Author

Travis

Breaking into Colombia via Bogotá

written by Travis

We decided our first stop in Colombia would be Bogota simply because that was the most reasonable city to fly into using budget airline Viva Colombia. While it took us three hours to book the tickets online and over the phone (don’t ask) it saved $200 each versus other carriers. The things you put up with to save money while traveling like this.

Going in we both were a bit nervous yet excited about Bogota. On one hand, all travel blogs and guide books warned us the city (along with many others in Colombia) were full of muggings and petty crime due to poverty. On the other, almost every traveler we met in South America over the past few months who had been there said Colombia was their favorite country in South America. Hence the competing inner feelings.

We arrived just before midnight after about 30 hours of travel from our starting point of Mancora, Peru. This included a 17-hour bus ride, 10-hour layover at the Lima airport then a 3-hour flight. Once we managed to secure a taxi we were on our way to the hotel. What shocked us the most was the look of the city, even at night. Maybe we were in the nicer parts but it was by far the closest we have seen to a U.S-looking city. Roads were in good shape, people actually followed the road rules (shocking) and buildings were diverse yet well built and attractive. We stayed in the Zona G neighborhood which has tons of bars and restaurants, most of which looked like something you would see in a trendy part of Seattle. Our hotel (Hotel Boutique Zona G) itself was a small 10 room hotel tied to a wood-fired pizza restaurant. For $37 a night we got a nice little room, good wifi and free breakfast and coffee.

We spent the couple days we had in the city going to the gold museum (dedicated to all gold artifacts), attending the Sunday street fair in the historical La Candaleria area, crushing street food, walking around the city and enjoying the various types of cuisine. It was a good entry point to the country and gave us our first glimpse of just how wonderful and friendly the Colombian people are.

National Capitol Building

Archbishopic Cathedral of Bogotá

People watching in Bolivar square

Straight up roasted pig and fried rice out of the back of a car

Looks like fresh juice…actually Tang.

Possibly best corn of my life

Dessert game on POINT

Food cart sweet treat (imagine waffle cone sandwich with carmel in the middle)

June 24, 2016 0 comment

Peru

Adventuring into the Amazon

written by Travis

The Amazon is huge. No other way around it. We knew we wanted a multi-day adventure but were not sure which side of the Amazon to attack it from due to the size and how many entry points there are. We could have done a trek in Brazil (or even Colombia or Bolivia) but we opted for Peru instead because a) less chance to come across a Zika mosquito b) it fit well within our Peru travel plans, and c) we have good friends (one from Peru) who spoke highly of treks coming out of Iquitos/Nauta.

We left Cusco on a quick flight to Lima, waited a few hours in the airport, then hopped another flight to Iquitos. The whole journey took around nine hours. Flying into Iquitos was a treat as you pass over miles and miles of jungle, so you get a sense for the massiveness and beautiful scale of it all. After landing we high tailed it to our hotel where we would spend two nights. We chose hotel over hostel here due to the cheap cost ($31 a night including breakfast). Always nice to get a comfy bed and quality shower when you can for cheap.

Since we travel so fast and couldn’t pin down dates well in advance, we were unable to book an Amazon tour online leaving us trying to find a last minute tour willing to depart in 48 hours. The challenge is most operations have little to no online presence, so you’re left with walking around and talking to people to try and figure one out. Plus, the really strong operations are a bit more expensive and we were trying to find a happy medium of a reputable place without spending a ton of cash. We ended up booking a 5-day/4-night excursion for $375 per person with a company our hotel recommended. It turned out to be a good experience but this was solely because of our guide, Alain. This price included everything: the two-hour taxi from our Iquitos hotel to Nauta (launching point for boat), all meals, lodging, guide, boats, etc. We lucked out and were the only ones on the tour so we had a private guide for all five days. And he was legit! Picture the 5’2” Peruvian version of Bear Grylls who can use a machete like you’ve never seen.

After arriving in Nauta we took a two-hour boat to our jungle base camp near Puerto Miguel. This is a small village on the edge of the Amazon river where they run a village sponsored camp/hostel. Families take weekly turns running the facility and caring for foreigners (cooking meals, cleaning sheets, supplying bug nets, etc.) In return they earn money for their families from the lodging tourists pay. Win-win for all.

We spent three nights in this base camp then the final night we camped out in the jungle (which was on our trip bucket list). There actually wasn’t a ton of difference between the two as the camp was as “rustic” as you can imagine. The Amazon is extremely humid and hot so even under the roof of the base camp you baked and got constantly attacked by mosquitos. We had a constant layer of bug spray on, but it wasn’t enough. Sleep was okay but you spent a good hour each night trying to ensure nothing was crawling inside your bug net. Dozens of large spiders (including tarantulas!) were found inside the building but you surprisingly didn’t mind it as you knew they were catching mosquitos. An enemy of your enemy is your friend, right? Meals were decent considering what they were working with and we just tried to not think about food prep as we had meat for each meal but there wasn’t a fridge or freezer onsite…

Each day we would hop into a small, wooden boat to go up the river deeper into the jungle. Rattling off the things we did on these excursions is pretty comical as the highlight reel just sounds like a movie:

Found anteaters, tropical birds, sloths, three species of monkeys, etc.
Fished and spearfished for piranhas and catfish – grilled them up and ate them
Swam with pink and grey dolphins
Spearfished at night for caiman and grilled up the three-foot one we speared
Found poisonous snakes (including a lancehead) and tarantulas
Hiked through the jungle to learn about the various types of plants and trees and all of their uses for locals. This included learning about a tree bark that you squeeze to release a liquid sap and then drink to fix digestive issues. Katie was not feeling well and tried it first hand – sure enough she was good to go in 30 minutes.

The last night staying out in the jungle was by far the most epic. First we set up “camp” which meant we drove the boat a couple hours into the middle of nowhere then proceeded to clear a 10×10 piece of jungle floor near the river bank. Once the floor was cleared of tarantulas, snakes, leaves, and whatever else crawled, we set up cut down trees as tent posts. From them, we wrapped a long, blue tarp across the ground and up over the bars in a C-shape so the tarp covered the ground we laid on and also created a roof. After that, some tree vines were used as string to set up bug nets. We also chopped down long palm leaves to lean against a tree creating a dry area underneath for a fire to cook on. Viola, camp complete!

That night we learned firsthand how alive and loud the jungle is at night. We were in awe of all the sounds. Bugs, birds, howler monkeys, fish, snakes (and who knows what else) created a constant buzz and jungle heartbeat throughout the night. Sleeping out there was definitely one of those experiences you appreciate more after the fact, because while there you are hot, sweaty, bug eaten and slightly on edge not knowing what will crawl into your sleeping quarters. This is especially true after seeing three snakes that day including one type our guide said killed his grandpa and another guide. I always told myself I would be down to do the tv show “Naked and Afraid” but after knowing what it’s like out there, I don’t think I could ever get behind it. Especially when the mosquitos are insanely strong at night and will bite any open skin not covered in clothes or heavy deet bug spray.

In the end, it was one hell of an experience. For those thinking about it, just know if you’re on a budget it will be a bit rough at times but the pros far outweigh the cons. If you have more to spend there are definitely operations and lodging which create a much more comfortable experience. Hell, there are even small luxury cruise boats that allow you to boat right up to the edge of the jungle and just take pampered excursions in during the day (yeah, screw those guys). It just depends on what you want and are able to do. For us, we definitely roughed it more than we thought we would, but the stories we have now made it all worth it.

Boat from Nauta to our base camp

Main river we explored – water is dark black/green you can’t see more than a few inches deep

Sloth spotting

Headed out to camp

Look out from our base camp

Base camp

Kitchen

Our “bedroom” at base camp – sans roof

Leaf cutter ants doing work

Our guide showing us the jungle

HUGE trees and interesting fact, their massive roots don’t grow on the South side so they are a natural compass

Bullet ants.will.mess.you.up.

Anteater

River exploring

Monkey spotting

Exploring

Giant lily pads

Caught a deadly lancehead snake

Dolphins in the water at sunset

Cutting through the dense brush to get to jungle lake

Jungle lake – most beautiful place in the Amazon we went to

Tarantula

River brush

Homemade pole stick fishing

Piranha!

Sunset fishing

Piranha with some chompers!

Small boat life

Always something cool on the other side of these narrow paths

Ready for anything

Dad shades and a spear…check!

Fruits of our spear fishing labor! (3-foot Caiman)

Nasty lil guy but oh so tasty

Ready to strike

Fried up piranha

Amazon sunset

Amazon sunset

Searching for dolphins

Headed out to find our camp on the last night

Jungle camp

Checking out the small village of Puerto Miguel

More Puerto Miguel

June 6, 2016 6 comments

Peru

Machu Picchu: Our First Wonder of the World

written by Travis

Excited to check off our first (new) seven wonders of the world, we arrived in Cusco, a lively city about 80km away from Machu Picchu. We spent a few nights there getting trains booked, park passes bought and plans in order. Due to the global appeal of Machu Picchu, most people do these things months in advance because certain climbs and treks sell out, but our schedule and timing was so random that we had to sort it all out last minute. Luckily we were able to book seats on the trains we wanted, day passes for the park, and the Mount Machu Picchu climb on our ideal date. Overall cost is surprisingly high for South America because they really have you by the balls and know you will pay whatever they charge for the park passes ($80 per person) and about $130 per person for the train there and back. This might not seem like a lot but when your lodging in Cusco costs only $40 a night and that included breakfast you realize they are really taking it to you.

Cusco itself is a cool city even without the allure of nearby Machu Picchu. Positives: ruins to check out right around the city, a great market, solid restaurants (Jack’s Cafe is the best bang for your buck) and decent night life. Negatives: Cusco is filled with taxis always looking for fares so they proceed to honk at you every time they drive by just in case you didn’t notice they were there. This happens with EVERY taxi and there are thousands. So your whole walk to anywhere feels like you are getting cat called by a used car dealership. The market was a fun experience but for us we really struggled buying a lot of the food as the prep stations exceeded our sanitary limits. Stalls with piles of unrefrigerated meat and fish were being sold right next to the fresh produce then food booth owners were touching all the raw meet and dishing you up so you knew every dish came with a nice side of bacteria. While we like to push the boundaries with food and have gone pretty far, we weren’t about to risk Machu Picchu on some “chicken dish” prepared by Salmonella Sally.

Our Machu Picchu adventure began with a two hour collectivo ride. This is a shared van with tourists/locals to make the cost more efficient (think mini-bus). It cost about $3 each and saved us an extra $20 per person train ride along the same route. Once we arrived at the train depot in Ollantaytambo, we caught a train up to the small mountain city of Agua Calientes (creatively named after the hot thermal pools there, i.e. aqua calientes = hot water in Spanish). The train ride itself was beautiful. We splurged the extra $7 to get the train which was 70-80% windows. It allowed you to get a great view of everything from the white water river to the highest snow-capped mountain peaks. They served small snacks and drinks on the ride but the real reason you pay for it is for the beautiful scenery. Part of me was quite jealous of the people who do the 3-4 day hike to Machu Picchu from Ollantaytambo but at that elevation I know they were probably wishing they were on our train more than I was wishing to be on that trail.

Once we arrived in Aqua Calientes we made our way to our hostel a few minutes away. The whole city is quite small and nestled into the mountainside within a large river valley. Steep mountains rose to the sky on all sides of us giving the feeling we were in the middle of a bowl. While we were only there for the one night we really enjoyed walking around and seeing the small shops and having a bite to eat of the local fare. The only real downside of the city is the restaurant workers practically assault you trying to get you to go to their restaurant instead of the other 100 places. They come out to the street and start rattling off items as fast as possible which is quite comical as almost all places serve the exact same thing and none of it really is that special. Like other cities in South America, we always end up choosing the one place that isn’t begging us to come in because we figure they must have food that stands up for itself. I’d give the strategy’s results a B+ so far.

The next morning, we woke up and had breakfast at 4am so that we could be in line for the first buses to Machu Picchu before 5am. The plan worked well as we were one of the first 200 in the park out of more than 2000 that day. The real benefit of this is you can get in, walk around and take pictures of the ruins before they look and feel like Disneyland. It’s sad to say but during the day there are so many tourists (many older travelers) that really clog things up and ruin great photo opps. All you want is those majestic looking pictures you have seen all your life but they are covered in bright colored fanny packs, tacky Peru tourist shirts, selfie sticks and for some reason always that one girl getting pictures of herself doing all 24 of her Bikram yoga poses. In addition, when trying to walk through the ruins many older tourists are moving at a geriatric pace due to both the altitude as well as their misjudgment of the difficulty of the steepness of the stairs. All of this points back to why we got there early!

Once in the park we took about an hour to get great shots then went over to the base of Mount Machu Picchu to start our assent at 7am. We are glad we chose this start time as it takes about an hour and a half to climb it and the later 9am start time puts you more in the heat of the morning. The climb itself is a grind as you climb uneven stone steps over 2,000 feet in elevation in just over a mile. This means the average angle you are going up is about 30-35 degrees for the first hour then it gets steeper towards the end. To put this in perspective, the average fire escape stairs in an office building are the same degree so this climb was similar to climbing an office building’s stairwell for an hour and a half. Katie and I must have glossed over this as there are plenty of things saying it is a moderate to challenging climb yet we rolled into it like we were taking a beach stroll (cue me wearing a 20lb backpack). Fast forward to the end of the climb and both of use talking mad shit about the Incas and how they must have been gluttons for punishment but at least they had great butts.

Once we hit the top we realized it was all worth it. The views were surreal as it gave you a panoramic view of all the surrounding mountain peaks plus a birds-eye view of the ruins. We spent about an hour up top getting tons of pictures as well as having a snack. Side note—inside the park itself there are food options, no toilets and no trash cans and it says you cannot bring in food, but everyone at the top (including us) brought food. To me it is a bit unrealistic having people do 3-4 hours of intense hiking and telling them not to replenish the calories. And no toilets…don’t get me started. Nobody should have to worry about having an “I pooped my pants at Machu Picchu” story. I was about two minutes away from checking that off my (honey)bucket list. I know TMI but we are in South America. It’s all TMI.

Once we hiked back down we spent the rest of the afternoon touring the ruins and having lunch. By around 2pm it was pretty toasty and we were ready to call it a day, so we finished off by hiking back down to our hostel. In the morning we had opted for the $12 bus (each) to get us to the gates since it was pitch black and all uphill, but we figured paying that much to go down a hill seemed a bit much considering that $24 of savings paid for our lodging that night. This meant we added a 1.5 hour downhill hike to the end of our day, all in all giving us about 5-6 miles of hiking stairs at 6,000-10,000 feet of elevation. We were dead. Luckily the only thing left for us was a quick jump in the river at the bottom, a change of clothes, and catching our train out so we could retrace our route back to Cusco. Was it all worth it you ask? 100% yes. Make sure this is on your bucket list.

Next up…the AMAZON!

Cusco, Peru

Sunday San Pedro Market in Cusco, Peru

Sunday San Pedro Market in Cusco, Peru

Sunday San Pedro Market in Cusco, Peru

Sunday San Pedro Market in Cusco, Peru

Cuy (Guinea Pig)

Peru Rail Train we took from Ollantaytambo to Agua Calientes

Peru Rail Train

Peru Rail Train

Peru Rail Train

Agua Calientes

Agua Calientes

Agua Calientes

Machu Picchu Terraces

Starting the hike up Machu Picchu Mountain (Montaña)