Peru, Colombia, and the road to healing...

Sad, abandoned blog. I can't believe a month has flown by since my last post, or that it is June and that I am in Colombia!!! Currently I am in Cartagena on the Carribean coast, absolutely loving the people, food, and vibe, but first gotta try to recap what I have been up to since last time, starting with Peru. Sit back and enjoy, this is gonna be a long one!

When I arrived in Cusco I was immediately impressed by the city. So clean, beautiful plazas, and well, a little like Disneyland. Cusco being the starting point for everyone in the world coming to do Machu Picchu, it is set up to be an international tourist playground of sorts. My friend from Buenos Aires, Suzie, had been living there for a month already so she took me under her wing and showed me the ins and outs of Cusco, which was great. It was really fun to catch up on where the past months have taken us after parting ways in March.




So, 4 days to chill and get to know the place and then Erin arrived for her week visit. It was so good to see her and wow, what an adventure was had. We had a rough idea of what we were getting ourselves into by doing the 5 day Salkantay Trail, an alternative to the heavily traveled Inca Trail, and looking back we both were pleased that the scenery and whole experience had an element of surprise. On the trek was Erin and myself, another Erin from Seattle, Sandra from New York, and Franziska from Germany. Then of course our knowledgeable and trusty guide, Jimmy, the cook Richard who prepared us some ridiculously impressive food at our campsites and lunch breaks everyday, and 2 amazing porters. This was my first real multiple day backpacking/camping/hiking experience, and I loved it. Intense, full days of hiking through some incredible and unexpected landscapes- we traversed a dramatic glacier peak, down through pastoral alpine meadows with roaming cows and sheep, and finally into subtropical forest and lush jungle rivers. THEN, arrived at Machu Picchu for sunrise on the fifth day and it was just as amazing as I have always imagined. Yes, there are a lot of other people there, but I felt so small and very much at peace. And then, the incident. As we set off with our guide down to the ruins for our day of exploring I was coming off the last stone down a flight of steps and misjudged how far down it really was, rolled onto my right ankle, felt a painful pop, and fell down to the ground. I have never sprained or broken a bone in my life, so the feeling was really unfamiliar and clearly not so fun. Guides rushed over and wrapped my ankle up immediately and then I think I was in shock for the rest of the day. I sat propped up on a rock while the rest of the group explored, but despite the obvious disappointment of being at Machu Picchu of all places in the world and not being able to walk, I felt surprisingly tranquilo. Soaking up the Pachamama energy. Just having finally reached MP was such an unforgettable feeling and the pilgrimage to get there was so spectacular that I was able to remain on the up and up about the whole spraining of the ankle business. And like I keep saying, I will be back to MP again someday! For the full photo reel, check out my Facebook album of this epic 5 days: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/album.php?aid=178557&id=515581939

Upon return to Cusco, my whole right foot and ankle was looking heinously swollen and bruised, and I still couldn't feel if I even had a foot down there or not. Erin acted as my patient porter for the rest of her week in Peru, and by the time she was preparing for her departure back to life, back to reality, I was also becoming lucid to my own reality... backpacker down. A sprained ankle definitely doesn't fit into the equation of "A girl, a backpack, a one-way ticket", and as a result I finally hit my breaking point with with all of it. Luckily I had friends in Cusco that I had met on various points of my trip who were incredibly supportive. This support included helping me move to another hostel, getting me to a clinic, searching Cusco for a compress, serving as my human crutches, and most importantly putting me on lock-down... my stubborn self was having a hard time sticking to their orders, wanting to be up and about on my feet and not relegated to a bed with my leg in the air. Thank you, thank you, thank you again, my dear Erin, Suzie, Amy, Phil and Frankie:)

I had plans for onward travel with Suzie, both of us needing to be in Lima for flights - mine onward to Cartagena to meet Marcelle, but due to my ankle we had to adapt things a bit, cutting out a lot of what we wanted to see in Peru. We opted to take a flight directly to Lima and then do a 2 day trip to Paracas, a small fishing town on the Pacific coast about 3 hours outside of Lima. Here we took a tour of the National Reserve (beautiful desert landscape) and a boat tour around the Ballestas Islands - referred to as the "Poor Man's Gallapagos." Never have I ever seen so many birds in one place in my life, it was crazy! Humboldt penguins, sea lions, Cormorants and Peruvian seagulls galore! It was a nice last week with Suzie before she had to head home to Holland, and I managed to see sights without walking around too much. AND we got to eat the best seafood and vegetables I have had in a veeeeery long time. YUM. Lima itself was quite a bit nicer than I had anticipated. We stayed in an area by the water called Miraflores that could easily be a Miami or similar city, and the historic center of Lima is impressive. Like the Spanish left yesterday... so clean and preserved. As I wrote to my family, all the colonial architecture in SA is so beautiful and fascinating for me to see, but also always thinking about what would have happened with these indigenous cultures and what this continent would be/look like if the Spanish hadn't conquered and catholicized these lands and people that were so connected to nature, believing in "Pachamama" - mother earth, and the power of interconnectedness and energy...










And now, COLOMBIA! Marcelle just left on her flight back to SF after our fabulous week of Cartagena touring, beach/pool relaxing, crazy boat rides to Tayrona, sunset dinners by the water, consuming roughly 2000 mangos, papayas, watermelon, pineapples, avocados, and having a great time catching up. Cartagena is a beautiful city and the people here en el mar Caribe are so friendly and welcoming, as I had been told. The second we stepped onto the streets for exploration we were given some welcome to Colombia watermelon in a cup from a man selling on the street. Love it. Our pictures do not convey the beauty of bright colors, flowers, people, and beautifully preserved Spanish architecture, but just know that it is probably the most aesthetically pleasing city I have ever roamed. I feel like I am in Cuba a bit, or what I imagine Cuba to be like. The flavor, the heat, the people, and I'm diggin' it all. A lot.























Not exactly sure what my next onward move entails, but I will keep you posted. The ankle is slooooowly returning to its normal size, which I know takes time. It really liked being at the beach in the sun, covered in hot sand, not walking, so hopefully these current tropical storms will let up and let me return to the beautiful beaches we visited in Tayrona!

Off I go, lots of love to all of you:)

Another day, another border crossing...

Hola from Peru! Yep, after a quick two week sprint through Bolivia I am currently in Puno, just enjoyed a lovely hostel dinner with two other solo traveling California ladies (first Californians I have hung out with in the past 3 months of travel!)and tomorrow morning I am off on an all day bus tour to Cuzco! I am really excited to get to Cuzco where I will first be meeting up with my friend Suzie who I met in Buenos Aires and then on the 10th one of my SF besties Erin will be flying to meet me. Two days later we set off on a 5 day alternative Inca Trail Trek, the Salkantay route. Ahhhh, so ready for this epic adventure! Climbing, camping, and craziness to come...

Bolivia is a beautiful country and although I only spent 2 weeks I am happy with what I was able to see... salt flats, desert, charming cities, amazing lush/jungle scenery on a bike ride down "the most dangerous road", and a gorgeous lake. The past 3 days were spent on Lake Titicaca, which is an amazing body of water. Copacabana was an ok little town to hang out in for a few days - the actual waterfront is not the nicest but amazing views from up on the mountain and yesterday I took a boat ride to Isla del Sol, an island in the middle of the lake which was the supposed birthplace of the Incan sun god. The island itself is home to villages and farming communities and many ruins, which I spent the day exploring. I really enjoyed the stunning landscapes from high atop the hills, and a really great 3 hour hike from the north of the island to the south.











The two highlights of my time in La Paz were conquering the "Death Road" bike ride, and funny enough, celebrating Holland's Queens Day. Our traveling circus of 8 led by Eric and Tom, our Dutch cultural guides, went out all out to celebrate April 30th. I am determined to get to Holland for it next year because it was that fun. Everyone in orange, cheesy Dutch pop songs, streamers and confetti, face painting of the Dutch flag, Heineken, and great dancing. I was unofficially voted "Best fake Dutchgirl" because I was just loving it...my ode to all the fabulous Dutch I have met during my travels.




As for the "World's Most Dangerous Road", I'll go ahead and let wikipedia fill you in with the deets: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Road

One of the must-do's for South American backpackers, beautiful, exhilarating, and insanely dramatic cliffs. I definitely had some trepidations about doing it but at the last minute I went for it - and SO glad I did. We set out early in the morning in a van carrying our bikes and gear up to the top of the mountain and it was POURING and freezing, to add another special element to the precarious route. Within seconds of starting out on our bikes my shoes were filled with water and I was drenched with water and mud. At first there was a fog layer present that made it so you couldn't see just how ridiculous the cliffs were, which was possibly a good thing for me, but eventually the rain stopped, fog lifted, and WOW. There I was coasting down the smallest, steepest road in existence. I was literally laughing out loud about how crazy/beautiful it all was, as I bumped along the gravel, conquering my fear of falling from high places. I never felt scared, or like I was going to lose control and fly off the cliff because the bikes are excellent and you can go as slow or fast as you want in order to make it down the mountain. The company that took 6 of us up for the downhill adventure was great as well. It was a really special, adrenaline-filled day. I didn't take pics but here are some I stole from others and stay tuned for the photos from the CD we were given with shots that the guides took of us and the scenery. I am the helmeted one on the right, and the one making all flagrant gestures...