Islas Ballestras

Today we went to a park on the ocean and saw tons of wildlife. There were seals on the rocks penguins on the cliffs and birds everywhere. The pelicans had blue throats and there beaks were a bright orangeish redish. The seals were mostly sleeping on rocks so they were so easy to take pictures of all you had to do was get the right angle and no people it. Our boat was really crowded so you had to be right at the edge to get a good picture. Thankfully the guide was speaking english and spanish so we could understand what he was saying about the animals. The islands had giant cliffs and there were millions of birds on the cliffs. On the half that was closest to the ocean there was no room for other birds to land it was so crouded. I had dads binoculars to see up close where the birds were. All of it was beautifull and I took thousands of pictures. I am typing this by the freezing pool in our hotel. It is nice and warm here so I am sitting in the shade and still a little hot. Today has been wonderfull and I hope tomorrow is the same! The picture on the right is of me and mom and the vidio on the left is of the sea lions playing.

Moving On... Again!

We have finished a wonderful week here in Northern Peru. I keep reminding the kids (and myself) we are here in the middle of winter. The beaches are practically empty most days - except for the myriad of surfers of all abilities and the fishermen. We have spent several days here doing nothing. Some of this was well deserved, last night was due to a serious breach of calendar reading (my fault) but we are enjoying another day of the beach before we set off.

To back up, we started with an overnight bus trip from Cuenca to Piurra (second largest city in Peru in terms of population). Mental note: when you are going to change buses in the O dark thirty of the early morning, you should ask if the bus will actually BE THERE waiting for you, or if you will wait hours upon hours on a concrete bench waiting for your bus to arrive.

From there we progressed in another bus to Chiclayo - a bustling city with close proximity to two amazing museums. While we were there one day, we took a tour (in English) with a fantasic tour guide named Julio (Sipan Tours). He spent a lot of time getting us prepped and ready to see the exhibits in the museums. He built suspense and stopped to answer all of our questions. It was a great day with alot of interesting information passed along.

A short bus trip (3 hrs) on another day brought us to Trujillo. From there we took a cab to the beach, Huanchaco. Otherwise a very crowded beachfront, the winter proves to be less hectic here. We had a small problem when we first arrived though. The hostel had booked us 2 rooms instead of 1 for all of us together so we had to find another place to stay (this turned out way better because the new place faced the beach from the patio!). This seems to be the case in alot of places. They don't have adequate rooms for people traveling in groups that want to share a room (ie families, I guess). Everywhere they are saying their rooms only accomodate 3 max. Ironic, I think, for a people who revere the family so much more than our culture does.

Yesterday we took a tour of two historic sites - Huaca de la Luna (Moche -500 to 700AD) and Chan Chan (Chimu 900 - 1470AD). We had another fantastic guide, this time named Henry (Puriana Tours). Two different societies, but the archeologists believe that the people that built Chan Chan had a transitionary period and reimerged in several cultures, including the Chimu who built Chan Chan. The tours of the actual sites were amazing! They have uncovered walls built in @700 AD that are painted and sculptured in multiple colors (see Helen's post from yesterday for a photo).
Currently, the archeologists do not know what minerals they used to paint with - soooo cool! And very difficult to explain how surreal it is to walk down a corridor in a palace that was only available for kings and priests of a distant past. The guardians of the palace (a re-creation) were in the photo I saw that made me want to visit this place. I liked them so much I wanted to have my picture with them. So here it is! I'm so glad we saw this!

Tonight, we get on a bus to Lima and then on to Ica. From there we explore the Ballestas Islands (known as the poor man's Galapagos) and Paracas National Reserve. Also, I do something I have dreamed about since I read about them in college - I fly over the Nazca Lines (fingers crossed for clear weather or they won't take off).

The temple of the sun and moon

We went to two big temples. One was the temple of the sun it was never excavated so you coulden't go in side but what you could go inside was the temple of the moon.It had very very old pictures that each had a meaning about each kings life. One of the kings had 6 wives and they had to be burried with him when he died. Next we went to Chan Chan. Our guide Henry took us down between two walls that had pictures on them that were so old that they lost their color completely. We went beside a thingy that looked like honey combs. We ended our day by eating dinner at a nice restaurant by candlelight.

HAPPY PATRIOT'S DAY!!!!!!!!

Huanchaco

Been hangin' out on the beach again, this time in a larger surf town than Canoa. Still quite a

managable size on foot with many restaurants to choose from. It is winter here, highs in the mid 70s and lows in the 50s so it is quieter than usual. Mornings are chilly and the clouds don't break until 1 or 2 but once the sun comes out it is very nice, no swimming though, the water temp is cold, cold. The fisherman here still use the original reed boats of old, which are great to see, intermixed with the surfers (in wet suits).

The girls have discovered Inca Cola here, a new drink favorite, and Debby and I have been sampling the Peruvian cervesas. Otherwise not much else has been accomplished here except for laundry, and it was time. I think we are sticking around for another day or so, there are some pre-incan ruins nearby to explore tomorrow.

Sican y Sipan

Today we went to the Museums of the tombs of Sican and Sipan. Personally I think that the Sipan was a lot of more elaborated and detailed. We saw in the Sican museum lots of history about how they lived and in which periods of time. In the Sipan museum we saw three tombs. Two were tombs of Kings and one was a priest. The priest had a beautiful headress that was made to look like owl wings. When our guide blew on it the pieces moved and tinkled. It let a lot of people know when the important people were coming so they had time to come out of there houses. The tombs of the Kings were also VERY pretty! They were headressses that could weigh up to 5 pounds but the kings only were them on special occasions. I got to stand with a guy(who was an actor) that learned how to speak the native language of the Moche tribe. All in all it was an amazing day filled with lots of amazing history and many beautifull things. The picture on the left is the picture of me, Helen and the actor and the one on the right is the picture of me in front of the building that the tombs of Sipan were on.

Bus Travel

After our 18 hour journey from Cuenca last night to Chiclayo, Peru today, we are finally getting the hang of bus travel. I think we have logged over 40 hours of distance traveling in buses since our trip began 3 weeks ago and we still have many more enjoyable hours to go. Peru is a big country!

I now recognize immediately that the gentleman who gets up into the isle right after we depart and starts talking to the entire bus is not conveying important travel information that I can't understand. These guys are just selling jewelry or sewing kits and apear to do well. They are charasmatic and engage the riders during their pitch. It is like being in the audience of those infomercials on cable TV, except it is all in Spanish and you're on a bus.
From there, the sales continue on the ride as vendors hop on and off the bus at the briefest stops or stalls and make one pass up and down the isle pushing snack food. You will not hunger on these trips.... plantain chips, nuts, corn, candy and helado, lots of helado. It's like a ball game on wheels (without the ball).

Last night we took an all nighter which left at 9pm and was to take us to t.he border, switch buses to a semi-sleeper and continue south to Puira. It went well until the switch at the border at 1:20 in the morning. Everyone gets off the bus which is pulled off on the side of the road in the middle of no-where. We have to get our bags out the storage compartment and assume that we are getting right on the double-decker sleeper bus that has pulled up right behind us. But then we learn that our bus is the next one, and should arive at 3am. We are pointed to a lit area across the highway that everyone else is heading to, dragging our luggage. It is actually the Ecuador immigration office/waiting area... specializing in waiting. It is the recognized scene at the airport gate when a flight has been delayed in the middle of the night except we are outdoors on concrete benches in the middle of now-where with a tent vendor frying up something in oil an old dog begging for food. There are several other travelers with us that speak english so we all (all but me) decipher information and spread it around.... word is soon passed down that the bus won't arive until 4am. Joy.

Well... it all worked out, our bus did come, right at 4am, as promised the second time. It was a double decker with seats that reclined almost horizontally. The girls were great sports and very excited that our seats were on the upper level. After our termination in Puira we caught a cab to another bus company and jumped on a third bus to Chicklayo. We passed on the silver necklasses that came with a matching bracelet for 5 Soles.

I'm Not Ready to Go Yet

Today is our last day in beautiful friendly Ecuador. There's not much more to see, its not that. It's just an overall longing to be in this environment more. We are constantly mistaken for British or Canadian, but we always use our broken Spanish to explain we are from the states. We had our picture taken at the restaurant in the ranger station yesterday with a couple on vacation from Guayaquil. I think maybe they had never met Americans before. :)



Cuenca is gorgeous. This town really takes care of itself. The other night I couldn't figure out what all the noise was outside at 9PM. It was 2 men with a pressure washer - get this - they were cleaning the tile sidewalks! One guy had a long pole to pull gunk out of the grout and the other cleaned it away with the pressure washer. The cab driver told us that the gente (the people of Cuenca) were very proud of their city and they take care of it.

On the afternoon we got here, we had a large late lunch. When it came time for dinner, noone was hungry, so we went out for dessert. We had huge ice cream sundaes and cheesecake and tiramisu. The kids couldn't believe their luck, I think we've broken every rule now. :) After we had dessert, we walked out into the park across the street. We were only there for a minute before the gigantic church next door let out from Mass. When the doors opened, a large crowd of people (I think there might have been around 800 or so, Catedral Nueva was built to hold 10,000 worshippers) came down the steps en masse, singing and holding hands and walking across the street into the park. They wrapped around the statue in the middle, on the inside were men with guitars, interspersed in the crowd were castenets, shakers, etc. The people faced the middle and wrapped their arms around each others' shoulders and did a little box step. The singing was beautiful but we couldnt' understand a word of it. Until they got to a song where the only word was Hallelujah. Meghan squeezed my hand and said "I know this one" and we stood watching and smiling for another song or two.

The trip to Ingapirca was l-o-n-g. It was supposed to take 2 hours as it was, but our bus kept stopping and picking up more people. There were people standing in the aisles. We got there and they only offered tours in 2 languages. Spanish and English! Can you believe the luck? I am not kidding when I say we were the only native-tongue English speakers in our group of 12. I think the rest of them came because they knew enough English to listen to the guide and the Spanish tour group was more than 25 people. The guide would speak for a little while, and they would turn to their friends and translate what they heard. We went to the Planetarium in Quito and listened in Spanish. I think I understood about 1 out of every 15 words. An English tour was such a blessing. The coolest history part we learned was that the Temple of the Sun here is the only Incan temple in existence that was built in an oval. The circle was a sacred shape to the Cañari people and in deference to them the Incas built their normally square Temple into a rounded shape.

Yesterday's hike was one of the loveliest places I have ever seen. We traversed a fairly easy trail around the lake. What we hadn't counted on was altitude sickness. By half-way around the late, Meghan's nose had started bleeding a little. We slowed down some but by 3/4 of the way around, Helen's had started too. We sat for a long break and enjoyed the fantastic views and took multiple photos. The last 1/4 of the trip took us at least an hour. We walked up a hill and stopped for a break. Every climb no matter how small, needed a rest. By the time we reached the bus stop, Meghan had a pounding headache. She was ill on the bus ride back into town (fortunately, down a good 1,000 feet from where we were hiking). It took her at least an hour back at the hotel before she was able to hold down some Motrin. Within 10 minutes, she was smiling again. The situation was terrifying to me. I knew there was no way for me to carry her up the hill or for me to carry all the backpacks up the hill. My heart was pounding as well and I felt the pressure in my ears. We will have to keep in mind that we're not all that acclimated to 9,500' hiking. Today she's all smiles - we will have to keep in mind the acclimitization when we're in Cuzco (11, 150 feet).

Today we knock around Cuenca. Check out their outdoor market (Thurs is the best day), a historical site, and pack up. We leave tonight for an overnight bus ride into Peru. We have to stop at 2AM and go through customs (we're hoping this is not too tough on the kids, but it seemed like a good idea to try to travel the 11 hours in the night instead of during the day). We'll see. By tomorrow night we should be in Chiclayo, Peru. I have no idea when we will have internet again.

Keep us in your thoughts. The journey gets a little crazier from here. :)

PS. No, I did not get to surf again at the coast, they said the surf was too dangerous that day. Oh well. Maybe some other time.

Cajas

As a famliy we hiked the hills of Cajas National Park. We saw many weird flowers. There was an enormous lake followed by many small ones, one looked like a smiling face. We hiked half way up the mountain but it was an amazing view. I mean amazing! You saw mountains and lakes and all different types of flowers and plants. The grass was a weird shape. My favorite parts of the trip was the squishy grass and the bridges that somtimes held waterfalls underneath.We got tired at the end so we took a break every thirty seconds. Finally we got back. We had hiked three hours, it was amazing.

Ingapirca

Today we went to Ingapirca and saw a ton of beautiful ruins. The story is, the Canari tribe built the place but the Incas wanted to take over. The Incas tried to take over but the Canaris were too powerful. The Incas wanted the land and the only way that was going to happen was if an important Incan married a Canarian. So an Incan leader marred the Canarian princess and they shared the land.

This is how the two tribes arent really going anymore. The Incan leader had two sons who were given land to rule separately. When their father died when they were grown up they split the tribe in half and fought each other for the leadership. That killed a lot of them. While they were still weak, the Spanish Conquistadors came and killed them all. Those 2 wars were part of the reason that the buildings of this site were in complete ruins.

The bigger reason is that the people who came after them used the rock to build new houses (more modern ones). The place was turned into a park and now has tons of llamas like in the picture I put above(left). The picture(right) shows how the houses were aranged. It is a little small but you can see the base of the houses. The rectangle is built by the Incans and the circle ones are built by the Canarians.

Ahhhhh Cuenca

After 2 days of bus travel with a one-nighter in Guayaquil, we have made it to Cuenca and the sun is shinning! The trip up through the Andes was spectacular which could have been just a little better if the bus companies would clean the windows. Llamas were grazing along the way in Cajas Parque de Nacional, which we hope to return to later this week.
Arrived here mid-day to clear blue skies and a very clean city, I think they actually frown on littering here and I personally saw a man toss some garbage into a can rather than on the street. Not the Ecuador we have seen so far. The center of town where we are staying is very historic with coblestone streets and wonderful architecture. Our hotel is on a vibrant street (could be loud) but we have a corner room with 2 balconies looking over the streets below.... very nice and reasonably priced. The streets are full of people and there are several public squares and a river walk that looks nice. We have already decided to extend our stay here by a night. Be here ti'll Friday.

Coconut Man

$1 will get you your very own coconut on the beach in Canoa. With his machete, the coconut man cuts the bottom off, so that it will sit flat on your table or lap. Then he hacks at the top until the first sign of the coconut meat, cuts a small slit and inserts a straw. You take the coconut back to your shade tent ($5 per day) and enjoy the milk inside. Then you find the same cocunut man on down the beach, not another, as they know their coconuts not by markings or craft but the color of the straw. He then hacks that coconut into quarters and slices the meat out for you, bags it up and you're back to the tent for a snack.

Canoa is a great beach town, we have really enjoyed it here and are off tomorrow for Cuenca.

Balance Beam

Near the beach was a balance beam. It had 2 sticks on the end that held a huge log in the middle. There was a stump that you climbed on to get on it. A good friend named Paul made it. He also made a big house that you could go into and it had many interesting things like bottles and flip flops that he had found on the beach. It was first really scarry and hard but after you got used to it got easier. I walked on it every day!

Too Much Work!

I have kind of forgotton how school was like but if you thought it was pretty hard in the first place imagine having to take it in a different language!!! All the spanish is driving me crazy but at least the beach keeps your mind off it for a while. Classes have started again and I am envious of the kids in the states that don't have school yet. I can understand a lot more and have been able to communicate with the people at the hotel a lot more. 1 great thing about the hotel is that theres a ping pong table for whenever you get sick of Español Ejercicios (Spanish excercices). We're still having a great time and we'll keep posting!!!

enfermo

My dad got sick over monday he has been eating lots of pills and been drinking gatorade. He has been taking to many naps! Hope he gets beter soon.

A Perfect Day at the Beach

We had a great day a the beach in downtown Canoa today. It was an overcast day with very little sun breaking through the cloudcover at about 1:00. We rented a suntent that came with 2 beach chairs. The girls, who barely sit anyway, were relegated to the ubiquitious white resin chairs when they wanted to sit.

I took a surfing lesson today. Unfortuneately, I didn't know that one should take these lessons in the morning - when the waves are tame. By the time I got my lesson (note: today was the World Cup finals and everyone was somewhere in front of a tv to watch Spain win until 4:00) it was high tide and the waves were massive.

My instructor, Marcelo, was a totally nice guy. He said it was possible that I could learn this afternoon. He drew a surfboard in the sand and had me practice getting from my belly on the midline of the board. I practiced several times, never quite getting it correct. He was very patient and he reminded me it would be easier to do this on the sand than on the water.

When we got in the water to my waist, the waves were breaking over my head. What in the world possesed me to want to do this? The first try, I couldn't get up and on my way to take the board back out - I got hit in the face with a massive wave. It cleaned out my sinuses, my ears and my tonsils. I'm lucky I got to keep my contacts. The next try to pictured here. That's as far up as I got before trying to get my foot under me and tumbling off.

There's always the morning next Saturday. I think I might try it again.

All in all, we had a great day in town and we're ready for another week of Spanish class starting tomorrow.

Boogie Boarding

We boogie borded today. The waves were fantastic! Since the waves were so big you had to dive into the wave and go under it! We have the boogie bord but were going to learn how to surf! I LOVE IT HERE!!!!!!!!

Spanish Lessons

It is Friday night and we just finished our first of 2 weeks of Spanish lessons here in Canoa. Our morning lesson begins at 9am just after desayuno and lasts until 11. We break for lunch and take 2 more hours of class from 3-5pm when cena begins. Meals are served in the common room and we get what is served, just like summer camp - which has been good simple food. Our classes have progressed rather quickly and we have homework every day to keep up. The girls share a teacher, Maria, a university student who lives in the next town and catches the bus here in the morning, leaves for lunch and returns by bus in the afternoon. The girls like her alot. Debby and I share another teacher Jaime, the father of the family that runs this hotel/school. Classes are taught in a small classroom on the property here of about 10 rooms right on the beach. We are the only guests that are not friends of the family and the only gringos taking lessons. When not in class we are studying, walking on the beach, eating, playing ping-pong and hanging out (no TV). This place is about 2 kilometers from Canoa so it is quiet with not much to do which keeps us a little more focused on the lessons. The weather has been cool and cloudy since we arived, keeping us out of the ocean mostly. There was a break on Wednesday during lunch and the girls and I did get some time in the waves boogie boarding!

The Beach

We are at the beach at language immersion school. I am having a blast. The waves aren't huge but the shells are gorgeous. I am in a class with Helen and I'm starting to understand a lot more. Today we were at the market and a guy tried to sell my dad grapes for way more than it was worth. Luckily we had our teacher there and he told the guy off. Above is a picture of the waves that I took off the back porch of our school.

Quito

Our second full day in Quito started off with breakfast in an outdoor cafe. We were seated moments before the place filled with folks to watch Argentina y Germany. We were the only ones to leave our table before the end of the game (obviously no one else had anything better to do on a Saturday morning).
Headed to El Panacello (pictures) for great views of the city from the giant virgin on the hill.
This town has been great to walk around and when it gets too far on foot, there is always a taxi nearby who remain pleasant while we butcher their language. Heard the bad news for Argentina from our cab driver after El Panacello. Caught the Paraguay Spain match during lunch with a beer and again left the cafe before the end of that game to empty streets while everyone was huddled in any bar, restaurant, market with a TV. This town loves football!

Exhausted

We have been running helter skelter all over the place today. We went to the equator, two churches and spent a lot of our time in a taxi. Both churches were beautiful and by the end of the day I want to sleep for 24 hours. I'm not sure if I'm getting any better at Spanish but I can translate decently by now. The hotel is very nice and I can't wait for language immersion school. It starts on Monday so were driving over on Sunday. I have to go to bed.

Dia Tres

We went to the Mital del Mundo. I laid on the equator. See photo.


We went to the La Compañia church. The church was covered with paintings and gold. It was beautiful! We saw a statue of Mary holding a small cross wtih Jesus hanging on it. There were dim lights and candles. We tried to go upstairs but all of the doors were locked. Me and Dad sat on the pews and looked up at the ceilings (which had gold and many paintings). We saw Cupid in one of the frames. I heard the hail outside when we were looking at the confessionals. That is where people kneel down in thanks for forgiveness. There was a room with lots of tiny red chairs and paintings with lots of gold. I had so much fun !!

The Flight - or part of it

Nightmare flight from Miami. We were held up because a checked passenger decided not to fly after all and they had to find the bag among the 180 checked for the plane. Then we took off, 2 hours late (almost all of this time we were seated on the plane), and 20 minutes out not one, but both pressure control systems for the air inside the plane failed and the pilot had to turn around. We got another plane (and they got it ready in an hour) but failed to remember originally (I guess) that
> the crew for the plane had too many hours logged yesterday, so we had to wait an additional hour (seated on the plane) for a new crew. At 4 in the morning, there was fog in Quito and the pilot did not have clear vision to land.

After 2 failed attempts, we were diverted to Guayaquil because the plane was running low on gas.

*sigh* But, we ARE in Ecuador! Horray! The girls are absolute troopers - and have weathered most of this without much of a peep.

Perhaps we'll get to Quito before nightfall tonight!