Machu Picchu!!! (Peru)

On...Lord, i have no idea what day...we woke up at 3:30 am and packed up a small backpack to bring to Machu Picchu.  We left our larger packs and the surf board at the hostel where we were staying in Cuzco, Hospedaje Amanecer.  The car picked us up at 4 am, and drove us to the bus station in the Plaza de Armas, where we boarded with other travelers bound for Machu Picchu, and we headed to the train station in Ollantaytambo.  The train then took about an hour and a half through the valley of the Andes to the town of Aguas Calientes, right below Machu Picchu.  We spent  a bit of the morning walking around the small town, which looked like it lived off of tourism, and had an ungodly number of restaurants for the size of the town.   Quickly, we realized there was nothing to do there that didn't cost money, so we went back to our hostel to watch a show and take a glorious three hour nap.  We woke up and lounged around a bit, playing on the limited Internet, before heading out for dinner.  When we were at dinner, at 7:10 pm, I remember that our guide for the next day was supposed to meet to give us our tickets right then, so I ran back to the hostel, leaving Jared to eat alone, and bring me back a luke warm burger and fries.  That night we went to bed around 10 pm, excited for Machu Picchu the next day. We woke up, and ate the free breakfast at the hostel, before heading down to board a 30 minute bus to ascend the mountain to the city of Machu Picchu.  We had booked a hike up Montaña Machu Picchu, so at 7 am, we got off the bus, and started the grueling 1+ hour hike to the top.  We got a bit nervous during the ascent, because everything was covered by fog.  The hike itself was neat, and I was excited to think of how the Incas had walked these same steps for some unknown ritualistic purpose, which I later discovered was bogus, and the Incas really did not use Montaña Machu Picchu for anything, save burying a 100+ people on the bottom, but at the time, it was motivational for me to continue.  Most of the climb was stairs, so our buns definitely got a good workout.  When we reached the top, there was only one other traveler, and fog everywhere.  We couldn't even tell the direction that we were supposed to look to see the city.  It was also really cold, and we had to quickly put on all the layers we had taken off during our climb.  A few hours passed, with more climbers joining us, and no change in the weather.  We got a bit worried and increasingly annoyed, because A) our pass on Montaña Machu Picchu was only until 11am, and B) we had originally been booked on an 11:30 am tour of the city, which was changed the night before to 10:30 am.  By 9:40 (the time we had to start our descent to make the English tour) there was still no change in the fog, so we decided to screw the tour and join a Spanish one we knew was taking place at 11:30 am.  By about 10 am, a few patches here and there would open up, only to be covered again within the minute, and we still had no idea where we should even be looking.  Slowly, the patches became bigger and appeared more frequently, until we finally at least knew where we should be looking.  Finally, with about 15 minutes before we had to leave the peak, the clouds opened up, and allowed us some pretty amazing views of the city and the valleys below.  We snapped probably 60 pictures, a few great ones, before packing up and booking it back down the mountain to make our tour.  We ended up being lucky enough to jump onto a different group's English tour for free.  The tour took about 45 minutes, where we wove through the city.  It is so well preserved that it might be a Disneyworld exhibit.  The precision in the work was really phenomenal, and we were able to visualize how the Incas lived better than we had at other ruins due to its preservation.  After the tour ended, we hiked back up to the Inca bridge, and realized that, on our third ascent of the day, we were pooped!!  After, we found a popular resting spot, with an amazing view overlooking the city, and had a snack while taking in the sites.  I think we were maybe resting to see if we could make another round or head to a different hike, but after a bit, we realized we were too tired, and headed back to the buses for Aguas Calientes.   When we got back to the hostel, we spent the next few hours resting before packing up and heading back to the train and bus to Cuzco.  I will say, the train we took, IncaRail, was pretty awesome, with leather seats and free coffee/tea etc.  Back in Cuzco, we arrived into the city at 11 pm, and basically fell into bed still fully clothed.

Cuzco (Peru)

The next morning, we woke up at about 5:30 am for an all day drive.  We ended up leaving about 30 minutes late, which in did not affected the fact that there was no way we were making it to Cuzco that day. We drove and drove and drove, and could not move that freaking blue dot on our GPS map.  Someone had told u the day before that the drive from Nazca to Cuzco took 11 hrs, but after 10 hours, we were still pretty far (I assumed about 3 hours, but wasn't sure), so just to be safe, we pulled into the small town of Abancay for the night.  The accommodations weren't the worst we've had thus far.  Dinner consisted of the same thing we've had for ages now, a fried piece of meat and tons of carbs.  I am getting a bit sick of the cheap food options.   We woke up the next morning, and made our last leg of the drive to Cuzco, which ended up taking almost 6 hours, and included us getting pretty lost as the road we were supposed to take did not exist when we looked for it.  The drive, however, was gorgeous!  We definitely have hit the colder climate and drove through snow.  The views were really stunning with green mountains in the forefront, and snow capped mountains in the distance,  until we were surrounded by snow.  At one point I asked if we had yet driven through the Andes, maybe in Ecuador, but we knew we had definitely arrives at them when we met with the snow.  We also spent a lot amount of time driving through the valley floor of the Andes along a river, and kept having to pull over to snap shots.  I know a lot of people questioned our method of travel and would have opted for buses, but the views alone, and our opportunity to stop and explore have justified it for us.  When we arrived into the city, our originally researched hostel proved too elusive, so with some help from Cuzquenos, we found the historic center and a hostel by about 12-1pm.  There was a laundromat right by us, so we dropped off of bag full of sand, and a few articles of clothing from the sandboarding day, and headed off for our important tasks.  First things first, we ate.  The traditional Peruvian deals at restaurants usually consist of soup and the fried food with french fries and rice, but here they actually had a veggie meal, so I went with that.  We then set out to find a trip to Machu Picchu.  There are a gazillion tourist groups around Cuzco, so we easily found one and booked a trip.   Apparently, several years ago, people could get to Wayna Picchu simply by showing up early and the 200 allotted tickets were first-come-first-serve.  Unfortunately, that tradition has changed, and you have to reserve it in advance;  it is also no longer free.  So we missed out on Wayna Picchu, as it was booked, but we were able to book Montaña, which I guess is actually preferable.  All of the traditionally pictures of Machu Picchu that people see are taken from Montaña, as it is higher.  I had also heard that Wayna Picchu is known is the Sunrise Gate of Machu Picchu, but the park doesn't open anymore until after sunrise, so no bigs that we couldn't book that.  Once we had sufficiently bled money, we received our tickets and felt better about our timing.   There was a small coffee shop across from our hostel, so we played chess, and I sipped on a Coca (yes, the kind of coca not sold in the States) tea.  Then, we set out to snap some photos of town.  The main Plaza de Armas is really gorgeous.  It has well maintained gardens, beautiful architecture, and the mountains surrounding.   There is also a shocking number of backpacker essential stores, with what I can only assume are knockoff North Face articles.  I was able to buy a pretty great no-name fleece neck warmer for 15 soles ($5).  We also bought a bunch of snacks from a convenience store for Machu Picchu, including Coca energy bars! Haha.  We walked around a bit more.  Lots of women and children dressed in traditional Peruvian indigenous attire, and alpacas!  All over,  just being drawn through all the streets.  We saw a bunch on our drive, just mulling about in groups, but didn't get close.  Lord do they stink!  Or more specifically, their pee stinks.   I also bought an awesome alpaca hat, as I didn't pack a one originally, unsure of how cold things could get.   On that note, a huge shout out to my Aunt Eilleen, and sister-in-laws, Jen and Loren, for my long johns and fleece jacket.  I am wearing literally almost everything I brought, which does have the positive side effect of making my pack nice and light!  After spending so much in one day, we cut ourselves off!  Well, not until after we tried the traditional guinea pig dish here called, Cuy.  It was more expensive that it should be for the amount of meat a guinea pig yields, but Jared liked it; "tastes like chicken" he said.  I tried a bit, and then had an unpleasant physical reaction when I bit into either bone or cartilage, and was at that point full...for the rest of the night.  After dinner, we parked the car so we wouldn't have to worry while we were gone at Machu Picchu, showered up in what were supposed to be hot showers...they were not, and went to bed at 10 pm, for our 3:30 am wake up.

Sandboarding in Nazca (Peru)

Sandboarding in nasca was...not the best thing we've done.  I think Jared has a much better time than me.  The hike up to the top was cool.   We woke up at about 4:30 am and headed out with our guide a touch before 5 am.  We picked up two other people and drove to out drop off point, on the side of the highway, at about 6 am.  First we ascended dirt and rocks and met sand about 2 hours later.  The guide had us build a rock monument honoring the mountains health...some indigenous traditions still seem alive and well.  Once we finally reached the top the winds were blowing sand everywhere and our eyes felt it the most.  We strapped ourselves into the boards and had a couple practice runs down small but steep dunes until we finally reached the main dune.  By that point, I wasn't really enjoying it.   The dune was way too steep for me to attempt the go down standing, as I had already experienced small falls, and if I fell down this one, I might not stop.  I rode the board like a sled, along with another traveler, which ended up being a lot more fun.  Jared made his way down the dune standing, and got a bit of good footage.  The walk back was about an hour and a half, pretty exhausted already with sand everywhere, we were happy to be done.   When we got back to the hostel, we showered, had a good lunch, and did absolutely nothing the rest of the day.

Mission to Find Surf...Unsuccessful (Peru)

The last two days in Quito were not all that active.  Since we nixed Cotopaxi, we basically had two extra days in the city.  They were mostly spent hanging out with other hostel guests, and walking around the city.  Nothing too exciting, lots of cooking, which was a welcome relief from fried food.  Wednesday night we were especially bored and bought a big sign to decorate for Jared's flight back.  Thursday afternoon, we picked him up from the airport, and settled in for our final night in Quito.  He was tired after his adventure, so Kenny, Alex, and I went out to meet up with my friend, who lives in Quito, Sandra again at a restaurant in her neighborhood; had some good drinks and great food before going back to the historic distric for sleep.
The next morning, we woke up and made for the Peruvian border, which was insanely easy, and free, and definitely the easiest border we've crossed.  We were headed for Lobitos, a small surfer town, and making great time.  According to our directions, we were to turn off the panamerican highway several kilometers short of the town and drive right along the coast.  The "road", however turned out to be straight up sand dunes inside of what appeared to be the private property of an oil extraction plant.  We couldn't drive more than 5 mph, and often completely lost the actual path.  The drive was crap, often loose sand, often massive bumps...did I mention we are in a small non-4x4 car?  The sand was getting in the brakes, making them hard to work with.  The sun set, and we could see the town lights ahead, but had no idea A) how to get there, because the road was so poor, and B) if the other side of this dune jungle was even open as it was private property for a company.  At one point, we had to all get out of the car to look for our path, ended up turning around and made one last ditch effort to find a new path, before potentially just whipping out the tents and taking shifts watching out for would-be thieves.  Luckily, we did finally find a proper road right at the town entrance and were able to drive without incident from that point.
The "town" was also a mystery.  It was difficult to see by night, but it was basically a town-in-training.

There were plots of empty land everywhere, that looked as though they were in the works to be developed, but there was no actual construction or machinery on them.  There were great looking playgrounds and parks, but no children anywhere.  It could have been the abandoned set of a movie.  The first hostel we found actually turned us away, because the other people in the DORM didn't want to share the room...what!?!?!?  After a considerable amount of arguing, I didn't even want to give the guy my money.  The next place we found was accommodating, and we plopped our stuff down and asked directions to the only eatery in town.  That night, we slept well and prepped for surfing the next day.
I'm not sure who claimed Lobitos as a surf spot, because the next morning Kenny and Jared went to the beach to find almost no waves in frigid water.  Jared made his mind up that we would not being spending the day there to surf, and Kenny agreed, so we grabbed a quick breakfast, and packed up the car to head to the next surf spot on route, Trujillo.
This drive was easy, straight along the Panamerican Highway, all the way into town.  We found a great place to stay, and a good dinner before bed.  The next morning, we woke up to really cold day. We bundled up, and set out to the beach to check out the waves.  The day was so gloomy and foggy and wet, yet the waves didn't seem to budge much.  Again, they were small and unenticing, making Jared again unwilling to don a wetsuit.  Kenny and Alex were willing to wait out the day, especially because the town seemed much more surfer-esque than Lobitos.  Jared and I packed the car easily, as it would just be the two of us, and said our sad goodbyes to Kenny and Alex.
We made out way to Lima, in hopes of at least a good tourist city, and possibly some waves.  The day did not improve along the drive south, but at least there were no surprises along the way.  We have, however, been stopped in Peru by police checkpoints more than in any other country, but they have all been nice and easy. By the time we arrived into Lima, rush hour traffic was in full swing, so our trip was extended by about an hour, but we found our hostel easily, which, in fact, turned out to be the upstairs apartments to a nice woman's home. She gave us a private room for a discounted price, and we happily accepted. I was ravenous, so we bee-lined it to a restaurant and tamed the beast, before heading back to sleep.
 The next morning, we were surprised by a free breakfast from the woman who lives there. She gave us directions to make our way around town, and we hopped on a collectivo (super cheap city bus) to first figure out visas for Bolivia and Brasil. The only thing we really figured out is that we could not get either there, so we decided to check out the town sites. We went to the Miraflores area to walk the Malecon. Lima is quite a stunning city, because it is set on the cliffs overlooking the ocean, which made for a few good pictures.

 The Malecon is dotted with parks all up and down the cliffs. After a few hours, we were cold and tired and made our way back, via collectivo, to the hostel
for dinner. Jared dropped off his laundry and picked up a bottle of Pisco to try. We finished off the night
with some Spartacus episodes and sleep.
 The next morning, we took the car in to a mechanic to have the brakes checked as they were again making a horrendous amount of noise, bahhh!!! Luckily, the mechanic said we only needed a good cleaning, and could be on our way after a bit. We left the car with them, and jumped back on the bus, headed for the center of town. We got off the bus about 10 blocks from our destination, and walked right into the bad neighborhood. This time, I was prepared to cause substantial collateral damage with my mace, but was lucky enough not to need it. We finally arrived to the center, and took a tour of the Church of San Fransisco, with a large catacomb underneath. We attempted the break the rules, and take a few photos, which mainly just resulted in a lot of pictures of the inside of my coat pocket. After, we walked to the main square and cathedral, with the remains of Fransisco Pizzarro (the Inca conqueror), we hope...apparently, they showed off "his" remains for almost a century, before discovering those were not intact his, but a random church contributor.

                                                               

After many photos, we booked it back to the mechanic shop just before closing. We also picked up a spare set of front brakes, in case any &:>^+=\ tries to scam us in the mountains again. We had planned on going back out to a museum and fountain before calling it a night, but Jared's laundry wasn't ready...and our Pisco sours were, so our plans got derailed.
 Today, we woke up and packed to head to Nazca, to see the ancient sand/rock formations made by the Nazca (and other) people. Apparently, they weren't discovered until a routine fly-by by a scientist. The markings sprawl over 50 km, and can really only be seen well via air. We first stopped at, I believe, the only natural oasis discovered in Peru, which looks like it once could have been very stunning, but is now sort of overrun by tourist, but still quite an interesting site, a small town with lush land completely surrounded by sand dunes. Speaking of which, northern Peru has been quite a shock, because Ecuador was so green and cultivated, and Peru is straight up sand, sand, and more sand. After the oasis, we made it to two look outs for the Nazca lines, both of which gave just a teenie glimpse at what truly is a mysterious landmark. Some say they lines were from a boisterous native, some say they corresponded to the changing seasons, and some say they are landmarks for alien aircraft. Who knows, but they were pretty neat. I wish we had the money to invest in a good look, but lord knows we don't, or we would at least rather save it for a different adventure. Like sandboarding!!! Which we plan to do in the morning. 4:30am wake up, for our 5am bus. We will be going to the largest sand dune in South America, Cerro Blanco, to spend the morning strapped to a snowboard, hopefully flying down the sand (I've been snowboarding once, and I did anything but fly anywhere. I'm hoping I get to use a helmet, as it literally saved me from extensive brains damage the first time). Which reminds me, I should check to see if we are covered by our health insurance for sandboarding...

The Galapagos

I stepped off the plane ran by LAN airlines, a South American company, onto a black concrete runway surrounded by small shrubs, rocks and dirt, within a hundred meters of a deep blue calm ocean.  As I walked in, I was quickly ushered to a line cleared dominated by international guests while another line existed for Ecuadorian travelers.  Everyone was forced to give the same information as if crossing international borders and for foreigners, pay a one hundred dollar USD tax.  After a few hours of this, I walked back out into the hot, dry air to get on a bus to town.  I flew into the airport on Isla Santa Cruz which is on the Northern part of the island separated completely from the rest of the island by a small 100 meter channel of clear light blue water barely a few feet deep.  After the small boat ride across the channel costing 80 cents USD, I prepared myself for the 4 dollar USD cab ride I shared with those fresh off the plane.  It took us 45 minutes to cross the island to Puerto Ayara, the tourist hub I planned to stay in and plan my daily trips.  Puerto Ayara is a small, quaint coastal town booming with tourists quickly dissipating as you moved away from the water further inland.  I grabbed the third and cheapest room I could find for 15 USD and searched frantically for a dive tour to see hammerheads.  I went there already having an idea of the location I wanted to dive, Gordon's Rock, and is renowned as one of the one of the top dive spots in the world, and I quickly reserved my spot for 175 USD to see the hammerheads and fish cleaning stations.  I did the dive 2 days later and it was amazing, the best dive I have done.  Walls of barracuda and schools of hammerheads kept my eyes wide in fascination of nature.  The rest of the time on Santa Cruz, I wandered around Puerto Ayara visiting the Darwin Institute that housed a few indigenous species of the largest turtles I have ever seen, some older than 140 years and Tortuga Bay, a local surf spot with soft white sand and clear blue water.  On my second to last day I made the trip to Isla San Cristobal to get ready for my flight a day later.  The 30 USD boat trip between islands lasted around 2 hours by speed boat and got into Puerto Baquerizo Moreno in the early afternoon not leaving me much time to tour the island so I stayed around town again but even with this handicap, there was so much to do that my feet hurt for days after my return to Quito.  The Galapagos are renowned for their vast amount of unmolested animal species, but that was untangible to me until I saw sea lions dotting the cityscape, laying on benches, the sidewalks.  The locals even built them child size slides from the walkways bordering the streets to the ocean water.  About an hour or so outside of town there is a monument to Charles Darwin commemorating his first disembarkment on the islands at that location.  Slightly behind this statue of Darwin, is a cove bordered by a high cliff, a nesting colony for Frigate birds and a great view of the ocean and the town back behind.  All in all, this was an outstanding few days, in a place that should be reserved for weeks.  When life gives you the Cliff Notes!

A Day of Hiking...and All That Entails at 4,794 m (15,695 ft) (Ecuador)

At 5 am, the next morning, Jared and I set out to the airport.  I had opted out of the islands, as the flight was $600.  After saying our goodbyes, I headed back to the hostel.  It was kind of weird for both of us to think of being away from each other for 5 days; I think we may have developed a bit of a codependent relationship.  Jared will probably put his stories in the "Jared's Thoughts" tab, so keep an eye out there.
 That day, Kenny, Alex, and I toured around the city, snapping shots of the cathedral and architecture.

                                                  

                                                     

                                                       

 We found an international dessert festival, which, to be quite honest, was not very excited or tasty.  Though the surprise hard candy that exploded in your mouth into a shot of whiskey was noteworthy.
                          
We headed to a food market and got lots of fruit and veggies for crazy cheap.  When we got back to the hostel, we were a bit popped, and relaxed a bit before dinner.   I went off to find a tour of a huge volcano about an hour away, called Cotopaxi.  The volcano is topped off by as glacier, and is supposed to be an amazing hike.  The tour guide sold me on the trip, though he did mention that the hike was no joke.  We would have to use ice picks and shoe spikes, and be tied to a partner for the ascent, which started at 4,800 meters at midnight.  He suggested we attempt to hike a smaller mountain to test our hiking abilities before signing up for Cotopaxi.  Optimistic, I reported back to Kenny and Alex.  We were siked about Cotopaxi, and would attempt the smaller Pichincha volcano the next day.  We  heading up to the rooftop of the hostel to make dinner, drank a couple drinks with others, played some cards, and headed to bed.
The next day, we farted around for several hours, before heading out.  We arrived at the TeleferiQo to ascend Pichincha, for the three hour hike to the top.  Neither Kenny nor Alex had ever been on a cable car, so the adventure started out a bit anxiously for them.
At the top, we started out.  The views of the city were spectacular, and the scenery only got better as we progressed.  The hiking part though was, in fact, no joke.  The altitude made breathing laborious, and at times the path was a foot wide with incredibly aggressive drop offs on both sides.  At times, you had to pause, because you felt so dizzy you could misstep and tumble down to your death.  I progressed a bit faster than Kenny and Alex, and eventually couldn't even see them, but I continued.  Suddenly the path ran right into a rock wall.  Was I supposed to climb this rock wall with no ropes?  I started up to see if a birds-eye-view might better guide me.  It did...but I apparently climbed too far, and had to try and go back down a bit.  Where the hell was Kenny?!?
Got back on the path, but things seemed to be getting more difficult.  The path was often hidden by sand or rock slide, but I kept going.  I got a bit nervous as I progressed, because I saw lots of graffiti on the rocks, so I knew kids had been up there acting like idiots, and Medellin kept popping in my head.  Mace in one hand, Kenny nowhere to be found, I kept going.  Finally, around a bend, I spotted them, wayyyy behind me, but at least still moving, or at least they had been, but we're resting at the time.  I finally got to a part of the mountain completely covered in sand.  I started climbing, at about a 60 degree angle, hand over foot.  Every step I took, I would slide back half a step in the sand, and every 10 steps, I had to catch my breath.  I could feel the top of the volcano was so close; just at the top of this sand.  Fog started rolling in pretty intensely, and all i could see was about 15 feet around me.  Finally, I heard Alex's voice yelling out to me.  They hadn't moved since I last saw them, which I could not anymore, but they said they were turning back and would meet me at the bottom.  Like hell they would!!
I was not going to be up there alone, completely vulnerable, and gasping for air.  I finally turned back to meet back up with them.  It was getting pretty late anyway, so it wasn't the worst decision.  I was just kinda bummed, because I know I was so close.  As we exhaustedly headed back, serious fog clouds rolled in, so you couldn't see more than 10 feet in front of you, and then...hail!!  Not kidding, we started running as the hail was pelting us.  It started getting dark, and the hail turned to rain, and my body was screaming at me, but this damn trail would not end!
Finally, we saw the cable cars again, and practically fell over one another trying to get in to sit.  We got back to the hostel, dirty, wet and exhausted.  All I wanted to do was soak in a hot bath (yea right), but we had plans.  I had a friend, of Eliza's actually, who is living here, and we had set up dinner plans. After some quick showers, we went to meet Sandra at Remolo e Remo, and super yummy and cheap italian restaurant.  After gorging ourselves (we hadn't eaten since the morning), we said goodbye to Sandra and the nice people she introduced to us, and went back to the hostel to pass.out!  Cotopaxi was unfortunately outside of our hiking abilities.

Finding a Suitable Place to Sleep is Not Always Easy (Ecuador)

Despite not being able to make it to Quito that day, we had a fun tourist destination in mind on the way..the equator!  A bit after dark, we pulled into Cayambe, the town on the equator.  We had Chinese food, as that was the only restaurant open, before heading back to the hostel for bed.  A gloriously hot shower, and then bed.
The next morning, we planned on leaving at 6am, but Jared and I were pooped, and opted to push back until 8am, a very smart decision in the end.  We grabbed breakfast of coffee and biscochos, which we discovered were A) biscottis, B) very popular there, and C) delicious!!   About 15 minutes down the road, we saw the sign for the equator.  We parked, and found ourselves standing in a giant sundial with a large hollow cylinder in the center.

We were able to get a bit of an informative tour before taking lots of goofy pictures.   We settled back in the car; the drive to Quito was long overdue, and nice and easy.  The Ecuadorian country side is stunning, and we were taking blurry pictures the whole way. When we finally arrived into Quito, we had some trouble finding the hostel that we had researched, so we drove around a bit, until I finally decided we were definitely in the correct area, and I would try on foot.  I walked around asking, and was quickly steered toward a hostel.   The intersecting corner seemed pretty popular, with lots of women dressed in spandex aimlessly wandering around, but it's South America, people often dress in inappropriately tight clothes...right?  (This will be significant later).  I walked into the hostel, which looked nice, with a central commune area, and rooms along the periphery.  The woman said there were rooms available, and started upstairs, when another girl walked past her, obviously a fellow hosteler...right? And the woman guiding me proceeded to fix her tags on her spandex outfit, no bigs.  We walked upstairs, which did not look like the downstairs at all, due to all the crazy construction!  Most of the rooms had signs of condemnation, and she showed me a room with dirty sheets still on the bed!  That's when it hit me...oh my god, I think this is a whore house!!!
We finished up there, and I left in search of another hostel, was pointed in the right direction, and found a new place a few blocks away.  This one had about the same look, minus all the girls loitering outside.  The beds were kinda crummy, but we could just sleep on our bed pads.  The cost was $6 a night, so I went back out to report both locations to Jared, Kenny, and Alex.   Kenny and Alex opted to check out the first place with me, unconvinced that it was a whore house, and optimistic about the $4 price tag.  After looking around, we were not too happy, but still craving a cheap nights sleep.  While we were debating outside of, what we decisively now categorized as a whore house, the host woman came out explaining that she had a much better place with private baths and hot water.  She guided us over, and it turned out it was the same place I had just been to!  We did notice that most of the people coming in and out were guy-girl pairs, but as we had already driven around for about an hour, decided it was good enough for a few nights.  We unpacked the car, and settled in, making sure not to put our stuff anywhere on the bed...or chairs, or tables.  The "private" baths she was referring to apparently meant completely unprivate to anyone else in the room as there was no partition between the toilet-shower area and the main bed and no curtain on the shower.  Jared went to the bathroom, and discovered a dirty condom in the toilet, and apparently Kenny also found something in his toilet.  This could not be the best Quito had to offer for travelers!  We decided quickly that we could not stay there, as it was obviously a place to bring a partner for an hour, re packed the car, and as we were on the way out got a "yea I didn't know what you were thinking" look from the reception woman...oh who was also encased in glass in her desk area.   Back in the car, we drove around in circles again for ages before trying it out on foot again.  We finalllyy found an actual travel hostel, with indoor parking!!  This was our gem!  By that time, it was a bit late, so we settled in and went looking for food and an atm.  My stomach had been giving me issues all day, so I opted out of food, but they were able to grab a super cheap steak dinner for $3.50.  That night, we met some fellow hostelers, and Jared made plans to fly to the Galapagos Islands for the next day. All long day, for such a simple task!

Colombia (Colombia)

Sorry I haven't written in a bit; I'll blame it a bit on bad Internet and being busy, but mostly just being lazy. We ended up spending an extra day in Medellin, as our tourist activities had been stunted from being robbed the day before. We spent all day walking around the city, visiting churches and plazas, and the house where Pablo Escobar had been killed.

Medellin was actually wonderful, and has the most sculptures per square kilometer of any country. It also apparently has a pretty big transvestite and transgender community. When we got back to the hostel, we were exhausted and spent the rest of the evening lounging and prepping for our drive the next day to Bogota. The drive was relatively easy. Jared was feeling very aggressive, and in a daring attempt to pass a truck on a blind curve in the mountains, accidentally broke off the driver's side mirror when we encountered a truck coming towards us and barely squeezed through the two...we then switched drivers. We got into Bogota just before the sun went down.
 We were staying with a friend, Topher, who generously offered his home to us. It was such an amazing gesture, because we had to stay there several days to wait for a phone and credit card shipment from my parents. The first night, Topher, Jared, and I caught up over a few beers, and then Topher and I headed out to hit the clubs of Bogota...hard.  We spent a pretty epic night dancing and drinking, and stayed out wayyyy too late! The next day, I was a zombie and poor Jared had to drag me around looking for a GoPro, as he no longer had a camera, without success. We were pretty lame that day, napping and watching movies.  That night, Topher took us to a good arepa restaurant, and guided us around his area a bit, showing us all the bars, restaurants, and shops. Bed early that night. The next day, Jared and I got our tourist hats back on and headed to the historic district of Bogota. First stop, the Gold Museum, with an intricate history of gold and metalwork throughout the Americas.
                             
Then we walked around and took pictures of the cathedral and churches, the president's palace and the old architecture.  Topher remembered that he had an extra GoPro from his brother, so Jared was able to buy that one off of of him.  That night we went to dinner at Bogota Beer Company, a standard gringo hangout, and watched a movie before heading to bed.
The next morning, Jared and I headed to the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquira. A salt mine, that housed a pretty interesting cathdral with stations of the cross woven through the tunnels. We then got a tour of the mines, and unsuccessfully attempted to mine some emeralds. The cathedral was beautiful, yet odd.

They had basically turned the stations of the cross into a Las Vegas-esk display, complete with technicolor lights that morphed into all the different flags of the world. After the mines, we headed back toward Bogota to Cerro de Montserrate, that you take a cable car to reach. The views of the city were stunning, exactly what we were trying to capture in Medellin (grrrrr), I digress. We spent almost an hour looking around.

There is a pretty unimpressive church atop, so we basically just took in the views. We finished up and went back to Topher's apartment.  The three of us headed out for some to-dos, and Jared was able to buy some accessories for his GoPro.  We went to the grocery store and grabbed some food for dinner, as we were pretty fried-food-ed out.  We sipped rum and beer and cooked a great and healthy dinner of chicken breast, tons of veggies, and quinoa.  Another movie and early bed.
The next morning, we packed up our stuff and waiting around a bit for my package to arrive.  Right on time, at 10am I received my old phone and new credit cards!  We finalized everything and headed out close to noon for Salento, coffee country, an easy 4-5 hour drive...
Along the way, we had planned on finding a junkyard to buy a new mirror for the side of the car; unfortunately, the police found us first.  We got pulled over at a random checkpoint, and the first thing the cop said as he approached the car was "oh this is a fine" pointing at the missing mirror.  He then pointed at a crack in the windshield and claimed that was an additional fine.  I attempted to make small talk, as I normally do to get us out of these situations, but the cop was not having it, which is when I got into my sassy Spanish.  I informed him that the crack in the windshield had been there since we drove from the US, and we had already been pulled over in Colombia, so we were not going to pay for that.  He then said, we couldn't drive without the mirror and they were going to have to impound the car, and we would have to pay a $1500 fine.  I told him, the mirror had been stolen on our way to Salento that morning, and we had been looking for a junkyard to buy a new one.  He wanted to look in the trunk (no doubt to try and screw us over with some bogus new fine).  Jared popped the trunk, and I ran out to watch them.  A different cop was more succeptable to our gringo charms, and wanted to know all about who we were, where we had been etc.  He asked what we did at home, I said I was a nurse, and that Jared was in the military, and had actually come to Colombia in the past to train the infantry.  He misunderstood me, just at the perfect time.  His boss walked over , with a huge gun, and the nice cop explained that Jared was in the country (right now) to train the infantry of Colombia!!  Couldn't we just continue driving to Salento to find a new mirror, and they could look the other way?  It worked!!!  We thanked our lucky stars, vowed to find a new mirror, and continue on to Salento.  As dusk approached, we were weaving through the mountains when, you'll never guess, the brakes went out again!!!  Jared was driving and said they felt funny and we needed to pull over "right now".  We thankfully saw a mechanic shop on the side of the road and, attempting to stop, flew right by.  We finally slowed to a stop using the emergency brake and reversed back up the hill.  The mechanic looked at our brake pads, and said we would need two new pads on the front.  He would happily go into town and find us new ones.  We waited around for two hours for him to come back, and when he did he slammed us with a $150 bill for the new pads!! He then placed them and said we owed him another $100 for the work.  As we went to get him money, I exploded.  I called him a thief, recalling how cheap out brakes had been in Guatemala, and saying he had done a crappy job anyway, and we would have to replace the pads again in a month.   I said he had cheated us with unexpected costs (including his cab ride back from town).  In the end, I got nowhere, but it was good to vent.  We had had a rough day.
We got into Salento, much later than expected, and couldn't find any place I had researched that had available beds, so we ended up parking at a hostel, and sleeping in car.  Needless to say, sleep that night was not easy, and we were exhausted the next day, yet happy about having an extra $10 in our pockets.  We had breakfast at the only joint in town open at 6:30, which ended up being a well known traveler spot with great food.  We met the owner who was very informative, and helped us plan our day in town.  We went to a hostel to sign up for a coffee tour in the area.  The owner of the coffee plant, looked and sounded exactly like the grandfather in Jurassic Park!  We walked down to his plantation, and spent a few hours learning all about how to grow coffee, and were then able to roast and drink two different varieties of coffee from  the plantation.  We can now definitely start our own coffee plantation!!

We had hoped to have time to hike in the national park close by, but we had to buy a new mirror and make it to or next location that day, so we unfortunately had to skip the hike. There were no mechanic shops in Salento, so we drive to the next closest, and bigger, town, and after a bit of searching found a place, with a suitable mirror, and ghetto taped it into place. Our car is looking more and more legit! The rest of the day, we drove to our next location, Cali; an easy drive. We came into a ghost town. Apparently it was their independence day, so everything was closed. We found the hostel, and a cheap parking garage, and rested a bit. Cali is the world capital of salsa dancing, and there happened to be an international salsa festival that night!! We spiffied up, and headed to the hotel where the festival was being held. We grabbed dinner at the hotel, and attempted to enter the festival, but were told (after an up-and-down by the hotel staff) that tickets were sold out, and we couldn't even stand in the back to watch. We were insanely bummed, also because our other event for the night, tejo, had been nixed when we heard the neighborhood where people played tejo was not so great. As we got into the cab to head right back to the hostel, I asked the cab driver if he knew another location for tejo. He told us about the same place we had previously cut. Buuutttt, our cab driver was awesome, and said for a fixed price he would take us there, wait for us, and drive us back!!! We were down! Tejo, is a traditional Colombian "sport" for old men, much like corn hole, but with iron disks...and gunpowder! When you throw the iron disk at the target, if you hit a small triangle around the main hole, it explodes and sets on fire!! We were naturals! Everyone also thought that we were athletes partaking in the World Games (we had never heard of these either, but apparently they are like the Olympics. Over 80 countries participate, including the USA [???], and it occurs every 4 years, this year in Cali, and they just ended August 4th). Everyone wanted pictures with us, and offered us free beers as we were heading out! In the end, our only night in Cali was a success; Jared had a bit of fun the night before his birthday, and we were able to end our Colombians adventures on a good night. The next morning, (WAS JARED'S BIRTHDAY!!!) we packed up and went to find our long lost Panama-Colombia sailing "adventure" friends, Alex and Kenny, as they would be joining us for a bit. We planned on driving alllll day to make it to Quito, Ecuador that night...yea right. Before we even left the city, the brakes sounded weird, and we did not want to be stuck in another mountain ripoff situation. We pulled into a reputable mechanic, and ended up waiting for several hours as they replaced one of the back tire brake pads, that had cracked. When we finally got back in the car, Ecuador was out of the question, but we had already looked up an auxiliary location on the Colombian side of the border. We drove and drove, and the sun went down, and we were still nowhere near the border town we had hoped to reach. We ended up asking police officers who stopped us, where we could stay, and they steered us towards a gas station motel...enter bad scary movie script. We played cards and drank some beers, before heading to bed with, thankfully, no scary movie aspects. The next morning, we woke up at 5:30, loaded up the car, and headed for QUITO!...almost.

             

                                                                

The border was simple, and shockingly free on both the Colombian, and Euadorian sides, but in true border fashion, the aduana attendant had stepped away...for about an hour. The whole process took 4 hours, making Quito again, outside of our reach, but at least we were through! Colombia was hard on us: car shipping, robbery, police bribery, brakes etc. Also, Colombia is tough to drive through with just Jared and me, because both tolls and gas are outrageously expensive!! I think Topher and coffee helped us survive. Goodbye Colombia, hello Ecuador!

It Finally Happened, We Got Robbed (Colombia)

Jared and I picked up the car Monday afternoon.  It was a bit confusing to find our way around the huge port lots, but after a bit of waiting, a man escorted me in his truck to the lot where RORO car are kept, and we were able to finalize our documents.  Unfortunately, the car had been ransacked; everything that had been in an cubby hole was all over the seats and floor of the car.  The made it out with Jared´s utility knife, a bunch of AAA batteries, and my debit card.  All-in-all, the damage was not too bad though.  We headed back to our hostel, Hostel Marlin, and finalized packing and mapping out our route to Medellin.
Tuesday morning, Jared and I woke up at 4 am, to go pick up the car from the lot where we had parked for the night; we were out the door at 5:30 am.  The drive was pretty eventless, however, at one point we encountered a long line of huge trucks just stopped in a on the highway, border-style.  As we have discovered from crossing borders, the rule of thumbs is to just bypass the entire line.  When we arrived at the head of the line, a Colombian man in a military uniform informed us that there were riots in a town about 50 kilometers up, and the line was a caravan being formed to drive safely together with a police escort; the caravan would be leaving in 3 hours.  As we pulled over and debated what to do, the same officer said he had called his chief and informed him that a car of foreigners was trying to pass and that we could drive ahead and meet up with the chief for a personal escort; he also found another small passenger vehicle that wanted to join, so we would have a caravan of 3 total.  As we proceeded down the highway, we did in fact see many military personnel, but never got our police escort.  We also never ran into anything that appeared to be a riot or even a group of people congregating in any town.  The only mischief was perhaps all the trees that looked as though they´d been chopped down on the side of the road (looked my like landscaping to me), and the pipes that were open and spewing water all along the next 60 kilometers.  We finally arrived after about 12.5 hours in Medellin and found our hostel, Lleras Park Hostel, easily.  That night, we grabbed a relatively cheap dinner of fast food Mexican, and went to sleep early.
Yesterday morning, we woke up and planned our whole day to squeeze in all that Medellin has to offer.  We planned on taking the metro to the cable car, and ascending to Parque Arvi, grabbing free bikes and getting some good shots of the city and the park.  Then we were going to head back to the University district for some great parks and architecture, finished off by the center of town as the most tourist condensed area.  We grabbed our maps and cameras and headed to the metro, which is actually really clean and easy to maneuver.  The cable car ride took about 20 minutes up to the park.  As we had been informed, they did provide free bikes for up to 3 hours, so we headed off to one end of the park to see a laguna and the mirador of the city.  At the end, we were informed that we had to leave our bike and walk the last 10 minutes to the look-out.  About 5 minutes into our walk, 2 men came running out of the trees to our right.  At first, we only saw 1 guy, and based on the look on his face, I thought he was playing around, Jared thought he was going to try to sell us something.  We both noticed there was nothing in his hands.  Then we saw the second man run out about 3 feets behind him, which is when my heart dropped.  The first guy jumped in front of Jared and drew a knife as he pushed Jared back, the second guy immediately came infront of me, also wielding a knife.  Jared´s assailant was much more aggressive and constantly hacking at Jared´s upper body with the knife.  I kept trying to keep that guy from swinging the knife, while my guy kept trying to keep me from him.  The only thoughts running through my mind, were that Jared was definitely going to get stabbed, and that I had pepper spray, but wasn´t sure I should take that chance of getting it out;  I had no idea if it even worked or how to get the safety latch off, as I´d never really tested it.  They forced Jared to hand over his camera bag full of both his water proof and regular camera, and all his lenses (a total of about $1500.00) and his iphone 5, and my wallet.  As they ran back into the woods, we were both hit by what had just happened.  Jared was beside himself, while I was terrified they would come back and just wanted to get the hell off the mountain.
When we reached the location where our bikes were held, we informed the attendant who called a police officer up to us.  We led the officer back to where we had been robbed, he looked around in the woods, took our information, and told us we should have used a guide.  Several hours later, the woman that runs our hostel called the park outraged, and discovered that the officer that took our information, had basically just trashed it, and had not reported the robbery to anyone.
When we got back to the hostel, we spent the next hour or so doing damage control for his phone and my wallet.  We are pretty handicapped now, as we have no mapping system, and good maps are impossible to find, and I have no way of accessing money.  Together though, I think we can make things work until we get some of our items back.  The rest of the night was filled with feelings of anger and regret.
It was a good lesson though, and something we realized should have been discussed as a precaution sometime at the beginning of the trip.  As Jared and I recounted our feelings to one another, we realized we were on different pages.  I was terrified he was going to get stabbed; he said he at no point thought he would get stabbed, but thought I would, as I kept getting infront of the guy swinging the knife at him, in an attempt to diffuse the threat Jared posed to them.  He also had no idea I had my mace or was thinking of whether I should use it.  In the future, we at least now are a bit more prepared in terms of knowing how the other thinks in a situation like that.  It is entirely possible, this will not be our last time in this situation.