Colca Canyon, Peru

Colca Canyon:
We booked a 3 day trek of the Colca Canyon through Colca Treks in Arequipa. There were many styles of treks offered into the canyon but this particular one included more time to explore and stay in the canyon, natural pool oasis in the bottom of the canyon, hot thermal springs, a chance to see the condors in areas that were not as saturated by tourists.
Unknown to me at the time of booking but the colca canyon trek would be one of the most challenging things I have ever experienced in my entire life! Had I known how to interpret a topographic map maybe I would have second guessed the canyon hike!!!!

Day I:
We left our comfy hotel at 8:00 to start our trek. We were a group of 7 plus driver and english speaking local guide. The itinary for the first day was to drive behind el Misti volcano into the national park. Along the way we stopped in 3 different altitudes which all had their seperate ecosystems. We were able to see Alpacas, Vicunas, Llamas, Flamingos and other types of vegetation. Our highest altitude was up to 4900 metres. We stopped at Cruz del Condor to try to spot and take photos of the endangered bird. We were fortunate to spot a few Condors during our first few minutes. They were easy to spot due to their huge wingspan of 3 metres. Our guide told us a story of Condor's pushing donkey's over the edge of the canyon for food. Since they are scavengers they would come back after a few days later to eat it. That became our group joke... someone jumping off the side, sacrificing themself, so the others could get a better view of the condors.
The first night we stayed in a village called Cabanaconde in a nice hotel with hot showers. That night, because of the high altitude, I had the most terrible migraine. So there was no supper for me and off early to bed!!! Andrew and the others seemed to be fine since he ate both of our meals... such is my luck!

Day II:
We had an early rise and started our descent into the Colca Canyon. The path down was not an easy one, it was gravel, rocky, winding, and very very steep! The scenery was amazingly beautiful, we seemed so small compared to the canyon. In the very distance we could see the natural Oasis that was waiting for us at the bottom. It took us around 3 hours to get to the bottom of the canyon 1200 metres down... where we were treated to a refreshing swim and gorgeous sunny weather to soak in. Our accomodation for that night was camping in tents.

Day III:
The ascent of the canyon started at 4:45am (before sunrise) As our group began to walk up the path I knew it would be a LONG morning. Equiped with headlamps and flashlights and darkness all around, this began the most gruelling 2.5 hrs of my life. We let the group pass up because they were keeners and were walking at lightening speed. Half way up, with tears in my eyes and utterly exhasted I thought "how can I go on? Just leave me here for the condors!" Somehow the combination of the beauty of the rising sun over the canyon, and the scenery I managed to move onwards. During the next few hours we hiked up the steep winding gravel path until we finally reached the top, where our group applauded us as we approached. After 2.5 hours of hiking we finally made it! Hehe, some of them were waiting at the top for an hour in the dark!
We stopped at a hot thermal spring, where we soaked our aching muscles for an hour. After a great lunch buffet we headed back to Arequipa. (both Andrew and I tried the Peruvian delicacy of Guinea Pig "Cuy"- which by the way wasn't that great.)
Arrived at Arequipa for 4:00 just in time to get ready for our 10 hr bus ride to Cusco, Peru.
~Nicola

Click on picture below to see the album in Picasa.

Colca Canyon trek, Peru

Arequipa, Peru

Arequipa, Peru:
After a long but semi-comfortable bus ride we arrived safe and sound to Arequipa, Peru. We have Cruz del Sur bus company to thank for our 1st class travel... reclining seats, food, and even bingo games.
We followed the trusty Lonely Planet guide and checked into Los Andes Bed and Breakfast. Amazing hotel with a beautiful view of el Misti Volcano from our window. As we wandered around the city we couldn't help but be amazed by the scenery. Snow capped mountains in the distance and volcanos lining the horizon. The altitude was a little higher than what we were use to, so the first few days we had to take it nice and slow as to avoid altitude sickness. During our brief stay here, we were able to visit Museo Santury where we saw a frozen mummy of a young girl that was sacrificed by the Inca's. She was discovered on a nearby volcano called Chachani in the mid 90's. We also did a lot of walking around the city and tried to soak in the breathtaking scenery.
~Nicola

Click on the picture below to see the album in Picasa

Arequipa, Peru

Lima, Peru Photos

Click on the picture below to see the album in Picasa

Lima, Peru

New Photo album...

I have been looking at tons of new ways to post photos and Picasa looks to be the easiest way. So here is a highlight photo album of Buenos Aires: Centro and La Boca.

This will make it easier for more to come hope you enjoy.

Click on the picture below to see the album in Picasa

Buenos Aires and La Boca, Argentina

A day in life of the traveller abroad!

This is a recount of an average day for Nicola and I... which just happens to be today

Wake up around 9am, it depends on if we get inlcuded breakfast and when they serve to, Los Andes B&B obviously does and they serve until 9:30 am. We gingerly eat breakfast watch CNN or BBC, preferably BBC (British news just sounds better), but today is CNN because Sheldon the American staying here beat us to the TV. Since Nicola´s bummy has been "active" she just had dry bread and watered down orange juice while I enjoyed both coffees and bread with a lot of marmalade and butter. No shower this morning as we have an early morning departure tomorrow for the Colca Canyon, but tonight we will take advantage of our amazingly hot and hard pressured shower, extremely rare down here, one last time.
Our first bit of business is to take a cab to "la terrapuerta", the bus terminal here in Arequipa, and buy two tickets to Cusco. Unfortunately for us we could not get "Cama" class for this leg, but it is a short bus ride (8 hours) so it won´t be too bad! Take a cab back into the Plaza de Armas in the Centro, we found what looks to be great internet and with just my luck I have forgot my USB cable so no photos again!!! Nicola calls her Mom on Skype while I read up on sports and write about junk with my buds on Facebook. The Jays are looking great, which makes sense since I´m out of the country, hopefully they will keep it together for a solid place and a wildcard??? As I usually hungry at all times of day I now must convince Nicola that it is a good time to eat at the Turkish place that we found the other night and have Doner Kebabs and salad again. I didn´t know the Turks conquered S.A., but the food is still amazing!
Now it´s time for some sightseeing so we head for a plaza we saw on the map that is supposed to be near the convent "Santa Catalina". We walk by a cart that is frying fresh Churros and again my hunger wins the battle. They cost us only 1.5 soles, which is approx. $.50, so it is a done deal! We go to the convent only to reveal that it´s closed from noon to 3pm. We decide to hit up the SuperMercado instead and buy some fruit and soup for dinner and then head back to Hostel to read on their terrace that overlooks the 4 visible volcano´s. We get up to the terrace only to be joined by this charming couple from Australia, he was White and she was Asian... imagine that? They ended up being so nice we just talked the afternoon away till we realized that we needed to run if we were to make it to the convent. We walked to the convent only to discover this time that we were in the wrong place in the morning and the real place did not close mid-day, but it was closing in half an hour and would not be long enough to explore it all since it covered 4 city blocks. We´ll have to see it next time we´re in Peru! That wicked internet seems like a good idea to write a blog and upload some photos.
Now tonight we will eat soup, buns, watermelon and pineapple and we have a 1/2 bottle of vino de tinto to look forward to as well. We will then close off the evening with some amazing TV probably a couple episodes of "2 1/2 Men" followed by either "Scrubs" or a Nicola favourite... "Friends". Approx. bedtime tonight 10pm with a wake up tomorrow at 6am so we can eat breakfast and get on our tour.

I would like to thank Anthony Bourdain and his book Kitchen Confidential, which I am currently blazing through, for the inspiration for this blog.

~Andrew

Internet in Arequipa sucks...

After an hour and a half and crashing three computers at two different cafes I have given up my dreams of uploading more photos.
You will all just have to live with my animated retelling of our misadventures...

Any requests for the one about Nicola, currently holed up in our hostel, and her belly-bursting with pain???? Didn´t think so!

I´m off to provide her with comfort and witty repartee!

~Andrew

Guess what...?

We made it over the mountains alive and well!

There was a brief moment were I was soo scared I could not get back to sleep, but it was only 2 hours long and we were on the first floor of the bus with the windows soo steamed that we could not see out into the darkness and the bus seemed to travelling at over 100 km/hr on winding mountain edged roads... BUT like I said it was only for 2 hours and the other 13 hours were spent receiving glorius first class treatment!

We are now in Arequipa and we just booked our Colca Canyon Expedition tour and we will embark on that either Jueves (thursday) or Viernes (friday).

Lots of stories and a full set of photos to follow!

p.s. for all who care my toe has healed!!

~Andrew

Only a few hours till we experience our 1st Peruvian mountian bus!

Well I thought I should take this time to say, "We love you all!", as tonight we take a bus through the Andean Moutains in Peru. If anyone has travelled to Peru or has heard about these buses here, then they know what I´m talking about. Now there is no need to worry about us we did splurge on the best bus company in country (Cuz Del Sur) and we did splurge on the "cama" class seats which are as wide as a lazyboy and can recline fully flat... BUT it will still be a terrifying journey along cliffs edged roads at incredible speeds! Everyone we have talked to about this ride has said it is the most terrifying experience of their time here in S. America...

Is it sick that I am actually looking forward to this...?

Wish us luck and we´ll talk to you from the other side, Arequipa and the Colca Canyon, thank you Carter for the suggesting the place!

~Andrew

Small finds become BIG treasures when you´re on the road!

Today Andrew and I acquired 2 small airplane pillow (courtesy of TACA airways) and some plastic airplane utensils and a roll of toilet paper.
It was like we won the lottery... now the long haul bus rides can be more comfortable and we can have utensils to eat with instead of sharing 1 spoon between us both! Life is good! Of course the Numero Uno score was the full roll of toilet paper. Anyone who travels knows that T.P is an essential item to have!

Argentina:
We were sad to say good bye to Argentina. In our last few days in Buenos Aires we went on a city bus tour and were fortunate enough to watch a Tango & dinner show in Boca, Buenos Aires. (that is the area where the Tango was born) We walked around a famous cemetary that had huge crypts that has become a tourist attraction. Eva Peron in located there and many other important Argentinian families. We loved Argentina, being there was very much in our comfort level, it was like being at home. It was very easy to travel, and the people were very friendly and open. We recommend travelling there... it wont disapoint!

Lima, Peru:
We knew that travelling through Peru would be a more difficult travel than the other places we had previously been in South America. Upon arrival after a 4 hour early morning flight we were immediately scammed into paying more money than we should on a taxi to the city. But oh well.... such is life!!! Poverty is high here and everyone is just trying to make an extra buck! We had to shake it off, and was determined to not let is put a dark cloud on our time here!
We are staying at the Flyingdog Backpackers hostel in Miraflores (an area of Lima, Peru). The actual city centre is considered to be an unsafe place to stay in, but ok to sightsee during the day time. Miraflores is slightly away from the centre and is filled with higher end restaurants, security and police. This area is considered to be safer and has alot of other tourists here too.
Today we tried Cerviche, which is raw fish marinated in lime juice and salt with onions. It is a Peruvian dish... and it´s Yummy!

We met a fellow Torontonian upon arrival at the hostel. What a coincidence.. he also lives at Cityplace 2 condos behind where we live. During the night we ran into 2 travellers that we met in Santiago, Chile in our 1st night at the hostel there. What a small world this is????

Lima, Day II:
Today we decided to take a cab to the city centre to sightsee a little. We saw a old monestary and took a tour of the cattacombs where 30,000 people were buried. There were tons of skeletons that we were able to walk by and see.
Tonight we´re meeting up with a few friends to go for an Alpaca dinner (funny looking animal) and Churro´s for dessert.

We are taking a night bus tomorrow and heading to Arequipa, Peru (15 hr bus ride) We will explore the city there for a few days and then trek through the Colca Canyon for a few days.

Stay tuned for more!

~Nicola

Well we´re back... in blog form!

Hello all from Beautiful Buenos Aires!!!,

We have been travelling now for 11 days and have been moving at the good pace of stay a few days move to the next stay a few more days then move on again. We have now seen the cities of Santiago de Chile, Valporaiso

, Vina Del Mar and Los Andes all in Chile. Also we have been in Mendoza and now in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We took a bus over the second highest mountain pass public road in the world with near peak of Aconcagua at a height of 6962 metres (22841 ft) it´s the highest any of us have been yet.
We are only now, alone to fend for ourselves, without the advice and leadership of the round-the-world travel masters Cameron and Nicole with all of us been known as "The 2 Nic´s and The Swinging D!$ks" (courtesy of Cameron and a few beers). Together we have walked a lot of city tours, ate a lot food and have consumed the odd lager or two. I have been shit on 3 times in one day by passing birds including 2 near misses on my placemat. I also stub my toe on a curb in the middle of the street, that rights a curb in the middle of the street, so hard that the skin on the tip blew-up in the middle bothways (pic to follow). I now will be wearing flip-flops fopr a week or more till the little guy heals. Nicola has now been biten by over 20 times by mosquitos while the rest of the group may have been biten 10 times combined. A short time after we landed I realized that I forgot the USB cable to transfer photos from the cameras to the net; which is a vital piece of the puzzle when compiling a travel blog! This situation gave me a wonderful opportunity to pratice my espanola in the IT field, luckily two cities a couple dozen stores later we found a place that sold one. I of course bartered them down to 2000 chilean pesos after jumping for joy for the fact that they knew what I was talking about and had one for sale...
So needless to say we will be posting photos tomorrow and I urge patience to those who have been asking for more photos, with the time constraints of travelling in a group and also the lack of proper equipment it was near impossible before, but will now become more regular. ~Andrew

Oooo my belly!

A trip wouldn't be a trip without me getting sick! As anyone who's close to me knows, if there's a strange stomach bug to be caught in a country other than home, I will catch it! So on my 2nd night in Santiago I got SICK. Let's just say... last night wasn't pleasant. But I'm happy to report I am fully recovered and starving for food!!!!!

Our 2nd day in Santiago was as follows:

We really felt like we should get out and explore this amazing city. So in the morning we decided to go for an early morning hike up the very steep hill of Cerro San Cristobal. Right before I left the hostel I decided to bring my hiking shoes and wear my flip flops as the weather was warm and the sun was shining. Right at the bottom of the mountain I went to change my shoes and guess what??? I forgot to pack them in the backpack... so I had to do the steep climb up and down in my flip flops!!! Definately something that I wouldn't advise to do! It was a pretty intense walk, but as Cameron and Nicole tell us "it's nothing compared to Macchu Picchu." We then went exploring the city on foot for the rest of the afternoon.
That evening we decided to sit on a couple patios to eat, drink, socialize and of course People Watch! Thus far Santiago has been an amazing city... very modern and clean. The foods been great but from now on I think I'll be watching what I eat a little closer!

~Nicola

And we finally made it!!!

Well after a flight from Toronto to San Salvador, El Salvador then to San Jose, Costa Rica then to Lima, Peru and finally to Santiago, Chile we slept in "la aeropuerta" from 3:00am EST till 8:00am EST. Upon awakening we ate and planned out a little while waiting for Cameron and Nicole to arrive. This was all done of course on limited sleep and tons of adrenaline, excitement because at exactly 12:27 pm we saw Cameron and Nicole through the second floor windows of the arrivals section of "la aeropuerta"...
After we all checked into Hostel Bellavista Nicola and I had a very long overdue shower the whole gang decided grub was in order. We left Hostel at approx. 2 pm only to return @ 10:30pm!
Needless to say this town is an amazing blend of euro-spanish culture and we have soaked it all in. We have walked the streets all day in amazement stopping of course to sample each patio´s cerveza and emplanada´s... I´d like to report that both are tasty and never satisfying of the desire in which you were originally driven to satiate.
This is the exact the city we needed to start our adventure in this continent and these are the people we needed to have to enjoy a journey of this exact calibre...
My wife and I are marching down a road I only wish were paved with the footsteps of all my dearest aquaintances, I guess ours will just have to be the ones to mark the trail for all to follow...
~Andrew

Oh my backpack!

It's the night before and I'm too nervous/excited/worried to sleep right now. Our journey begins tomorrow at 5:00am when we leave Oshawa for the airport to catch our 9:30 flight. There's so many things to remember and I really hope that I haven't left anything behind.

Everyone's been asking me "How are you going to pack for such a long trip?" I must admit it's been very difficult to limit my clothes and because of the temperature variation I had to include both warm and cooler items.
Well due to popular request here's the content of my 85L backpack..... Yes it's Big, and I'll have to have good balance so I don't topple over with it on my back!
2 yoga pants
2 pants
6 tank tops
6 t-shirts
2 capris
1 shorts
2 sweaters
1 jacket
2 bikinis
1 dress
1 towel
2 bedsheets and pillow case
1 pair of hikers
1 flip flops
1 running shoes (Andrew seems to think that we'll run while abroad~ hehe I just about killed myself the other day running 5K) I'll keep you posted how that turns out.
1 pair of Keds
sunglasses
a lot of medicine
flashlights (thanks Lan for the lovely head lamp)
books x3
journal (thanks girls for the personalized journal along with pictures)
calculator (you just never know when you need it)
calendar
electronics

So there you have it... the contents of my backpack!
~Nicola

Our bags are packed...

Well the final evening is upon us and it only took a last minute will writing, a diversion of jury duty and of course a few last minute purchases.
We would like to thank all those who have helped us prepare for this journey and also have facillitated some of our crazy requests, our mothers have been gracious hosts to both of their children for well over a month now, and of course all the people who wished us well in our many farewell parties!
We will accept any excuse to party!
It's 6:30pm now and we will be in the airport in 12 hours wish us luck as we embark on what is to be the journey of our lifetime... until the next one that is!
~Andrew