La Paz, Bolivia

After speaking to fellow travelers, we decided to forego Chile as our next destination and travel into Bolivia, despite the hefty $135 USD visa fee. Once we arrived to the border of Lake Titicaca, our bus driver for any Americans to raise their hands, and of course we were the only ones. Our instructions were this: get to the front of each line if you can, your visa will take a while. At this point we were feeling a little singled-out, and dreading the process of crossing the border as we had read online that it was a nightmare for U.S. citizens. While it wasn’t completely horrible for us personally, it did have its frustrating moments.

Until next time Peru…

We arrived to Copacabana, a small town located on Lake Titicaca, and immediately booked a bus to La Paz for later that day. We only planned to spend a week or so in Bolivia, or so we thought, and we had to get a move on.

What we saw while in Copa Copa Cabana

As soon as we boarded our bus, a lady said we needed to get off because they had overbooked and no longer had seats for us. After several attempts to get some answers, she pointed her finger and told us to look for the green bus, it would be waiting. The next bus was cheaper than the bus we had paid for, left an hour and a half later and did not have a bathroom, which is something we were expecting since Ben had a bad case of the runs. Although it was not the first time that we’ve been two of the very few foreigners on a bus, it was the first time that we’ve ever had to have a bus pull over on the side of the road on our account. Correction: Ben’s account. All in all it was a pretty shitty day.

La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, is the highest capital city in the world with an elevation of roughly 3,650 m (11,975 ft) above sea level. If you have issues with elevation sickness, or if you despise walking up steep hills, this city is not for you! We spent the next two days walking around, eating street food and exploring the infamous Witches Market, where you can buy anything from handmade artisans, herbal remedies to a llama fetus which is believed to bring you good luck. We can only stand to play tourist for so long however, and we were looking for some adventure. The following day we had plans to mountain bike down the Yungas Road (or more commonly known as Death Road), named one of the most dangerous roads in the world in 1995. One estimates that 200 to 300 people are killed every year.

Bolivian woman cookies in San Francisco square.

Witches Market, La Paz.

Our hostel recommended two companys, and we chose Barracuda Biking because they were significantly cheaper than the other (400bs vs. 750bs). The first quarter of the day is on the “new road” which is paved, and the rest is on the “death road” which is unpaved, very narrow and steep. If you were to fall off, which some people have, it’s anywhere from a 100m to 350m drop. We loved every second of it.

Adventure awaits!

Pumped to get the ride started.

Cliff hangers.

A memorial on the side of the Death Road.

The official sign for both “Llama” and “We’re having a kickass time!”

At the end of the ride, the group stops at a restaurant called Monte Carlo which is located on a river where you can swim before lunch. A few minutes after Ben left for the river, he ran back and said, “Hurry, you’re going to want to see this!”. And by “this!” he meant the 3-4 spider monkeys that were hanging out in the trees across from the river. Finally, Ali got to see a monkey and practice her monkey calls in Spanish. We were having what felt like the best day ever.

While eating lunch, we saw a poster for La Senda Verde and asked our guide what it was all about, if they took volunteers, etc. La Senda Verde is an animal sanctuary that provides adequate care in a natural environment for approx. 400 animals rescued from the black market.

Since we planned on spending the night in Coroico, a small town approximately 25 minutes from the restaurant, we decided to visit the refuge the next day to take a tour at the very least. Our guide Brian was so enthusiastic about the animals, and his passion for the mission of LSV was contagious. So much so that we told everyone we MIGHT return again as volunteers.

Ok sign, you’ve got our attention…

A spider monkey convincing us to come back and volunteer.

We returned to La Paz that night and after going back and forth, decided to change our plans to go play with the monkeys. When else would we get the opportunity to volunteer with wild animals at an animal sanctuary in the jungle? The next day was spent preparing for two-weeks of volunteering, which meant doing a shit load of laundry, organizing our finances and also notifying our family and friends that we’d be MIA for the next two weeks. It also happened to be Halloween that evening (Ali’s favorite holiday) and so we did what we do best which is coming up with a costume that costs $0 and leaves a little money for the important things, like beer! We went to the party, conveniently held at our hostel, as backpackers, and people actually believed we were tourists who had just arrived to the party, looking for a hostel. It was a good send off before our next adventure as volunteers.

“Do you know where we can find a hostel?!?”

Stats on Stats on Stats: Our Journey So Far

It’s hard to believe we’ve already been on the road for 4 months, but even harder to believe that we only have 4 months of this amazing journey left. We thought we’d put together a list of statistics and fun facts from our trip up until this point to share with all our readers (all four of you!).

Happy 4 months to us!

# of…

1. Days on the road – 122 .

2. Times we’ve been lost – Too many to count! We’ve never been to 99.9% of these places, so in a way we’re always a little lost.

3. Days we’ve been OVER our budget ($50 USD a day for the 2 of us) – 28. This is usually the days we have to purchase an expensive bus ticket or are traveling from one city to the next. If it weren’t for the people who have so graciously given us a place to stay along the way, we’re sure this number would be much much higher.

4. Days we’ve been UNDER our budget ($50 USD a day) – 94.

5. Items lost or stolen – 17…that we can count. These items include but are not limited to: earphones (2), earphone splitter, sunglasses, boxers (2), toothpaste, toothbrush, t-shirt, pair of socks, iPod, towels (2), soccer shorts, toiletry case (retrieved!), a single sock (2). A big thank you to Anna Cotton for donating her old iPod, and to Ben’s parents for bringing us several replacement items during their visit with us in Argentina!

6. Injuries – Ben: 2 (eye, knee), Ali: 3 (ankle, calf, multiple monkey bites). All in all, not too bad!

7. Flights – 3 total (DC to Bogota, Santa Marta to Bogota, Bogota to Lima). We’ve tried to minimize the number of flights and only take public transportation in each country, however sometimes it is significantly quicker and cheaper to fly. We were elated that this was the case in Colombia during the transportation strikes, especially after our experience with the 26 hour bus ride that was only meant to be 13!

8. Buses (3 hours or more) – 21 buses (193 hours total).

9. Hostels we’ve stayed at – 20.

10. Beds we’ve slept in – 44 (including overnight bus camas).

11. Nights we did not have a bed (overnight bus, flight, camping, etc.) – 10.

12. Volunteer opportunities – 2 “official” opportunities; volunteer work-exchange at Apu Lodge in Ollantaytambo, Peru and working at the La Senda Verde animal refuge in Coroico, Bolivia. Finding volunteer opportunties is not always easy as many places require volunteers to pay for their stay and/or require 2 or more weeks of your time. We’ve learned that even the little things can make a difference, like picking up trash on the beach while scuba diving or hiking in the Sacred Valley. Our goal is to find more opportunities over the next 4 months, and hopefully we can volunteer at the places recommended by our friends at www.1of7.org in the near future.

13. Books read – Ben: 4, Ali: 9. We have a lot of down time and it’s not easy finding an outlet to recharge, so finding a book exchange in English feels like Christmas morning!

Other…

14. Craziest thing we’ve eaten – A big heaping plate of tripe, espophogus, liver, stomach, etc. We do our best to try the local cuisines, even if they seem a little strange, and for the most part it’s turned out pretty well. In this case however, it resulted in the meat sweats, a stomach ache and a case of the heebie-jeebies.

15. Funniest sign/incorrect translation – Ben: The Wong Kok restuarant sign in Bogota, Colombia. Ali: A pamphlet in Ollantaytambo, Peru that claims they “help high Andean children and women”. There are a lot of words spelled incorrectly in South America on signs, menus, etc., but we haven’t seen anything completely outrageous so far. Hopefully we’ll find some gems during our time in Southeast Asia.

16. Favorite place we’ve visited & why – Ben: La Senda Verde because he had the chance to climb trees and play with monkeys, simultaneously. “Basically my Jungle Book dream come true.” Ali: It’s a tie between La Senda Verde animal refuge in Bolivia and Ollantaytambo, Peru. I was really looking forward to seeing monkeys in South America, so you can imagine how amazing volunteering with the animals, specifically the monkeys was for me. Ollantaytambo was also very special because of the small town feel, the ability to connect with the guests and staff at Apu Lodge, the incredible hiking in the Sacred Valley and the opportunity to practice my Spanish after a few lessons in town.

17. Most stressful experience – We booked our bus from Salta to Buenos Aires online, not knowing that we needed to print the ticket prior to boarding. With 15 minutes until departure, Ali watched the bags while Ben ran almost 10 blocks, in sandals mind you looking for someplace with a printer. Meanwhile, the lady at the ticket counter continued to remind Ali that the bus was leaving in exactly 1 minute with or without them and then mentioning we don’t need ticket afterall and asking, “Donde esta tu novio?!?” Ben arrived just in the nick of time, with no tickets in hand and sweating like a pig but fortunately they let us board. This was the most stressful experience because we had a tight schedule to get down to Buenos Aires to meet Ben’s parents, and we could not afford to miss that bus (or pay for another!).

18. Things we wish we had/had not brought with us – Ben’s survey says, “Less Stuff”, Ali: There have been a few things that we’ve thrown out along the way, for instance extra cords, chargers, etc. and we’ve donated some clothes, but for the most part, I think we did a pretty good job of packing. My only wish is that I had brought some newer clothing items, since most of my things are pretty worn, but we can always pick up clothing along the way.

This trip has really made us realize how little we actually need to live a happy, healthy life and we’re looking forward to getting rid of more of our “things” we have waiting for us back home.

Questions about our trip? Ask us!

Ica & Huacachina, Peru

Ica and Huacachina, a little dessert in the desert. Four and a half hours after leaving Lima by bus we arrived in Ica; a city off the coast, south of Lima, and out in the middle of nowhere. It looks a little like a setting you’d find on some Star Wars desert planet. There’s not much draw to Ica other than the proximity to some wine country, and more alluring to us, Huacachina, the little mirage of a town just outside of Ica where sandboarding has become quite popular. Sandboarding is simply snowboarding without the snow, plus the sand (dunes).

As we weren’t able to find any vacancies online for any Huacachina hostels, and didn’t want to risk paying to taxi out and then back if nothing worked out, we decided to stay a night before heading over to sandboard the next day. Being hot, sweaty and tired we grabbed one of the first hotels we found, and walked out to explore the area. As this place is out in the middle of nowhere, it was at least easy to be cheap. Our two-course meals came out to about $3.50 for the both of us, and our 2 Soles (Peruvian denomination worth about 0.40 USD) worth of strawberries got us what had to have been two and a half pounds worth.

We slept in the next morning, caught the equivalent of a South East Asian ‘tuk-tuk’, or motorbike taxi, to Huacachina, and shopped around for our next adventure. Huacachina is a tiny town, if you can even call it that, that consists of maybe four city blocks of hostels, restaurants, shops, and tour companies. Nestled down in the massive surrounding sand dunes, it has a very small “lake” in its center filled with peddling tourist paddle boaters. The town was also full of the large diesel sand dune off-road vehicles used for desert tours, as well as transporting the sandboarders to the best spots.  Most tours, as did ours, included a little of both.

 

We were expecting to pay between $25-$60 each for the 2-ish hour tour, so we were more than pleased to walk into the Casa de Arena (House of Sand) hostel and hear the tour would cost $15, and would include their pool/pool-side bar, Wi-Fi and shower for the several hours before and after our tour. After relaxing by the pool for an hour, we joined our group and piled into the large frame of an off-road buggie. The tour can best be described as a roller-coaster ride through the desert, but without having any idea of where we were headed next. The dunes created the perfect track of hills, jumps and dips, literally leaving us suspended off the seats for several seconds at a time. It was a f***ing blast. We probably spent 40 minutes just ripping through the dunes, mixed in with a few stops of boarding. And while we enjoyed the boarding, and that’s what we went for, I’d have to say the buggying was the highlight. That and Ali catching a video of Ben eating shit and almost losing his face to the heavy thick wooden “sand boards”.

Watch the video of Ben wiping out here: http://youtu.be/N1NR7QUR6J0

All in all, the short Ica trip turned out to be a perfect getaway as well as quite the adventure,and we would highly recommend it to any future Peru travelers.

Lima, Peru

Over the course of the last six months, including a significant amount of packing throughout two moves, we’ve been holding onto a small piece of paper with the contact information of a family in Peru with the hope of meeting up with them along our travels. The story goes that Ben met this family in the parking lot of Target in Springfield, Virginia, dehydrated and desperately looking for the nearest Metro stop. They asked Ben if he spoke Spanish, and after several minutes of trying to describe how to get to the metro, he offered them a ride.

The Martinez’s were instantly impressed by Ben (no surprise there, and no this is not Ben writing this post) and asked where he learned to speak such excellent Spanish. He told them about his 9-month stint in Santa Teresa and how much he loved Peru. “You have to come visit us the next time you’re there,” they said.       And so we did.

We took the 20 hour bus from Cusco to Lima and were excited to be picked up from the bus station, although Ben was a little nervous that he may not recognize them at first and Ali that they only spoke Spanish. These doubts were quickly pushed to the wayside once we saw them running towards us with arms open wide.

No trip to Lima is complete without fresh Ceviche!

Jorge and Beatriz live in Molina, an upper-class suburb of Lima that reminded us a lot of home. Little did we know how “at home” we would actually be! As soon as we arrived, they were telling us about all of the things they wanted to show us, places we would go and things we would eat.  They called themselves our Peruvian family and definitely treated us like so; we even went on a family trip to the hardware store after dinner with them and one of their sons, Jorge Jr. one night. The following evening the four of us stayed up chatting over a few glasses of wine until 3AM, but only after dropping their son off at a party (who’s our age, mind you).

A little reminder in Lima that it’s always important to do something good each day.

The largest pile of seafood we’e ever seen!

Ben and his crustache enjoy the sunset in Miraflores.

One of the best local experiences that we had was a Sunday morning trip to La Molina National Agrarian University’s organic farmers market called the “bioferia”. Jorge and Beatriz treated us to Chicharron sandwiches loaded with onion, sweet potatoes and Salsa Criolla, a traditional Sunday breakfast in Lima. To this day it’s one of the best meals we’ve had during our travels.

A very satisfying Sunday breakfast with Jorge and Beatriz.

Since the Peruvian coast has some pretty decent waves, we decided to hit the surf on our last full-day in Lima. We left the house early in the morning, but not before Beatriz could serve us a hearty breakfast before we could get out the door. That’s about all we can say about our little surf adventure because with the water being ridiculously cold and our wet suits incredibly thin, we only lasted 30 minutes before calling it a day. It wasn’t easy for us to turn in our boards, but once Ali’s fingers on her left hand completely stopped working and Ben’s lips turned eggplant purple, we realized hypothermia was not something we wished to experience on this trip, or any other for that matter.

The surf was definitely not up for us that day.

The next morning we said our heartfelt goodbyes to our incredibly generous and kind Peruvian hosts. We look forward to repaying the favor when they return to the states; they are our family after all!

Strangeness at the Supermercado

Wasted space if you ask us!

In Cusco, you can find an entire aisle of any given item but only a few different brands to choose from. We’re not really sure why, but at least it takes the pressure off of having to make a decision!

Cusco, Peru

While attempting to plan ahead, which everyone knows we are oh-so good at, we penciled in two days in Cusco on our hand-drawn calendar. We didn´t have much in mind, but two days before leaving Santa Teresa Ben let his friend Katy (pronounced Kaddy, or so Ben thought) know, so very far in advance, that we would be arriving and invading her home. Katy has her own tour company (Aspiring Adventurtes, check them out) in Cusco and had brought a group, of one, through the zip-line in Santa Teresa three years back, when and where they met. The three of them (Ben, Katy and her client Steve) got along just peachaly, and after several hours of Scrabble and several bottles of wine became pretty solid mates, as the Kiwis and Australians would say. Katy and Steve are both from down under.

So that brings us to Katy´s house in Cusco. We arrived on a Sunday afternoon, and instead of leaving on Tuesday as planned, sat around and enjoyed the company, cooking home cooked meals, a couch, movies, one wicked-late bar night (sun was up when we stumbled out) complete with some tasty Victor the Felafel King felafels, and everything else that we missed from home. Katy also has an absolutely adorable two-year old girl named Nina, who we thoroughly enjoyed playing around the house with. Unfortunately the weather was shit, but that made her home all the more cozy. sdsdfsdf sdfsdf. Seriously Katy, thanks again for everything, and we better see AND host you and Nina in a few years!

We ventured outside of Cusco to eat Chicharrón with our friend Nina.

It was a random unplanned and strangely simple but awesomely enjoyed week in Cusco.

Santa Teresa, Peru

Ahhh, to be back in Santa Teresa. Ben’s home far away from home. The raw nature, the friendly locals, the laid-back atmosphere, the best avocados in the world, and the worst little flying shits (mosquitoes) you’ll ever come in contact with. They look like innocent little gnats, but these little fellows are not only brutally annoying and persistent, but their bites make you bleed and leave a mark that will last for weeks; as we can still see on Ali’s lip. Regardless, it felt great to be back, and we could not have arrived at a better time had we actually planned it (like that ever happens). The town’s anniversary was three days later and the week of festivities had just began. We spent the first two nights in a hostel with our new friend Axel, who’s from LA and was waiting at the station with us, and got the chance to watch motocross races, cock-fights (not as fun as they sound, or don’t sound), “running of the bulls”, in addition to loads of other anniversary events.

The roosters patiently wait their turn to duke it out with their competitors.

A little girl politely asks Ali to take her photo during the festival.

Obviously we had to be as close to the action as possible.

Ben’s Peruvian family, minus Yovannah, was all in town that week as well. Ben didn’t even realize his good friend Christian would be there as he was working in Cusco at the time, but of course he ran into him on the street on our second day. It was like going to a 5-year high school reunion running into so many old friends and acquaintances. We spent a night at Cola de Mono with Gian Marco and his wife Alejandra, a night at Christian’s house with his family, and plenty of days walking around with Ben’s god-children Diego and Israel. Israel is one of the most loving kids you’ll ever meet, and was instantly hooked on having Ben (and Ali) back.

Ben, Yuli and Israel down the street from their home.

Israel shows Ben the photo of them 3 years prior that he keeps in his room.

Ben reunites with some old friends, as well as his Peruvian godchildren, Diego & Israel.

What was even cooler for Ben was just to be able to show someone as important in his life as Ali the place he had lived for the long nine months three years ago. It’s one thing to try to explain the general way of life there, but it really doesn’t even begin to hint at what it was really like to be there. The seclusion, the lack of amenities, and the difference in culture is just too significant to describe.

Old stomping grounds at Cola de Mono.

Ben´s old house in the jungle looks a litttttle run down.

While the anniversary festivities were awesome to catch, it was Ben’s friends from town that were really able to give us the unique experience. The morning after camping at Cola de Mono, we were able to join a group heading up for a zip-line tour. We weren’t sure we’d be able to go for free, but Gian Marco gave us the ok and we headed up. Luckily for him, when a second group arrived Ben was able to take over the second guide role, allowing “Nacho” to wait back for the next group. We missed breakfast due to our lack of planning that morning, and the zip-line being located a few Km walk from the town, but Christian being the good friend that he is was kind enough a enough to have a fresh fruit-salad with natural honey waiting for us at his family´s ¨Chakra¨ on our way down. And when I say fresh, I mean Christian went and picked pineapple, papaya, and banana, as well as grabbed some honey from his bee hives while we were zip-lining. Later that day we had even more fun riding, as well as driving, motorcycles through the dirt jungle-roads. And without batting an eye, Ali was able to take off on her first try. But was was even more entertaining than watching Ali’s quite impressive speed at learning to drive a motorcycle was watching Christian’s friend take off after her in jeans and cowboy boots worried that something might happen.

Enjoying the view at the top between zip-lines three and four.

Ali learns to drive a motorcycle, and is surprisingly good at it!

A quick pit-stop to enjoy the views outside Santa Teresa.

I’d still say riding motorcycles along those windy scenic roads is one of the coolest things I’ve had the chance to do in Peru, or any other country for that matter. Christian also took us up to his bee hives, and as he was nice enough to let us use the only two bee masks, he received a nice little sting on the neck as we ran back down to their hut. It’s kinda funny eating a nice fresh fruit breakfast covered in local honey while the honey’s owners swarm around the table.

Christian making Ben jealous of his access to fresh honey 24/7.

Christian´s dog, Tommy was a cute distraction from the swarm of bees.

We spent the rest of our time in Santa Teresa just enjoying the company of Yuli, Ben’s other ex-coworker (though she was really more like his mother at the time), her son’s Diego and Israel, and Christian and his friends. It really was great to be back.

It´s not goodbye, it´s until next time!

¡Salud from Peru!

We have a little money left over but we’re shaving it for later.

A big thank you to Emily & Andrew and Chloe for donating to our travel fund, allowing us to splurge on these tasty XL cervezas! We both love to indulge in a good beer (or six) but unfortunately our daily budget does not normally allow this to happen. So thank you for buying us a drink and making life on the road a little more enjoyable. Cheers!

Machu Picchu, Peru

It was the night before leaving the lodge in Ollantaytambo that we finally, and with much back and forth especially on Ben’s part, decided where we would be heading the next morning; Santa Teresa. There was a large group of artists partnered with a University that was taking over the lodge for the next 11 days, and the room we had been staying in would soon be occupied. We packed our bags, quickly said our goodbyes (as we knew we would be back to pick up our extra stuff a few days later), and ran down to the plaza to catch a ride. We were told getting a ride shouldn’t be too hard, but that getting an actual seat may be a different story. We sat on a bench in the plaza for about 20 minutes before a large passenger van pulled through asked where we were wanted to go. So sure enough, catching the ride was easy, and in Ali’s case the seat as well; Ben’s bucket, however, was quite a pain in the ass. What is literally one of the worst drives in the world is bad enough in a comfortable vehicle, but while sitting on a bucket scrunched between a full row and the van’s sliding door just brought it to another level. But hey, the views were pretty awesome.

Ben looks thrilled for the windy road trip ahead.

Motion sickness guaranteed or your money back!

Since the ride was headed all the way to the hydro-electric station, which is past Santa Teresa and on the way to Aguas Calientes, or Machu Picchu Town, we decided to skip Santa Teresa for the night and go ahead and knock Machu Picchu out. We had a quick pit-stop in Santa Teresa for the tour group to eat a late lunch, and Ben was able to run into an old friend who was kind enough to offer us juice and a snack, and we then hit the road and started our next challenge. It’s a little over a 2-hour walk from the hydro-electric station to Aguas Calientes if you’re really moving, though with heavy bags and headed up-hill it’s not the most enjoyable, and Ben clearly failed to inform Ali on what was involved.

The beginning of our trek to Aguas Calientes.

Ali about 40 minutes before she regretted not taking the Peru Rail train.

Just over two hours later we arrived, thirsty and exhausted, to Aguas Calientes. It’s a quaint little tourist trap at the base of Machu Picchu with no roads and a ton of over-priced everything. We found the cheapest hostel we could, which was back in the locals’ area, and grabbed a quick dinner. The Huaynu Picchu tickets (the higher mountain peak you can see behind Machu Picchu in all of the typical pictures) were already sold out for the following morning, so we bought our standard tickets and hit the hay. We planned on waking up around seven, but didn’t make it out of the hostel till around 9:40. Check-out was at 9:00, so after a brief conversation with the annoyed hostel worker we decided it would be best to head elsewhere to leave our bags for the day. We dropped our stuff off at another hostel and took the $18 bus the few hundred yards up to the ruins’ entrance. We’ve been told that this is the most expensive public transportation per distance traveled in the world. Regardless, after our previous days walk, the hiking involved at Machu Picchu, and the return walk that awaited we were happy to fork over what would typically be just shy of our daily budget to save ourselves from the 2,000-some steps. Machu Picchu, as anyone who has or has not been knows, is absolutely and spectacularly stunning. As Ali said in a previous post, the Incans were just badasses. The weather wasn’t great, and we got rained on near the end of our visit, but we almost preferred the view with the clouds. Seeing the contrast of the sharp mountain peaks reaching out through the tops of the clouds creates an even more surreal and magical sensation. You really do feel like you’re on another planet up there. We hung around a few English tour guides and picked out a little information here and there, but just explored the ancient village on our own for the most part.

Established 1450.

Lucy the Llama (Ali’s entertainment for about 35 minutes).

Machu Picchu has the most incredible views from literally any direction.

¿Qué hora es?

Ben tries his best to look excited to be at Machu Picchu (for his fourth time).

After the late rain shower died out we decided to head back to Aguas Calientes. We sat down for lunch with a father and daughter from the states, shared some chips and guac, tacos, as well as a few stories, and grabbed our bags for the not-so-short walk/run back to the hydro-electric station. We arrived back just after dark, sat around with four others waiting for a ride, and 30 minutes later were in a van heading to Santa Teresa. Ben was exhausted, but already giddy to be back “home” (as were his Peruvian godchildren).

Chessburger in Paradise

We don’t know what a “chess” burger is, but it sounds like a smart choice!