Mudslide on Inca Trail, tourists killed and stranded

Looks like we got out of Cuzco and off the Inca Trail in the nick of time! We were stuck in Cuzco for 2 extra days due to the bus strike. As we hiked and watched the Urubamba River- Meryl and I were amazed at the power and rediculous amount of flowing water...we even video taped it! Check out this news link: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,583989,00.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fworld+(Text+-+World) Forrest

Summertime is HOT!

I can't stop sweating!
We arrived in Lima in the evening on Tuesday.
We spent all day yesterday walking along the beach in Lima and through the neighborhoods of Miraflores and Baranco. It was really HOT and really humid! I have re-affirmed the fact that am not a very good hot weather person.
The neighborhood of Baranco is awesome both Forrest and I really liked it, it reminded me of New Orleans. We ate over priced popsicles and sat along the beach for most of the day. Forrest got pooped on by a bird (haha), and then we ate churros so he would feel better.
Last night at 1 in the morning we almost missed our flight to Santiago, because of massive lines in the Lima airport, 3 hours is not enough time to make an international departure there. We also forked over a small fortune to LAN Airlines because of our overweight baggage. FYI flight within south america do not give you international baggae allowances. Forrest and I were only allowed 23 kilos each... needless to say we exceeded it and payed for it, BIG TIME! OUCH!

We are in Mendoza now, it's really hot here too (90+) but it's not as humid. Tommorw we will begin running arround trying to get ready for our warm up climb of Cerro Plata (thanks Toren and Dylan for all of the advice), which will be about 4 days, and should bring us up to 6,000m blowing Forrest previous altitude reccord (that was set in Peru) out of the water. It is a bit stormy tonight, windy with some rain so everyone think good weather thoughts for us!

ps... i could really go for some snow right now.

Nazca Lines

Meryl and i leave Nazca today. We arrived yesterday morning at 5am after the 14 hour bus ride. I stayed awak during much of the bus ride listening to another passenger vomit in the tiny metal toilet near our seats. The ride was very jerky, and it rained much of the drive. I felt a little uneasy as the driver of our double decker bus seemed to drift around the wet mountain corners.

We took a 35 minute flight over the Nazca Lines in a Cessna 206. The pale sweaty woman in front of us vomited in her little puke bag and i watched the pilot roll his eyes as he handed her a napkin to wipe her mouth. haha. The Nazca lines were amazing. These are lines that were carved into the desert earth by a pre-Incan culture. They can only be seen by the air, so some people belive ET's or UFO's created the lines. (see "Cheriots of the Gods" out of print though) My favorite was the huming bird and the autronaut. After the flight Meryl and I ate a huge meal at a local favorite restaurant called Paulita's for only $2 each. We hung out in the plaza and 'people watched' as music was played for a 'End Polio' festival. Meryl and i bought hard boiled quail eggs from a kid with a small cart. They were very delicious and very small. In Huaraz, we saw kids selling these eggs and on the bottom of the cart were the quails that laid the eggs! We lounged at a fancy pool for 4 hours and swam and ate sandwiches. meryl fell asleep and sun burned her armpits (yes her armpits haha). The pool seemed like some cuban resort with white adobe walls. We drank cervesas on the terrace rooft nice top of our hostel and layed in hammocks...Damn life is hard when school is finito and the 'real world' hits you! Today we leave for Lima, stay for a day and tomorrow we depart for Argentina!

High and not so dry... aka stranded in Cuzco!

The 24hr bus stike has turned into an indefinate bus strike with no signs of letting up... as a result we are pretty well stranded in Cuzco. Their is a glimmer of hope that our bus may leave this evening but it is not looking promising. According to news here, 6,000 bus and 120,000 truck will not run until the transportation unions reach an agreement with the govenment about fuel tax on diesel. So, that means we are probably not going to Nazca...
The only way out of Cuzco at the moment is by plane, so we may wind up flying to Lima tomorrow, so that we can get out of $$$ expensive Cuzco. In other parts of Peru sates of emergency have been declared, and in others the busses are still running, it is all very confusing and no one really seems to know what is going on. So, in the meantime Forrest and I have been walking arroung the city, visiting the markets and churches, Forrest got a nice fedora (hat), and we have been consuming a lot ob cheap boxed wine. It is quite rainy today but yesterday was beautiful.
Wish us luck!!!! We will be pretty excited if our bus leaves tonight!

PARO!

Update!
There has been a land transportation strike in peru... all of the busses and cargo trucks have been striking since the 19th. The stike was only supposed to last 24hrs, but it's still going, so we are stuck in Cuzco.
We will opefully be able to leave tomorrow but no guarantes... one more night in and expensive hotel!

Machu Picchu! and the rainy Inca Tail

We have learned a valuble lesson in the last week... The rainy season in Peru in really really rainy! We spent the 15-19th hiking the Inca trail, which (to be honest) was not quite what we were expecting and perhaps a little bit of a disappointment. It was pretty dirty and the "facilities" aka banos were terrible. The trail itself is a construction marvel, how anyone could build that, let alone 500 years ago, is amazing. The Inca ruins that we saw along the way were equally incredible along with their history. We were the only Americans in our group, the other 10 folks were from Argentina and Brazil. They were great, we practiced our spanish and they were supper excited about teaching us some portugese.
We toted along our masive back packs with all of the extra stuff you could imagine, we wanted heavy pack to help us aclimatize for Aconcagua, but every one else thought that we were rediculous... We thought lots of other people were pretty silly when we started examing footware choices that people made. We saw teva sandals, rubber rain boot, slip on keds and lots of fashionable white tennis shoes. I couldnt belive it! The trail is pretty hard, lots of up and down, on the seccond day we gained 1,200 meters of elevation in 3 hours, then proceded hike down the same elevation on a steep stone staircase. If I wasnt wearing hiking boots I would have rolled my anke for sure!
Machu Piccu made up for our dirty Inca trail experince, it is absolutley amazing!!!!!! The only downside was the day that we were there was the most rainy of them all... we got totally soaked to the bone and as a result didnt take many picture for fear of soaking our cameras. Our clothes are still drying out! The upside of the rain was that because there was so much water we got to see the fountains and amazing irrigation canals in their glory, their irrigation system and the fountains were the most impresive thing that I have seen in a long time!
Because of the rain we only spent a few hours in Machu Picchu itself before heading down to Aguas Calientes where we went to the hot springs and spent the night. The following morning we headed back to Cuzco on the train (the only way to get in and out of agauas calientes). It was my first train ride ever! And it was a good one, the tracks follow the Urubamba River which is ripping at the moment with all of the rain water. The river is one of the most insane waterways that I have ever seen. Huge boulders and massive hydraulics, as far as we could find out, it has never been run, and you can see why!
Presently we are back in Cuzco, we get on a bus tonight at 6, to head to Nazaca. It should be a long 14 hour ride over the Andies ( we sprung for the super cama- super bed)! We hope all is well in the northern hemisphere and that people are making some turns in the fluffy snow for us... we are both tan (and peeling).
ps spell check is not working on blogge so please forgive my mistakes...

Forrest's P.S.
I have a few quick "Shout Outs!"

Grama Vogel Shout Out: Thanks for keeping me dry with the REI waterproof Jacket...a lifesaver!

Tango Bravo Shoutout (Trev): Thanks for the water proof pack cover... a huge help or i would have had wet undies

Geoff F and Dad Shout Out: Peruvians dont have roofs not because it doesn't rain...they have no credit system here, so they build in stages and often the roof is the last stage...or they can not afford a roof..

The picture of the Peruvian chicken goes out to my mom April-

Goodbye Huaraz

Yesterday Meryl and I hiked to a lake at 14,500 feet called Laguna Churup. It was very beautiful and was the highest i had even been with my feet on the ground. We leave Huaraz tonight on a night bus bound for Lima. We then catch a plane to Cuzco, Peru. On the 15th we will start hiking the Inca Trail, ending up at Maccu Piccu.

We gringos were invited to play a game of futball with the local children. They won. But we put up a good fight on the rocky-dirt field with a near flat soccer ball. The local kids laughed at us when they stole the ball or kicked it through our long legs.

Meryl and I walked up to some pre-Incan ruins from about 500 to 700 years ago called Wilkauan. We almost got bitten by a number of dogs as we walked down the street. A little nerve racking, but we are getting use to carring rocks and yelling at the mutts.

Bienvienidos a Huaraz!

I love Huaraz!
This is my third time here and I am happy that this time Forrest is here with me. It is a bit rainy, but not bad considering that it's the "rainy season". The clouds are obstructing the moutains so unfortunately Forrest hasnt been able to see them YET! We have been experiencing the local scene with my friends Jenn and Ted (the owners of skyline-adventures.com - check them out). Forrest expreienced the Peruvian marcado, where we purchased some food including a whole chicken that was butchered in front of us, Forrest was suprised at their yellow color... it's not just a cartoon thing. Skinless cow and pig heads swarmed with flies in the meat market and the smell fell onto you like a wool blanket.

Jenn also took us to a spin class, yes peruvians get in shape on spin bikes too. Forrest and I were the tallest ones in the class (Forrst's head almost touched the cealing when he sat up), it was really fun and hard to breathe, up at 10,000 ft.

Yesterday we went climbing with Jenn, Ted and thir 2 little ones Cole and Noah, to a place called Chancos further down the valley. Forrest got a partial glimpse of Huscaran (the tallest peak in peru) as it partialy exposed itself in the clouds. The climbing was wonderfull and the day was beautifull, warm and sunny, we climbed right next to a rushing stream. Muy tranquillo.

Today we headed up to an area above the town of Huaraz where Jenn, Ted and various other people have started an organic community garden. It is still in the constrution phase so we got to do some manual labor, by building new beds in their cobble lain field, we also did some weeding in the beds that have already been planted. The first crops of the sason, radishes were harvested, before it began to rain. It was great to get out with many differnt locals, practice some spanish and get our hands dirty. The garden they are builing is a huge undertaking that 10 local family are taking part in. There is almost no topsoil in the valley because it was washed away by a massive flood caused by an eathquake in the 70's. As a result they are builing raised beds, removing all of the rocks by hang and composting to create an amazing place to grow veggies. We were psyched that we could be apart of it.
We only have 3 more days in Huaraz before we head to Cuzco, I will be sad to go so soon but the trip has been amazing so far thanks to Jenn and Ted!

Day 2 in Southie

We arrived in Lima yesterday at 5am. The German / Peruvian Whose house we are keeping some mountaineering luggage, greet us in his bathrobe and was a little confused. Meryl and I soon remembered we made ourselves at home. Lima has some very nice and clean areas such as Miraflores. It reminded me of downtown Honolulu in many parts. Surfers lined the coast for the breaks but had to dodge the garbage and sewage that is dumped there from the Lima population. The traffic and taxi drivers were exactly what i expected Once We hit main, dirty Lima. Garbage everywhere and more stray dogs than you could imagine. None of the animals here are spayed or neutered, and i have seen swinging dog more than i ever had balls wishes! Bob Barker would go bananas down here. We boarded a double decker bus in Lima for Huaraz. An 8 hour ride. We sat on the top, above the bus driver in front of the huge window and drove through Lima crazy traffic. We followed the coast for a few hours and then headed into the mountains going from sea level to 11,000 feet. Now we are in Huaraz Which in a mixture of a beautiful mountian busseling european village and a shanty town with stray dogs and street venders selling pigs heads and quail eggs. Craggy mountains surround Huaraz, including the tallest in Peru, Huascaran.

Hurry Up and WAIT...

Hello all...
We are finaly on our Journey! Starting it off with an 8 hour layover in Miami!
Miami seems to be experincing a cold snap, it was 54 deg. when we landed at 4pm and the airport is absolutly freezing... everyone is walking arround in their jackets... including us (well me, forrest checked all of his b/c he thought we would only be in warm places until we got our bags).
During our layover so far... (3 and a half hours in) we have discovered:
that beers cost $9 (we are drinking water)
miami airport does not seem to have a heating system
doubble decker planes are cool
and you can get a manicure in 10 minutes or less

We can't wait for warm Lima, cheap beers and good frinds. Lima here we come... we arrive at 3:30am denver time!