Our visit to Chilcatotoras

On our second day in Cuenca we splurged on a full day cultural tour of an indigenous community, known as Chilca Tototas, 40 minutes south of town. For 30 dollars each we spent the day with a group of mostly women (as the men now work construction in town) who taught us about typical food, medicinal plants, farming, construction techniques, and for lunch a feast! To the left of me, is Blanca our spanish speaking guide, here Michelle with her spanish skills saved the day.

They have all types of livestock; sheep, goats, horses, giant pigs, and even guinea pigs. They use the milk cows to produce cheese in a small factory that a group of French Doctors helped build.

The tour even included a horseback ride! A natural gaucho. On another note, most adults wear the famous Panama hats or straw hats. Cuenca, happens to be the world supplier of such hats as well.

The best part of this story is of course the roast guinea pig. First they broke the little guys neck and then popped out an eye to drain the blood. After which, with some excitement we discovered the guinea pig was still alive, so another round of neck breaking. Next the guinea pig went in a pot of boiling water in order to make it easier to defur him. Which is where Alex took over, with some quality roasting. At the time Alex thought this was pretty cool, but after eating the guinea pig for lunch and a few days of sickness, the picture now makes him a bit nauseous.

In spanish guinea pig is known as cuy. Here is the head on a bed of potatoes, corn, rice, carrots, and chicken. Poor little guy. Guinea pig is a delicacy at the feast, the best part of the whole meal! I did not eat the head, but the belly was pretty good, tastes a bit like chicken, but doesn´t everything?

The feast. Eaten on the floor in the mud walled house. The community is in the process of the converting this room into a cabana or cabin for turists to sleep in. Very cool. The feast was fun too, I was the only one to use silverware.

After lunch we rested. Seriously. Our bellies were huge. Then we learned how to make wheat flour from wheat chaff. Its hard work! We tried some mixed in coffee and it was pretty good. Michelle also helped plant potatoes with a mixture of horse manure and guinea pig feces as fertilizer. A step back in time, needless to say we learned a lot.

Parcque Nacional Cajas

Cajas National Park is so named because the word cajas is an old indian (quechua) word for cold and wet. No joke, this place was cold and wet! Totally reminded me of North Cascades, except higher at 12,000feet elevation. The weather alternated between raining and clear skies, which curtailed our ambitious hiking plans for the day. I was later surprised to learn that there is rock climbing here on the spires, but I am not sure when the rock is dry!

We spent one day visiting Cajas National Park, about an hour outside of Cuenca. Famous for its lacustrine environment or 350 some lakes that provide irreplacable bird habitat. There are number of bird species here that can be found no where else. Also home to last of the quinua or paper trees, a type of tree that the bark actually hangs off in sheets.

Cuenca, Ecuador

Cuenca is an old colonial city, with lots of churches and cobblestone streets. Ecuador´s third largest city, but more comfortable compared with Quito. Cuenca is just shy of 8,000feet in elevation so it is a little cooler at night, with good sun in the morning and rain in the evening. It makes a good base for visiting Cajas National Park and even more Inca sites. We have stayed at a hostel that served great breakfasts, including ¨humitas¨ or corn cooked with cornmeal in the cornhusk. Really good.

Vilcabamba´s Private Nature Reserve

Here are four photos from the botanically diverse and humouress "Rumi-Wilco Nature Preserve". A small private nature reserve full of typical plants of the southern highlands of Ecudaor. A two dollar admission fee got us in and advised us to contemplate our surrounding rather than just hike through them. Okay. In the above photo, is the flower of the Agua Catillo or cactus tree.
Me with a giant bean. I did not eat this.
A giant insect. This was near one of the signed "Contemplative Spots" right on the trail. A little too "new agey" for us and perhaps a poor spot to sit and be attacked by a giant insect.
A beautiful flower. I know being the son and grandson of two horticulturists, I should be able to write more than a beautiful flower, but that is the sad truth....

Relaxing in Vilcabamba

Pretty nice, huh? Thats what I was thinking. We stayed at this amazing hostel outside of town, with a stream fed swimming pool, huge outdoor chess patio (which I proudly beat Michelle at our first game) and free mountain bikes. Oh yea, it also included these huge free breakfasts, of endless fruit salad, toast, amazing juice, and crepes. We only planned on spending one day here, but ended up staying two!

Bus Riding to Vilcabamba

After bus riding, and bus riding, and a little more bus riding we finally reached Villacamba... ...ahhh...gringo paradise....I mean a full body 75 minute massage for $18...ahhh...






We spent two full days in the sleepy village of Vilacbamba, which is located in southern Ecuador. Here we visited a nature preserve and hiked to this waterfall. A sub tropical place with lots of orange trees and the oranges were delicious!

Inside the ruins of Machu Picchu

After four hours of hiking around, we walked through the interior of the main urban area itself. Using a guide book we purchased in Cusco and occasionally eavsdropping on the english speaking tour groups we learned alot about the site that you wouldn´t get from just blindly walking around, because their are no interpretive signs to be had. Lots of steep terracing which would have had grown Maize back in the day and in the upper right of this photo, you can see a reconstructed thatched roof building as an example of how the buildings would have appeared during the time of the Inca.

Descending Huayna Picchu, Don´t fall!

Michelle is descending the steep trail on the backside of Huayna Picchu, using a series of cable handlines and a long ladder. I felt like we should be using climbing gear to be safe, but Michelle said that I was just a wimp. We used this steep trail to get to the Moon Temple, where the first explorers to Macchu Picchu found mummies!

The view from Huayna Picchu

This is the view of Machu Picchu from the top of Huayna Picchu, the mountain that dominates the background of all the postcard shots of Macchu Picchu. Incredibly, the Incas had several important ceremonial sites on this mountain, which tourists can reach by following steep 45 degree steps with a metal cable as a hand rail. Really exposed hiking! Alot like the Angel´s Landing hike in Zion National Park.

Machu Picchu!

The big Inca Fortress! We made it! After spending what seems like alot of money, its all in Peruvian Soles after all.... and a long bus and train ride, we made it and the weather is pretty decent. Anyway we spent a long day day here, hiking around the site and to the top of the steep mountain in the background, Huayna Picchu.

Pisac´s Ceremonial Center

This is Pisac´s ceremonial center where the most important relegious symbol is found; the Initiwana or in english the ¨hitching post of the sun¨. In the center of the photo you can see a round rock with a little rock on top, this in the Initiwana. Every fortress has an Initiwana. This area also had ceremonial bathing facilities which are still running with water!

Pisac, Inca Fortress

Pisac is a large Inca fortress, which like Machu Picchu, historians arent exactly sure of its purpose. One thing for sure, is that it is big! It took us about three hours to explore. Lots of steep terraces which were used for both agriculture and defense. Lots of buildings to explore and unlike historical sites in the US, you can climb over almost everything.

Cusco´s Inca legacy

Cusco was one of the major Inca city´s before the arrival of the Spanish. In this photo, you can see the orginal Inca dark brick walls on both sides. At the the top of the walls the Spanish simply built up, adding they´re distictive colonial construction.

Cusco: Plaza de Armas

It seems that every Peruvian city has a ¨Plaza de Armas¨ or central square. Cusco´s plaza is probably one of the best we have seen, surrounded by two large cathedrals and lots of good restuarants. It is also a place where we constanly are mobbed by local street peddlers selling postcards, inca dolls, hand puppetts, paintings, sweaters and even a carved wooden owl. Michelle, if it were not for the fact they we had spent all of our money, came very close to buying the wooden owl simply out of pity to the person trying to sell it.

Flying to Cuzco

On our way to board the Boeing 737 which we took to get to the city of Cuzco. I was really excited becaus how often do the airlines let you walk across the tarmac to the plane itself? Anyway, at this point we were both sick and kinda of wishing the plane was flying to the USA, instead of the former Inca city of Cusco.

Lima

On our journey from the Andes (city of Huaraz) to the land of the Incas (city of Cuzco), we made a stop in the capital city of Peru, Lima where we spent the afternoon in the Miraflores District. A trendy place set atop the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. We ate lunch right across from the Marriott Hotel and Starbucks! Miraflores is very Westernized with lots of Americans the first that we seen in two weeks. This photo is taken from the restaurant!

Our (Temporary) Home

Here is a second photo of our home away from home in Huaraz. Clean, quiet, and fairly cheap - at about $20 dollars a night (65 ¨soles¨ in Peruvian currency). Lots of good views of the Corderilla Blanca as well. We have spent the weekend here relaxing and recovering from our trek.

Alberque Churup Hostal

Here are a couple of photos of where we are staying in Huaraz. Alberque Churup is the name of the family that runs the hostel and Churup is the name of a promient mountain you can see from the kitchen area of the hostel. Unconventionally, the kitchen and living room are located on the fourth floor overlooking the city. On the fifth floor there is an open air balcony with an even better view.

Santa Cruz Trek: Day Four

On our last day of the trek, we hiked past a native village. Notice the thatched roof homes. We met many villagers who wanted to know where we were from. We also marveled at the sheep herds, the pigs hobled to stakes, chickens running around, and steep terraced farmland. A step back in time! After a six hour bus ride, we are now back in Huaraz.

Cattle!

From a distance we mistaked this large cow for a lion. This is true. Fortunately it was just a regal looking bull.

Peruvian Andes!

Simply awesome.

Rain in the Andes

Crossing over Punta Union pass we followed another river valley down to a small native village. Here we are hiking downhill at 13,000 ft which felt much better than hiking uphill at 15,000ft.

High Point

This is punta union pass at approximately 15,700ft (this is what my altimeter read). It took us about two hours to hike from 14k to the pass, an elevation gain of 1700ft. A relatively small amout of elevation to climb by North Cascades standards, but we were slowed by mild altitude sickness. We both had headaches and Michelle was suffering from a cold. Occasionally the clouds would part and we would be rewarded by tremedous views of large broken up glaciers. It would be fun to hike this in May or June when this area is dry and clear.

The Cordillera Blanca

This is the view from our second campsite, when it was not raining!

Santa Cruz Trek: Day Two

The Santa Cruz Trek hikes up a long river valley following the Rio Santa Cruz river. Although the valley lies within Huscaran National Park (named after the region´s tallest mountain) the park still allows grazing by the native people. On this day, we had to walk through this herd of cattle in the rain on our way to our 14,000 ft campsite.

Santa Cruz Trek. Our trip through the Peruvian Andes

This is the first camp on the four day, three night Santa Cruz ¨trek¨. Super famous for the views of the Cordillera Blanca (the central Andes range). Unfortunately for us, the rainy season prevailed and this one of the only views we got of the mountains. The mountain in the background is 20,000ft tall! That is our tent (we rented it in Huaraz) in a field with donkey´s, cattle, and horses grazing; watch where you step!

Delicious Pork

A giant grilled pig for sale on the streets of Huaraz. Michelle and Alex did not eat this.

Peruvian Dogs are great.

A peruvian hairless dog. A national dog found only in Peru. This is true.

Huaraz, Peru

This is a peak in the Peruvian Andes that we can see from our Hostal!

Where we are now!

Right now we are in Trullijo, Peru! So far we have traveled from Quito, Ecuador south to the Ecuador and Peru Border. We crossed the border and traveled to Punta Sal a beach town and then on to Mancora an even bigger beach town, popular with surfer gringos. We are itching for some hiking and climbing, so we are in the process of busing to Huaraz, Peru a mountain town in the Andes.

Punta Sal, Peru. A great beach with warm water!

Crossing the border. Ecuador to Peru.

11 hours on the bus!

The central highlands of Ecuador

Loading the soccer balls on our journey south thru Ecuador

13,000 feet at the top of the TelefriQo

View of Quito from the TelefriQo

Historical District of Quito, Ecuador

The trip begins with hectic packing