Noche Buena

Here in Cusco, Christmas goes something like this...

1. During the day go to the city center where there is a massive massive massive fair (crafts, gifts, decorations for the Nativity scene, fire crackers, etc). Push your way through the crowd till you find the perfect string of lights and a set of Kings for the manger. Buy some traditional sugar wafer cookies to share with the family as you walk. Try not to lose the people you are with. Have yellow confetti sprinkled on your head for good luck. For extra good luck, pay a few centimos to be kissed by a tiny live armadillo.

2. At about 11 pm, start watching local music videos, drinking Cusquéña cerveza, and eating those sugar wafers with your family and some friends.

3. At a few minutes before midnight brace yourself because at 12, there will be lots of explosions.

4. Midnight. Look outside at all of the fireworks exploding all around the city. Drink champagne, give hugs, and turn up the music.

5. Eat dinner (some baked bird if you´re not me, some cooked beets and green beans if you are me, and of course french fries).

6. Drink more beer. Stay up until 6 am. If you go to bed earlier you are weak. So don´t do it! Sing along to Grupo 5 (a great Peruvian cumbia band) on the television and keep saying ¨Salud!¨. If you are me, try very hard to understand slurred Spanish.

7. Wake up at 7 am, cuz no one sleeps in here! If you are me, open stockings and find lovely gifts of fruit and adornments.

8. Have brunch...leftovers, paneton (the ubiquitous fruit cake) and drink that wonderful Incan hot chocolate (but only a tiny bit or else you may find yourself in the hospital because this is the real stuff).

Feliz Navidad, Cusco

We left Arequipa...a lovely city, indeed...and traveled overnight to the city of Cusco, which is famous for being situated next to Machu Pichu.
Its a very touristy city, which makes walking down the street without being invited to try some business offer or other nearly impossible. However, it is a charming place, with a rich history and a stunning location. It was once the center of the Incan empire, and today there are still huge stone walls constructed in the Incan era.

We are staying with our friend Frank, who owns a travel agency here in town. He has been a great host, and has welcomed us into his home and his city. I´m looking forward to celebrating Christmas with his parents and sister.

We arrived at 6 am yesterday morning and had a very full day of getting to know the city. We absorbed the mountain sun in the main plaza, found a quaint cafe for capuccinos and tea, and ran into our friend, Miguel, from Lima. After settling into Franks house, we helped Frank´s buddy, Julio, celebrate his graduation from travel agent school. Julio´s family welcomed us with copious amounts of local beer, cumbia music, and laughter. We danced and got to know many of Julio´s friends late into the night.
Today we explored the non-tourist area of the city. Frank took us to a local cevecheria (this local spot supposedly serves better cevichi than can be found in the tourist section of town for half the price) for lunch. Then Lillian and I spent hours at the market getting Christmas decorations for our room. Later we took the bus back to the center of town and stumbled upon the best hot chocolate ever created.

Update

Brief summary of where we have been since Riobamba:
Baños: touristy, but cute. good breakfasts, beautiful waterfalls, relaxing hot springs.
Cuenca: charming little city. hung out with the Aussie (Tristin), the French dudes, and Ray (the awesome multilingual Cuencan we stayed with). Nice river walk, great hot chocolate, strange greeting cards.
Loja: Spent 15 minutes here before bording the bus to cross into Peru. Smooth and safe border crossing...saw some cute monkeys (a good omen).
Piura: got stuff done here (mail, internet, money changed into soles...the Peruvian currency). Hung out with Lillian´s awesome college friend, Michael Henry, who is a Peace Corps volunteer in a mountain village near Piura. 2 great and very healthy veggie food places!
Lima: After a very luxourious night bus ride, we´re here in Lima. Saw some ruins, some llamas mating, and some grand buildings. More to follow...

The Epic Andes to Jungle Adventure…

Pre trip: A couple of weeks ago, our friend Aaron had the idea of taking an ambitious hike from the Andes to the National Park of Sangay, through the cloud forest to the Amazon. Marcus, Darlene, Michaela, Shtephan, Lillian, and I all signed up for the journey…

We arrived in Riobamba after stocking up on supplies in Quito, slept a few hours, and woke up at 5:30 am to the sound of the voice of a German (Shtephan) telling us to get up out of bed. Wearily we stumbled out the door and caught the bus to the middle of nowhere in the mountains.

Day one: The bus dumped us by the side of the road. in the middle of the Andes. It was a bit hard to breathe, due to the elevation, but we barely noticed, because we were distracted by scraggly sheep, cows tied up by their horns, all sorts of plants growing on rock faces, and the unbelievably green mountains. The day was filled with marvelling over the flora, greeting the natives who were robed in traditional highlands garb (black felt hats and red ponchos), and learning about teeth (Shtephan is a dentist). After a solid day of hiking, we set up camp on the bank of a stream that feeds into a deep blue mountain lake. That night we huddled around a roaring fire eating banana boats and gazing up at the countless stars above us.

Day 2: As we began to descend from the mountains, the landscape changed around us from the green grass-covered hillsides into cloud forest. Leafy trees, bromeliad, an d the occasional orchid surrounded us.

Day 3: We had been hiking on a road up to this point in the story, and sadly had to admit that the rugged trail we had read about in the guidebook had been paved over. We voted to catch the next bus to Macus and explore the rainforest there instead of continuing along the road.

In Macus, we were pointed in the direction of the department of the environment. There we met up with a park guide-biologist-shaman who kindly offered us a place to stay for the night and to accompany us to a trail in the rainforest for the next morning. He lives in a traditional Shuar (the indigenous people of the area) hut with his mother (a vivacious tin y old woman) and girlfriend. That night we cooked quinoa, platanos, and sauce for all. Post dinner our guide spoke with us about the ways of the Shuar and about the trail we would soon take.

Day 4: We rose early, made coffee, and caught the local bus to the entrance of the National Park Sangay. Our guide led us for about 2 or 3 hours into the Amazon, through the mud, rain, and thick vegetation, pointing out various plants and birds along the way. From then on the path was much more clear and easy to navigate, and we felt confident when our guide left us with his machete and a map.
We hiked on for another few hours until we found the shelter which was to be our camp. The rainforest was so lush and full of wonderful noises! We saw lacy black butterflies, scarlet birds that make a call like water falling, and tracks of tapirs.
Aaron, Marcus, and I made a side excursion, rock hopping along the river. The mossy banks of the river towered over us, and we felt like tiny adventurers.

Day 5: 6 hours of hiking in the beautifulness of the rainforest is rather indescribable. This day we made a loop back to the point where our guide dropped us off so we could camp. It seemed like the forest was testing us that night. First the cook stove caught fire, ruining the beans we had been soaking all day, and rendering the stove useless. Then Aaron cut his leg while cutting firewood with the machete. Luckily I have my Wilderness First Aid certification and knew what to do! On top of that, some of our party got a terrible intestinal illness. In spite of our troubles, we were jolly and slept well to the music of the river.

Day 6: We trekked through the deep mud, forded a river, and finally emerged from the forest, only to have to walk another few hours to our guide´s house, as there were no buses on Sunday. Exhausted, wet, and filthy, we arrived at the house and were warmly welcomed by the moonshine toting grandfathers that live there.
A few hours later, we bussed back into Macus for a celebratory last meal together.

City Life

I´m sitting in an internet cafe in Quito. The music is so distracting...right now they are playing California knows how to party! Head trip!

We´ve been in Quito for a couple of days now. Today I woke up to the sound of giggling birthday girls, much too early in the morning for the time we went to bed last night. We were out celebrating the birthday of two friends of Nikki and Helen at a superfun dance club in the Mariscal district of Quito until 2:30am. After singing feliz cumpliaños, I tried to converse in español, but found that talking to people from Quito (they talk waay faster than the surfer dudes of the coast) in the early morning after a night of free drinks at altitude is no easy task. Sight-seeing was a bit easier...water and walking is a wonderful recovery pair. I walked around the old town district of the city popping into the ornate cathedrals and reveling in the ubiquitous music and sunshine.

Yesterday we took the bus North to Otovalo, which is a mountain town famous for its Saturday artisan markets. I had fun haggling over crafts, being bombarded by eager artisans, getting some sweet gifts and eating roasted corn from the street vendors.
After another 2 hour bus ride back to the city, we found the hostel where our homies from Planet Drum are staying. We had dinner with them and played some intense games of fussball. Aaron and Marcus managed to rally and win some drinks off of me. Tomorrow all of us are heading south to begin an epic journey...hee hee!