nicaragua debriefing

Hi Everyone!

Sorry for abandoning my blog the past week. We have been sweating through Nicaragua and are now a group of 5 so it makes life a little more technical. Here is a quick breakdown of our travels....

• April 21st, we arrived in Granada and were welcomed with heat and beautiful colonial buildings. We took a horse carriage around the city and Julie showed us her old stomping grounds. 
• April 22nd, Good Friday, we took a 30 minute shuttle to the most amazing crater lake, Laguna de Apoyo, at the top of a volcano. We kayaked, swam, jumped off docks, floated in innertubes, read on hammocks and played banana grams. It was excellent. 
• April 23rd, we took a cab to an hour long ferry to another hour long cab to arrive at our secluded lodge on the island of Ometepe. We were thoroughly exhausted and spent the afternoon reading, walking along the beach and planning for our adventure the next day
• April 24th, we did an awesome tour of Ometepe island. Our guide, Luis ,was super hungover (why do we always get hungover guides) and we took a hike to a beauftiful and refreshing waterfall. We then drove to a nearby beach and kayaked to an island with monkeys (i didn't get out of the boat after learning how agressive monkeys can be in Thailand a few years ago!) and then we ended the day by going to a peaceful natural lagoon where we took underwater photos and got eaten alive by bugs!
• April 25th, we left Ometepe on the most overly crowded ferry I have ever taken (and I have been on some sketchy ferrys in my life). We then arrived at San Juan del Sur, an adorable surf town on the Pacific coast. We spent the afternoon splashing in the waves and coming to terms with the fact that it is well over 90 degrees and humid as shit and we have no AC
• April 26th, we  had an awesome breakfast at a nearby cafe and bookstore and hopped on a shuttle to the nearby surf beach. We rented boards and took surf lessons from a nicaraguan surf diva. It was awesome! I had a lot of success and went back out in the waves on my own a bit later. we got back into San Juan del Sur annd were a bit sun stricken and exhausted. We had dinner at a cute restaurant nearby and quickly two members of our group had to go home from feeling sick. Long story very short, we were all up nearly all night with one girl violently ill, one with some sort of flu, three of us wildly overheated and all the electricity off (meaning no fans to even make a breeze). We awoke this morning ready to get to costa rica and to the air conditioning! We depart on a bus in 2 hours. more from CR!

No Internet!

Hi everyone! How quickly I had forgotten how inefficient central america can be. Neither of our hostels with "wifi" have any semblance of real Internet connection. We are on a very cool island called ometepe. Our hotel is not quite all it promised to be but there are 5 of us so we have eachother! We went on an awesome tour of the island today. Waterfall hike, kayaking in the lake out to an island with monkeys, and swimming in a natural lagoon. All together a great day. Now awaiting dinner and reading water for elephants.

Tomorrow we head to a surf town on the pacific called San Juan del sur. Surf lessons on Tuesday!

Happy Easter to everyone too. I miss home and I feel homesick today looking back on my Easter last year and other events of the past. Sending you all a big hello and write me an email if you ever feel like it!!

Lauren Verrilli
Sent from my iPhone

Nicaragua, I am sweaty

we are in nicaragua! Actually in the town of granada and three more girls from seattle have joined us. This computer is impossibly slow so I will have to post more later. Tomorrow we are going to a crater lake for a swim! It is so hot here, wow it was cold in South america I guess. More later... adios!

Bienvenidos a la Seder!

On Monday night, Julie and I went to the local habad for the seder. Julie is jewish and this is actually my second seder as I went to a very casual one last year in San Francisco. We got to the habad and it had beautiful kitchen, dining room etc. The men were praying in another room facing the wall and the women in the dining room. I was a little turned off by the segregation but after the first prayer we all intermixed and it was great!

The story of the Passover was read in three languages! First hebrew, then English, then Spanish. We arrived at 7 pm and by 1030 we had been given a small piece of matzoh to eat. I was starving! Aside from the pace, the seder was a lot of fun. We met tons of traveling israleis, europeans, americans, ecuadorians etc. Everyone was very welcoming and didn´t mind that I didn´t speak hebrew! We sang lots of fun songs and drank this wine that tasted like flate coca cola.

We had arranged  for a cab to pick us up at 1030 and at that time I was nearly passing out from lack of food so I went back to the hostel with a plate of food to go (the rabbi´s wife was so sweet!) and Julie didn´t make it home until 1 am. She said they ate at 1130! She is a very good jew!

We made friends with an Israeli/Brittish banana farmer living in Columbia who was at the Seder and also at our hostel. We also met a few American girls studying abroad and tons of Israeli´s traveling.

All in all I had a great time celebrating the passover, and also it was cool to see how laid back Jewish traditions are. Everyone is friends, they drink, they chat, they have a good time!

Now julie cant eat bread for 8 days. woof to that!

La Mitad del Mundo and the Egg Tricks

Today we headed out to La Mitad del Mundo-- the middle of the earth! We actually were able to take a cab there.. it is only 40 minutes outside of Quito proper. We started out by going to the monument and checking out the equatorial line. The area is a bit like the seattle center with some open spots and other small museums and exhibits. We checked out the insectarium and were thoroughly grossed out by the GIANT beatles.

Anyway, we then headed over to the museum that had all the cool exhibits and tours. It was awesome. We started out by seeing some of the indigenous buidings (the musem actually brought some of the tribal members to the area to build a hut, since many of the tribes still exisit in the amazon). We also saw the process by which the tribal people used to "shrink skulls." It was pretty gross actually, the basically decapitated a person, took out all the bones and sewed the skin of the face together really tightly to make a mask of some sort.

We then moved on to seeing some of the properties of the equator (enter my nerdy science self!). First we filled a sink with water and watched it go down the drain clockwise in the southern hemisphere, counter clockwise in the northern and straight down the drain on the line. It was pretty cool (maybe a hoax but I don´t know how they could have staged it!).

Next we got to actually test our own dexterity and patience (not always my strongest suit) and balance an egg on the equator on top of a nail. The idea is that at the equator gravity pulls the yolk exactly down and so the egg doesn´t roll to one side or the other. After a couple minutes of attempts both Julie and I nailed it  (pun intended!). it was also very cool, don{t worry I photo documented.

We also go to try some cool tricks using our natural forces. It was much easier to force eachother´s arms down on the equator and much harder to walk in a straigh line on the equator. I guess both of these reasons were due to the gravitational pull being exactly perpindicular to our location. Man, I am so glad I don´t have to take physics or the MCAT again. The equator is the type of physics I can get on board with :)

p.s. another rabies vaccine coming soon.

First times in Ecuador

It seems that Ecuador is a place for some firsts for myself. Here are a few (in no particular order)

My First Time....

• Riding a bike through the jungle with a helmet that looks like a baseball helmet
• Seeing multiple dead/skinned pigs hanging outside small shacks on the road
• Seeing a truck full of chickens drive by and a poor women sitting with the chickens looking miserable
• hitchhiking (safely!)
• swimming in a dique (river pool)
• getting bit by a dog on top of a mountain (which i was not petting!)
• rushing into a clinic and getting a rabies vaccine
• luckily meeting an emergency room doc who told me it most likely wasn´t rabid and the infection isn´t moving toward my heart
• playing a really fun new card game called eucher (i´ll teach it to clar, mel, jebb etc!)
• meeting a bachelor party who told us that baños was like the ecuadorian vegas 
• salsa dancing until 2 am!
• seeing a guy on the dance floor get a bottle smashed on his face and subsequently pass out in a pool of blood
• watching the american ER doc rush to the scene and stabalize the guy
• riding horses through the ecuadorian hills 
• going in hot baths at the base of a volcano
• chugging a bottle of gatorade on the bus only to realize that there was no bathroom and i had 3 more hours to go

We are now back in Quito. It is raining and I miss the carefree life of Baños. Tomorrow... to the middle of the world!! 

Biking through the Ecuadorian Jungle

We arrived in Baños on April 13th and were totally wiped out. On the 14th we decided to explore all this small mountain town had to offer. Taking the advice of a few friends, we rented mountain bikes (for $6.00 each) and set out down the only road out of baños in search of some waterfalls and jungle!

The road was really beautiful and at first it was very downhill. After about 20 mins on our bikes the scenery changed from rolling green hills covered in tall trees to lush, green rainforest with the most beautiful flowers (orchids), banana trees, tomato trees, guavas, oranges, corn everything! We biked to a beautiful waterfall called Pailon de Diablo for lunch and got to climb to the top of the waterfall.

We then continued on our bike ride and it got a little hilly and a little hot. We made it in total about 33 miles to a small town that we had been told had a small dique at the end of the road. It turned out to be an awesome pooling of one of the rivers that they basically made into a natural pool (equipped with slides even). We had brought our swimsuits and jumped in for a dip! It got me excited for Lake Washington. A very nice family came over and said hi to us and (naturally) handed us thier 2 month old son, George Oswald, to hold. It was really fun to hold the little munchkin and the family was delightful.

We then heaved our bikes back up the hill and caught a ride back to Baños. We hadn´t realized how far we had ridden. It ended up being almost 8 hours on the bike!

Baños is known for their naturally occuring hot springs (from the nearby volcano) and we lined up just before 6 pm to go in for an evening soak. There were 3 pools and the hottest of the three was scalding! It felt good, but only for about 6 minutes before I thought I might have a stroke. We then ventured upstairs to the warm and cold pools. It was a great and a really cool local attraction. All the locals lined up in their bathrobes and towels and got together and chatted in the pools. We loved it so much I am headed back there now. :)

Adios!

Adios Peru, Hola Ecuador

After our trek we spent one last day in Cuzco, mostly walking around like we had just gotten off of horses. We dropped our laundry off and thankfully got almost all of it back! Folded, ironed and not smelling biohazardous.

We ate a decadent lunch at a swanky Peruvian restuarant. Peruvian cuisine is amazing and the style and ambiance is far ahead of ANY latin american country I have ever seen. We then got massages that hurt like hell but felt good afterward and had yet another decadent meal for dinner. We got beers with our norwegian girlfriends and had  good time until the waiterss dropped a hot coffee down my back (and newly cleaned clothes!!!). We went back to our hostel, packed for Ecuador and watched HBO, what a treat.


We arrived in Quito after a long day of travel and it was rainy and cold. Not too much excitement as we were completely wiped out but we ate a delcious cuban meal and took hot showers. We then packed up to head to Baños the following morning.

Machu Picchu!!!!

Machu Picchu is a big freaking deal. Like the kind of thing that you sleep 5 hours to enjoy. And that is exactly what we did.

We awoke at 345 am and shoved a pancake into our mouths before waiting in line to catch one of the first buses to Machu Picchu. The street was lined with people getting in line to try to be the first to Machu Picchu and thus get a coveted ticket to climb a nearby mountain called Wayna Picchu (with ariel views of MP). We arrived at 545 to Machu Picchu and I was number 314 out of 400 to climb Wayna Picchu. Thank god!

The mist was breakig as we entered and Eddie gave us a great tour of Machu Picchu. Although it was 6 am I wouldn´t have wanted it any other way. We got to watch the clouds break and the sun shine and the place was practically empty. The structures are seriously breathtaking, and the fact that this amazing and elaborate city stayed hidden for 350 years is simply mind blowing.

The city is perfectly nestled between four mountains and the Incas deliberatley hid all the enterances to the city and abandoned it when the Spanish invaded. Machu Picchu was the city where the royal and noble people lived and the Incas purposfully led the Spanish to their three other cities sacrificing them to preserve Machu Picchu. 

The city is in immaculate shape and 80% of the structures are the original ones and only 20% had to be rebuild. The incas carved the stone with such perfection and detail that walls that surround temples are stronger than walls for homes as it was more imporant to keep temples in tact. Machu Picchu is earthquake proof and has withstood many natural disasters. Hirman Bingham (the american professor who discovered machu picchu in 1911) had left a tree standing in the center to show how high the overgrowth of vegitation was covering the city. I have no idea how he (or the local people) found it buried in these massive trees. It made me think there could be an entire world under the trees in the Andes. Apparently google earth has dispelled that idea...

The incas had created the most elaborate temples to worishp the sun and also that had windows exactly placed so that the sun would shine through them on the summer and winter equinox! The royal palace was huge and just the sheer perfection and presicion of the building was amazing. We got to see the room where the princesess would sleep before they were sacrificed to the gods (the proof is mummies shoved into the temples). The city was lined with very steep terraces used for farming which were also impressive and at such a steep angle!!

The weather was sunny and perfect and by far the best we had seen the entire trek. I wouldn´t have wanted it any other way. We were completely winded from just walking around the city so it really made me appreciate all the work that the Incas had to do to carry these stones and construct this city. The city started to get crowded around 930 am so we headed over to Wayna Picchu to begin our final climb of the trek! Wayna Picchu was another beautiful mountain with a 500 meter vertical climb to the top. The climb was steep but totally worth it. The ariel views of Machu Picchu and the sacred valley were unbelieveable and we got some spectacular photos (which I can´t post until I am home because I don´t have a computer!).

After our descent a few of us hiked uet another 20 mins to see an extremely precarious bridge that the incas built over a sheer cliff that they used to transport in stones and goods from the valley. It was frightening and when we realized we couldn´t walk over the bridge I wasnt too disappointed...

by the time 130 rolled around we were completely exhausted and bought an extremely overprived chicken sandwhich outside Machu Picchu and hopped on the bus back to Aguas calientes. From Aguas calientes we started the LONG journey back to Cuzco. We took a 2 hour train to another inca city (Ollantaytambo). From there we hauled all of our shit (and our filthy selves!!) to a bus for another 2 hour windy drive back to Cuzco. On the drive we encountered a young dentist from georiga who was in Peru for a medical mission and to "extract teeth from natives who don´t know any better." Julie and I had to bite our tounges as we listened to him tell our lovely belgian friends about how Obama wasn´t doing any good for the US and how the health care reform wasn´t going to work and how it was going to make idiots like him lose a bunch of money. Oh and then we also had to endure him talking about how his wife was too "foo foo" to come to Peru. He also spoke no Spanish. At that moment we were so thankful we were the only Americans on our trek and that we weren´t constantly trying to defend ourselves against idiots like this guy who paint terrible pictures of Americans!

We arrived back in Cuzco at 9 pm after being awake since 345 am and of course we left one of our bags on the bus. Thankfully our cab driver took us back to find it! We then tried to get through dinner and showers and literally melted into our hostel beds.

In summary: I was so impressed by Machu Picchu and I think I appreacited it even more from a physical standpoint after enduring five days of snow, rain, sweat, sun, 15,000 feet, camping, vomiting and sheer exhaustion. Taking the train and bus to Machu Picchu would have never let me understand the sheer physical feat that Machu Picchu was for the Incas. We walked in total 75 KM (47 miles) in 5 days and the Incas would do that much walking in one day. I think they actually ran, right? It was a truly unforgettable expereince and also an extremely grueling one! We met some great friends along the way and I hope to see them again.

Thanks for putting up with the Machu Picchu posts. Shorter ones from Ecuador to come...

Day 4: Another mountain

We were up at "la playa" at 6 am and ready to hit the road. Our guides told us it was 3 hours up and 2 hours down and that the trail was well maintained. The trail was actually part of the Inca Trail so it was maintained by the government (or something like this). Well, of course we start out by having to cross over basically a waterfall that had created a massive landslide! It was actually such a massive river at this point that we had to take off our shoes and socks to cross. This was much welcomed relief to get out of my boots for a second. Putting them back on with wet feet was another story.

Once we got on the trail it was narrow and fairly steep, but also a pretty clear route. Our guides were super hungover from the night before (apparently they stayed up until 4 am drinking and hanging with the locals). They weren´t doing too much "guiding" on the trail and when we stopped at a waterfall Eddie actually stuck his entire head under the water. Talk about a hangover cure.  We passed by lots of great fruit trees and ate a few passion fruits fresh off the tree.

At the top of the mountain we stopped at an Incan stucture and learned a bit about the path leading to Machu Picchu. We got to see Machu Picchu peeking out from the clouds which just bolstered our enthusiams. We learned about many of the Inca cities and how the Spanish destroyed them and how the Incas protected Machu Picchu. There were 4 cities that were each exactly 75 KM away from eachother and the messengers would walk 75km each day! That is the amount we walked in 5 days....

Our descent down was fairly steep but the sun came out and we kept eachother company by playing 20 questions and talking about if American summer camps were really how they appeared to be on Bug Juice!

By the time we got off the mountain we were all pretty hot, tired and hungry. We had to cross over yet another landslide before reaching our lunch destination. We ate a speedy lunch and hopped on the train to Aguas Calientes to stay in a hostel (hooray!!) and prepare for Machu Picchu.

Aguas Calientes is a small little town smooshed in the mountains 25 minutes from Machu Picchu. It was specifically created as a spot for tourists to crash before getting up to Machu Picchu the next morning. And that is exactly what we did!

Day 3: vamos a la playa

On our third day we awoke to sun. I actually didn´t think this would be physically possible considering all the rain we heard the night before. At breakfast I found out that a few of our group members actually heard nearby landslides the night before.

We had a shorter day of hiking ahead of us: 5 hours to our lunch spot at which we would hang out all afternoon and camp. The hike started out a bit precarious as we were dodging landslides and walking through rivers, waterfalls and massive amounts of mud. The sun stayed out for most of the time, which provided for some much needed relief for our poor little rain ponchos.

We made a pit stop at a couple little homes that doubled as snack bars for trekkers and I somehow spent 9 soles on a gatorade (that´s like $4.00). clearly the altitude had messed with my normally stingy self.

We arrived at our third campsite "la playa," which is Spanish for the beach. This was ironic because we were no where near a beach, rather a rapidly flowing river that perhaps the locals equated with a beach? We had actually beaten the porters and horses to the campsite because they likely had some trouble getting the horses past all the landslides.

We had lunch and had some time to rest and play games. I was completely exhausted from having three days of hardly any normal digestion so I took a little nap in our tent. Before dinnner we got the chance to rinse off in freezing cold water. It hurt like hell but it felt better than the grimy feeling my body had been in for the past 80 hours!

After dinner Julie, Jessica and I took it upon us to teach some of our fellow campers how to play bananagrams. It was a ton of fun and we actually had some pretty stiff competition from a british attorney. We used Clarie´s special rules to make the game more difficult even!

Before bed, our guide, Eddie, told us that the trail up to the mountain we were to summit the next day was in pretty good shape despite all the rain and that we would continue with our plan to start our ascent at 7 am. Julie, Jessica and I were excited but some of the Austrailian girls (who wore tennis shoes that were not at all waterproof) were not so happy. We all snuggled into our tents and our two guides stayed up drinking with some locals until 4 am. Sucks to be them at our 6 am wake up call the next morning!! More on that later...

Abbreviated version of the trek

For those of you who don´t want the entire play by play, here is a more abreviated version my travel buddy jessica wrote to her family and friends... enjoy!!

"Hi friends!

After five days of trekking 75 kilometers through the Andes, we made it back to Cusco exhausted, sore, and ready to relax.

I wish I could say I blew everyone away with my stamina and physical endurance, but in truth I succumbed to altitude sickness shortly after our lunch break on the first day and I was the girl who had to ride the emergency horse. But I did finish the day on my own and the remainder of the trek, even leading the way some of the time. As Julie pointed out, my body was giving me a heads up that there was a reason I was born in Ohio and clearly not engineered to be in the mountains. To that end, I took a picture of myself with the sign that says we reached 4,600 meters as I do not intend to get up to such a height again.

Beyond the physical difficulties, the entire experience was incredible. We chose to do the Salkantay trek to reach Machu Picchu rather than the traditional Inca Trail. While a little bit more challenging, I am so glad we did it because we didn´t see another group of hikers until we reached Aguas Calientes (the entrance point to Machu Picchu) on the fourth day. Our group consisted of 16 people and Lauren, Julie, and I were the only people from the United States. The rest of the group was made up of people from Australia, Belgium, Canada, England, Norway, and Switzerland, plus our two Peruvian guides. It was awesome to be with such an international group. And, true to the typical patterns of my life, I was the youngest (but the age range was only 22 to 31 which made it a lot of fun) and of the 16, only three were males. Go figure.

The trip came along with all kinds of adventures that we didn´t anticipate, mostly due to flodded roads and landslides blocking our path. At times, we literally had to dam streams and rivers in order to cross. We walked over "bridges" of every possible description and measure of stability. Our first night in the mountains it snowed, we saw two avalanches that seemed only yards away, we found a hidden lagoon, hiked through rainforests, slogged in mud in the cloud forests. At every turn in the road, the Andes just kept rolling on in the distance. 

And, of course, the part you are actually interested in: Machu Picchu. We woke up on Sunday at 3:45am to get in line for bus tickets. I think the only other time I have engaged in such a ridiculous activity was waking up to climb Masada at sunrise, but in this case it was just about beating the lines. By getting up to Machu Picchu so early (at 6) we were able to get access to Wuaynapichu, which is the steep mountain in the background of every picture of Machu Picchu. They only give out 400 tickets a day and it is an incredible view of the ruins and surrounding areas. Plus, we clearly needed one more physical challenge. The sophistication of the city was just as impressive as you would expect. The Incas were so atuned with nature and natural disasters, building their cities in such a way as to protect them from flooding and earthquakes. Mostly, it is just amazing how immense the city is. When it was re-discovered in 1911, the entire city was hidden under trees and shrubs. Standing on top of Waynapichu and looking at the sprawling mountains around us, all we could think about was the possibility that other cities could just be hiding in these mountains. And of course, the insanity/impressiveness that comes with the construction of such a massive network of buildings at the top of a mountain range that we struggled to climb with just our backpacks or even daypacks. After a full day of hauling ourselves around the mountain, we literally stumbled wearily onto a two hour train ride to Ollantambo and from there took a bus to Cusco, finally getting to our hostel at 10pm. Unfortunately, we were starving so we had to suffer slow service at one of the few restaurants still open and didn´t make it to bed until after midnight. Long day.

Since I know most of you probably haven´t read this far (let´s be honest, this email is mostly about me writing down things I want to remember since my journal is fairly incoherent), I´m going to wrap it up. We are spending the rest of today in Cusco taking it easy and enjoying this beautiful colonial city nestled in the mountains. Tomorrow we take a 7:30am flight to Lima, then Guayaquil, and finally arrive in Quito in the afternoon. The current Quito agenda involves getting Julie Indian food and bagels (she´s been down here a while) and catching a bus to Baños on Wednesday morning."

Day 2: 4 seasons of weather

We awoke on a clear morning to the most amazing views of mt. Salkantay. The night was chilly but not unbareable and my stomach was feeling slightly better. I was actually hungry and thirsty! The chatskies (quecha for porters) brought us tea in our tents. We took pictures before even emerging from the sleeping bags. After a breakfast of pancakes and poordige we started the ascent up to the highest point one can go on Mt. Salkantay (15,050 feet). It was hot and we immediately started stripping layers despite hiking in the snow. We reached the view point around 8 am and took tons of pictures with the mountain and the signs. they had an oxygen tank but none of us needed it.

We then left our packs near a rock with a mule and hiked along a more technically rocky "trail" to a hidden and amazing lagoon! it was this blue, turqoise milky color and sat at the base of Mt. Salkantay. it was completely hidden from the trai and I felt really lucky that we got to see it. the water was apparently this special color due to high levels of copper and other metals.

next we each got three coca leaves from our guides and a peice of quartz that we had each picked out of a sacred river the day before. We held the coca leaves in our hands and learned about the incan spiritualuty trilogy of;

• love those around you
• learn knowledge and teach those aroudn you
• work to spread your knowledge and love

They also say to do these things for;

• family
• community
• yourself

We had a moment to reflect and say a prayer of thanks and also to say our own prayers. it was very cool and i was very happy to learn about Pacha Mama (incan spirituality, basically mother earth). 

the rest of the morning we walked in a farly flat-downhill valley which was a much needed downhill. It started to pour rain as we reached our lunch spot and thus we were leaving the sunny glacial area and headed into the rainforse. It rained for a good 2.5 hours and to be quite honest I have had better moments. we each wore these cheap ponchos that covered ourselves and our backpacks. the hiking boots: not so much! Luckily the salesgirl at REI did me well and mine kept my socks and feet dry!!

I played 20 questions with a belgian couple and it was quite entertaining and helped distract us from the rain. At one point we were basically hiking down a small creek. 

we arrived at our camp at about 530 pm (and left our morning camp at 7 am). we were all completely wiped out and drenched! We changed into dry(ish) clothing and successfully taught 5 or 6 people how to play set under the dinner tent. I didn´t eat much of our amazing dinner bc my stomach was still going a little crazy. 

After dinner the guides suggested that we should consider changing our route a bit due to landslide precautions. We couldn´t fully come to a desicion so we just decided to figure it out in the morning. Jessica, Julie and I tucked ourselves into our sleeping bags and it rained so hard for about 3 hours that I thought our tent might just lift up and glisade down the hillside. so that maybe wasn´t the most restful night of sleep I´ve ever had!

the good news: we awoke to clear skies and hot coca :) 

I Am Thankful For:

• Claire for letting me borrow her backpack (thanks clar!)
• My kindle. I am reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, it´s a great book
• REI for having 20% off right when I needed to invest in expensive waterproof hiking boots
• my headlamp
• the porters who helped carry all our stuff!
• the rain fly on our tent becuase I thought we might actually fly away one day
• The austrailian girls who brought lollipops and nerds
• Bananagrams and Set!
• 20 questions for distracting us on the rainy parts of the hike
• a warm sleeping bag
• immodium, excedrin, advil and gatorade
• my amazing hostel bed that I slept in last night
• my camelback
• my swiss friend who let me borrow sunglasses
• chacos
• my deedee that i used as a pillow every night! 
• All the kiddos I babysat for to make enough money to do this trip- miss you little guys!!

Day 1: Rain, New Friends and high mountains

hi everyone!

I am back in Cuzco from our amazing five day trek in the Andes and to Salkantay Mountain. I apoligize in advance because it may take me a few day to get every detail of this amazing trek.

We started at 5 am by being picked up by our guides (Edi and Valentine from SAS travel). There were 16 of us total on the trek; 13 girls and 3 guys (wimps!). We had 4 austrailians, 2 brits, 3 norwegians, 1 swiss, 2 belgians, 1 canadian and we were the only three americans! This was great for us because we gave Americans a good name :)

We drove about 2 hours on a bus outside of cuzco before the sun rose. We stopped in a small town for breakfast and the rain continued to come down in a drizzle. We then got in the back of an open air truck with all our bags and drove 2 hours through an insnaely windy "road" that felt more like a trail. We were bounced around a ton but got to see beautiful green vegitation, cows on the road and orchids and exotic flowers.

We got to the trailhead at about 10 am and put on giant, horrendous rain ponchos that covered our backpacks and our raincoats. We hiked for about 3.5 hours in the mud and dirt through fairly flat areas to our lunch spot. The porters and chef (amazing food!) had beat us there and set up the lunch tent and the food was ready to eat within 10 mins of arrival. We had rice, veggies, chicken curry, carrot soup and fresh stuffed avocados. We also drank as much Coca Tea as we could (made from coca leaves, meant to provide energy and aid in altitiude sickness). Despite being very wet, I was feeling fine!

The next three hours of our hike was much more uphill and the rain gradually let up. We hiked on beautiful cliffs and the clouds and mist slightly covered the green rolling hills. It looked a bit like the marin headlands but much more massive and dramatic (and of course I was breathing way more heavily). I chatted with my trek friends in between gasping for breath and we made it to a gorgeous view point at which we took photos, drank water and layered up to go into the snow. The glaciers of Mt. Salkantay could be seen in the distance and our guides told us we would be camping at the base!

Within an hour we arrived at our campsite. it was surreal. A beautiful little lagoon and creek sat at the base of amazing snow capped glaciers with Mt. Salkantay peak jutting out in the center. We immediatley got into our tents and changed out of our wet clothing and the minute I sat down I felt nauseated. I had been fine all day so I wasnt sure if it was lunch or the 14,000 feet we were at at this point or what. After struggling for a few hours I finally started vomitting, which actually came as relief for me. All i wanted was a cold bathroom floor to lie on but instead I stood over a rock in the pouring rain and with only the light of my headlamp. All and all, it wasn´t the worst thing that could have happened. I slept from about 8pm until 6 am the next morning and woke up to sun and the glaciers practically creeping into our tent. The guides greeted us with chamomile tea in our tents and told us to get ready to go as day two was going to be the most spectacular and the longest and hardest! gulp!

the dirtiest girl you´ve ever met

quick update, just spent an amazing four days camping and hiking in the Andes (We walked over 40 miles, holy hell my body hurts). We went through every possible climate out there.. snow, torrential downpours, heat, humidity, clear skies (could see the southern cross!) and cold nights. We are in Aguas Calientes for one night (and my first shower in 4 days) and will get up at 345 am tomorrow to hike Macchu Picchu and Wina Pichhu (I have no idea how to spell that!)

Met great new friends from all over the world. We were the only Amreicans, surprisingly. Only threw up the first night, which is pretty good if you know my travel record :)

I will post more on Sunday or Monday when I get back to Cuzco. Miss you all!

P.S. everyone please email me your addresses!

Cuzco... llegamos!

We made it to cuzco, in what can only be described as a typical Latin American travel experience. We arrive at the airport at 730 am for a flight at 9 30. Boarding starts at 845. We wait in the boarding area and 845 rolls around and nothing. 9, still the same. Finally just aftert 930 they put us on a BUS and shuttle us to the plane in what looks like a military base (i.e. miliarty choppers and fighter jets). We sit on the plane for another 30 mins or so and finally take off at 1030- no mention of any delay at all.

I think this picture is horrible quality but this is the view of the Cuzco region from the plane. It is so beautiful here! Sprawling hills and small streets lined with cute shops, alpaca wool everything and the occasional live alpaca hanging out with a woman dressed in traditional Incan clothing (of course peddaling for money to take a picture with she and the baby slung on her back which is CLEARLY not hers!).

We depart on our trek tomorrow and we couldnt be more excited. We are at 10,000 feet here in Cuzco and I can definitely feel it. Bottles of water and chocolate bars have been saving me, as well as brief stops to sit on the plaza stairs. We got our sleeping bags and trekking poles rented and we head out tomorrow morning at 530 am and will be back April 10th in the evening. If you are curious about my itinerary and want to follow my trip here it is. 

Our hostel is so beautiful and we are atop a big hill with expansive views of the rolling hills around us. It almost feels like the Marin Headlands (plus an additional 10,000 feet of course!). Our highest spot will be at 15,000 feet. Just bought a camel back so I can slurp on water the whole way up. I also have been sipping on Coca Leaf tea which is basically an ancient drink that provides energy and helps with the altitude. It tastes like leaves.. not like herbs, but like leaves. Almost like bay leaves? It´s pretty good and with honey I´ll take it.  I think it derives from the same plant as cocaine, I need to brush up on my incan drug history. ha. 

I will be without updates for 5 days so bare with me as I make the trek up and down. Updates to come on April 11th. 

MISS YOU ALL! write to me too :)

xoxo

The best ceviche of my life

We had the most amazing ceviche last night at an upscale swanky Peruvian restaurant called "la mar cebicheria"

Julie and I tried five different types: everything from the typical ceviche to one with some sort of squid or octopus. They were so delicious I found myself spooning the sauce into my mouth at the end. We also had the mandatory (and amazing) pisco sours that were frothy, tangy and delicious.

We are in the airport heading to Cuzco now! More later.

Lauren Verrilli
Sent from my iPhone

Lima!

After an uneventful two flights, I have made it to Lima. I apologize in advance because I have no idea how to put punctutation in this post. The keyboard looks about the same but the question mark doesn´t work.

It is 65 and foggy here, looks and smells a lot like SF. The hostel is clean and nice with a pool even. We have our own room and our own bathroom with hot water nonetheless! Lima feels like 2nd world, definitley not 3rd world like El Salvador and other locations. We had a nice breakfast and I got a Peruvian cell phone number. We head to Cuzco tomorrow morning (to 9,000 feet)! So we are just relaxing and getting everything in order right now.

We found a great ceviche place to try tonight! That´s it!

xoxo

Testing. Can I post via text message? Made it to Peru!

Trek Itinerary

For those of you interested in the details of my Machu Picchu trek, here is a closer look at my itinerary. We decided on a less traveled "alternative" route to Machu Picchu because we wanted more expansive views, less out of shape tourists and more time in the Andes.

I am getting excited for: 

Jumping into these hot springs on day 3 of my trek

Alpaca Markets

Ceviche and Pisco Sours 

I just bought a waterproof and "shockproof" camera so get excited for some intense photos. 

Two more days!