Quick re-cap

I am sitting in Peurto Maldanado right now which is the gate way to the southern Amazon. It´s hot and humid and I´m just thankful to be only 250 meters above sea level. My altitude sickness did not subside and though I was fine during the Inca Trail (I think Coca Tea and Gatorade kept me alive), upon my return to Cusco, could not eat or drink anything. And it was SO COLD!!! I know it´s winter here but come on! Five layers.....toques for dinner. Honestly! Regardless, it was a great experience. The Inca Trek experience is in a separate and detailed post. They day after the trek we all went white water rafting down the Urabamba River. It was so cold that the safety kayakers hands were too cold to take pictures!! However, here´s what I´ve learned about Peru so far:

- My Spanish is improving but I have a tendancy to want to respond in French. Go figure
- It seems that near our hotel just above every store sold matteresses and people bought a lot of them
-There are stray dogs everywhere and all Aimey wants to do is go around giving them dog treats. It breaks her heart but I reminded her that a) she hasn´t had her rabies shot and b) as soon as she feeds them, she´ll have a following!
-Altitude sickness is the worst thing I have ever experienced!
-Our trekking groups was so fantastic. They included:
- six Irish folks who met doing charity walks for the Irish heart foundation and have since begun trekking all over the world
-a Welsh couple, one of whom is a teacher!
-a newly engaged couple from Denmark
-white water rafting is great fun but not when it{s Peruvian winter!

Memorable quotes so far:
1) Welsh Gemma on night 2 of the trek "the toilets here are proper toilets!"
Me: "So you mean, you can sit on them instead of squating?"
Welsh Gemma: " well, I still wouldn´t sit on them"

2) Danish Andres audio Spanish tapes "Relax. Listen to the music. Enjoy the words."

3) Aimey "Look, there´s blue sky!"
Irish Ann "Yes, but it´s not over Peru. It´s somewhere feckin´ else!"

The Inca Trail

We started the Inca Trek a day late because of a Peruvian bus strike but began the actual hike on schedule.



Day 1

Bus to Ollayantotambo at 7pm and stay and a cute uber Peruvian hotel. Enjoy a good meal and go to bed early to be ready for the hike tomorrow.



Day 2

Wake up call at 6:30 and meet with a local to buy walking sticks and Coca leaves. The Coca plant helps with altitudie sickness. You roll five or so leaves and chew on them ( not unlike tobacco) to help alleviate the sympotms. We share them with portors along the way. Board the bus and head to kilometre 82, where the trek begins. Our portars way our duffle bags and they can´t exceed 6kg. Aimey has to take out a Gatorade but then we´re ready to go. We go through the check point, get a fancy stamp in our passports and we´re off! The altitude is high but lower than Cusco. Even so, the sun is intense. I apply and re-apply SPF 30 throughout the day. We take a lot of breaks and our guides, Manual and Roddy, ensure that we´re all okay. We arrive at our lunch spot to a round of applause from the portors and wash basins for our hands. We eat an incredible meal of pasta, chicken, potatoe salad and tea. We hike more that day and after about 6 hours we arrive at our campsite. The scenery is beautiful and there are warm wash basins outside our tents to wash our dirty feet, hands and faces. We relax for a few hours before dressing in our winter best and head lamps and wander out of our tents to look at the stars. I see the southern cross! Dinner is, once again, fantastic. Early bed after using the squat-then-flush toilets. Thankfully one of the Irish ladies has peppermint oil to put under your nose!!!



Day 3


Wake at 6am with Roddy knocking on our tent with Coca tea and then head ot the tent for breakfast at 6:30. It´s oatmeal, omlete and bread. Today is going to be the toughest day. We hike to the top of Dead Woman´s Pass at an elevation of over 4000 meters. It´s short but gruelling. We head off in the cool weather, thankful that the sun is not pounding down on us. We start to climb. We climb and climb and climb and I think that if I see another stair, I will cry!!! It begins to rain. And then hail. Then wind and sleet. And we are still climbing stairs for 4 hours!!!We see a Llama, which is a good photo op, as well as a good time for a rest. Andres (Denmark) and Aimey head ahead, while Signe ( Denmark) and I work slowly and steadily. EVerything I have is wet, I´m cold and my breathing becomes increasingly laboured because of altitude but I see the sumit and Roddy is there with a big hug!! Now, we have to descend. We´re wondering how long this will take. We´re hungry and tired of eating Snickers. It´s raining and cold and so we start to sing. Every song we can think of with "sun" inthe title. They include:

- You are my Sunshine
- Tomorrow (from the hit broadway musical and John XXIII production of Annie!)
- Let the Sun Shine in

And it stops raining.....for 10 minutes

The steps down for the next 2 hours are actually harder for me because of my bad knees. I slow down. I´m getting tired. Aimey is setting a good pace and I´m trying to keep up. Finally we make it to camp for lunch. At 5pm our cook, Boris, presents us with a cake and we sit in the tent until dinner at 7. We are camping at about 3800meters and so it´s very cold and very damp. And the rain sets in --- not before giving us a stunning view of the Andes .
(I should say, at this point, that all this talk of rain might sound like complaining. It{s not. It really was bad. Our guide has done this trek over 100 times and he said his has rained but he{s never before had to use his poncho!!)



Day 4


This was to be our long day. Our long descent down the trail. We begin in the cold and wet with a 5:30 wake up call. It´s all downhill today, which is hard on the knees. There is no sun and the rain won´t let up. My clothes weren´t dry from the night before. But in the few breaks we do get we see the scenery around us and when there isn´t fog, we realize what a beautiful place this is. Lunch was fantastic and after Peruvian potatoe pancakes, we were treated to Irish Colm singing "And the Band Played the Waltzing Matilda". It had us all close to or in tears. For those of you not familiar with the song, it is about Australian soildiers during WWI who were wounded in Gallipolli. Before he headed back on the trail in the rain, Welsh Gemma and I had to visit the ladies room and it was neither a sitting toilet, nor a flushing one. Shall we say hole in the ground? And a guy was in there while we were waiting and when he came out he said to us "Sorry" - as if it was his fault the place stunk like a combination of a dead animal and human feces. But then we realized why he was apologizing!! Apparently he was not able to keep things in either and missed the hole altogether! We were mortified but felt that any toilet we saw from that point one would be considered a golden throne. (Side note: it is amazing how much you talk about barfing and pooping with complete strangers while travelling. But it does seem to be a hot topic of conversation - even around the dinner table!) We contineu on to camp and arrive at our final spot (still in the rain) to a place with a pub and showers. Now, I don{t want you to think this was luxury. The "pub" was more like a ski lodge that had been left abandoned years ago but with a few bottles of beer hanging around. It was cold, though, and that is what mattered! Aimey and I opted out of the showers (why get washed and into clean clothes which are just going to get wet again!) and instead, induldged in a half beer before supper. Supper was at 6pm and we had a chance to formally thank our portors. Colm gave us another song - this time it was You{ve Got a Friend by James Taylor. We all knew the chorus so we joined in. It then became a bit of a sing-song. Danish Signe had us up and singing and jumping to a Danish kids song about the days of the week and Irish Anne gave a beautiful Celtic love song. Then it was to bed in the wet tent to be ready for our early rise the next day!

Day 5

Wake up call was 4am. Yes, folks. 4 bloody in the morning! The point was to get to the Sun Gate for sunrise to see the sun coming up over Machu Picchu. Unfortuneately I slept well only until about 2:30 when I was awoken by someone snoring. It sounded like a cross between a very loud zipper and a chain saw. Aimey and plotted how we would best kill said sleeping monster until we were somewhat laughing at the insanity and somewhat wishing we could get to sleep. Let me remind you, once again, that it was still raining at this point! 4 am wake up call and we get dressed and packed and down for breakfast. I beg for a plastic bag for my back pack and we all meet in the "ski lodge / pub". Manual, our guide, suggests we wait a bit for the other groups to get their first. Otherwise, we{re all at the gate at the same time, waiting and getting more wet. When we eventually got our energy enough to get going, we grabbed our walking sticks, turned on our head lamps (it{s dark at 5 am in the Andes) and marched single file toward our destination. We were a quiet bunch. I think we were all secretly disappointed with the weather and hoping, against all odds, it would clear before we arrived. I felt like a minor, heading into the depths of the earth looking for coal. In my head, I heard an old Cape Breton Song:

"We get up in the black, down the coal town road
And we hike along the track, where the coal trains load
And you make the ponies pull, till they nearly break their backs
And they´ll never see again, down the coal town road."

As we walked, we realized we were getting closer and - by God!! - I think there{s blue sky!! Okay, not really, but we were hoping. We reached the sun gate and Welsh Gemman and Matt are shouting "There it is! There it is!" And Aimey is helping me get my camera out because it has stopped raining and you can see Machu Picchu between the fog. And the minute I get my camera out of the plastic bag, out of the case, get the lense cap off and focus --- the bloody Inca city disappears behind the fog and stays there for a good 20 minutes. We decide to head down to get another view and the rain is holding off!!! It{s still holding off when we round the bend and get another view. And, what{s this? The fog is lifting too? THANK YOU, INCA SUN GODS!!!!! This was our reward. We deserved it!! It was beautiful. We kept wandering down. Our pace was slower because every time we caught a glimpse of the city we had to snap as many pictures as we could, just incase this fog jumped between us and our reward.

We spend the morning around Macchu Picchu and realize what a great achievement it was to build. So impressive. Our guide drags our sorry and tired legs around with the enthusasim of a teacher trying to get his grade 9 students to care about Canadian politics..... A few of decide to make our way to Agua Calientes down below where we are going to get our swimsuites and sit in the hot baths. We are nearly involved in a head on collision on our way down but when we make it and lower our bodies into the pools (they were pretty grosse but we didn{t care!), we sighed and thought "Wow....we did it!!"

We boarded a train for Cusco at 5pm and we were quiet. Very quiet. It rattled along the Andes toward the town most of us were either asleep or taking some time to reflect on the journey. We did it and it was worth it!

Peru in Pictures

This post will be forthcoming. We have a tonne of pictures because we´ve seen such amazing things. Eventually I will find an internet connection that is faster than molasses and you will all be able to share in the experience with us. Until then, here´s proof that we actually made it!!!

Protestors in Peru

We didn´t get to go to the Sacred Valley today because protestors are blocking the way out of Cusco and apparently this can get quite dangerous. So, instead we saw some Inca ruins in town and visted a Sun temple. We enjoyed the sunshine and I have to say that it was nice to be standing up rather than being horizontal in my bed sipping rehydration salts. We do leave for Ollantaytambo tonight which is our last bed and shower before we start the Inca Trail tomorrow. The protestors likely won´t have the road blocked then, so we should be fine. All in all, I finally feel like the trip has started...or will start when we leave tonight. Hope all is well in Canada or wherever you may be!

Do you ever feel like you´are in one of those Imodium ads?

Four days in Peru and they have been eventful - somewhat. First let me say that my grammer and punctuation is all off because the keyboard is different. I´m sitting here drinking Coco tea in CUsco to get rid of my altitude issues...apparently this stuff keeps you healthy while you´re here. We are currently at about 3300 metres about sea level or something crazy....

Our first few days in Lima were nothing to write home about - so I didn´t! We spent the first day wandering the dirty smoggy streets of what seemed like any other big city. Aimey saw and ad on TV for a Peru vs. Cuba volleyball game so in the dark we hopped on a taxi and he took us to the stadium. Are there rules on the road? Not really. Hold on! As we approached, an aggressive scalper was trying to sell us tickets. He held onto my window and didn´t let go until the crazy driver turned the corner. He kept harassing us and we fought our way to front to ask security where to get tickets. Surely we should buy from a scalper infront of security -- but that´s what we have to do! We paid $4 each and got to watch the game. It was a lot of fun but we were concerned about getting a taxi back so we left a set early. Cuba was up 2 sets to 1.

Day 3 we wandering around again and then met with our GAP group. We all went for dinner at a great Peruvian restaurant and I, against, my better judgement, order a soupa de la mar. (Seafood soup). It was terrible and ended up right back in the toilet of the said restaurant. It didn´t look any better coming up as it did going down! This, my friends, was the start of my problems.

Day 4 we boarded a flight for Cusco with our group. Flying over the Andes was beautiful. Bright skys, white clouds, little villages. As we landed I started to feel ill. Then I started to sweat. I was sitting next to the window and all the passengers were in the aisles to leave. We were near the back. How was I going to get out of here? THankfully, there was a door in the back - near the toilet. Barf bag in hand, I locked myself in there and got rid of everythign I thought was in my stomach. The lovely stewardess knocking on the door and me replying "un momento, por favor". When I got out she was standing there with a glass of coca tea saying " you drink all of it. ALL OF IT". Aimey was waiting on the tarmac in the sunshine and I wandered to get my bags.

We got to the hotel for another meeting (during which I visited yet ANOTHER bathroom) where we got all of our info for the trek. At this point I was thinking "what if I can´t go. What if I need to stay back?" I spent the rest of the day sleeping in the hotel. I didn´t see any of Cusco. Thank God for Aimey. We had one day, and one day only to book our trip to the Amazon, extra nights in Cusco and nights in Peurto Maldonado. I was dilirious. She left on her adventure and when she returned this was here recount:
- She waited in one bank wiht number 500 (#300 was on the screen) for the bank to finally tell her they don´t accept mastercard! Running around the streets trying to find a bank that did - thank God there are Scotiabanks everywhere. She had to pay for the lodge in cash
-leaving in a t-shirt and freezing when she got back after dark. The tempurature here dips about15 - 20 degrees each day.
-having a man try to steal her camera
-No one speaks English
-needing my passport number to book our flights but not having it so phoning me at the hotel but I didn´t answer because I was out of it and so calling the desk and lying to them and telling them she was me and she needed the number. They gave it to her!!
-Taking a taxi back here so she didn´t miss our meeting and getting ripped off but knowing this, she refused to pay the amount the driver was going to give her.
-Total Amazing Race style

So then we have another meeting which the entire group now knows that I can keep nothing down or in and that not being able to flush toilet paper down the toilet but put it in the basket next to the toilet is awful when you´re sick!! They were sympathetic. The guide did applaud our decision to take rehydration salts which I sipped throughout the meeting. After all this we find we might not even be leaving today! There is a bus strike (apparently) and so we might not get ot see the Sacred Valley and instead will just be driven to our starting point tonight. I will be disappointed because we were going to visit weavers and markets but secretly a little happy to be able to see Cusco - and not just the toilets in it!!!

Anna's Suitcase Goes to Lima

You might remember the A-Team from back in the day. You know...Mr. T, Murdock, Hannibal and the van that drove way faster and cooler than any of our parents drove in their vans. You know what I'm talking about. At least I think there was a van. Anyway, that's not the A-Team that I'm talking about when I tell you that the A-Team is about to embark on a great adventure! In actual fact there are three members of the A-Team: Me, Aimey and Ang. 

Only two of us are going to Peru (Aimey and I) and Ang is heading off to Bali with her husband. We all leave tomorrow morning. So, I sit hear while Aimey keeps cleaning her house (ha ha!!!....actually we both cleaned so that it's nice when we get back) and thought I'd give you a quick "hello" and "will write when I get to an internet cafe somewhere" before we go. Our plans are vague at this point but we have some goals in mind: Inca Trail and Machhu Picchu, the Amazon, Lake Titicaca, World's Most Dangerous Road and the Southwest Circuit in Bolivia. What our adventure will actually look like is yet to be seen. We do have an invitation by a VSO volunteer in Lima for lunch on Saturday and a "field -trip" to a youth centre in one of the poorer neighbourhoods in the capital. 

So for now.....a picture of a previous adventure. It was a snowshoe hike which began with to sentence "I dare you to jump off that bridge." Don't Aimey and I often ask are students a question about friends and jumping off bridges? I guess we know what our answer would be! Keep posted for more stories!

Day 6: Getting Screeched-In

"We'll just go, get ourselves screeched in and be home at a decent hour so we can go for a nice coffee and long breakfast before our planes leave."

It sounded like such a good idea.

And then it was 3:30am and we were finishing street pizza and getting back with our "You've been screeched in certificates!" and uploading pictures onto my computer. Honestly, what were we thinking?

For those of you who are wondering what it is to be screeched in, it is a processes that involves kissing a cod fish right on the lips, downing a shot of Screech (Jamaican rum) and saying some incomprehensible Newfie saying. The history of being Screeched-In has many different origins, I'm sure, but suffice it to say, it's the thing to do is you are a CFA ("comes-from-away") in Newfoundland. You become an honourary Newfoundlander and as far as I can tell, Newfies are proud of their tradition. 

We were Screeched-In at Christian's Pub on George Street. We originally wanted to go to Trapper John's, which is apparently where everyone goes but they don't use real (cod) apparently and besides, it was closed for painting. We settled in a the bar at Christian's at about 10:30 and it was dead. No one was there. How was this going to be fun? But soon, the bar filled up. After being Screeched-In we headed for O'Reilly's Pub for a few more drinks. Back to the hostel at 3:30am where we ran into my dad and promised that we'd be up at 7:00 am to say good bye to my parents who fly to Nova Scotia this morning. We were some proud to show him our certificates, that's for sure!

We talked with a bunch of locals. It's interesting being from Calgary in Newfoundland. Many, many Newfoundlanders find their way there for work because work is so tough to get out east. Lots are in Calgary but even more are in Fort McMurray to make money in the oil sands. I've had such a Western perspective about it this whole time. The typical "All Newfoundlanders come out west to make money because they can't work at home. They are happy to do it and grateful for the work." It's interesting how many Newfs that I met believed family, culture and Newfoundland itself was more important than flying away from home to make a lot of money. One guy named Paul said "I got me values and I'm not gonna live for the almighty dollar." Interesting to hear it from that side anyway. 

Either way, a great night was had by Jaime and I and even though we didn't make it for breakfast, we sure had a great time on George Street!

Kissing the Cod

Bottom's Up!

Yes, it WAS that bad!

Our certificates!

Our bartender Ryan