="st"> rushed him inside a house and several more little girls screamed happily. Their mom told us the girls had been crying and looking for their dog all day and she laughed when we told her about his great adventure up to the Tree House. We were happy to know that Perro had a good home, and were a little embarassed because we returned him so thoroughly filthy.</span><br>
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<span class="st">Afterwards we realized we kind of missed Perro. He was a great companion even if he wasn´t ours. </span><span class="st"> </span><span class="st"></span><br>
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<br>Piperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10861110738550537371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5668464366916826345.post-23716582995018954112014-10-13T09:36:00.000-07:002014-10-13T09:36:23.995-07:00Tena, EcuadorFrom Quito, we took a late night bus down to Tena, arriving around 1am. The hostel we planned to stay at was supposedly only a few hundred meters from the bus terminal, but in the dark we had no idea where it was. Fortunately, Tena is a tiny town and all the taxi drivers seemed to know all the hostels. One driver offered to take us for a a dollar. Obviously, we thought that was a fair deal.<br />
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As I alluded to in the last blog post, we were mostly coming to Tena to do some white water rafting because it supposedly has the best rivers in Ecuador. Thus, first thing in the morning we hit the town to book our rafting trip. We had done some research online, and the company with the best reviews was called River People and was owned and operated by an adorable family from Ireland. Normally I think its best to do tours with local people, but when it comes to rafting down rapids, <i>their</i> reputation trumps <i>my </i>principles. At first we were bummed because, since it is low tourist season, there weren´t enough people to organize a rafting trip <span class="st">(they said we needed at least four.) This turned out to be great though because instead we got to do a ducky tour </span><span class="st">(duckies are just inflatable kayaks, they are easier to use than kayaks so you don´t have to do any training beforehand.) This was awesome becaus, for one duckys are a lot cheaper, and for two, Keegan and I got to be in charge of our own vessel and our guide led us in a small separate kayak. Since the water is low this time of year, duckys were more fun than a raft would have been anyway because you are so much closer to the water, making every rapid seem huge. Our guide was named Abby and she was awesome. Abby called our ducky The Break-Up Ducky, because apparently people usually argue and end up mad at each other by the end </span><span class="st">(only one person can be the leader.) We got down a-okay and we only flipped once</span><span class="st">!</span><span class="st"></span><span class="st"> (Not to point fingers, but lets just say I was not the leader when we flipped...)</span><br />
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<span class="st"><i>We pulled off into an indigenous village that work with River People. This bridge was built for them by the Red Cross. </i></span></div>
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<i>We switched back and forth who was the guide (in the front) and who was the power (in the back) </i></div>
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<span class="st">By the end of the river, I was thoroughly glad we went with River People and not any other company. For one, they do a ton of work to protect the river from illegal mining. The whole way down Abby was taking pictures of the illegal mining operations to give to the authorities. She also told us a lot of terrifying stories of having to save people from other rafts during the high season because they went with companies that were unlicensed and ill-trained. YIKES. </span><br />
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<span class="st">One thing that made our trip extra exciting was that it started pouring rain. We pulled over for lunch in the shelter of some trees and scarfed down some guacamole, plantain chips and these baked delicious chicken things. Luckily Abby had brought along some jackets just in case. The jackets kept us warm and smiling the whole time, despite the down pour.</span><br />
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<i>Yum, lunch.</i></div>
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<i>All the small rivers swelled immediately and dumped into our bigger river. </i></div>
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<i>This part was super cool because the water was two different colors. There was another point where we met up with a warm river and the water was two distinct temperatures: pleasantly warm on one side of the ducky and freezing on the other.</i></div>
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<i>Abby thought it was funny to make us duck under the newly formed waterfalls since we were already soaking wet from the rain. I´m not sure why we kept agreeing!</i></div>
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<span class="st">Floating the river was awesome, but we are starting to feel the pressure of our December deadline so we didn´t stay too long in Tena. </span><br />
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<b>Next stop: Baños, the adventure capital of Ecuador.</b>Piperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10861110738550537371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5668464366916826345.post-43235663539497934692014-10-04T17:41:00.001-07:002014-10-12T15:28:50.597-07:00Quito!It only took us 5 more days than expected to finally get to Quito. We´ve decided big cities aren´t that great so we only wanted to stay in Quito for a day and then get on to the rest of the greatness that Ecuador has to offer. Of course, that´s not the way things work. We arrived Sunday and the earliest embassy appointment we could get was Tuesday. Even though we had been issued emergency passports from the Bogota embassy, they didn´t have enough pages to get us to the end of the journey, so now we have to wait in Ecuador for 14-16 days while the visas process. I can say that Ecuador is not a bad place to be stuck however.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmwOBAWHWb_fMCW_l9ImHIc9Q0VEBySqYBL7FxB_Qrwg_BiiM2Teh9E6av7jW5aVldqbiRAO5YnzszkZdQ5dRJ-0TRruQGYbxAaC6-O6QV6hvU9vN6h-u9PrepsSJ-vPbnn2zT3Kk2KKc/s1600/map.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmwOBAWHWb_fMCW_l9ImHIc9Q0VEBySqYBL7FxB_Qrwg_BiiM2Teh9E6av7jW5aVldqbiRAO5YnzszkZdQ5dRJ-0TRruQGYbxAaC6-O6QV6hvU9vN6h-u9PrepsSJ-vPbnn2zT3Kk2KKc/s1600/map.png" height="400" width="376" /></a></div>
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Our hostel in Quito was pretty great. We chose one with really good reviews because we needed an address in Quito to mail Keegan´s debit card too (yes, currently we are without a debit card. Life is exciting.) The hostel was 5 stories and had a beautiful top balcony that overlooked the city (and was still only $10 per night!)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRVKar2w2mPltblG2UHfjrqr-e8tb8T4xTdSBVAxbxUwdlrm_GWOhztKElJg1qrQFIM3eZGGJNaDQ5pk9qaPE8i_zNeWKQ0xQT_Lzr98-d-R9YgLIEo1ewzDmThUnTqLz0PD3aafwITbc/s1600/WP_20140928_035.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRVKar2w2mPltblG2UHfjrqr-e8tb8T4xTdSBVAxbxUwdlrm_GWOhztKElJg1qrQFIM3eZGGJNaDQ5pk9qaPE8i_zNeWKQ0xQT_Lzr98-d-R9YgLIEo1ewzDmThUnTqLz0PD3aafwITbc/s1600/WP_20140928_035.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>The camera doesn´t quite capture how pretty it all was</i></div>
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We decided to do a city tour the next day, even though I normally hate being in a big group of touristy gringos. But this tour was free and we´d heard really great things so we figured why not. It ended up being really neat. The first stop was the presidential palace. Turns out on Mondays (which it was Monday) they do a changing of the guard and a big celebration of Ecuador´s independence. We got to see the president, Rafael Correa!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieRSVnqQf2CsewLEoQH9NnYeUTxNwJbAz3zdh2tMXt4a5325l4wtO4pDWaSrQo9wAyRM9FWh605R5zElYYIXaKSJ-4B_Ryc7hb055cTw9w8cefqM6ZxD6Hw7zorWVR_21rxFk5xF1C1GY/s1600/WP_20140929_028.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieRSVnqQf2CsewLEoQH9NnYeUTxNwJbAz3zdh2tMXt4a5325l4wtO4pDWaSrQo9wAyRM9FWh605R5zElYYIXaKSJ-4B_Ryc7hb055cTw9w8cefqM6ZxD6Hw7zorWVR_21rxFk5xF1C1GY/s1600/WP_20140929_028.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Keegan requested photo credit for this artistic photo (because he feels undervalued for his contribution of photos to the blog.)</i></div>
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<i>The president, vice president and other important people </i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSkMCH4zR3pQ6zdrpxOxG34thz7mas0pQRtQmhA60FQ8KT06kIhA4OOuFAHOKH-zHpdtg4ApC4DK0_Id49sDmzW5tqj1K8_8Xj9qxgPNTJrNlyegpULXB06P4LOO5nt0n_TL8sLcxVB1s/s1600/WP_20140929_014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSkMCH4zR3pQ6zdrpxOxG34thz7mas0pQRtQmhA60FQ8KT06kIhA4OOuFAHOKH-zHpdtg4ApC4DK0_Id49sDmzW5tqj1K8_8Xj9qxgPNTJrNlyegpULXB06P4LOO5nt0n_TL8sLcxVB1s/s1600/WP_20140929_014.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>The ceremony was really cool and well choreographed</i></div>
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After the changing of the guard we learned a lot about Ecuador´s independence and history. We got to sample some native Ecuadorian candy (delicious. Peanuts covered in some sort of sugary thing, and all sorts of other delicious things.) We also learned that Ecuador produces 80% of the worlds fine chocolate. We got to sample some truffles (dark chocolate mint and dark chocolate sea salt, yum) and see the process of the chocolate being made. The tour ended in the Central Market where we broke off from the group and grabbed some lunch. (Standard price for lunch here is about $2.50, it´s awesome.) </div>
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<i>All the chocolate making materials</i></div>
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<i>Quito is famous for its well preserved colonial churches. We saw tons!</i> </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidwVcp61FiYChfUOV1YieWma-VG5btxJ3-qvJoflNaOA3-c_4Lsslfuh1kXwVigA-_HjCKnJOw-xbERToHJHJQmpv2Q-RoqGcLlBcfjN6Zm_4j10aK5MCIP9UERkPDmB_ZjSzCj48r9b0/s1600/WP_20140929_034.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidwVcp61FiYChfUOV1YieWma-VG5btxJ3-qvJoflNaOA3-c_4Lsslfuh1kXwVigA-_HjCKnJOw-xbERToHJHJQmpv2Q-RoqGcLlBcfjN6Zm_4j10aK5MCIP9UERkPDmB_ZjSzCj48r9b0/s1600/WP_20140929_034.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>They were really elaborate</i></div>
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The tour was only three hours long so we still had a whole afternoon to burn. We hopped in a cab and headed up to the Panecillo. A statue of a virgin something-or-other up on a hill overlooking Quito. Everyone told us not to walk it because of the high incidence of robbery. Given our recent luck with robbery, we decided not to risk it and grabbed a cab.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1mWY7MGqp_AY01sV77BEKxAKsVVQpo60P8uHAvzU9gDCAnmyVtTofW1D5cvjPkJ_y9eV_8qUsq7Ev60MGBPedYRUYFlX-tSaH3_yYiF6bCpsjzybQ4AIanu419ZE8mu0U_eIwVsY2uz8/s1600/WP_20140929_056+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1mWY7MGqp_AY01sV77BEKxAKsVVQpo60P8uHAvzU9gDCAnmyVtTofW1D5cvjPkJ_y9eV_8qUsq7Ev60MGBPedYRUYFlX-tSaH3_yYiF6bCpsjzybQ4AIanu419ZE8mu0U_eIwVsY2uz8/s1600/WP_20140929_056+(1).jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>We learned on the tour that the statue is made of aluminum and it is one of the largest aluminum statues in the world.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdDPwmeewxzkUUpz4vEAMC2L0JTB-JEfCWwLeqd5i2rBioIDc9B_BWdNpJlau30P-FPPMFdW7DUizwuLePaANrOgvapicDBKrFZyCeYR-_vnqaGvxm__R1m74yAY6fGOuOoCGjYreN-YU/s1600/WP_20140929_063.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdDPwmeewxzkUUpz4vEAMC2L0JTB-JEfCWwLeqd5i2rBioIDc9B_BWdNpJlau30P-FPPMFdW7DUizwuLePaANrOgvapicDBKrFZyCeYR-_vnqaGvxm__R1m74yAY6fGOuOoCGjYreN-YU/s1600/WP_20140929_063.jpg" height="640" width="360" /></a></div>
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<i>Another artsy photo by Keegan McCaffrey</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7J-7ShO1XuUd7Dj-JEeLfmjjHyNE5DCoWPrbzyCdDYvsYWh8IH-0MgTCK-r52vQwWmGXjPyBZfUG1TY_K-JUEJ_sN1p0ZSXGQViInxewVisn7JVo4yru2I0iQlbRF079nqSnp5Fh0zqQ/s1600/WP_20140929_090.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7J-7ShO1XuUd7Dj-JEeLfmjjHyNE5DCoWPrbzyCdDYvsYWh8IH-0MgTCK-r52vQwWmGXjPyBZfUG1TY_K-JUEJ_sN1p0ZSXGQViInxewVisn7JVo4yru2I0iQlbRF079nqSnp5Fh0zqQ/s1600/WP_20140929_090.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>A momentary lapse in the clouds gave us a glimpse of the Cotopaxi Volcano. The second largest volcano in Ecuador, sitting at over 19,000 feet. (it kind of blends in with the clouds, but it is the giant white peak just to the center right.)</i></div>
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<i>Stylish gringa (I bought a scarf in Otavalo for only $5!! Its starting to get cold as we are getting higher in elevation!)</i></div>
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<i>Windy!</i></div>
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The last day in Quito we climbed a up the Basillica clock tower, but the photos didn´t upload from Keegan´s camera, we are trying to get them. Then we went to the US embassy (they were much nicer than Bogota!) and caught a night bus heading for Tena, the white water capital of Ecuador. Bet you can´t guess what we did there?! But I´ll save that for another post. <b>Hasta la vista!</b></div>
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Piperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10861110738550537371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5668464366916826345.post-84821448352232518832014-10-03T16:22:00.000-07:002014-10-03T16:22:19.429-07:00We Finally Made it to Ecuador! This post could alternatively be named <i>The Longest Attempted Border Crossing Ever. </i>(See a rough account of the struggle in orange below.)<br />
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Colombia was wonderful. Unfortunately, 7 hours from the Ecuador border our passports, debit cards, journals, water bottles, tablets and backpack were stolen off the bus. With no other options, we turned around and took the 12 hour bus ride back to Bogota.<br />
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After having to spend an extra 2 days dealing with the embassy, insurance and replacing all our stuff (luckily the embassy was able to issue us emergency passports that print in 1 day), we were ready to leave and continue on our journey.<br />
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The border crossing itself was an experience. From Bogota we took a 22 hour bus ride to the Colombian border town of Ipiales. The town was actually pretty cute, but we were so exauhsted from the bus ride (even though we pretty much slept the whole time) that we checked into the nearest hotel and passed out.<br />
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Turns out the hotel was AWESOME though. They charged us $10 for a room ($5 each.. crazy!) and it was basically the Colombian version of the Grand Budapest Hotel from the movie.. fading glory and way more massive than necessary (it had 5 stories and only 3 groups of people total that we saw.. We had an entire wing to ourselves.)<br />
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<i>The Metropole Hotel, aka Grand Ipiales Hotel, in all of its unneccessary glory</i></div>
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In the morning we woke up early and took a cab ride to the Santuario de Las Lajas. We didn't know what to expect, but we were just excited to start seeing and doing cool stuff again instead of dealing with buses, insurance and embassies like the past 3 days in Bogota.<br />
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The Santuary did not disappoint.<br />
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<i>The scenery was stunning and the church itself was a really impressive feat of engineering </i></div>
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<i>Inside. The back wall was actually just the rock face</i></div>
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<i>Really amazing</i></div>
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<i>We sort of look like crazy people (22 hours on a bus, remember?) but proof that these aren´t Google stock images or something :)</i></div>
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After taking in the view, we got back in a cab, packed up our stuff at the Grand Ipiales Hotel and grabbed a cab to the border. The crossing was insanely easy and relaxed. We had to talk to a supervisor to leave Colombia because our emergency passports didnt have our entry stamps. But he was sympathetic and we had copies of the old passports so there was no problem. Ecuador didn´t care at all that we only had emergency passports, they were more excited that it was Keegan's first time in the country.<br />
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<i>This side of the bridge is Colombia, the other side is Ecuador. Not a lot of security here.</i></div>
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<i>We just walked on over into Ecuador</i></div>
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Okay, so once we got in to Ecuador we hopped on the next bus going to Otavalo (a $3, 4.5 hour ordeal.) Otavalo is famous for its market place, and on Saturday (which it happened to be a Saturday) their market is one of the largest in South America. Our original plan was to spend a few hours in Otavalo and then push on to Quito. Unfortunately, our bus stamina had substantially decreased from the past week so we ended up throwing in the towel and staying the night in Otavalo. The town was really neat, so no regrets.</div>
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<i>Rows and rows of stalls with everything imaginable. Pictured is me (you might start to notice that I only had space in my backpack for one nice shirt, so it gets worn a lot) and a Canadian girl we picked up at the Grand Ipiales Hotel and travelled with for a few days.</i></div>
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The next day we decided we had to get out and get moving before being stuck on a bus again so we went on a run to a waterfall. Our original plan had been to run around this big lake just outside of town, but our cab driver told us about the waterfall and said that it was worth checking out.</div>
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<i> So happy to not be in the big city!</i></div>
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<i>It felt so good to be running and not sitting on a bus</i> </div>
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<i>The town of Otavalo</i></div>
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<i>We made it! The waterfall!</i></div>
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After the hike, we gathered up our stuff and hopped on the next bus heading to Quito. The bus ride was only a couple hours so it wasn´t that bad. </div>
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<b>Up next, exploring Quito: the second highest capital city in the world (9,350 feet) and one of the first cities deemed a UNESCO world heritage site.</b></div>
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<i>Hurray!</i></div>
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<br />Piperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10861110738550537371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5668464366916826345.post-77345341738877054362014-09-25T17:47:00.000-07:002014-09-27T17:41:47.153-07:00Cali: Last Stop Before EcuadorWe planned to come to Cali only because it is the closest major city to the Ecuador border, but we ended up staying an extra day because we had so much fun.<br />
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To get to Cali we bussed 5 hours from Santa Marta to Cartagena and took a 45 minute taxi ride (still only $10) from the bus terminal to the airport. Then we waited in the airport for three hours, flew the 1.5 hour flight, hopped on a 30 minute city bus to the bus terminal, where we caught a cab another 15 minutes to our hostel. WHEW! </div>
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<b>Salsa Dancing</b></div>
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Cali is the salsa dancing capital of Colombia, so by default it is the salsa dancing capital of the world. We chose this specific hostel because they had free breakfast and free salsa lessons. We arrive in the middle of a salsa lesson so the owner helped us throw our bags in our room and we ran to the patio to jump in on the lesson. After 30 minutes they declared us expiertos (experts) and put us in a cab with 6 other gringos bound for "the best place to salsa dance on a Saturday night". (Plot twist: we were definitely not expiertos yet.) An extra stroke of luck is that it happened to be El Dia de San Valentin, Colombia´s take on Valentine´s day: The Day of Love and Friendship. So the club was PACKED and we were the only non-Colombians. We managed to make our way to the bar and I tried to order us 2 bottles of Poker (cheap Colombian beer.) No can do. They only sell pitchers and bottles of liquor (yeah, bottles!) past midnight. So I ordered us a pitcher, which turned out to be 5 Poker´s dumped into two giant cups. At a price of $11, we were happy to cheers to that.</div>
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Next came the actual salsa dancing, easier said than done. We were terrible and people laughed us at but we had a good time. At one point we were really starting to get the hang of it and then a song came on and every single person left the dance floor to sit at a table which they had apparently claimed ahead of time. We nervously kept dancing since we didn´t have a table until one nice Colombian came up and told us that the song was a "singing song" not a "dancing song". It sounded the same as all the other songs, but there you go. So we retreated from the dance floor and looked like idiots since we obviously didn´t know any of the words and didn´t have a table. Oops!</div>
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Keegan and I managed to have 2 cool moments. The first was when we were dancing and this older, very skilled Colombian couple grabbed us and danced with us for a song. The guy was crazy good so I just tried to follow his lead the best I could. I didn´t see, but I think Keegan panicked since guys are supposed to lead in salsa dancing. We both survived and the Colombian couple went away laughing so everyone was happy.</div>
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At another point, they played a few American songs and then people got really excited and started dancing with us because WE knew the words. We got lots of high fives until the Colombian songs came back on and they realized we still couldn´t salsa dance.</div>
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At 3am we were exhausted from the day´s travels so we hopped in a cab and headed back to the hostel. Good thing because the other gringos stayed out until 5am!</div>
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<b>Futbol!</b></div>
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In the cab ride to the salsa club, the other gringos we were with offered to let us tag along to a futbol game that was going on the next day. We enthusiastically agreed immediately.</div>
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The next afternoon (the rest of the gringos were pretty hungover, so the day started around noon) we headed downtown to buy the tickets. One guy was too good at Spanish for his own good and he managed to attract about 7 scalpers before we got to the ticket office. We became a massive spectacle until we finally convinced him to stop haggling with them over tickets that would likely be fake and just buy from the ticket booth since the tickets were only $9 each (the sign said 12 but I think we got a gringo sympathy discount.)</div>
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After that debacle the rest of the game went smoothly. Keegan and I stopped before hand to eat some dinner: 25 cent empanadas from a shop right by the stadium.</div>
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We met up with the other gringos inside the stadium (yeah, gringos really stick out here. It was pretty easy and we didn´t have any way of contacting them.) The game was really fun and Cali won 2-0!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy1PULKfIQCl2UOaBlYp1k353QM08gpKcUQ9Bsz6Ra66znl8ZWI871Gm0686A43X_NGc6YXFM-GAd3DYEH2qJbl_PbHi-1MO65HABgojHSG-8ceYuHFypQha7BW1I-knY9A4_EuVjQy-4/s1600/WP_20140921_028.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy1PULKfIQCl2UOaBlYp1k353QM08gpKcUQ9Bsz6Ra66znl8ZWI871Gm0686A43X_NGc6YXFM-GAd3DYEH2qJbl_PbHi-1MO65HABgojHSG-8ceYuHFypQha7BW1I-knY9A4_EuVjQy-4/s1600/WP_20140921_028.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>The stadium wasn´t packed but the fans around us were passionate. I got a few high fives with each goal and yelled some spanish curse words at the ref. You know, trying to blend in.</i></div>
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As we were leaving the game, the local news station saw the big group of gringos and immediately ran over to us. I was elected the best Spanish speaker in the group so I got to give an interview! Hilarious. She asked me where I was from (United States), which team I was rooting for (trick question to try to get me killed, Cali obviously), if I was happy with the results (test to see if I watched the game I guess. Cali won, so yeah) and finally "say something to the camera". I panicked here and went with an "hola" and was promptly giggled at. I made the other gringos jump in to save me, and they went with a Vamos Cali! so it ended up alright.</div>
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<i>15 minutes of fame!</i></div>
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We decided to stay one extra day in Cali since we have a 10 hour bus ride ahead of us. That didn´t really work out because we decided to go on a run in the morning and 5 blocks in I tripped and face planted, taking two good chunks out of my knee. I hobbled back to the hostel and our "explore Cali" day became a "catch up on blog posts and back up the photos from the camera" day. (Fear not, I´m totally fine. Walking just opens the scabs up and then people think I´m crazy walking around with blood dripping off my knees.) </div>
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<b>We were supposed to head to Ecuador after this but sadly our bag and passports were stolen 7 hours from the Ecuador border. :( Now, 3 days later, armed with new emergency passports (thank you US embassy!!) we are OFFICIALLY back on our way to Ecuador and we should be there by tomorrow morning!</b></div>
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Piperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10861110738550537371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5668464366916826345.post-5634586045152494292014-09-25T10:15:00.000-07:002014-09-25T10:15:16.460-07:00Cartagena, Minca, Santa Marta and Tayrona National ParkI know the title sounds like a lot, but we managed to squeeze it all into one week (including taking one day to rest because of a scratched cornea) so buckle your seat belts folks!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3nSrzO4lpWyHqbUGJ0jpQDHjWwiYSMmjAJr4iQ_8VCi-sO3KelG0_cAIlHUiWpcv4fK2yifnWzuINI69eDctpc6FNiu7wqA88SN7r7A94ZeguqjSItzIATvPcR0_lqb7QpI0IoDzKdhA/s1600/Dibujo.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3nSrzO4lpWyHqbUGJ0jpQDHjWwiYSMmjAJr4iQ_8VCi-sO3KelG0_cAIlHUiWpcv4fK2yifnWzuINI69eDctpc6FNiu7wqA88SN7r7A94ZeguqjSItzIATvPcR0_lqb7QpI0IoDzKdhA/s1600/Dibujo.bmp" height="320" width="297" /></a></div>
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<b>Cartagena</b><br />
Our first destination was Cartagena. It is famous for the walled portion of its city that was used to fend off pirates and the French during the colonial era. It was a really pretty city, but so hot! This was also the first city we´d been to where we (inadvertently) booked a hostel in the tourist neighborhood, so the $10-$15 lunch prices really shocked us. (We managed to find a restaurant that had a gringo menu and a local menu and got some traditional rice, beans and meat for $3.50. We´re on a budget man!)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPmnk1qZB92WHvpdjyzOa3Aoiy3e-Xt3qgdOlorepewNiG-nYyyVKRVz5pi3mhAQTu1CSK1v4dQDew8asCUAbPo81Vvvn8F-_90O0RwUqHyU6gDAKoHpLL9dYeeB1KLxzjfh2aYCnu3pY/s1600/WP_20140914_009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPmnk1qZB92WHvpdjyzOa3Aoiy3e-Xt3qgdOlorepewNiG-nYyyVKRVz5pi3mhAQTu1CSK1v4dQDew8asCUAbPo81Vvvn8F-_90O0RwUqHyU6gDAKoHpLL9dYeeB1KLxzjfh2aYCnu3pY/s1600/WP_20140914_009.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>The wall was really cool and stretched for miles</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipuRf4zj4jXb_9pMrYBkvtH40RcHd1cksPaieaufDNZWKNF_bgGFjf6epyP3-7n6j6dYp_NgVH0fUFUF7yvRozie1_IgxOKvIhjFoJbUKRGB_N4U4JRoFwH1axcCplc9n0Q1dd3uBdwkA/s1600/WP_20140914_018.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipuRf4zj4jXb_9pMrYBkvtH40RcHd1cksPaieaufDNZWKNF_bgGFjf6epyP3-7n6j6dYp_NgVH0fUFUF7yvRozie1_IgxOKvIhjFoJbUKRGB_N4U4JRoFwH1axcCplc9n0Q1dd3uBdwkA/s1600/WP_20140914_018.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>For parts you could walk along the top, but then it gets up to about 20 feet off the ground. We attempted to walk on that part, but quickly retreated and walked on the sidewalk instead.</i></div>
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<i>They have some old replica cannons along it so you can feel like you are at war against pirates.</i></div>
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Cartagena was crazy hot and there wasn´t much to do, so after 2 nights we hopped on a bus and headed for the little mountain town of Minca.</div>
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<b>Minca</b></div>
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In Minca, we stayed at an eco-lodge that was a 15 minute hike outside of town. They had plenty of space for camping so we finally got to use the tent we´ve been lugging around. Minca is a sleepy little town, but its got some great nature hikes. The only problem is that it downpours almost every afternoon.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXzhGxdZev177hi47ZT8BvBkLKjiASTNE9wbnf2mclshniODKTf2ZAqh46gP2WXbTYBtt8bOG83cfYK_-SwDqOQlM9Mg2bVDMJ04r1j8jTNt0iMYGFpEjE-QaMEIYWy_dJ4ZvxakvvRhs/s1600/WP_20140915_006+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXzhGxdZev177hi47ZT8BvBkLKjiASTNE9wbnf2mclshniODKTf2ZAqh46gP2WXbTYBtt8bOG83cfYK_-SwDqOQlM9Mg2bVDMJ04r1j8jTNt0iMYGFpEjE-QaMEIYWy_dJ4ZvxakvvRhs/s1600/WP_20140915_006+(1).jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Really neat pathway up to the hostel.</i></div>
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<i>The campground was actually a sacred ground from pre-Spanish times. The hostel worked with some local indigenous people to upkeep its spiritual purity... or something like that.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVQMqfqFemVgab7p4SyFKQrDuyLj3uGHvdoj-CYxNA47pX5agIqRtaoo6ZjpUaxA33IKXVNUTZZ47YWBMpxSMaAiDsvyBvK-TnLDwjkp2BiWXyTrE4oy8PhtsJ_P1437Xs0KTkJtBk4gE/s1600/DSCN0421.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVQMqfqFemVgab7p4SyFKQrDuyLj3uGHvdoj-CYxNA47pX5agIqRtaoo6ZjpUaxA33IKXVNUTZZ47YWBMpxSMaAiDsvyBvK-TnLDwjkp2BiWXyTrE4oy8PhtsJ_P1437Xs0KTkJtBk4gE/s1600/DSCN0421.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
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<i>One day we hiked out to a waterfall. It was awesome because we were pouring sweat but then we got to swim.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8RSMUTHgvbPS_WEw26Mq63VA_KV9piSZqFdTKP4tGWJCXSdbcaugkMd-YXAHsSGD6N3irHj8Yra9o12vv0a8LzvYThQtArNmLwMn93oigg0B140TIqZ6zVuFiOGATtH5jYw-0XE4Q1KY/s1600/WP_20140916_011+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8RSMUTHgvbPS_WEw26Mq63VA_KV9piSZqFdTKP4tGWJCXSdbcaugkMd-YXAHsSGD6N3irHj8Yra9o12vv0a8LzvYThQtArNmLwMn93oigg0B140TIqZ6zVuFiOGATtH5jYw-0XE4Q1KY/s1600/WP_20140916_011+(1).jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>As promised, every afternoon it pours rain. We just made it into town when it started pouring so we quick hopped into the nearest restaurant which turned out to be owned by some Canadians. We didn´t feel like looking for a local restaurant in the rain so instead I had the most delicious cheese burger I´ve ever eaten (or maybe I was just really hungry.)</i></div>
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The plan for our second day in Minca was to do another waterfall hike and then hit the road, but things do not always go as planned. My eye had been bothering me the day before, but I woke up in the morning with an unmistakably scratched cornea. We changed plans and headed down early, grabbed a colectivo (shared cab) back to Santa Marta (the largest town from which travel to Minca is based) and grabbed a hostel for the night. Santa Marta is not that great, so we don´t have any pictures. Additionally, light was really painful, so I spent most of the day inside the dark hostel room sleeping.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNogLksGzAIArWSQgMcj8mMvi2NKwu96wR8Xv5Ovca59K0P4dU3xRuhG2qaEql41PqXLT4PfHPMcjXgKaKQMX8znQX86fM_-lc5ncxm9_kZ2uiWHv6rk0zbN1t8cmoMc_ywlr95SgXdTI/s1600/WP_20140917_001+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNogLksGzAIArWSQgMcj8mMvi2NKwu96wR8Xv5Ovca59K0P4dU3xRuhG2qaEql41PqXLT4PfHPMcjXgKaKQMX8znQX86fM_-lc5ncxm9_kZ2uiWHv6rk0zbN1t8cmoMc_ywlr95SgXdTI/s1600/WP_20140917_001+(1).jpg" height="179" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Parque Tayrona</b></div>
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Mercifully, I woke up the next morning feeling good to go. A scratched cornea usually only takes 24-48 hours to heal on its own, so I wasn´t suprised that I was feeling good. We hitched a ride to nearby Parque Tayrona, a national park right on the coast first thing in the morning.</div>
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Armed with very little knowledge of the area, we headed off from the park entrance knowing only that we were trying to get to "El Cabo San Juan". The hike took 3 hours and we actually didn´t get lost. It was 100% humidity and 95 degrees though, so we reached the El Cabo Campground pouring sweating and probably smelling terribly. The campground was right up against a beach so after we set up camp we hopped into the water. </div>
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<i>One morning we got up early and watched the sunrise</i></div>
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<i>It was beautiful!</i></div>
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We also hiked up to some pre-Spanish ruins called El Pueblito. The hike was really neat, but all the pictures are on Keegan´s phone which isn´t working right now. I will add them in later!</div>
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After two days in Parque Tayrona we hopped back on a bus bound for Santa Marta. We stayed one more night in Santa Marta and woke up early to catch a 5 hour bus back to Cartagena. From the bus terminal, we caught a cab straight to the airport and then jumped on a plane bound for Cali.</div>
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<b>Last laughs</b></div>
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For those of you wondering how Keegan and I haven´t killed each other yet, you will enjoy this story. To pass the down times we´ve been playing a lot of card games: rummy, stress, speed, this crazy Russian game we learned in Panama, you name it. For some reason the last couple of weeks, the card gods have looked upon me favorably and I have handily kicked Keegan´s butt the majority of the time. While we were waiting for the bus to leave the parking lot in Tayrona, Keegan made me play this stupid squares game with him. I won handily several times and this was the result.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgcg7GcuqjrjAY393Xo9MA8dw18hB7oiutwh9UUoTZWs85QFGYkwyKrRwabiiMOs6RINHfbOl2Tz25lW6As5jp2K8iDCMkOaoHJCumxQv-nBwAfxjMbfdMffkEGb-e8Se14w08ITseZ6M/s1600/DSCN0474.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgcg7GcuqjrjAY393Xo9MA8dw18hB7oiutwh9UUoTZWs85QFGYkwyKrRwabiiMOs6RINHfbOl2Tz25lW6As5jp2K8iDCMkOaoHJCumxQv-nBwAfxjMbfdMffkEGb-e8Se14w08ITseZ6M/s1600/DSCN0474.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Evidence that Keegan is a terrible sport (although he claims he was joking.. hmm..)</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV4J7uONEul_F5pfPZfY8vim2kH_3I_DOPEkWznU0fymPlG95F3Sjdybu-UuAbSQNAh1Ig2lD2-0M-zqujhXPk5A4LSxFroMBlbXES8VoXc8jCDf-ByzYXEKK6qf_KADjJoFotQO6a_cM/s1600/DSCN0475.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV4J7uONEul_F5pfPZfY8vim2kH_3I_DOPEkWznU0fymPlG95F3Sjdybu-UuAbSQNAh1Ig2lD2-0M-zqujhXPk5A4LSxFroMBlbXES8VoXc8jCDf-ByzYXEKK6qf_KADjJoFotQO6a_cM/s1600/DSCN0475.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>I made him keep the page in the journal though.</i></div>
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<b>The Caribbean coast was awesome but so dang hot! We are looking forward to some milder weather once we hit Cali!</b></div>
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<br />Piperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10861110738550537371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5668464366916826345.post-89283339571801647892014-09-24T07:45:00.002-07:002014-09-24T07:45:33.210-07:00Guatape & the Piedra de GuatapeAs I mentioned in the last post, on our last day in Medellin we did a day trip out to Guatape. A two hour bumpy bus ride got us to this small mountain town that our Swiss friends recommended to us. The main draw to this town is a giant rock (La Piedra de Guatape, the Stone of Guatape) that you can climb up and get a great view of the surrounding area. We had no idea what to expect, but we were not disappointed. I´ll let the pictures do the talking. (We can´t find the pictures from Keegan´s phone so there are some gaps here, if we end up finding them I´ll add them later.)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgqEuTUqoj2yUxukINnx_2MBuvGZ9fjdWSqZ_YI0BhcYPaysPMEXcd-0ebtqEWhyphenhyphensbEk4vpGef6zLBjwMy2eUvu74ayrD-7x4WahwDwewgTJHubSkPJLZ_zwNNmqwkRsDy0By1SaSieSs/s1600/DSCN0389.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgqEuTUqoj2yUxukINnx_2MBuvGZ9fjdWSqZ_YI0BhcYPaysPMEXcd-0ebtqEWhyphenhyphensbEk4vpGef6zLBjwMy2eUvu74ayrD-7x4WahwDwewgTJHubSkPJLZ_zwNNmqwkRsDy0By1SaSieSs/s1600/DSCN0389.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
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<i>The town itself was adorable. Everything was brightly colored and the food was delicous and cheap</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8TMz8IaFMGxwTJG5S7L-aJdUKRhgU8eseLId4GeKukKYhpwCtq0zLluFgmdRHcPL6xeEJnec20fF67xyvqTh1b_FnDiujKmeFN-Zh1fVHZGmxvwAkIKFc7qUdcaaLcJ9xAQqE72BuvaE/s1600/DSCN0393.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8TMz8IaFMGxwTJG5S7L-aJdUKRhgU8eseLId4GeKukKYhpwCtq0zLluFgmdRHcPL6xeEJnec20fF67xyvqTh1b_FnDiujKmeFN-Zh1fVHZGmxvwAkIKFc7qUdcaaLcJ9xAQqE72BuvaE/s1600/DSCN0393.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Really dug the town, wished we could have stayed another day in fact.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKlf1jm1EzYcccgxmZAunDU66QR_H5inwW6Uh-zF2t1DtLUakiReqyk2Y3__SPQFFx6tP2uvTAgETkdg_CMDBDwFjCR3JCgSF7h2FzRWXSXqvIBLqXewp1uAbmzU3Oxydh6KeobCIMdAc/s1600/DSCN0394.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKlf1jm1EzYcccgxmZAunDU66QR_H5inwW6Uh-zF2t1DtLUakiReqyk2Y3__SPQFFx6tP2uvTAgETkdg_CMDBDwFjCR3JCgSF7h2FzRWXSXqvIBLqXewp1uAbmzU3Oxydh6KeobCIMdAc/s1600/DSCN0394.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Like every good South American town, it had a gorgeous church in a plaza</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD3C6D62T92PuSEyzsqDtZqE5Ky5jcadt11SEWq5iHWpimH5KVdJQgeuMSuyoQ_kFqyKjB73oLLOUl5l85x97uO1GevscBty79ejnPcF4jiWr4W1_RN1GNLUKQfUHiViz7JczldjFnQ3Q/s1600/InstagramCapture_049ed75a-8077-4391-826f-34f63c6ea46d.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD3C6D62T92PuSEyzsqDtZqE5Ky5jcadt11SEWq5iHWpimH5KVdJQgeuMSuyoQ_kFqyKjB73oLLOUl5l85x97uO1GevscBty79ejnPcF4jiWr4W1_RN1GNLUKQfUHiViz7JczldjFnQ3Q/s1600/InstagramCapture_049ed75a-8077-4391-826f-34f63c6ea46d.jpg" height="640" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Then, on to the main attraction. The giant rock. 706 steps to the top!</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJaLfBmQ0JAYQIXGPMWRc9rHqEKhL_jp4st4DLjad1ugugxfu_Q3XWYRM4kb9AKRGqEaPudp_e5ZVaHTLTynOgLEiYkY15bN0VhNvzxoRTAEcScNdicPyoOl-8elTbrcNJrcYAuW18_xY/s1600/DSCN0415.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJaLfBmQ0JAYQIXGPMWRc9rHqEKhL_jp4st4DLjad1ugugxfu_Q3XWYRM4kb9AKRGqEaPudp_e5ZVaHTLTynOgLEiYkY15bN0VhNvzxoRTAEcScNdicPyoOl-8elTbrcNJrcYAuW18_xY/s1600/DSCN0415.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
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<i>The stairs twisted and turned all the way up, it was really impressive and slightly terrifying</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaPueS3VD8eF0aQp_MMdiskTwzMQZ35K2GciuwcdZ8p_t1ITLNbA8S1nOHm-y-4GIAH0GughyphenhyphenMXKhPw_qIfDXwLe1eKOedKHok8dwatgm4TkNR4qYssGycM3mmsoytGzZ7RbrTxek2SvY/s1600/InstagramCapture_c0081ba8-0786-460d-83a0-e641b7ef1b1c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaPueS3VD8eF0aQp_MMdiskTwzMQZ35K2GciuwcdZ8p_t1ITLNbA8S1nOHm-y-4GIAH0GughyphenhyphenMXKhPw_qIfDXwLe1eKOedKHok8dwatgm4TkNR4qYssGycM3mmsoytGzZ7RbrTxek2SvY/s1600/InstagramCapture_c0081ba8-0786-460d-83a0-e641b7ef1b1c.jpg" height="640" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Finally, the top. 360 degrees of stunningly landscape. Bridges connected a lot of the islands</i></div>
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<i>But many were totally untouched.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim9JOSs_LyPe7fPNGZfYHcrswAH4meqqtiY0z2IWRlGqDTeyx4BT0mcJaFed_1EKVvyOhJXFbNflvXjVokWw3lavyTsmPNM0wcdIKtQAoeBRyytKmtruA1QO019P3YhStOpzwqSGgwgvk/s1600/DSCN0410.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim9JOSs_LyPe7fPNGZfYHcrswAH4meqqtiY0z2IWRlGqDTeyx4BT0mcJaFed_1EKVvyOhJXFbNflvXjVokWw3lavyTsmPNM0wcdIKtQAoeBRyytKmtruA1QO019P3YhStOpzwqSGgwgvk/s1600/DSCN0410.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Really happy (and sweaty) gringos</i></div>
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<b>We didn´t want to leave, but we had to catch the bus back to Medellin to make our morning flight up to the Carribean town of Cartagena.</b></div>
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<br />Piperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10861110738550537371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5668464366916826345.post-34108240802133857332014-09-22T13:59:00.001-07:002014-09-22T13:59:44.821-07:00Medellin, ColombiaFrom Bogota we moved on to Medellin.<br />
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Medellin is famous for a couple good reasons. <b>First</b>, the amazing weather. Supposedly it is always springtime there. This was a nice change because Panama was crazy hot and Bogota was actually pretty chilly. We really appreciated being perfectly comfortable in shorts and a tshirt.<br />
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<b>Second</b>, it is the birthplace of Botero, the most famous Colombian artist who paints everyone and everything really fat. When he died a few years ago, he donated most of his personal art collection to the state. Bogota got about half of his stuff, but a lot went to Medellin as well including more than 20 giant statues. The city put the statues into a plaza (aptly named Plaza Botero) for people to enjoy and take goofy pictures with.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNWx0AKWuiUAlfLp2g9n6Aj5-KAsfekBHpwy02nQNSu_0Nb3nhi5GnsBMZf27mDGkfBaQeEMvzBDFB03iHeP1GB6N33xeY1miwv6ShelylMbPFO4_s_wf28wpP0RogYTgkWh9IDKFWmG0/s1600/WP_20140910_015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNWx0AKWuiUAlfLp2g9n6Aj5-KAsfekBHpwy02nQNSu_0Nb3nhi5GnsBMZf27mDGkfBaQeEMvzBDFB03iHeP1GB6N33xeY1miwv6ShelylMbPFO4_s_wf28wpP0RogYTgkWh9IDKFWmG0/s1600/WP_20140910_015.jpg" height="640" width="360" /></a></div>
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<i>Fat Cat</i></div>
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<i>Fat Roman Soldier</i></div>
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<i>Keegan and a fat horse</i></div>
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<i>Piper and a fat man on a fat horse</i></div>
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And <b>third</b>, it is famous for its progressive social policies. Pablo Escobar based his massive drug cartel out of Medellin, so two decades ago it was ranked the most deadly city in the world. It has come a long way since then, mostly from added security and progressive social policies. In 2013, Medellin was given the award for the Most Innovative City (beating out Tel Aviv and New York.) One example of why it deserved this award was how and why they created their comprehensive public transportation system. The city is pretty sprawled out, so for the poorest people living on the hillsides surrounding the city, there was no good way for them to get to the city center. The area was so dangerous that cabs would mostly refuse to even drive up there. So, Medellin created an urban gondola that stops twice along the hillside and ends at a national park at the top of the hill. Tourists and locals alike use the transportation system and it is really pretty ingenious. Keegan and I rode it to the top to go for a long run in the park, and it was awesome.<br />
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<i>Gringos in a gondola</i></div>
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<i>The city view from the gondola</i></div>
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<i>Medellin has 2.5 million people and is the third largest city in Colombia, so the view from up here was really impressive</i></div>
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<i>Since we mostly ran in the park we didnt take any picures, except this one that I photo-bombed. The park was beautiful though and vendors at the top sold all sorts of delicious and cheap sweets that we chowed down on after the run.</i></div>
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A few other fun tidbits. The city has the largest cathedral in South America and one of the largest brick buildings in the world. It was closed though, so we didn´t get to see inside.<br />
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<i>This is the entrance and the building ran for a full city block</i></div>
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<b>Medellin was good to us. We ate some delicious food and really enjoyed the night life (so much so that we spent one rainy day trapped inside our hostel with a hangover.) Our last day in Medellin we took a day trip out to the small city of Guatape before heading on to the Carribbean coast in the north. Stay tuned!</b></div>
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<i>A terrible but passionate band we found in a plaza one night</i></div>
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<i>Some new hostel friends. Two Swiss guys, a Spaniard and a German! :)</i></div>
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<i>That´s all for now, folks!</i></div>
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<br />Piperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10861110738550537371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5668464366916826345.post-80538923524343193992014-09-11T11:26:00.000-07:002014-09-11T11:26:44.055-07:00Bogotá, Colombia in (mostly) picturesNormally, I prefer traveling by bus, but we did a little research online and found out that no buses go between Panama and Colombia. The route is "highly not recommended" because most people that attempt it are never seen again due to hostile native tribes, inhospitable jungle conditions and drug thugs. A lot of people take a 5 day boat cruise, but at $400, it was a little over our budget. Thus, we took a cheap and painless two hour flight (only $80 each!)<br />
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Bogotá has been wonderful to us. In no particular order, these are some of the things we´ve loved the most. (Be kind if there are mistakes. I'm on a Mac with a French keyboard that is set to British English so it autocorrects me to British spellings. Also the z and y are switched places on the keyboard, which is a lot more inconvenient than you might think.)</div>
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<b>The sheer size of this city of 8 million</b></div>
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One of the first things we were told we had to do here was climb the hill to Monserrate. Bogota sits at 8000 feet, but it is actually in a valley with much higher mountains surrounding it. On one of these hills some crazy person decided to build a church. We set out early in the morning and hiked up the thousands of steps to the top. In total the climb took about an hour or more and we gained another 1000 feet in elevation at least. Of course, the views from the top were breathtaking and the church itself was really stunning so that made it worth it.<br />
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<i>This picture still only shows a part of Bogota. The city stretches out as far as the eye can see for 180 degrees. Cars looked like ants from up here.</i></div>
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<i>The church was beautiful</i></div>
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<i> This is part of the original walls. Plaques thanking god for various things.</i></div>
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<i>On the way down we decided to take a lift instead of walking. The hill was so steep that it was really an amazing feat of engineering.</i></div>
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<i>They also have a train you can ride down. This is one of the original ones. The track is so steep that the seats are set back at an angle.</i></div>
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<b>Cheap and seemingly endless food</b></div>
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This phenomenon is best exemplified by an experience we had a few days ago. We sat down to eat at a small restaurant. They didn´t have menus, so we ordered the one thing we had heard of before, "ajiaco con carne". We didn´t actually know what it was, so we only ordered one in case it was terrible. After a few minutes the waiter came out with a huge bowl of vegetable soup. We remembered that we had ordered it "con carne" (with beef), but it was really tasty so we didn´t mind. About 5 minutes later the waiter came out with a plate which had a small steak, three boiled potatoes, three stripes of patacones (fried plantanes) and a side avocado and tomato salad. Half way through finishing the unexpected extra plate of food, the waiter brought out a small cup of super tasty homemade limeade. The two of us were stuffed and the whole meal cost $3.50.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbHbnL9GQiJd2yFMUdm4NFatmVLuvXstm2JZMw7mYW3EcAQMRMORKqyDAgFqFn1DyITxyb9NAaOcX2WBBBQ-7PyUmNdxxHJpLvkMspYsrL2UYqT8F_iqS6AE0Se_n2VtvARHKPzXKm6oc/s1600/DSCN0276.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbHbnL9GQiJd2yFMUdm4NFatmVLuvXstm2JZMw7mYW3EcAQMRMORKqyDAgFqFn1DyITxyb9NAaOcX2WBBBQ-7PyUmNdxxHJpLvkMspYsrL2UYqT8F_iqS6AE0Se_n2VtvARHKPzXKm6oc/s1600/DSCN0276.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Unrelated to the above story, this is Mega Burger. The burger cost $2 and the hot dog was $1.50. Besides the meat, they had grilled onions and mushrooms, tomatoes, lettuce, ham, cheese, chicken, and potato chips. It cancelled out the exercise we got climbing up Montserrate.</i></div>
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<b>The museums and churches</b></div>
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Bogota is well-known for its many museums and churches. While we were there we saw the Mueso de Oro (Gold Museum) the Museo Nacional (National Museum) and the Museo de la Moneda (The museum portion of their national Mint). We learned a ton of Colombian history and saw some gorgeous architecture.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1QXNaO4iaLI43rv9KJJXJNxMjzGRwBz8q4ltWqKU-UfQteQhR3cCmkzLxw4HJ1Hfethqu89_bjfuIYHEUgnfFJkmJH1uzZvzVUHxx7QFj3K74Gyr8kuILBFWToAeM0Xpg533sinTdt7Y/s1600/DSCN0281.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1QXNaO4iaLI43rv9KJJXJNxMjzGRwBz8q4ltWqKU-UfQteQhR3cCmkzLxw4HJ1Hfethqu89_bjfuIYHEUgnfFJkmJH1uzZvzVUHxx7QFj3K74Gyr8kuILBFWToAeM0Xpg533sinTdt7Y/s1600/DSCN0281.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>A church</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfjjZUbUEox2nMce8ed-nsCqU-5_JnLPxHzt3DX5FkKit90lmhgU1rCI0QlpOzNsupkSgLOyhNF-mBXmN1QZES66KrE9WOli9K15NTombzkVbIZhvnIMbDmC60LhDlQvQZjp1uE79dGtQ/s1600/DSCN0320.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfjjZUbUEox2nMce8ed-nsCqU-5_JnLPxHzt3DX5FkKit90lmhgU1rCI0QlpOzNsupkSgLOyhNF-mBXmN1QZES66KrE9WOli9K15NTombzkVbIZhvnIMbDmC60LhDlQvQZjp1uE79dGtQ/s1600/DSCN0320.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>We knew the Gold Museum would have a lot of gold, but we were pretty amazed by how much they actually had.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFzMbxWmhVBdjYVPzTwudWFGf8_2POy2MDZpJqnmPI8aQdnkc_nLGlFb6dv6HqwyGJybx6EHerv10gzCZNHdV2KVAfKzC7RmL7o0tEXYrjuY0xg56jtnojpGuWVyZijQoUtWz5Cc-9wLg/s1600/DSCN0329.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFzMbxWmhVBdjYVPzTwudWFGf8_2POy2MDZpJqnmPI8aQdnkc_nLGlFb6dv6HqwyGJybx6EHerv10gzCZNHdV2KVAfKzC7RmL7o0tEXYrjuY0xg56jtnojpGuWVyZijQoUtWz5Cc-9wLg/s1600/DSCN0329.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Seriously.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigkNG504dqj8WaQF1e6Uxr-F6q3umyqiVBOR4uwtn2Dl03Pjnq1y4eXYtMCVnpyMV2xI-AWk5zeIGdAjGlUnFqU1_dS0Q1BXQkW-7i7FOY2P8ApDA-d7ZMSH9JlXVLS4BX583VCQLJoR8/s1600/DSCN0330.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigkNG504dqj8WaQF1e6Uxr-F6q3umyqiVBOR4uwtn2Dl03Pjnq1y4eXYtMCVnpyMV2xI-AWk5zeIGdAjGlUnFqU1_dS0Q1BXQkW-7i7FOY2P8ApDA-d7ZMSH9JlXVLS4BX583VCQLJoR8/s1600/DSCN0330.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Four floors of this. (Most displays had plaques that explained the significance.)</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipF-djs7EaL3wNmlalvSvBSGsELAnXmKNHzyD9xkSiWFdjAfzG55qL3ig3x3stCvrGbeypGN6klcRjcGYjLHWepUwsfw3x0Bu7-lJaEDxl326nVJ-7WdjsncIb0kGL7undVHzxRpRDIus/s1600/DSCN0340.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipF-djs7EaL3wNmlalvSvBSGsELAnXmKNHzyD9xkSiWFdjAfzG55qL3ig3x3stCvrGbeypGN6klcRjcGYjLHWepUwsfw3x0Bu7-lJaEDxl326nVJ-7WdjsncIb0kGL7undVHzxRpRDIus/s1600/DSCN0340.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Botero is a Colombian artist who donated the majority of his personal collection to Colombian museums. He is famous for drawing everything really fat.</i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgijumhAULompH4cALkeDES8NmW0QL9c-IAILDu8wvQ852Dmb_Cf5aVTMYaNcXoi85iCoN8ZJswmko7xuaUh6DsLC9zp-EDVFQR-7xw9d3GNwvCr3JYFyNer8FGMQQbNPhrII3mswRuDkQ/s1600/DSCN0346.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgijumhAULompH4cALkeDES8NmW0QL9c-IAILDu8wvQ852Dmb_Cf5aVTMYaNcXoi85iCoN8ZJswmko7xuaUh6DsLC9zp-EDVFQR-7xw9d3GNwvCr3JYFyNer8FGMQQbNPhrII3mswRuDkQ/s1600/DSCN0346.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>I really liked the Mint Museum. We learned a ton about Colombia's economy. Also we learned that the largest bill they have in print is equal to about $25 USD. It helped explain why people are so reluctant to break those bills for us (highly inconvenient since that is what we usually get from ATMs)</i></div>
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<b>The graffiti</b><br />
Another cool part of Bogota was the street graffiti. Truly amazing murals were scattered throughout the city. Here are some of the ones we found.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBAIi30QQ9cU_OkveJwRBxEaPgvxRWcSwAZBnXmzUM-5ITVLhLm6CcqFttODMQQrmSdJ7HTzyda0CkBkltF4ADLHj1fh10U52nvfQ8B4aU8fYyaqJJvOHpo_EosgVKP3blRwcAU3RzhZE/s1600/DSCN0237.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBAIi30QQ9cU_OkveJwRBxEaPgvxRWcSwAZBnXmzUM-5ITVLhLm6CcqFttODMQQrmSdJ7HTzyda0CkBkltF4ADLHj1fh10U52nvfQ8B4aU8fYyaqJJvOHpo_EosgVKP3blRwcAU3RzhZE/s1600/DSCN0237.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtzdtcZE8HLp1YJZ5sZEvIscMef50h6X1rl0AGQih1cV6np2mmviGqgImhC20Cnl0QJH9p7Wx6_lOjw_tS2g0IeqFYodNePhxfYwUPlPX_9jKcZk6ynbLILzWB3Z8BRtWDQbaFdjEsdYQ/s1600/DSCN0238.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtzdtcZE8HLp1YJZ5sZEvIscMef50h6X1rl0AGQih1cV6np2mmviGqgImhC20Cnl0QJH9p7Wx6_lOjw_tS2g0IeqFYodNePhxfYwUPlPX_9jKcZk6ynbLILzWB3Z8BRtWDQbaFdjEsdYQ/s1600/DSCN0238.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis82ZDR8DNFvO9thw-kZhT4_38D_S929ScgShY9S_TBSX1DcO7mswiLt_yyla6ZymYzNzxvfl05KQT9ASsyEGx3TQl7fzoBVuH-vDIir9YBJNbjG66VQBMhGMbfnVXW2HZOr_d7TzCVxM/s1600/DSCN0287.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis82ZDR8DNFvO9thw-kZhT4_38D_S929ScgShY9S_TBSX1DcO7mswiLt_yyla6ZymYzNzxvfl05KQT9ASsyEGx3TQl7fzoBVuH-vDIir9YBJNbjG66VQBMhGMbfnVXW2HZOr_d7TzCVxM/s1600/DSCN0287.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg54LrNFiFSA4W9iV-vYztBNpL-aQIdIPZh5VmptHoDJ3667h37Sa_k9KzxHgb2DMmN-uJRNCihC7eeMRgzSlh3FerMHdseewAXI_6AZOcSPOiIRsJfn368zLFBD7QKlzSIVIy9T2wAwZE/s1600/DSCN0292.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg54LrNFiFSA4W9iV-vYztBNpL-aQIdIPZh5VmptHoDJ3667h37Sa_k9KzxHgb2DMmN-uJRNCihC7eeMRgzSlh3FerMHdseewAXI_6AZOcSPOiIRsJfn368zLFBD7QKlzSIVIy9T2wAwZE/s1600/DSCN0292.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxOHE_2OuC4h5Zv4Al_UkOQT1XAeUyiDKuxJQTDK6BAVBFzZEkC519-aUKks2PaotDyoEvXE7EMSbVNK8kesxYrt1SmYn2dmOwvjRZNLt1BOx6oIdSJoh0XbRNf24G7SaskiI6uOJhk_4/s1600/DSCN0300.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxOHE_2OuC4h5Zv4Al_UkOQT1XAeUyiDKuxJQTDK6BAVBFzZEkC519-aUKks2PaotDyoEvXE7EMSbVNK8kesxYrt1SmYn2dmOwvjRZNLt1BOx6oIdSJoh0XbRNf24G7SaskiI6uOJhk_4/s1600/DSCN0300.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0WRX7GWxwUQbQRqZzvUbp7ahQbwRWEi2tmtEL2CcTeJGiOhDZ1nLmwSV7P0OryliGarsb5Vp_RwjJwIDTcWsoVOF0CxBFeqh3VHMW1b6OkWri65oZ-soi2Ot6x9PDJEmsZm2L9_ejD1U/s1600/DSCN0335.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0WRX7GWxwUQbQRqZzvUbp7ahQbwRWEi2tmtEL2CcTeJGiOhDZ1nLmwSV7P0OryliGarsb5Vp_RwjJwIDTcWsoVOF0CxBFeqh3VHMW1b6OkWri65oZ-soi2Ot6x9PDJEmsZm2L9_ejD1U/s1600/DSCN0335.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>Chicha</b></div>
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Ugh, chica. Chica is a native Colombian drink that you can't find most places, but in Bogota there are some bars that serve it. It is a fermented corn liquor that tastes terrible, but tons of Colombian kids our age were drinking it. Presumably they pretended to like it because for $2 you could get an entire gourd filled with the stuff. The first time we tried it we got strawberry flavor which was a horrible mistake. It tasted like Pepto Bismol. Before we left, we tried it again getting the traditional flavor (which we didn't realize was an option the first time.) The traditional was significantly better than the strawberry, but still pretty terrible. Some people added beer to theirs, and that helped a little. Sorry, no pictures because we were the only non-Colombians in the bar and we didn't want to look like idiots.</div>
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<b>Tonight we take a midnight flight from Bogotá to Medellin, the second largest city in Colombia which is supposedly gorgeous and famous for its good weather (they say "siempre primavera" for eternally springtime.)</b></div>
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Piperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10861110738550537371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5668464366916826345.post-61725560726873492992014-09-05T21:57:00.000-07:002014-09-09T14:29:13.018-07:00Lost and Found HostelAfter climbing the volcano, we really had no plan. Tom had to go back to Panama City to meet a friend, but Jon the Aussie invited us to check out a new place with him. We agreed and packed up our bags, said bye to Francisco and Perrito and jumped in a cab to the Lost and Found Hostel. The hostel is in the middle of no where and squarely in the cloud forest. From the road it was a slippery 15 minute hike up a rocky path to reach the reception desk. The hike was harder than it should have been for us because our legs were still dead from the volcano.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie7A8Y8KxD6Qe1d3f3hBkN4TjceE3lhOdWfUl8TSm7bDOMA16g81Y62jLmMxCpypVIuPObRRmiOB5gxJ3rCf-grFbgx7uOIEV8hfcP3RycwHfcgT0d-x7TvPGhejwB5xKI0SM7ruSElZI/s1600/hiketolostandfound.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie7A8Y8KxD6Qe1d3f3hBkN4TjceE3lhOdWfUl8TSm7bDOMA16g81Y62jLmMxCpypVIuPObRRmiOB5gxJ3rCf-grFbgx7uOIEV8hfcP3RycwHfcgT0d-x7TvPGhejwB5xKI0SM7ruSElZI/s1600/hiketolostandfound.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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But, of course, the hike was worth it because the view from the hostel was breathtaking.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYvD9wEaibbaBa2qwzQ8jD3BVWYFkPgGDl01fLSfqooStAHAQjRxvNfmzHfulXw4s1Qqp7khDbkseHPhO9u-_LHKUfbawgXs0kcfDjR1CyQbnKyDpxcrRRvMdWULZ1NHMFp9y6Rlkvqk8/s1600/view.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYvD9wEaibbaBa2qwzQ8jD3BVWYFkPgGDl01fLSfqooStAHAQjRxvNfmzHfulXw4s1Qqp7khDbkseHPhO9u-_LHKUfbawgXs0kcfDjR1CyQbnKyDpxcrRRvMdWULZ1NHMFp9y6Rlkvqk8/s1600/view.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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We quickly learned that Lost and Found is both a hostel and a destination. The owners have built miles of trails into the jungle, they´ve made a treasure hunt based on a local legend, they created a jungle maze (get it, lost and found) and then they also partner with some local people to offer super cheap tours.<br />
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The first day we hiked out to the river and in search of the infamous Tree Beard. The hike did not disappoint.<br />
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<em>Had to do some scrambling at points</em></div>
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Then we found Tree Beard. Apparently it´s a Strangler Fig, but it definitely looks like its from Lord of the Rings.</div>
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Less dramatic on our walk back was On and Off Lake. Apparently it is off right now.<br />
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The best part about Lost and Found was coming back at night and relaxing in the hammocks. They had hammocks everywhere. Also, for $6 you could have a huge, delicious dinner prepared for you by someone on staff. This was great because the nearest grocery store was about 45 minutes away.</div>
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A definite highlight was the rescued kinkajú (honey bear) they had at the hostel named Rocky. At night (when he woke up) you could get a staff member to take you into his enclosure and play with him. For the second and third night, almost no one was there except us so the owner took him out into the main area and I got to have him all to myself. Rocky is best described as a wild house cat. His teeth are razor sharp but he only nibbles you when you aren´t giving him enough loving.<br />
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<em>He was happy inside my poncho for over half an hour</em></div>
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By far the coolest thing we did was take a tour with Nico, an ex-pat from Delaware (whose grandparents were from Idaho!) The group was just Keegan and I, Jon the Aussie, and a German couple we had met the day before. It was supposed to just be an easy tour out to some hot springs with a stop at some ancient petroglyphs. Because the weather was really nice, Nico added an extra stop to the beginning which ended up being the best part of the tour. He took us to the river canyon and we got to swim and mess around for about an hour before getting back to the normal tour.<br />
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<em>The water was so deep we could jump from the sides. It was probably about a 15 foot fall.</em></div>
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<em>We bouldered up the rock sides because if you fell you just landed back in the river</em></div>
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<em>Keegan jumping in.</em></div>
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<em>This photo could use some cropping but you get the idea</em></div>
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The rest of the tour was way less awesome than the rock canyon. The rock carvings were interesting and the hot springs were relaxing.</div>
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<em>The carvings are authentic, but the white chalk was added to help them stand out. Also they weren´t always protected so there is some faded graffiti as well. No one knows what it means but there are some cool legends that Nico told us.</em></div>
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Overall, Lost and Found was super awesome. After 3 days we remembered we had to be on a flight to Colombia so we said good bye to Jon the Aussie, hiked the 15 minutes back down the trail (in the pouring rain, of course) and caught a local bus to the bus terminal where we took a night bus back to Panama City.</div>
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<strong>Now we´re off to Colombia!</strong></div>
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<br />Piperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10861110738550537371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5668464366916826345.post-74418929194842999502014-09-04T22:03:00.001-07:002014-09-04T22:03:36.499-07:00Goodbye Beaches, Hello MountainsThe next stop in our journey is Boquete. It´s only a 4 hour bus ride from Bocas del Toro so we shipped back out on the water taxi at 10am. Boquete is in the mountain region, so it is cool and rainy, and they grow tons of coffee. Interestingly, it´s also where a ton of older Americans go to retire (but you don´t really see them because they keep to themselves and live in mansions on the outskirts of town.)<br />
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The bus ride was short, but ended up being great for us. We started chatting with two other travelers: Jon from Australia and Tom from Holland, and decided we´d all look for a hostel together when we got to Boquete. Since its rainy season here, we were welcomed into Boquete with a torrential rain storm. The four us jumped off the bus and ran to the first hostel we saw, El Hostal Palacio.<br />
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<strong>El Palacio</strong><br />
The owner of the hostel was named Francisco, a Panamenian and former pro basketball player in Chile with boundless energy. (His wife was Chilean so her and I got to exchange some chilenismos, which was great.) Before we could barely even get settled, Francisco pulled us into his family living room (the hostel was more like 50% hostel, 50% bed and breakfast) and gave us a hyper-energetic run-down on Boquete and the surrounding area.<br />
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<em>This is the map Francisco drew us. The best part is, he knew he wouldn´t be able to contain himself to one page so he started off with a second blank page to spill over onto. It was incredibly difficult to not laugh during this presentation.</em></div>
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<em>This is Perrito (or so we named him) and this is Perrito´s chair. It was mandatory to greet Perrito upon entry and exit of El Palacio.</em></div>
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<em>The backyard at El Palacio. We spent every night back here drinking beer and listening to Tom and Jon play guitar. You can´t beat cheap beer and free entertainment :)</em></div>
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<strong>Boquete</strong></div>
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Boquete was an incredibly gorgeous town. One day we did a two hour hike through the coffee growing region and saw all the fields of coffee trees and tasted some coffee from a local grower.</div>
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<strong>Volcán Baru</strong></div>
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The big thing we did in Boquete was to hike the Baru Volcano. Our group was Tom and Jon, and a German and a Spaniard that we had met in Bocas the week before. No one else really had much hiking experience so Keegan and I made sure to pack extra food and gear just in case. (The camp stove and packs of ramen we brought ended up saving some lives because the top was freezing cold.)</div>
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The hike was 13.5km one way (about 8.5 miles) and we caught a shuttle at 11:30pm (yep, you read that right: we started the hike at midnight) so that we could get to the top before sunrise. </div>
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<em>We had to break a lot on the way up</em></div>
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The hike was really hard because it was steep (we gained 2000m of elevation) and dark, and our group moved pretty slowly. BUT, after 5.5 hours of hiking, we made it to the top just before sunrise and it was amazing and totally worth it. The volcano is the highest point in Panama, and on a clear morning (which we were lucky enough to have) you can see both the Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean.</div>
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<em>Sunrise to the east, the Atlantic Ocean. The islands of Bocas del Toro are laid out like a map.</em></div>
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<em>Sunrise the west, the Pacific Ocean.</em></div>
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The hike was actually really hard and it was freezing at the top. The view and the accomplishment made it totally worth it though.</div>
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<em>Summit Selfie.</em></div>
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Piperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10861110738550537371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5668464366916826345.post-22392122895802648082014-09-04T15:25:00.002-07:002014-09-04T22:00:46.196-07:00Bocas del Toro, PanamaThe first place we traveled to from Panama City was Bocas del Toro, a small cluster of islands in the north west corner of the country.<br />
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To get there, we had to take an 8 hour overnight bus and then a 30 minute water taxi ride. We found a neat little hippie hostel that played Bob Marley and Jack Johnson all day long. It was only $10/night and we shared our room with some Spaniards and then some Germans. Every morning the owner made us breakfast: a pancake and a half a banana. It was awesome.</div>
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<em>The Coconut Hostel</em></div>
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The town itself is pretty touristy, but we managed to find a few cheap restaurants where local people ate. Plus right now it is low tourist season so we had a lot of things mostly to ourselves.</div>
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<em>Walking along the public beach we found this old shipwreck.</em> </div>
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The best thing about Bocas for us was that you could rent a bike for $5/day or $1/hour. Two different days we biked for a few hours to various beaches around the island. The bikes they had for rent were heavy cruisers with only one speed, so we were getting a great work out the whole time.</div>
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<em>Me being much faster than Keegan, like always</em></div>
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Of course, you get what you pay for. We actually got pretty lucky as far as rental bikes went: only one chain incident over two days. We stopped to help a guy (about 6km into a 13km bike ride) whose chain had fallen off and got jammed. We helped him get the chain unjammed only to find out he also had a flat. Long day for that guy. </div>
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<em>Keegan kindly taking pictures instead of helping me with the bike chain.</em></div>
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One day we biked to Playa Bluff, about 6km from town. The beach was gorgeous and we basically had the whole thing to ourselves. Keegan spent about 45 minutes trying to knock down a coconut for us to drink. His conclusión after 45 minutes was "You know, I´m not so sure I could survive on a deserted island."</div>
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<em>Gorgeous.</em></div>
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<em>Keegan in his not-so-natural environment</em></div>
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The second day of biking we went to Playa de las Estrellas (Starfish Beach) which was 13km away. As you might expect, the roads weren´t in great condition so it made biking extra exciting. </div>
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<em>This is where we had lunch. We watched sting rays swimming around under the dock and ate PB&Js.</em></div>
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Above is the only picture we have at Starfish Beach unfortunately. This is possibly due to the fact that after we took this picture we started swinging on hammocks and broke one of them and then we were really embarassed so apparently we forgot to take pictures after that.</div>
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Of course, we also took the tour where we saw the shark. It was a three stop tour so first they took us to Dolphin Cove were we actually saw probably 10-15 dolphins. They even started playing with the boat by swimming behind it in the wake. (Somehow I managed to not get a single good picture of the dolphins. Sorry!) Then we went to the beach where we saw the shark, and then after that we went snorkeling again as a group. It was kind of difficult to get back into the water after the whole shark incident, but the coral was really gorgeous so I got over it. Plus there were tiny jellyfish and tons of (non man-eating)fish. On the way back, we stopped by another spot and saw some sloths. Suprisingly, that part wasn´t that exciting.</div>
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<em>They even let us wear these super stylish life jackets for the tour.</em></div>
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<em>Keegan kindly snapped this photo of me going to the bathroom.</em></div>
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The last really cool thing we found in Bocas was a legit micro-brewery. The owner was Panamenian-American and, while we have no complaints against 57 cent beer, it was great to get a few glasses of really tasty stuff. Plus they had a great view of the ocean from their patio.</div>
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<em>They had a drink called "The Shanty": Amber Ale mixed with home-brewed ginger ale. So good.</em></div>
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<em>Adorable!</em></div>
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Okay, Keegan is rushing me because he´s hungry for dinner so that´s all for now. At the next stop we go inland to the mountain town of Boquete. At 1000m above sea level, we were happy to leave the heat and humidity behind for a few days! </div>
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Piperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10861110738550537371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5668464366916826345.post-84646112538328496102014-08-25T18:54:00.002-07:002014-09-01T14:09:03.665-07:00Keagan Sees A SharkThis story is alternatively known as "the time piper almost cried/freaked out while snorkeling." [The hostel we are at right now doesn't have a working computer (nor AC, but hey, $10/night!!) so I'll do a more in depth post about Bocas del Toro later.]<br>
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Back to the story.<br>
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Today we took a mini-tour out to some of the surrounding islands. Basically we just got to chill on a gorgeous beach and go snorkeling (and see dolphins [delphines], sloths [osos perezosos], starfish [estrellas], and jellyfish [jellyfish].) Keegan and I managed to grab some snorkel gear to play with while the rest of the group was lounging on the beach. The coral was really pretty so we followed it way out without realizing how far from shore we were (it was also super shallow, less than 3 feet in some places, so it didn't feel like we were out very far.) Pretty soon we got to the drop off. I've seen Finding Nemo so naturally I was terrified (also I was already pre-disposed to fear since I'm terrified of the ocean in general.) All of a sudden Keegan's body language totally changes. Above water he says, "Piper, don't look. Just turn around and swim." Yep, that's all it takes for me to turn into Michael Phelps. Darted my ass back to shore as fast as I could. We stopped when we were about halfway back to shore, but I wouldn't let Keegan tell me until we were safely back at the beach what he had seen. If the title didn't give it away already, <b>he saw a shark about as big as Keegan's wingspan. </b><br>
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In conclusion, the ocean is terrifying and Marlin is always right: stay away from the drop-off.Piperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10861110738550537371noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5668464366916826345.post-51336484420747211622014-08-22T18:44:00.000-07:002014-08-22T18:44:07.074-07:00Panama City: First Impressions<strong>So far, so good!</strong> It seems like we´ve been away for a lot longer than 2 days already. <br />
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<em>Happy gringos. Eventually we´ll get a photo we are both in.</em></div>
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Panama City is a really cool city, but really strange. There is so much construction and renovation going on (because it has newly booming tourism and financial industries.) Completely destroyed or run down buildings, borderline slum conditions, are right next to or mixed in with beautiful new buildings. Its really crazy to see because it changes in an instant. (Don´t worry mom, dad, grammas, and the McCaffrey´s: we haven´t felt unsafe at all. There are tons of police everywhere to protect the fledgling tourism industry and everyone has been super nice anyway.)<br />
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<em>The white building is totally run down, but to the left is a super gorgeous hotel.</em></div>
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I also can´t believe how many sky scrapers there are here.<br />
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<em>This is the financial district where our hostel is. To the left is probably 25-50 more giant sky scrapers</em></div>
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So far we´ve walked about 1000 miles and probably biked just as far. We rented bikes for last night and this morning. Turns out, it´s not really a bike friendly city and we looked like crazy people carrying our bikes up and down curbs and stairs. There is a gorgeous pathway that goes downtown and into the tourist district ("Old Town") where biking is a lot easier though.</div>
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<em>Grafitti in the Casco Viejo ("Old Town")</em></div>
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One nice suprise is that everything here has been crazy cheap. Today Keegan and I shared a big plate of rice, beans and some sort of meatloaf thing with 2 slices of platano on the side, 2 beers and a 2 scoop ice cream cone for $8.50 total. Beer at the store is 59 cents each, and only like $1 at restaurants if you aren´t in a tourist area. Our hostel is $10/night/person and it has a whole hang out area with hammocks and a swimming pool (important since its insanely humid here!!) </div>
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<em>We got kicked out for opening our beers in the store. Oops.</em></div>
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Finally, the best/craziest/most WTF thing we have seen so far. "Chicken buses" that go all over the city/country that are completely decked out with mufflers and crazy paint jobs and sometimes scantily clad ladies.. we even saw a Miley Cirus on one.<br />
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<em>He saw us taking the picture.</em></div>
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<em>Sweet mufflers bro.</em></div>
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<strong>So that´s all for now folks! Tomorrow we head for Bocas del Toro, a group of islands in the north west corner of Panama.</strong><br />
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(Last fun fact for the hispanohablantes: when people greet you here they say `bueno` instead of `hola`. I haven´t figured out which you are supposed to say back yet though..)<br />
<br />Piperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10861110738550537371noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5668464366916826345.post-83270046897945647542014-08-18T12:46:00.003-07:002014-08-18T12:47:28.068-07:00The PlanOur plan for this trip is to fly to Panama. Fly from Panama to Colombia. (There is no road connecting Panama to Colombia and apparently most people that attempt to hike are never seen again because of a combination of nature, hostile tribes and drug lords/gangs... So yeah, we will fly.) And then bus/fly (whatever ends up being cheapest for each leg of the journey) our way down the west coast of South America and fly out of Buenos Aires sometime before Christmas. So that's Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Argentina (again to fly out.)<br />
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We leave tomorrow at midnight. <b>So excited!!</b>Piperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10861110738550537371noreply@blogger.com0