The Adventure Continues...

Headed to Vancouver to run in the Human Race!! I'll post more details soon (for anyone who is still keeping up with this). I ended up winning a contest from Live 88.5 (radio station in Ottawa) who are sponsored by Nike. :-)

Update -You can see the results (and track mine and Laura's progress) at http://inside.nike.com/blogs/humanrace-en_CA, just click on See Your Run and type in my name. 58.20 minutes!



We made it to the finish line!! Here's proof ~



Laura and I at the concert afterwards...



where we got to meet the band backstage (Theory of a Deadman) ~

Home Sweet Home

It was a long adventure back to Lima from Ica - which involved waiting for an hour in a half in a line-up that we didn't need to be in and running after a mob of people who I thought were running to a secret bus down the street somewhere, but ended up being on a tour group ha-ha.

See what happened was there was 2 lineups at the bus station, one was a cheaper bus to Lima and the other was a direct "more expensive" bus (the humor is that it wasn't even $2 more!). It was also the Friday of Peru's independence day long weekend so the locals were lined up around the building. We got in this lineup after asking what is was for (buses to Lima, obviously). After refusing about 30 cab offers, a man in an official looking outfit yells through the crowd "Direct Bus 25 Boliviano" and the lady in front of us who we'd been chatting with us says "Go with him - 25 to Lima!". So a herd (literally about 30 gringos) start running after this guy in a mad rush. What happened to me was that there happened to be a pack of Gringos (white people) running by at the same time with this tour group so I somehow got mixed up with them and ran about 5 blocks from the bus station with my big pack on. I finally asked them if they knew where the bus was and realized I was with the wrong crew. So I head back and my Israeli friends had moved made it up to the front of the line - where we discovered an empty teller who was selling tickets for the direct bus! Ah light bulbs go off and we all have a good laugh...
Note to self for future travels - arrive in the city of your flight at least one day before!

Now I am pretty much settled in in Ottawa - started working last Monday. I think I'm going to like this job, I'm in the Justice division working with crime data so I find it very interesting so far! I also joined a running clinic to whip my butt into shape (which ended up being very motivational - see next post!).

All for now, thanks for reading!

Here's a photo of the second half of the lineup - it goes all the way around the building.



-AH

Life is more than a downhill journey...

This is what our new German friend told me when I mentioned biking down the Chachani Volano. It was definately more than just down-hill. While Andy and Carmen were trekking up Mount Misti, I decided to venture down the volcano with a mountain bike and 2 friends from the hostel (one girl who just finished a year stint as a volunteer teacher in Region 1 of Guyana - I've stopped questioning the conincidences). It was intense and I have a couple great bruises to show for it (about 4 wipe outs in all, and just one over the handle bars ;)).

(Mount Mist- as seen from the top of Chachani)


Last night was my first real day solo. I managed to get the last seat on an overnight bus to Ica, Peru. After sitting on the floor for my last bus trip, this one was at the luxurious extreme. There were fully reclining chairs (with a recliner for your feet even!), dinner included, a movie, bathrooms, drinks, pillows, and a fleece blanket. It did not feel like I was backpacking at all. I made friends with the man next to me (until he fell asleep and sprawled out all over my chair that is grr). We had good times speaking in his broken English and my attempt at Spanish. The movie was "The Bucket List" and I had a hell of a time trying to explain that "Kick the Bucket" is an expression for when you die and the bucket list is a list of things you want to do beforehand. The spanish translation was literally "Before you pass on".

My last few days in Arequipa were pretty relaxed. We decided to skip the tour to Colca Canyon in favour of taking it easy and seeing a few sights. We celebrated Peru's independence day with a crew from the hostel, went white water rafting, and had our last meal with Carmen and Ariana (below).



This morning I took a dune-buggy up to the sand dunes and had my first experience sand boarding. It was very similar to snowboarding, but much faster. My guidebook told me not to be lulled into a false sense of secuirty however, so I was cautious. The dune-buggy's alone were worth the trip, it was pretty much like being in a roller coaster that could at any moment go in any direction.


After the sand-boarding, my car (3 Isrealies guys and 2 Danish girls) decided to hit the poolside and relax. This has been the first time since Guyana that I was able to wear my tropical clothes and enjoy some sun. It's a very nice way to end the trip. Tonight we are heading over to a BBQ for one hour of all you can eat/drink. Should be a nice night to end off the travels. Tomorrow I am headed back to Lima and then fly to Toronto at 1:30 am!







I am sad to head home but excitied to see some familiar faces :-).

Oh and for any Guyana volunteers that might be reading this.... guess who I ran into at the top of a sand-dune in Ica, Peru??? John (friend of Em, the missionary, who was visiting when we were there... small world!!).

See you in the Northern Hemisphere!

~AH

Guyana Snapshots - Students

Professional Bus Riders

So it seems there are only 2 routes that backpackers in Peru take, the one to Bolivia and the one from Bolivia. Just after I finished writing the last post, guess who we see checking into the hostel that Andy and I are checking out of? The same three Irish guys from the day before! I expect that won't be the last time we see them.

The salt flats tour was amazing, we saw some unbelievable sights and freezed our bottoms off. The photos are all on Andy's camera so those will come shortly. After 3 days of intense jeep driving we were back on an overnight bus to La Paz.... only problem was that it seems they overbooked the bus and there were two girls in our seats! So we spent 8 hours sitting on the stairs at the front of the bus (Andy just full on slept in the aisle) and then got about 4 hours of sleep after 2 girls got off the bus (who coincidentally were the same girls we met on the way down... and they gave us beer :-) ). Then it was a mad dash to another 12 hour bus to Arequipa, where we are now. Now we are just relaxing and seeing some sights. We met up with Ariana and Carmen this afternoon for lunch and are meeting them again shortly this evening.

It seems Andy and I may be going separate ways after Arequipa. I would like to check out the Nazca lines and do some sand boarding down near Ica and he wants to go with Carmen to climb another mountain (I've had enough of the cold, snow, and climbing). Plans are still in the works, but I'll keep updating on here.

Chau for now!

The Lady of Peace - Bolivia

After Machu Picchu we headed back to Cuzco and took a full day bus tour to see some of the ruins outside of the city. Then we hopped on a 10 hour bus to Puno (stink hole of Peru... pretty much just a stopping point before heading to Bolivia). We did have a funny encounter in Puno though. We ended up sharing a little apartment style room (3 bedrooms and a living room/dining area) with these 3 Irish guys. We end up going for dinner with them and it isn´t until about an hour in to the meal that we all realize we were in the same hostel room in Cuzco. The conversation went kind of like this "Were you the people that arrived at 6:30 am and turned on the lights?" To which my response was "Oh were you the guys who turned on all the lights at 2am the next night and I woke up and asked you what time it was?" "Ha-ha ha oh yeeah that was us!". It was pretty random. Even more so because Andy left his shades in that hostel room and those guys saw them but decided to leave them there.



Now we are in La Paz, just relaxing and checking out the big market here before our 12 hour overnight bus to Uyuni where we are headed on a 3 day tour of the Salt Flats. Oh and guess who were the trivia champions last night!! (Andy, Me, some random Canadian guy we met, and 3 Irish guys who´ve been traveling for almost a year - they were the dominating forces for sure). One of the questions was "What does La Paz translate to?" I thought it was "The Peace" but turns out that it was "Lady of the Peace", hence the title of this post ;).

More to come...

p.s. Here´s the site of some other traveler´s (Ariana and Carmen) that we met at Agua Caliente - stopping point before Machu Picchu. They have better photos posted on their blog: http://www.arianaperu.blogspot.com/

Cuzco - Aguas Caliente - Machu Picchu - Ollantaytambo - Cuzco

It was a relaxing first day in Lima, but we´ve been on the go ever since. After Lima, we flew to Cusco and then took the train up to Aguas Caliente to see Machu Picchu. Yesterday we climbed Mount Putukusi, the big mountain accross from Machu Picchu. It took us an exhausting hour an a half. Well to be fair it only seemed exhausting for me, Andy is a marathon runner and had no problems scaling up the ladders and rocks. It was an incredible view, once in a lifetime moment for me. Until today that is when we actually walked through Machu Picchu (a lost Inca city that was rediscovered in 1911 by an American historian). We were lucky enough to be one of the first 200 people there and were granted access to Mount Wanapicchu, which is the bigger mountain just accross. That one only took about 30 minutes to reach the peak - we were just slowed by the people everywhere. At one point you actually have to crawl through a cave to climb higher. Now we are back in Cusco for a night and looking forward to do some more exploring in this city. After that we are off to Puno and then La Paz, Bolivia!



I´m getting good with this haggling business. So far I´ve managed to talk a 60 soles taxi down to 10 and a 70 soles sweater down to 40 (did I mention that it´s freezing in Cuzco - I don´t feel silly for bringing that toque anymore!!). We also talked a restaurant down to 15 soles for a 3 course meal with the help of a Portuguese friend. My Spanish is coming in handy :-).

Es todo para ahora ¬ AH