So long, and thanks for all the fish......

As the the final sun sets over the Peruvian coastline, our two month extravaganza finally comes to a close. Our lasy days here we have been killing alot of time and eating scrumptious food. Well, I have been eating well, Melanie is dreaming of eating gallons of cooked chard. We had dinner last night at Astrid y Gaston, one of the most famous restaurants here in Peru. ww.astridygaston.com



Everything about the meal was top notch. Excellent service with dudes in suits, heavy plates and flatware, and 5 different types of home-made bread with three different dipping sauces. Melanie even got an armed escort to the lieu. She had a house salad with avocado and thinly sliced asparagus that was perfectly moist and seasoned well. She also had a risotto made for her that wasn´t on the menu, veggies and cream. I had the triple sashimi appetizer, little cuts of fish in three different spicy sauces. For dinner I was supposed to have blue marlin, but they ran out and I had some other giant ocean fish instead with jumbo gulf prawns cooked in a tangy bbq sauce with a chili mandarin risotto with potato. We accidentally didn´t bring all of our cash and were keeping our fingers crossed about the bill total, in hopes we wouldn´t have to run 15 block back to our hotel for more cash. It worked out, and was a great meal to have on our last night out.








In a way, our brains are already home. We´ve been checking out craiglist for jobs and future houses, talking about the possibilities. Our summer calendars are already starting to fill up with events, and now that we will be positioned in the north bay closer to family, it doesn´t look like it will slow down any time soon. But we are looking forward to being closer to most of you (sorry Santa Cruz friends), and hope we will have easy adjustment to the new (yet old for me) surroundings.

This trip has been a blast, and we are glad to know that we conquered yet another continent. Next stop, Antarctica! Not really, anybody who knows Melanie well enough knows that she would not endure that kind of cold.


Much love to all of you, thanks for reading and we hope to see you soon.

TnM inc.

coming close to the end.....

Greetings friends and family, you will be happy (we hope) to know that we have much more to report compared to our lazy beach time.

In Lima we struggled a bit to find a place to stay in Cuzco. It ended up being way too much time on the internet and on the frustrating pay phones to go in explicit detail. We ended booking a reservation with the backpacker super company Flying Dog. Our taxi to the Lima airport was scary and exciting. Our hostel had called for a taxi to pick us up at 115pm, we needed to be there by 2 and it takes close to 45 minutes with all the traffic. At 145pm with the taxi being a no-show, we started to panic. It´s advised to only take registered taxi´s here in the big metropolis of Lima. There are unregistered taxi´s, tiny little car like things that appear to be on their last legs, that are much cheaper but have a much higher incidence rate of burglary and crime. We´ve avoided them up to this point as we were desperate. Our gracious front desk man at the hostel picked one out of the crowd and seemed to have some sort of stern private talk with him in spanish.

At first the guy seemed pretty normal, I think our feelers were a little off due to the airport panic. The guy ended up making brief small talk with his limited english and our short bus spanish. Within several blocks the intensity of his driving had picked up, honking his horn and driving through intersections when he had a red light. His speed increased and ran stop signs in the residential slums, the bounce over speed bumps made me hit my head on the car´s ceiling. Every time he would do something crazy he would clap his hands and laugh, saying ¨ahhhhhh Peru¨. When we got to the very busy 6 lane avenue, he began to drive on the curb and parallel walking paths to speed ahead of the traffic. He would jump the curb and re-enter the avenue when a small amount of space opened up during the times when the traffic accelerated. Packed buses, small and large, would honk their horns at him when he would magically appear in the cloud of black smog that emanated from the vehicle in front. As we neared the airport he removed the taxi sign on the roof of his car as it is illegal for unregistered taxis to enter the airport. I don´t know how he convinced the guard with the big gun that we were his gringo friends and we just happen to be riding in the back with large luggage, but I didn´t ask any questions. When he pulled into the heavily trafficked drop-off area of the airport, he honked and yelled at a car full of nuns to get out of his way so he could park. As maddening, frightening, and insane the ride was, he got us there in one piece in only 20 minutes. We would have missed our plane if it weren´t for him. We had to be specially escorted to the front of large lines so we could make our plane, they were boarding when we arrived at the gate.


Okay, I know that was a long description but it I feel it needed to be well documented for future generations.

The ride to Cuzco was really nice, and a little scary at the end. With the city being over 4,000ft in elevation, and being located in the middle of a valley with even much larger mountains, the landing is extremely difficult with the heavy winds and the airlines only use their best pilots for the job, at least so they say. It was a little dizzying, kind of like being on kiddie-style roller coaster full of foreign tourists.

The first steps getting out of the plane was a good preview of the new few days to come. Adjusting to the altitude is a strange experience. I hate to use another rollercoaster/theme park reference, but anybody out there ever go on the Gravitron at your local country fair? You know how when you get out it´s hard to walk and your chest feels like it´s falling? Well, it´s like that only it last 2-3 days. Slow steady steps, sleep, and lots of Coca tea help tremendously.

It was raining buckets when we did our senile walk outside of the airport terminal. Luckily we had a taxi waiting for us from our hostal, holding up a sign that said ¨Melany¨. We arrived at our hostal and had our first introduction to Luigi the ¨Jungle Boy¨. Luigi worked at the hostel, but spent most of his nights going clubbing with foreigners and working the following day with little sleep. Luigi the jungle boy was from Iquitos, the jugle city capital in north eastern Peru that isn´t accessible by car, only plane or boat. He had long curly hair and could speak very muffled english, but his enthusiasm for the language did not slow him down.

¨I am jun-gol boeee! I am (mumblemumblemumble), and strong in heart. Do you guys like to party? I have been (mumblemumblemumblemumble) for long time (laughs loudly).....I am jun-gol boeee!¨





The other person working the hostel looked like an ex-con. I didn´t catch his name but he wasn´t very friendly and also alerted us that we only had a reservation for 2 nights instead of 3. One of the few bad things Flying Dog has on their report card. We had an email confirmation but the ex-con didn´t sympathise for us at all and merely shrugged his shoulders.

The place is relatively new and has lot´s of shiny looking toys around the common areas. New kitchen, new computer with huge monitor and fast internet, big flat screen tv with lots of bootleg dvd´s, and a plush couch to curl up on. The place was crawling with backpackers, which sealed the deal in our minds as we realized we are too old to be staying in places like this (at least when traveling together, I can probably be satisfied with cramped floor space on a Vietnamese kitchen with the right group of guys, you know who you are). Our room was nice enough, an okay view of the colonial city and green hills as far as the eye can see. The shower has a tiny electric heater for it on the ceiling, only it´s dangerous for tall people because the metal tube that connects to the shower head is known for electrocuting when touched.

After some time catching our breathe and trying not to think about moving to another hostal for a night, we headed into town. The cobblestone streets and alleyways with people selling crafts are charming. Lot´s of teeny tiny little women walking around in colorful garbs, carrying heavy looking sacks of miscellaneous items on their backs. Some walk around with their daughters and baby alpacas trying to have tourists take photos of them for small change. Cuzco has the most reported incidences of theft and crime in any other city in Peru. We were on guard with our money stashed in secret pockets and we stuffed socks in the shirts of our arms to make us look buff (not really). It was hard to keep our wits about us when a small man with a dirty stained baseball cap was chasing his small heard of runaway donkeys down a busy street.

The food. Lot´s of fine dining options in Cuzo that cater to the upper class travelers here for Machuu Pichuu. Speciality food includes alpaca, cow testicle, guinea pigs, and corn beer that is made from the fermented saliva of local villages. They chew on dried pieces of corn and spit it into a giant pot, a tradition that dates back hundreds of years in this region.

The first night I had some trout from the nearby Rio Urabamba with a spicy passion fruit glaze and citrus mashed sweet potatoes. There is a local Cafe called ¨Jacks¨ that has a line going outside at all hours of the day. Really good breakfast and a great atmosphere, very reminiscent of a good breakfast spot from the states. So far we´ve had, giant banana pancakes with a maple infused caramel sauce, egg platters with home fries and and home-made bread with grilled tomatoes and pesto with a hint of mint, huevos rancheros with real salsa and tasty local beans, nachos made from frito corn chips (I know, sounds sacrilegious but it was incredible), and a grilled panini with smoked trout and caper cream cheese with real potato french fries and house made aioli. Yup, Jack´s is awesome and has fulfilled our craving for tasty breakfasts rather than the national standard, white bread and jam.




A few other food highlights to get them out of the way and to make you hungry. Pineapple coconut curry shrimps (Melanie had a version of this that had apple in it, very interesting combination of flavors and something that will be experimented with in the kitchen at home), mint risotto with smoked cheese, teriyaki trout skewers with panko crumbs and pepper rice.....and to our delight, we just found an Indian restaurant that is cheap as sin and deliciously spicy. Had two different kofta dishes with raisins and nuts, good korma and Melanie had some great creamed lentils.

Just thought I´d get the food portion over with so I can try and remember the rest of the many little details about our trip.

We took a long walk to the Mercado Central and were overwhelmed by everything it had to offer. The place was the size of the cow palace and took up 8 city blocks. The fragrant smells mixed from luscious to putrid. Rows upon rows of exotic jungle flowers, and then rows upon rows of butchered meat that sweltered in the claustrophobic heat of the building. Equally sized rows of breads, cakes, sweets, vegetables, potatoes (I list this separately as there is a separate isle just for taters as taters are rule the farm supreme here) hand bags, kitchen utensils, fruit juice (yup, it was like a swap meet for small time Jamba Juice junkies) food carts, and stinky fish. I was planning to get some vegetables and exotic spices as it was going to be our last night with kitchen access. I ended up not getting anything as walking still made me dizzy and I didn´t trust myself with my knife and also didn´t trust the backpacker kitchen.

Lot´s crafts here, better than any other place on this trip yet. We bought a few nice little things, a painting, and some small gourds that have incredibly detailed hand carvings on them. I fulfilled a long time dream of getting a hand-made chess board, Inca´s vs. Conquistadors, very cool except we know the sad outcome of the real battle.

We moved into our new room the following day. Even though the view wasn´t as nice, it made up for it on every other level. Nicer people, reliable hot water, tv, and much closer to the Plaza De Armas aka the town square. It was really nice since we were going to spend two nights in the sacred valley and come back to the same hotel, that way we could leave items with no hassle.

We had some problems with our train tickets from Peru Rail. Peru Rail has a monopoly on trains going to Machuu Pichuu and the Sacred Valley. Besides charging exorbitant prices for short distances, they aren´t very friendly to boot. I was having a problem with their website as they would only let me buy a one way ticket from Ollayantambo to Agua Calientes (aka Machuu Pichuu Pueblo), and no access back to Cuzco. We tried going down to the office but it was closed for Jesus day, Sunday. We went the first thing Monday morning, the day were to leave on the bus for Ollayantambo, crossing our fingers really hard in hopes we would get this sorted out. If the tickets were then sold out, we would have to change our plan drastically and miss out on part of the Sacred Valley in order to get to see Machuu Pichuu. I will also note here that at this point of our trip, going to Machuu Pichuu seemed like a necessary hassle, and we were looking forward to getting it over with.

The office was loaded with people. We took a number and had to wait an hour just to talk to somebody. Seeing irritated travelers at the rows of desks was doing nothing to get our hopes up. When it was finally our turn the lady told us that the return trains to Cuzco on the day we wanted to travel were now full and that there was nothing she could do. I asked if she could change our ticket for the following day, but she said she needed a printed copy, which we didn´t have, even though they had all of our information including our passport numbers in their system. We took another number knowing it would be at least another hour as the office was over filling in the late morning.

During that time, Melanie and I were cursing every other word and trying to figure out our options. I was convinced that there had to be another way to get to agua calientes besides the expensive train, 4 wheel drive Jungle bus? Ziplining through the trees? Hanglide? Melanie and I split up. She went to an internet cafe to print out our tickets and I went to a nearby travel agent to inquire about alternative means of transportation. The first travel agent told me in broken english that it was possible, but was trying to sign us on to a package that would include lodging and meals. We really just wanted a ride back to cuzco as we already paid for a train ticket to Agua Calientes as well as lodging. I tried another travel agent and she dispelled my hope of taking some sort of extreme jungle vehicle, as there really are no roads to Agua Calientes, just the train tracks and hiking trails. She did somehow manage to get us a train ticket, not sure how since Peru Rail itself couldn´t provide one but we weren´t complaining. The only thing was that the ticket would be waiting for us in Agua Calientes, one of their guides would meet us at the train station holding a sign with our names. Seemed to be a decent plan? Keep reading.

Stoked that we wouldn´t have to drastically change our plans, we took a mini-bus through the Sacred Valley to Ollayantambo. The valley was gorgeous, lots of high tiered farming over luscious green canyons and clear lakes. Lots more tiny women in brightly colored clothes and strange non-functional hats (Non-functional because they didn´t seem keep any sun out of one´s eyes). Lot´s of donkeys, cows, and giant sacks of potatoes were other common sights along the valley road.

We arrived in Ollayantambo just before dusk. The towering mountains and ruins loomed overhead of the tiny village. There is a great photo here where you can see the contrast of the village to the mountains. We unpacked our bags for our one night stay and loaded up on ibuprofen since our heads were pounding from the drastic altitude change and windy roads on the bus. We had some french fries and coca tea at small restaurant with a nautical theme, big ropes holding up antique chandeliers and old black and white photos from years past in the valley while we played dominoes. We walked around the town lined with cobblestone streets that was dimly lite from old style lamps. They had a great little plaza with overgrown sunflowers and monstrous datura plants that surrounded a bronze statue of an Inca warrior. We looked at many restaurants in hopes for some Melanie friendly food, found a nice place that she could settle on right next to the roaring river that seemed good but decided to keep looking just in case. Our guide book recommended a place at the edge of town, had nice patio garden and colorful lights that matched the funky decor inside. It was pretty dead, and after looking at the menu we didn´t think it was the right place for Melanie food but the owner was there and insisted that we stay and that her chef could make her anything she wanted. Seeing this as some sort of omen, we stupidly decided to stay. The food was awful and boring. Melanie was supposed to get rice and veggies cooked in basil and spices with a tomato based sauce. The result was plain steamed veggies and white rice. I had a small sampler plate with bad cheese and cold beer. Good thing they didn´t make the beer!




We woke up feeling motivated, first to find some good food to re-layer our sumptuous palates, then to hike up to the ruins and explore for several hours before our train to Agua Calientes. The ruins entrance was a short walk from town, the hike up is what takes time. The tiered stone walls were impressive, even more so when you reach the top and appreciate how long it must have taken to haul up the large boulders and how many people it took. It was a good preview to what was to come in Machuu Pichuu. At the same time, after walking some ways within the ruins, our brains started gravitating to thinking ¨it´s just a bunch of rocks¨, albeit impressive history, but a bunch of rocks nonetheless, and much more impressive looking at them from a distance to see their intricate layout and design. We had a good lunch, Melanie with a hearty bowl of miso soup, and me some local trout skewers with panko crumbs and teriyaki sauce.

We got the aftenoon train to Agua Calientes and it had spectacular scenery. More giant mountains with mist and fog around the summits edges, along with lush jungle forests with colorful birds and the roaring Urubamba river. We were starting to feel the Machuu Pichuu buzz, getting really excited about the expensive portion of our trip.

We arrived and the train station was packed. Tourists in all shapes and sizes flooded the area waiting to catch their train back to Cuzco as most visitors make Machuu Pichuu a day trip from the 3 hour ride to Cuzco. We saw a handful of people holding up signs at the entrance area, none of which had our names on it. The tropical rain started to pound, the herds of tourists ducking for cover under awnings, rain coats, and trash bags. Melanie watched our stuff while I stood in the rain trying to use the pay phone to call our contact person who had our return train tickets. The number wasn´t working, and after several frustrating tries, we marched through the rain to our hotel in hopes we could figure this outthat evening.

Our hotel was nice, a huge group of American teenage girls from Melrose on a high school trip lounged around the lobby which was good eavesdropping entertainment while we tried not to freak out about our tickets. The boy at the counter was really nice, and helped us get ahold of the travel agency in Cuzco where we purchased our return tickets. They said the guy with the tickets would be there in 30 minutes and to not worry. 1 hour later we called back and they said he would be coming by our hotel in the morning, and to not worry. Pretty miffed, since we called them back, and if we didn´t, how much longer were they going to keep us waiting in our hotel lobby before they called?

We went out to an overpriced vegetarian restaurant and ate a small plate of food. Soon we discovered that everything in Agua Calientes is 3 times the cost of anywhere else in Peru given the remote locatation and high density of tourism, knowing they would have no choice but to pay up. We were exhausted from our day, and knew the following day would be even longer with waking up at dawn for Machuu Pichuu and the train and bus back to Cuzco in the evening.









Our train ticket arrived sometime in the night. We were very relieved but also wanted to curse the guy out for being a flake. The early bus in the morning climbed steep up the mountain that was shrouded in mist. The entrance gate was already crowded, several hundred people looking for coffee as they completed the 3/4 day trip hiking the Inca trail.

Okay, we hope not to dispel any of the magic of Machuu Pichuu here, but we have some gripes with our experience. It was pretty, it was, very impressive again about moving rocks up this mountains and how the lived. The mountain scape is gorgeous, the surrounding area is too, but the whole thing was over in 5 hours, and could have been done in 2 hours if we didn´t hike up the adjacent mountain side for something to do. We did this trip pretty cheaply too, most people pay 400 dollars for their plane tickets to Cuzco from Lima (because they buy the tickets from their native foreign counties rather than buying them once in Peru), and we paid 150 two days before our flight, with more planning it can be 80. Anyhow, we dropped alot of cash on top of that, and don´t think it was worth it. It was beautiful, but like we said earlier about the ruins in Ollayantambo, it was much prettier from a distance. We would be more than happy to talk more about this with any of you in person, but thats it in a nutshell. It´s pretty much like disneyland for south america.

The way back to Cuzco was long. The train was dark and crowded. Then our packs were on the top of the bus and it started to pour rain. The driver pulled them down for us and they managed to crunch on our laps in the very crowded space. A sick Korean girl next to us was sympathetic and provided good conversation. I got a massage in Cuzco the following day, today I´m nursing my wounds. She beat me up pretty bad, nail marks and bruises.

We´re back in Lima now, counting down the days to our departure. Not much left to do here, gonna meet up with a friend of a friend, and also go to the gold museum. Melanie is stoked to return, last night a restaurant put steak in her beans on a ¨vegetarian¨ taco.

Much luv everybody, this might be the last post, maybe one more.

TandM

Donde Esta Mis Pantilones¿?¿

Okay, this is probably going to be the most energy I´vd expelled in some time, please excuse if my fingers if they can´t take the workout, I will later post photos of Melanie squirting gatorade in my mouth as I conjur up the necessary energy.

Yup, we´ve been pretty relaxed this past week. Our hotel is a small slice of paradise, the biggest challenge of the day is squinting our eyes shut on the back of motorcycle taxi´s (similar to tuk-tuk´s in Thailand) while they blast down the 2 miles of cliff trodden gravel road to our tucked away hotel. Luckily most of the time the motorcycle´s barely have enough juice to make it up hill, but on the downhill the driver´s like to make up for speed with the extra inertia, which makes us subconsciously cradle the family jewels in winded anticipation of disaster. Once we arrive our destination (which really, there is only two, our hotel and the town center where there are restaurants), it´s a short walk to a stool/lounge chair/bed/pool/bar/ocean etc.

We tried unsuccessfully to go for a hike yesterday. We got word from our much attended vegetarian restaurant that a hike only 2 miles from town can bring you to a national park. Well, we walked for some time, but the vegetation was so ugly and murky we decided we´d have a better time going back to our routine. Wake-up, read, shower (maybe), walk downstairs for breakfast overlooking the ocean, eat while playing dominoes, walk back upstairs (one flight), read some more, walk to the beach, Tony eats up the sun while Melanie hides in the shade, walk to the pool to cool off, moto-taxi into town for lunch and dominoes, internet (for investigative purposes on further Peru locations only, promise), moto-taxi back to the hotel, more reading, more pool time, walk on the beach to watch indescribable sunsets, back to the room for more reading or NPR podcasts, moto-taxi into town for dinner, Tony eats incredible seafood while Melanie eats a bit of dust with rice and beans, moto-taxi back home for more reading and then eventually sleep.

That mostly sums up our days here. The food (for me) has been incredibly good. All sorts of fish and ceviche, very fresh and well prepared. Mancora was a fishing town before it became a surfing mecca, it´s managed to hold on to that vibe despite all the really buff guys with perfect teeth huddled next to their boards with empty beer bottles littered about like swarming sharks. Fishing still thrives here and is the backbone to the beach front tourism, you can smell it in the air wherever you go. We found a great spot that serves fresh fish and sweet potato chips with an icy cold beer (stored at 3 degrees) for only $4. Lucky for me they have really good rice and beans for Melanie so I get to go back. There are a couple of fancy pants restaurants in town, specialising in deep sea tuna cooked and sauced to perfection.

There is a great breakfast join in town called ¨Green Eggs and Ham¨. They serve up real good gringo breakfast. Melanie has had great omelette's´s with spicy home-fries and crispy hashbrowns. I had some great pancakes and waffles splattered with fresh mango, bananas, and pineapple in coconut cream and vanilla yogurt. We also found a small bakery and I had a surprisingly great piece of pecan pie with vanilla ice cream.

The town fluctuates from quiet to busy with no particular schedule. Being right on the Pan-American highway draws lots of cars and big dirty diesel trucks overflowing with various products, buldging as if it were going to implode. It´s not that bad, the biggest drawback is the honking in this town. You´re in the middle of a nice meal on a patio and the cars 10 feet away from you start blaring on their horn.

Tomorrow we leave paradise and it´s back to normal traveling. We fly into Lima for a night and then on to Cuzco the following day. We have an outline of a plan, but nothing set in stone except our plane tickets. It´s hard to figure out since it will be unknown how the altitude will affect us. Its a good time of the year to go river rafting through the Sacred Valley which we´re hoping to do if the altitude allows. This whole easter thing has been a bump in the travel road. We have been hearing more stories how tourist destinations fill up, one popular hotel here in Mancora has over 300 people on a wait list.

A short list of random images Id like not to forget.

Moto-taxi ride with an older man with a giant handlbar mustache and sherlock holmes-like spectacles.
Moto-taxis dragging up to 20 feet of cargo that slides on the ground, bush trimmings, lead pipes, cement mixers
Watching 4 vultures, 3 red heads and one black head, fight over a fish carcuss from our balcony
The feeling of a deserted town with the street lamps off and everybody indoors watching the Peru vs. Brasil soccer match.

Been reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy, whew, darn good book but really depressing. Sorry no photos in this blog, 3 internet cafes in row didnt have usb ports for us to plug in. I will try and put some up later.
Hope all is well

-T

Five sunsets....

We´ve been in Peru for just over a week now...

This will be my first blog post, just so you all know, my writing style is much less colorful than Tony´s...so bare with me.

Spent the first couple of days in Lima, I was sick...which I`m mostly better from now, just a residual cough and...some ear issues. Last Thursday was tough, spent most of it chilling in our hostel...it`s really hot and humid in Peru, much more so than Chile. Tony made us some potato leek soup in the hostel, while I watched Zodaic in the livingroom. Friday I felt a bit better, so we ventured out into Lima and ended up making a flight reservation for the following day to Tumbes. Had lunch at a krishna restaurant that gave me a massive heap of yummy veggie fried rice. Went to a pretty epic dinner at a place called Las Tejas. For some odd reason (paranoia) we didn´t bring our camera out with us, so there aren´t any photos. My meal consisted of veggies, some potato dumpling thing, yucca fries, fried banana and some crazy corn on the cobb, the kernals were way bigger than what we have in the states and much sweeter, super good. Tony had some fish and veggies. After our meal, we went to see The Watchmen at the movie theater....ummm...yeah, not really sure what to say about that.

Saturday we went to a lunch not really worth mentioning...then caught a cab from our hostel to the Lima airport. Our short flight from Lima to Tumbes was relatively uneventful, aside from the last bit being a bit painful...for me anyway. When we arrived in Tumbes, it was hot, really hot and really humid...and there were these maniacle mosquitos that are truly out for blood. After getting our packs we took a hair raising two hour cab ride to Mancora. About fifteen minutes into the cab ride my right ear finally popped and could really hear....the left one still hasn´t fully recovered. The cab ride was INSANE! I was very relieved when we finally arrived safely in Mancora. We stayed at a Hostel International affiliated place called La Posada, the room was clean and very dark. Woke up on Sunday morning, knowing we wanted to find another place to stay, we went out to find some breakfast grub...the first place we see is called ¨Chill Out¨, we take this as a sign. I must share something and if any wonderful Chileans are reading this, please don´t take offense....Peruvians know how to cook some eggs! With the exception of one fabulous omelette we had at Tinquilco Refugio in Huequehue Parque in Chile, prepared by the owner Patricio, I didn´t have very good egg experiences in Chile, Peru has been an entirely different story. After having a great breakfast we walked along the beach in search of somewhere new to stay, we found a place right next to where all the surfers were catching waves, we negotiated a price and went to fetch our bags. We spent one night here, as it´s a surfers paradise...and not so much for the non-surfer. The beach here is over-run with pushy vendors. The next day after another fantastic breakfast at a place called Green Eggs and Ham, we went to another, (much more secluded), part of the beach, which is reached by a five minute taxi ride from the town of Mancora. We´re now staying at a place called Sunset, it´s a bit more expensive than we typically pay for accomodations ($60 per night), but totally worth it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tonight will be our sixth night at Sunset, we´ve made a point to catch each sunset, each one spectacular and unique. The view from our second story room private balcony is awesome, there´s a very small wading pool outside and supposedly the best restaurant in all of Mancora, which we´ve yet to experience. We have had two lunches at the hotel, Tony had some fried seafood thing which he raved about, I´ve had a couple salads there and some rice, which I believe one of the salads (from Thursday) made me sick. We won´t be having lunch there again. The first sunset we saw in Mancora was exceptional, it´s the one with Tony and I together, there´s no way pictures do it justice, of course, I´m very happy to have had that experience. Mancora has a lot going for it, The beach is amazing, the people are quite friendly and there are good food options. There´s a vegetarian restaurant called Angela´s Place, Angela is an Austrian woman who´s been living in Mancora for eight years, we eat at Angela´s often. The mexican food place in town, El Aji is decent and there are two fancy pants restaurants we´ve been to, one for Tony´s birthday, El Tuno and the other we ate at on Thursday night, Sirena.

As I´m sure many of you know, Tony´s birthday was on Tuesday...in order to make his birthday somehow more special, I woke up in the middle of the previous night and spelled out ¨Happy Birthday Tony¨ in toothpaste on our bathroom mirror. Unfortunately there aren´t any photos of this, as we believed we had to move that morning to another room, Tony quickly wipped it away when the cleaning people arrived...turns out we don´t have to move and get to spend all ten nights at Sunset in the same room. It´s been great getting to put clothes away in closets and not be living out of our packs for awhile. Tony´s birthday was spent much like the other days we´ve had here....relaxing, watching the waves, swimming and then going out to a great meal at El Tuno. Tony had tuna (their specialty) cooked in a fig balsamic reduction, with asparagus, glazed baby carrots and a potato soufle, I had gnocci with pesto. Yep, I tried out eating some wheat...and nothing happened. I´m not going to make a habit of it, I don´t want to push my luck, but it´s nice to know that I can, on occasion, wander into the world of wheat. Baby steps... Tony finished off his dinner with mango cheesecake.

The morning after Tony´s birthday we spent hanging out next to the ocean, reading, listening to music, and generally relaxing in what we thought was a very shady area. Heading into town for lunch, I looked down at my legs and felt betrayed by the coconut trees that I thought were providing us with shade, let´s just say I spent a large portion of the rest of the day with cold compress towels on my legs, they´re still a bit achey, but nothing like I imagined they would be. That same day Tony booked our next and last flight in Peru. We leave Mancora next Thursday, April 2nd, flying to Lima. We´ll be leaving Lima the following day, flying to Cusco, where we´ll spend seven days taking in The Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu, flying back to Lima on the 10th. We were hoping to spend more time in The Sacred Valley, but Easter threw a wrench in our plans, turns out it´s a really big deal here and all the flights out Easter weekend or the Monday afterward are either booked or very expensive. So we opted to spend a couple extra days in Lima. We fly out of Lima, back to San Francisco very late on the 14th...we´ll be home on the 15th, after a layover in Miami.

Well that´s all folks...hope all´s well with you all.

love,

melanie and tony.

bye bye Chile.......

We just arrived in Lima this morning, had to say farewell to one of our favorite new countries, but we know we will be back someday. Not too much to report but I figure I would close the Chile chapter in a post so we can focus on Peru.

From Pucon, we ventured out to Parque Nacional Huerquehue (pronounced ´ear-kay-way´) for a 3 day, two night visit. We took the morning bus from Pucon, it was only an hour´s journey, half it down yet another dusty dirt road. The bus was pretty full of hikers heading to the park for a day trip, and along the way we picked up many kids on their way to school in their uniforms. The single person seat in front of us was occupied by a dutch traveler with dirty curly hair and comfortably sleeping with his head rolling about on the seat in front of him. There was a young kid of maybe 5 that was just mortified by this and could not keep his eyes off the wayward traveler. It was quite amusing watching the kid behind his spectacles with a look of shock.

The kids jumped off for school, we really enjoyed the last part of the ride into the park with great views of nearby mountains and volcanoes. We had to hike about a mile into the park with our heavy packs on to reach our refugio. Melanie had a bit of back pain so it was a little difficult but she pulled through like a champion. Refugio Tinquilco was our secluded forest paradise. A beautifully built lodge owned by the boisterous and kind Patricio, and staffed by a mountainous chileano version of Lucille Ball, Ingrid. Ingrid greeted us when we pulled our packs off our sweaty backs and entered the living room area of the well decorated cabin. Old typewriters, paintings, electronics, and photographs lined the walls. Ingrid didn´t speak of word of english, but that didn´t slow her down from talking to us like we were having our hair permed at an 80´s Jersey salon. She is a wildy animated person and the keeper of the refugio. She spends all day, every day, 9 months out of the year (she gets the snowy winter off), cooking and cleaning like a stout Martha Stewart in the woods. They have a great wood fire stove that continuously has a giant kettle of hot water bubbling, and lots of enormous cooking pots and pans for big meals.

She showed us to our room and Melanie rested for a bit before we hit the trails. The popular route for the day trippers is a 3,000ft steep climb up a mountain with a several mile loop trail at the top circling around 3 high altitude lakes. The maps they give for the park are terrible, as well with the overall lack of assistance of the park rangers and information area (we actually didn´t even have a map, they are not available at the park at all, you have to buy one in Pucon). The park doesn´t receive alot of funding despite getting a goog amount of visitors. The trails are poorly marked and apparently hikers getting lost in the woods is not an unusual occurance. We heard all of this from Patricio, I´ll get to his introduction in a bit.

The trail was a butt kicker. Hiking 3 hours straight up can dampen the spirits, but there was rays of sunshiney hope as there were several miradors (lookout points) along the dense forested trail that provided views of the lower volcanic lake near our refugio. At the highest mirador we met some Chileano hikers with a map, we had been jack rabbiting back and forth with along the trail. According to their map, it seemed we were only half way up to the first of the three lakes. I had a feeling that it was incorrect by the amount of time we had hiked and elevation climbed, but it was hard to see the top as the steep trees were blocking the view. The Chileanos opted to head back, I sweetly convinced Melanie through her curses and gritting teeth that we were close, and she agreed to 30 minutes more at the very max. 20 minutes later we arrived to Lago Chico.

The lake was still and stunning. The quiet surrounding the lake and high rocky gorge was deafening. The gorge sprouted up over the edge of the lake like a giant ugly andean potato dropped from the sky. The beat in our feet and rumble in our bellies told us it was enough for the day and headed back home, hiking while the sun started to go down and hoping our knees wouldn´t give out. We happen to witness an ant carrying a dead scorpion, witness the photo!

We made a nice simple meal from the food we hiked in. We were to later find out that Ingrid was upset (fake upset, not genuine upset) for bringing our own food to cook because she wanted to cook for us. Next time, and there will be a next time, we will have ingrid cook for us and not hike 3 days worth of food into the park. Later in the evening we finally met Patricio briefly before going to bed. We had some trouble with his email, as we thought he never responded to our inquiry but it turns out his email had been acting wonky. He thanked us for being persistent and went to bed. Melanie and I had an epic game of dominoes, only Melanie doesn´t really care about games so I was left to scream about it´s insanity (or my own) by myself.

Looks like this post is going to be a little longer than anticipated, oh well, I´m sure we will all get over it.

The next morning we had a breakfast along with strong coffee before venturing out to our hike. Patricio caught up with us on the sheep filled lawn before we embarked. We were going to climb up Mt. Sebastian, or at least go as far as we could, it being the biggest mountain in the area and all. He warned us about the bad marking of trail signs, a person died on the same trail the previous month for underestimating the amount of time it would take and trying to hike down in the dark. Apparently he has been arguing with the rangers for years, they had once posted a sign about a hike to the hot springs in the park being a 3 hour hike, when in actuality it was closer to a 7 hour hike each way. Many people got stuck in the woods without food and shelter, Patricio ended up cutting down the sign.

This Mt. Sebastian trail was barely used, especially in comparison to the lakes trail. It was overgrown with a variety of bamboo that isn´t hollow in the inside and is great to use for buildings. This was a much steeper hike, and the great views didn´t come until we reached a high point clearing, and we had a clear line of sight to the Villaricca volcano which was covered with snow and is where people ski in the winter. Off the trail in the woods we found a set of chairs and a small table carved by a chainsaw. Nice place to picnic and take a rest. There were many arrucanyo (not sure if this is spelled correctly) trees that had many medevil looking spikes and were very cool to look at. You can see Melanie trying to eat one of the branches in the photos, I had to tackle her to keep her away, she was hungry.

Back at the refugio we met a girl from Maine who´s accent made her sound european (I thought she kinda sounded like Dorothy from the wizard of oz, Melanie didn´t hear it). Patricio made us one of his legendary Pisco sours and joined us for cocktail hour. He opened a bottle of wine, then forced Melanie and I to drink straight pisco, a very unexpected event on our last night there. Lot´s of good conversation into the quiet night, the nearby cows didn´t even keep us awake. Did I mention there was tons of cows along the trail?

note - The Bull in the photos is not from Huerquehue, but from the bumpy bike ride. It was right in front of us and we had a brief freak out hoping we didn´t have to hone our matador skills.
Ingrid was in tears as we left, we really wanted to take her with us. She knew one of the fews things we knew how tos say was ¨hola¨, and she would say it to us after being gone for only a minute. Then she would go about the act of talking to herself and making herself laugh while rolling big sheets of dough for bread and meticulously cleaning the wood fire stove.

We took a brief swim in the lake via Patrico´s private trail to the only beach on lake Tinquilco. Back in Pucon we took is easy and tried to hit the sack early for the early flight back to Santiago. Nothing too new to report on the cuisine, I guess I did have some ravioli´s stuffed with apples and blue cheese in a pesto cream sauce. I was told about an atlantic krill empanada which was the reason we tried the restaurant with the ravioli´s, but the empanada was made with a whole wheat dough which didn´t blend well with the rich krill and cheese. Should have brought the tapitio for that meal.

Back in Santiago we were picked up by Joce, our saviour, again from the airport. The four of us (Saulito was with us) went to the really old sky tram thingabob, you know, those things they have at amusement parks that slowly carry you across the park and enable a great view? Yup, just like that, only it´s way up above the city and you can see for miles. Saul was mesmerized, he was so busy staring he would blindly bite his giant cookie.

The following day Melanie and I got another good walk around the city, stopping at the big library, Santa Lucia, and got to visit a cafe con piernas. That night I made a typical Tony meal for Joce, Ari, and thier two friends. Coconut green curry with veggies, spicy fat noodles with egg and peanuts, buttery garlic mushrooms, coconut butternut squash soup, and Joce talked me into cooking baby octopus for the first time.

We went to bed and watched 24, did I mention Melanie and I are now hooked on this tv show? A great way to spend time in between Peru planning and packing.

On our last night in Santiago, Ari took us out to a really good meal at the best Indian restaurant in town. We hadn´t had Indian food in over a month and were dying to sink our teeth into some spicy Indian goodness. I got to have Indian style conger, which would be my last conger dish for hopefully not too long. I do love that fish-eel. Our hosts had really been wonderful, and they really made it easy to have as a home base in between locations with such great hospitality. We love Chile, if you didn´t already guess.

We flew into Lima this morning, and we yet to have any concrete plans. We know what we want to do, basically two weeks at a beach up north and two weeks around Cuzco and Machhu Pichhuu. The gist of our conundrum is that the better time to go to Cuzco would be at the end of our trip because there would be less rain. On the other hand, it would be much nicer to end our trip with two weeks at the beach. Thats the gist, there are other little details that don´t seem like much but do add up. Melanie just became sick as of yesterday, her throat is sore and feels pretty down. Taking a bus or flying to an extremely high altitude somewhere is not sounding good. Hopefully we will know more by tomorrow, and be assured that I will have heapfuls of fish in my belly, as the cuisine portion of this trip is about to summit. First meal today, which seemed like a touristy place and was not expecting much more than nutrients, had some great shrimp risotto with marinated red onions and pepers on top. Melanie had some spicy lentils and basmati rice cooked in raisins and arabic spices, yummy. Tommorrow we go ceviching!

Hope all is well back home

T&M inc.