Wrapping up sabbatical in Cusco

March 29, 2017

I spent the last few days of my sabbatical hanging out in Cusco eating delicious Peruvian food, buying plenty of souvenirs, and soaking up some more Incan history.

I arrived to Cusco from Machu Picchu around 9 PM, and got dropped off at my hostel, El Grial, in the San Blas neighborhood. I was dirty and exhausted, but decided to grab a quick bite next door at La Bo'M, which had delicious crepes. Then I proceeded to shower and sleep for 11 hours.

Day One

The next morning, I was in the mood for some American-style breakfast (so tired of bread and jam at this point!) so I had a delicious scramble at Jack's Cafe. From there I headed over to the San Pedro market, which is an interesting blend of local and tourist stands. They have lots of cheap food stands, as well as ones selling meats, cheeses, flowers, fresh juices and more. It's also the best place to pick up your cheap typical Peruvian souvenirs; you can get a llama sweater for $10 (which EVERY gringo in town was wearing), blankets, scarves, bags, hats, gloves...it was a bit overwhelming!

Did not bring any cheese home as a souvenir :(

After exploring the market for a bit, I joined a free walking tour. It had great reviews, but I thought it was just okay. After having been in Peru for nearly 3 weeks, I already knew a lot of the info he was sharing!

We met these alpacas on our tour, aka my spirit animals who love sitting around pigging out.

A highlight of the tour was meeting two nice American girls- one from San Francisco! We all enjoyed a late lunch (linner?) together at Morena, a spot they'd heard was good- and it was! Delicious and beautiful to boot.

Causita (little Causas) and ceviche at Morena, yum!

After saying goodbye to my new friends, I decided to get a massage. There are TONS of ladies offering massage in the streets, but I opted for a place that had good reviews on Trip Advisor called Anja. A little more pricey than the random street massage, but totally worth it.

On my way there, I'd noticed a sign at the Teatro Municipal advertising a free concert that evening. I didn't have any other plans, and the timing after my massage was perfect, so I got to check out a free concert from the Cusco Symphony Orchestra!

It was one of my favorite things I did in Cusco because it was one of the few things that didn't feel made for tourists; I was one of just a couple foreigners in the audience. The symphony played some classical music, and then some traditional Peruvian songs that the audience clapped along with.

After enjoying some music, I had a small late dinner at Pachapapa, near my hostel. Turns out my Canadian friends from Machu Picchu were right up the street at La Bo'M, so I popped in to say hello/goodbye to them.

Day Two

I decided that my second day in Cusco would be my main day to pick up some gifts for my family. I headed to the Center for Traditional Textiles, which was not a great place for me to pick up gifts because it's extremely expensive ($45 for a placemat!) but was still well worth the visit. They have a small exhibit on the history of textiles in the area, and weavers demonstrating the process. I love the bright colors and intricate designs of Peruvian textiles, and this was a great place to learn a little more and see the craft in action.

Exhibit showing traditional weaving. It's incredible the beautiful designs they create.

Weavers demonstrating the process for visitors.

I headed to the Artesanal market next, which was a more budget friendly place to do my shopping. The market had pretty much the same souvenirs for sale as the San Pedro market, at the same prices, so it wasn't really worth the trip out there. I was looking for a specific style of purse for my sister, which I'd seen in the San Francisco plaza the day before. I didn't see anything that fit exactly what I was looking for for her, so ended up trekking back to the other plaza to buy it. Way too many souvenir shopping options in Cusco!

After my shopping trip, I enjoyed some delicious seafood at Barrio Ceviche, a bright and western style restaurant in the main plaza. Even though Cusco isn't near the ocean, the fish there was fresh and flavorful. Fun fact: Peruvians don't eat ceviche after 4PM, because it should be made of super fresh fish (they also probably wouldn't eat it in Cusco at all, since it's far from the sea).

I figured I should probably visit a museum or two so I could say I saw something in Cusco other than just souvenirs! So I hit up the Museu Historico Regional. It was similar in many ways to the Larco museum that I'd visited in Lima, with a nice collection of pre-Incan pottery, and some gold, silver and shell artifacts as well. It was nicely organized with good information, and there were only a couple of other people there- which I always like in a museum!

Beautiful shell bracelet. Shells were considered more valuable than gold and silver to ancient Peruvian people.

I'd planned to hit up another museum, but on my way there it started pouring rain! I had my $1 plastic poncho, but it was raining too hard to even walk a few blocks without getting soaked. So, I ducked into Museo del Cafe for what has to be the lamest cup of tea I had in South America. It had one tiny leaf in it! But they had a fireplace, and I had a book, so it was a good place to chill out and wait for the rain to subside.

The rain drove everyone out of the main plaza and under cover, so it was a great time to grab a photo!

Maybe you should not order the tea at a coffee place.

By the time I finished my tea, the rain was starting to clear up, so I was able to walk to Museo del Pisco! I'm not sure if there actually is a museum section of the place, because I was mostly just interested in having a drink at the bar, a Pisco Spritz, yum! They also had a tapas menu that sounded good, but I was saving my appetite for dinner at Organika, a place recommended to me by the American girls.

A great place to spend time if the weather isn't so nice

Day Three

My last day in Cusco was also the final day of my sabbatical! Wahh! I spent the morning getting all my stuff packed, and somehow all my new purchases miraculously fit into my pack.

I got one last dose of Inca history at Qorikancha, which was the most important temple in the Inca empire. However, the Spanish destroyed much of it and turned it into a church, so today it's a mix of both parts of Peruvian history. I decided to "splurge" on a $10 guide to learn more, since I'd visited a lot of other Inca sites on my own. It was a really interesting place to see one of the best examples of Incan architecture; they reserved the highest quality building and stone cutting techniques for their religious sites, and the bricks are carved such that they interlock perfectly.

Incan stonework and symmetry- looking from one of the temples through to the others.

The Spanish destroyed most of the Incan walls and used the stones to build their church on top of the temple.

After the temple, I checked out a vegan restaurant called Green Point. They had a bargain $5 lunch deal that included a salad, soup, main, and dessert. It all tasted pretty good, but, as always with vegan food, I was still starving afterwards, so I also had one of their more filling smoothies.

I made one more stop by San Pedro market to buy some last souvenir gifts on my mind, and then made my FINAL FINAL stop to Incan stuff at the Museo Inka. The museum wasn't that great- it looked like it got the leftovers from the better museums, but it was an okay way to spend an hour before leaving for my flight.

The Incas didn't have a written language, but communicated important information with a system of knots like this one.

After that, it was time to say my goodbyes to Cusco...but not quite yet to Peru! I had a seven hour layover in Lima, so I stowed my bag in airport storage and took an hour-long taxi ride to Maras restaurant for a delicious dinner of grilled ceviche and pork cheeks with corn ravioli (plus a couple of pre-flight cocktails).

I returned to the airport nice and full and ready for my trip home.

So...I guess this is the unceremonious ending to my sabbatical blog! It was an unforgettable 3 months, and taking some time away from work, especially to travel, is something I'd recommend to anyone. Now I can start looking forward to my next trip!

Magnificent Machu Picchu

March 27, 2017

Not many people visit Peru without a visit to its #1 attraction: Machu Picchu! I knew I wanted to do a hike there, but timing-wise, it would have been difficult to do one of the 4 or 5 day treks. I also was not sure I wanted to camp and hike that many days in a row! So the 2 day/1 night option, where you hike part of the Inca trail and then sleep in a hotel seemed like a good compromise.

It was more difficult than I expected to find a trek going during the window of time that I needed. That's a downside of visiting in the low season, though the upside is you can book a few days in advance instead of months in advance! Alpaca Expeditions had a group going, so I was able to join them.

I stayed overnight in Ollantaytambo, which meant I got to be picked up at 5:45, instead of the 4 AM Cusco pickup. Hooray for "sleeping in!" We got on a train, and hopped off at Kilometer 104, which would be the start of our hike.

My group consisted of myself and two families, both with teenage kids. It was a great education on what it’s like to travel with teens (I think it requires a lot of patience :)! For the most part, everyone was well behaved (or just absorbed in their smart phones), but one of the families completely skipped the second day, where we visited Machu Picchu, because the kids didn’t want to wake up early! I ended up making great friends with the Canadian family, and now I have the offer of a place to stay if I ever visit Vancouver!

The Inca trail scenery was much more jungle-y than I expected. It was lush, humid, and there were tons of orchids and a couple waterfalls along the way.

Scenes from the trail (I actually dropped my phone right before this but my guide was able to retrieve it! Luckily I didn't drop off a steep mountainside)

After about 3 hours, we reached some ruins known as Wiñaywayna or “Forever Young,” featuring the terracing and stone houses that I’ve become quite familiar with after a few days in the sacred valley.

We had lunch nearby, at a camp set up for those doing the longer trek. The lunch was prepared by chefs in a tent, and was amazing- those guys can cook better in the middle of nowhere than I can at home!

After lunch, we encountered rain for about 30 minutes. My worst nightmare was that it would rain the whole time and I’d be miserable. I even bought (cheap) pants and a jacket just in case, but all I ended up needing was my $1 poncho. Luckily the rain stopped pretty quickly and we enjoyed dry weather for the rest of our hike.

After hiking a couple more hours after lunch, we reached the Sun Gate! This is where we got our first glimpse at Machu Picchu from afar. After doing just a short part of the Inca trail there, it was incredible to see the ancient city nestled in the middle of the mountains- its truly incredible that they managed to build it there!

Yay we made it, and had to take a picture with our company's sign to commemorate the ccasion. (That one kid totally ruined this photo)

We took some photos, and then headed down for a closer look at Machu Picchu. We didn’t go into the city (that would have to wait until tomorrow), but got a lot of great pictures from nearby. The ruins were almost empty at that hour, about 4 PM, so we were able to not have 500 tourists in the background of our photos.

Worn out from our early wakeup call and 8 hours of hiking, we headed down to Aguas Cliente, aka Machu Picchu Pueblo, to check in to our hotels and enjoy some dinner. I have to say, I was pretty content with the hotel option and happy not to be sleeping in a tent!

The next day it was another early wakeup call- we met up at 5AM to catch an early bus up to Machu Picchu. Our guide was the last one to show- after 5:30, and seemed a biiiit hungover from the night before. There was a big Peru vs. Venezuela football match on, and he seems like he enjoyed himself watching it! When we arrived, he gave us a 2 hour tour of the site (still good, whether he was hungover or not). I thought the benefit of going early would be to visit when it was relatively empty, but there were TONS of other groups there. It didn’t bother me too much, you kind of have to expect that at one of the world’s top tourist attractions.

What I loved about being there so early was the morning mist and clouds on the mountains- it made the whole place feel more magical and mysterious.

After the tour, my Canadian friends left to relax back at their hotel, but I’d signed up to hike Machu Picchu mountain. It’s not as popular as Wayna Picchu (the big mountain you can see behind the ruins in all the photos) but I’d heard that one is not good for people who afraid of heights, so I went for the less scary option.

The hike was not that impressive to me. It was all stairs, for an hour and a half up, and an hour down. The scenery along the way was not that different from the Inca trail, and the view from the top was nice, but not all that different from what we saw at the Sun Gate. The trekking company I used charged $75 for the ticket to the mountain (the actual price is only $15, so I wasn’t thrilled about the markup, but it was the only way to buy it)….and I don’t think it was worth the price! For someone who hadn’t hiked the Inca trail, maybe it would have been more rewarding.

Didn't enjoy the hike that much, but still took a pic at the top!

After hiking the mountain, I had to meet my guide at 1:00 in town, so I grabbed some quick lunch to go and found him. I was really annoyed to learn that a) my train back to Ollaytaytambo was not until 4:30 and b) everyone else in the group was on an earlier train. NOT COOL, since there is literally nothing to do but buy stupid souvenirs in Aguas Caliente.

I ended up meeting the Canadians at their hotel, where they had a nice free lunch buffet, and ate a second lunch. Then I just sat in their hotel lobby and used the Wifi to do some Cusco research.

I paid extra to upgrade to the "Vistadome" train, which was not worth it. The regular train cars have windows on the roof too and the extra money doesn't buy you much. However, in Vistadome we were treated to a small pizza snack, and some kind of local dance/costume which was terrifying:

It's easy to see why Machu Picchu is one of the wonders of the world and attracts thousands of visitors a year!

Exploring the Sacred Valley: Salineras, Moray, & Ollantaytambo

March 26, 2017

The Sacred Valley is filled with interesting Incan sites to discover. Two of the ones on my list were in Maras: Moray and Salineras. Maras is sort of, maybe, not quite, in between Pisac and Ollantaytambo. I thought it'd be easy to find a tour that would take me to these sites, but ALL the tours begin and end in Cusco, after visiting the sites for a few hours. So instead, Janny (from my hotel) helped me hire a taxi that would pick me up in Pisac, take me to visit the sites, and then drop me in Ollantaytambo, where I had a hotel booked for the next night for about $50. It would have been nice to have a guide, but luckily there is Wikipedia, so I read up before visiting!

First stop was Salineras, which consists of 3,000 salt pools that have been in use at least since Incan days. The pools are fed from a natural warm salty spring, which flows through manmade channels and is directed into shallow pools. Then the water channel is blocked so the water in the pool can evaporate, and then locals harvest the salt. Each pool is owned by a different family, and it's all organized by the community.

It was really impressive to see how ingeniously the Incan people set up a system to harvest salt. These days we are pretty spoiled by just going to the grocery store!

Next up were the Incan terraces at Moray. Historians don’t know exactly what these terraces were used for, but the commonly accepted explanation is that they were a laboratory of sorts for testing crops at different climates/elevations: Wikipedia tells me the the difference between the top and bottom is as much as 27 °F (but you’re not allowed to go to the bottom).

There is one that is very well restored and maintained in the photo above, and two others that have not been extensively restored, giving you an idea for what they may have looked like when discovered (they were also probably covered in vegetation).

One of the less well restored terraces, with mountain views!

After checking out Moray, I got dropped off in Ollantaytambo at my hotel, La Casa del Abuelo. Ollantaytambo has been continually inhabited since the Inca days, and many of the streets and buildings date back to that time. Unfortunately a lot of the charm is lost due to a very touristy center, but if you wander slightly away from the main plaza you can stroll peacefully and pretend you're an Inca (or just appreciate the absence of souvenir shops).

That evening I had dinner at La Esquina, where I had an AMAZING salad and some really not amazing carrot cake, then I went back to my hotel which had strong Wifi (so rare) and watched a little Netflix for the first time during my trip!

The following day, I woke up pretty early, and headed to the ruins which were less than a 5 minute walk from my hotel. My plan was to hire a guide there, since I was told that there are usually a bunch of guides for hire hanging around the entrance. Unfortunately, it was international water day, and there was a little celebration going on, so none of the guides were there! I was a little disappointed, but one of the ticket checkers gave me a short overview in Spanish, and I had the site map with a bit of information. There were a lot of tours there, and I thought about asking to join one, but they were all really old people who could barely climb the stairs (no offense to old people), so I ditched that idea and just gave myself a tour.

The ruins are best known as the site of one of the few Inca victories against the Spaniards. They managed to hold back the conquistadors, and flooded the area below, stopping their advance. The victory was short-lived, thought, and Ollantaytambo was soon captured by the Spanish.

It was only about 10:30 when I finished up at the ruins, so I decided to do a short hike before lunch, up to some...you guessed it....RUINS!

Final destination (as seen from the top of the other ruins)

The Pinkuylluna ruins/houses up on the hill were used as storehouses. I have no idea why the Incas would have stored stuff in such a difficult to reach location, but it was a nice way to get some exercise and also offered great views of Ollantaytambo.

Following the hike, I enjoyed another salad at Hearts Cafe, and then I was kind of out of stuff to do, since the only other activities there are more, longer hikes. I ended up going to a cafe near my hotel where I had a tea and a cookie and read a book. Then I just walked around some more, watched some more Netflix, and started getting packed for my trip to Machu Picchu.

Overall I think I spent a bit too much time in Ollantaytambo, but I liked the experience of staying longer in the Sacred Valley villages than most people do. Now that I am in Cusco and I see how hectic it is, it was nice to have a couple of relaxing days and get in some day hikes.

I was really glad I stayed overnight in Ollantaytambo the day before my Machu Picchu trek, because it allowed me to get a lot more sleep than if I'd left from Cusco. You can read about my visit to Machu Picchu soon!

Exploring the Sacred Valley: Pisac edition

March 21, 2017

The last leg of my trip is upon me! The Cusco area is where I'll be spending my last week of sabbatical. I took the night bus from Puno to Cusco, but decided to head straight to the Sacred Valley, in order to take my time exploring the sights and villages there. The Sacred Valley is about an hour or so from Cusco, and has beautiful scenery and plenty of ruins to explore. It's most common to take day trips from Cusco to visit the sights, but I thought it'd be nice to stay overnight in a couple different places to get a better feel for it.

Stunning Sacred Valley! (not taken at 6 AM)

I hoped in a taxi to Pisac, and arrived to Hospedaje Kitamayu at about 6 AM. The delightful owner, Janny, greeted me with tea, and had a room ready to go, so I promptly got into bed and slept for a couple more hours. I woke up nice and refreshed and enjoyed a breakfast of scrambled eggs- a rare treat in Peru where breakfast is usually just bread and jam. Then I set out to see the main attraction, the Incan ruins.

The ruins cover a lot of area on a mountain, and usually you can either hike all the way up/down them. However, right now the middle section of the trail is closed, so the choices were to take a taxi to the top and hike down a bit, or to hike up from the bottom; the latter is what Janny recommended to me. Of course, I started off the hike by going the wrong way for about 20 minutes. A local guy was walking along the path, and helped me find my way back to where the trail ACTUALLY started. I seriously should not be allowed to hike on my own, I get lost EVERY TIME.

The trek takes you up a mountain with some beautiful views, and the opportunity to see some Incan agricultural terraces. Along the way, there are various ruins that you can explore.

Incan terracing near the beginning of the hike

When I reached the last hike-able part of the trek, I met a German couple who had come down from the top. They told me there was an alternate trail and pointed it out, so I started hiking on it hoping to make it to the top of the ruins. But….the trail just looped back on itself and brought me right back to where I’d met the Germans. Grrrr!

I was kind of disappointed (and tired from now having hiked even more uphill), but all things happen for a reason! When I got back to ruins where I met the Germans, I was surprised to run into one of my friends from Spanish school in Medellin! He was there with his girlfriend, and we ended up making plans to have dinner together that evening, which was a great time.

After my hike, I enjoyed some lunch at Mullu in the town square, and visited the Pisac market. The market essentially takes up the entire town square, and is filled with typical Peruvian handicrafts and souvenirs. It was very touristy, but I love Peruvian textiles and the prices were pretty good, so I left with quite a few things!

The next day I didn’t do much in the morning. I was starting to get worried about my lack of waterproof clothing and the high chance of rain predicted on my upcoming 2-Day Inca trek, so I ended up buying some gear from some local shops in Pisac. I picked up a pair of pants and a Colombia knock-off jacket for a total of $34: a low price to pay for peace of mind knowing I’ll be dry on the trail. Well, unless my cheap crappy clothes are not in fact waterproof!

That afternoon, I continued by Sacred Valley trip by checking out more Incan history at Moray and Salineras de Maras on my way to Ollantaytambo. More to report on that soon!

Floating around Lake Titicaca

March 19, 2017

Hello from the highest altitude lake in the world! I am currently at a homestay in Lago Titicaca. Without Wifi, of course (or electricity, or running water for that matter), so I’ll post this when I get back to dry land.

Today we arrived in Puno a few hours behind schedule, due to our bus being delayed by the flooding in Lima and the central coast. Most of the people on the Peru Hop bus are staying in Puno and down a day tour on Lake Titicaca, but I thought it could be an interesting experience to stay on an island on the lake. Some people I met in Arequipa mentioned an amazing experience they had at a lodge here, but it was all full (and very expensive) when I tried to book it, so I found a somewhat random alternative on hotels.com: Titikala Uros.

I booked my stay online, but the lodge doesn’t have a website or email address, so I had my hotel in Arequipa call them to figure out the details. I wasn’t quite sure it would work out, but here I am! I waited around in Puno for a while until Hernan, who seems to be running the show, came to pick me up and take me to the island. On the way to the boat, we walked through a huge street market. Once a week, on Saturdays, lots of people come from islands and villages to do their shopping in the streets of Puno. You can buy shoes, school supplies, food, and even chickens! (I did not buy any chickens)

After our brief stroll through town, we got into a small motor boat for a very chilly ~20 minute ride to Uros, accompanied by an English-speaking guide/native of the islands (I forgot her name, but I think it was something like Sintra). The Uros islands are manmade with reeds that grow in Lake Titicaca. There are about 90 (I think) small islands, with a few families living in small huts on each one. The little island I’m staying on is called Santa Maria, and I think it's one mainly for tourist purposes.

I am a little confused about how this experience is supposed to be working- I think the family was supposed to be here when I arrived, but there was an important meeting of some kind in Puno for the islanders, so it was just Hernan, Sintra and myself when we got here. Sintra suited me up in some traditional clothes, which are in fact very warm, and then Hernan took me on a kayak ride around some of the islands. The lake was really peaceful and it was an interesting way to see things!

When we got back, it was dark, and the solar-powered electricity was not working! So I helped Sintra, mostly in the dark, cut up some things for dinner. Sintra told me that the lodge was created to help the local families earn money, and they rotate which family tourists stay with when they visit. So when the “family” arrived back, I was a little confused as to whether they always live on this island, or just come here to visit with tourists. I may never know! I also put family in quotations, because there are two older women and one middle aged man, and I don’t think they are related to one another. So maybe it’s just a random group of locals assembled to entertain me?

Anyhow, once the family arrived, Sintra and Hernan left, so it was me, my lousy Spanish and three islanders! The Uros people mostly speak a local language called Aymara, but they also speak some Spanish. I exhausted all my Spanish pretty quickly and they didn’t really ask me many questions, so dinner was a little awkward. It feels kind of like I’ve paid some people to hang out with me/to intrude on their lives. They also served me so much rice and french fries at dinner and I felt like I had to eat it all even though it was way too much food! Carbo loading continues!

Home sweet hut (taken the next morning when it was less cold)

So now I am in my room: a small but nice hut, and it is FREEZING. I’m wearing two pairs of pants, a shirt, sweater, jacket, and another jacket, and a hat, and have 3 blankets on me. I am also strategizing how I’m going to wash my face using only bottled water.

I realize I probably sound kind of negative about the experience, but temperature and awkwardness aside, it is really interesting to actually see more close up how people live on the islands and to have the opportunity to observe some of their day to day. I think if I were to do it again, I would have organized my plan a little earlier so I could stay at a homestay that’s a bit more established and well recommended. But for now I am going to enjoy living/freezing like a local.

Back on dry land now- the next day I woke up, and enjoyed a huge amount of bread for breakfast (seriously, I can't eat any more bread). Then, the tourist boats started rolling in! That made me really glad that I visited the islands in the evening and stayed overnight to experience them in a much more peaceful way.

I hoped aboard their boat in Uros, and we sailed about 2 hours to Isla Taquile, which is natural (not man-made like Uros) and where the people still practice a very traditional lifestyle. We snapped some photos at the beach and then walked about 40 minutes to a part of the island where people live.

Textiles are huge in Taquile, and these crafts were recognized by UNESCO in 2005. The men all do knitting, and the women weaving, and they have different hats and clothing to indicate whether you're married or single. Their weaving is really beautiful, intricate and colorful- you can see some of it in this photo, where they're doing some traditional music and dance.

Following the explanation, we had some tasty lunch of fresh trout from the lake, and then headed back to our boat for the trip back to Puno, during which I took a great nap.

Overall I thought the islands were a worthwhile stop on the way to Cusco- and now I can say I've been to Lake Titicaca, the highest, and most ridiculously named lake in the world!

Trekking the Colca Canyon

March 19, 2017

One of the key reasons to visit Arequipa is to visit the Colca Canyon. The Colca Canyon is one of the deepest in the world. I’ve heard some conflicting stats- either that it’s the second or third largest. In either case, it’s super deep: twice as deep as the Grand Canyon.

There are a few different ways you can see it depending on how much time you have and your appetite for hiking, so I opted for a three-day trek. The bus picked us up at 3 AM for a four hour drive to the start of the hike. Along the way, we stopped for breakfast (it was lame- just bread and jam in a freezing restaurant) and at a viewpoint where you’re supposed to be able to see condors, but we didn’t glimpse any. It still offered some great views though.

At about 8:30, we got going on the trail. Our group had eight people in total. Myself, Trace (a girl I met on the Peru Hop bus), a Belgian couple, an Australian couple, a guy from the states named Jason, and our guide, Giancarlo. Giancarlo decided that our group would be called The Pumas, and our catchphrase was “Hakuna Matata.”

The first day we just walked down, down, down for about 3.5 or 4 hours. I thought going downhill was easy, but it was actually pretty rough on my butt!

We hiked allll the way down to the river in the middle of this photo

Once we reached near the bottom of the canyon, we stopped at Familia Gloria, our rustic homestay for the night.

We were all pretty hungry for lunch, which unfortunately turned out to be a pretty small portion of lomo saltado. For the rest of the afternoon we just chilled out- figuratively and literally- it was really cold down there! There was of course no Wifi or TV or anything, but luckily someone brought a pack of cards so we played a few rounds to kill time. Dinner was a small vegetarian meal, so we all went to bed a bit hungry :( Breakfast was a little more filling, and much cuter:

The next day was another 3.5 hour hike to “The Oasis” - it was more of a mix of uphill/downhill and flat, and we started at 8:30, not 3 AM, so I was in much better spirits! The Oasis is truly that, a small lodge with green grass, fruit trees, and even a pool! It wasn’t super warm, but we all jumped in anyway to celebrate making it to the bottom of the canyon (and, at least for me, to wash the sweat and dirt off myself!).

For those that do the trek in two days, they walk all the way to The Oasis in one day; I was really glad I’d opted to do the longer, slower version of the trek. The lunch portions were similarly small, but at this point we’d come to have lower expectations for the food on this trip. After lunch some of the guys played soccer, I read a book, and then took what ended up being a super long nap! The Oasis had some games, so we played a little Jenga. Then our guide Giancarlo but on some Peruvian music and taught us a dance, which seemed to mostly consist of jogging in place with an occasional kick. It got our heart rates up, that’s for sure!

For dinner, we finally had a big plate of pasta to prepare us for the hardest part of the trek the next day! We started the hike at 4:30 AM, and it was 3 hours of an unrelenting uphill climb. We all took it at our own pace, and even though I was one of the slower hikers, I finally made it to the top, with the help of some podcasts on my cell phone to distract me. Once we reached the top of the canyon, it was another 30 minutes of walking on flat ground to our breakfast destination (yes, we did that whole hike BEFORE breakfast, but don’t worry we all had snacks).

After a hearty (well, for Peru) breakfast, we hopped on a bus back to Arequipa. We stopped along the way at a restaurant with a lunch buffet. The guys in the group went crazy eating everything they could after our meager meals over the last few days. I took it a little easier than they did :)

After lunch we stopped at some hot spring pools, which felt AMAZING after three long days of hiking. I didn’t feel sore the next day, and I definitely credit the pools for that!

The hike was challenging at times, especially with the early wakeup times, but it was definitely one of the highlights of my trip so far. The views were amazing, I got to push myself physically, and I loved the people in my group. There’s nothing like accomplishing something together, and a lack of technology, to bond with new people. I had a great time getting to know them, and we all hung out again once back to civilization.

Back in Arequipa, Trace and I shared a hotel room back at Casa de Avila, where I enjoyed the longest shower ever, and then we treated ourselves to a nice Italian meal before collapsing to bed after our big hike!

Arequipa: The White City

March 19, 2017

Greetings from the Peru Hop bus (actually not really that’s just where I drafted this)! We are in the middle of our journey between Arequipa and Puno, slightly delayed because there is currently massive flooding in the north of Peru, where our bus came from. Luckily, it’s been a smooth ride so far.

I spent a total of five nights in Arequipa, a beautiful city that also serves as the base for visiting the Colca Canyon. The first day, our bus arrived at about 4:45AM from Huacachina, and I paid my hotel $10 extra to be able to check in early: money well spent! I was able to go back to bed for a few hours, and wake up rested and ready for some sightseeing. I stayed at Casa de Avila, a pretty reasonably priced place with AMAZING service. Shoutout to the night receptionist, Juan, who made our stay extra pleasant.

After catching some more shut-eye, I went on a free walking tour, where our hilarious guide Karo told us more about this history of the place and we got to see some of the highlights. Arequipa is known as “the white city” for two reasons: first for the stone that their most prominent buildings are made from, and also, Karo told us, because the people are have more white skin due to intermarriage between hispanic and indigenous people.

After the tour, I went to lunch with Allana, another American girl who I met on the Peru Hop bus. We went to a “picanteria” called La Mundial, a local eatery where we enjoyed some HUGE portions of potatoes and rocoto relleno, a stuffed pepper

One of the most popular local goods in Arequipa are alpaca sweaters, hats, blankets, and more. So we went on a short walk to Mundo Alpaca, a store recommended by our guide to find authentic and good quality baby alpaca items. Baby alpaca wool doesn’t actually come from baby animals, but rather refers to the wool from the first shave- it’s extra soft, and very expensive! I was in the market for a hat to wear on my trek, and a baby alpaca one would have cost me about $60. Instead I bought something lower quality and cheaper in a less nice shop in town.

It started thunder-storming during our shopping trip, so we quickly walked back to our hotel, where we’d booked a cooking class. The class was led by another woman with a great sense of humor, and we learned how to make causa, a potato and chicken salad tower, and lomo salted, beef cooked in pisco and soy sauce with onions and tomatoes, served with rice and fries (Peruvians know how to carbo-load!)

Then it was off to bed early because we both had a 2:30 AM wakeup call for tours to the Colca Canyon. Read about my three-day trek HERE. I’m going to keep all the Arequipa info in one place, instead of being chronological, since I’m writing this all after the fact anyway!

After returning from the Colca Canyon trek in the evening, I took the longest shower ever, and Trace (my friend from Peru Hop and the trek) and I went to an Italian restaurant, Il Fornellino to treat ourselves to lasagna, cake, and a tasty bottle of Peruvian Malbec (I didn’t know they made wine in Peru!)

The next day, I needed to do some planning for the last week or so of my sabbatical (WHAT? How am I already in my last days??), so I set up camp in an amazing coffee shop called Palacios Coffee a short walk from my hotel. While enjoying an iced mocha I figured out an itinerary and lodging for my time in Cusco and the Sacred Valley.

Trace did the walking tour that morning, so we met up afterwards and visited the Santa Catalina monastery, a huge monastery in the center of Arequipa. We opted to pay an extra $3 each for a guided tour, which was WELL worth the cost. Our tiny guide Susy took us around for about an hour, and explained the history of the convent, which dates back to the 16th century.

I was surprised to learn that it was common for upper class families to send their second daughter to become nuns, and that there was even a social hierarchy among the nuns based on how wealthy their families were. The families paid for small apartments to be built for their daughters, so the more wealthy the family, the sweeter the apartment and they even had servants to do the dirty work for them!

The monastery is still functioning today, but nuns have to practice a more austere lifestyle, without big private apartments or servants, and visitors aren’t allowed in the part where nuns are actively nun-ing.

We enjoyed some lunch at Crepisimo, a crepes place, continuing my trend of eating mostly non-Peruvian foods in Arequipa. There, we met up with some of the other people from our trekking group, and made a plan to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day that evening.

I headed over to the market, which we first visited on the free walking tour. It’s relatively small for a marketplace, but well organized, with different sections ranging from fruits to hats to herbal remedies and even things like llama fetuses for practicing certain rituals.

I wasn’t in the market for any llama fetuses, but wanted to return to try some fresh made juice- I had a smoothie made of strawberry, passion fruit, mango, and orange juice. YUM!

Like good foreigners, we put on our green clothes to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day at a hostel called Wild Rover, a chain famous for its party scene. They didn’t disappoint! They had a cover band playing American songs, the bar tenders were dressed all in green, and they even had a bunch of festive accessories and face painting. They also had Guinness, but it was $7 a can, super steep for Peru, so we stuck with the local beer. It was really fun to get our little hiking group back together and hang out for one last time before we had to go our separate ways.

The next morning, some of us, including me, boarded the bus to Puno, which is where I’m headed now, to explore Lake Titicaca for a day, and then onwards to Cusco!

Hopping around Peru: Paracas, Huacachina and Nazca

March 19, 2017

To get from Lima to Cusco, I boarded the Peru Hop bus, which makes a bunch of stops along the way, and you can stay as may or as few nights in each place as you want. First stop: Paracas. Well, actual first stop, an old mansion somewhere on the way to Paracas. What is now a beautiful hotel used to be a plantation home which had secret slave tunnels for sneaking slaves into the house without paying taxes on them. We got to walk down in the tunnels, and at one point all turned off our flashlights to feel what it would have been like to try to navigate the tunnels as a slave. Unpleasant, needless to say.

Paracas is a small beachside town without much going on besides a bustling tourism industry based on the nearby Ballenas islands and sand dunes. The first day we arrived, I had "lunch" (I guess that's what you call it at 4 PM) with some people from the group and then stretched my legs with a walk along the beach after sitting in the bus for almost 11 hours.

I stayed at the Kokopeli hostel, and have no idea why I booked it because I imagine the reviews I would have read would have mentioned that it was a total party place. They had a loud party going on until about 4 AM, so I didn't sleep very well that night! The next morning, we boarded a boat to visit "the poor man's Galapagos" - the Ballenas islands.

The islands are famous for being covered in bird poop, which is apparently so valuable there was actually a war over it! Today, small boats take tourists there to see the birds and sea lions. We were lucky to visit during summer, when the sea lions have their babies- we passed by one beach that was completely covered in sea lion moms and pups. So cool! The island are also supposed to have penguins, our guide pointed one out, but I'm not totally convinced it was a penguin.

It's impossible to tell, but the beach is covered with sea lions

After the boat tour, we hopped back on the bus for a short tour of the Paracas National Reserve. I had no idea what to expect from the reserve, but was surprised to see it was a really striking landscape where the desert meets the ocean.

After snapping all of our photos, we carried on to Huacahina, just an hour or two from Paracas. Huacahina is a little oasis town in the middle of the desert. Like Paracas, it felt a bit just built around tourism, which isn't my favorite atmosphere. The main tourist activity there: riding a dune buggy to go sandboarding! I'm pretty much just signing up for all the activities offered (especially since they're usually $15 or less), so joined up on this tour as well, once again not really knowing what I was in store for.

The dune buggies are TERRIFYING. Or really fun if you love feeling like you're going to die in a desert car crash at any minute. It's like a roller coaster, but in an open dune buggy. The drivers, who I can only hope are experienced, drive like maniacs, racing up and down hills and skidding to a stop inches from selfie-snapping tourists.

Once we reached our destination, it was time for sandboarding. Well, it was time for that for everyone but me because I'm a chicken. Sandboarding is kind of like sledding, but in the sand. Most people go down on their stomachs because it's too dangerous for novices to go down standing up, except on the smallest of the hills. I pretty quickly remembered that I hate going fast down things, so instead volunteered to take everyone else's photos. No regrets! Check out one of the girls from my group:

After the main event of sandboarding, we had a crazy drive up to a quiet spot to watch the sun set and take some epic photos.

It was actually super windy, that's why my hood is blowing over my face

That night I stayed slightly off the main tourist drag at a place called the Upcycled Hostel. It wasn't one of the partner hostels of Peru Hop, which I actually really enjoyed. It was nice to get away from the group for a little bit and meet some other travelers. The owner of the hostel was amazing- he chatted us up and made us feel at home. Plus I had a super comfortable room, so I made up for the bad sleep the night before!

The next morning it was up early again to check out the famous and mysterious Nazca Lines. The lines were made by a pre-Incan society, but nobody has definitively discovered their purpose or how they were made, as they can only really be seen from the sky. Peru Hop doesn't officially go there, but they helped some of us set up the tour. I took the local bus with 3 other gals about 3 hours to Nazca, where the small airline picked us up.

We arrived at a tiny airport, which only serves the purpose of flying tourists over the site in teeny tiny planes. First we all had to get weighed- which I don't recommend after two months of eating indulgently every day. Then we went through "security" and boarded the six-seater plane (plus two seats for the pilots).

The planes fly at a fairly low altitude over the lines, and to give you a view of them, they basically tilt at 90 degrees so that your window is looking directly over the lines. Even though I knew that it was probably safe, when your plane is parallel to the earth, you can't help but feel like it's going to crash. So once again, TERRIFYING. It's really common for people to be sick on these rides, luckily I held in my breakfast, but one guy did throw up on my flight. After this and the dune buggy ride, I think I've had my fill of adrenaline for the month!

A heavily edited photo of the Nazca lines so you can see them more easily. In real life, they're very faint and tricky to spot.

After the Nazca lines trip, we still had a good six hours to kill before the bus swung through to pick us up, so we went to one of the tourist offices to see what we could do to kill time. We ended up going on a tour to the Chauchilla cemetery, about a 30 minutes' drive from Nazca.

There are about a dozen graves from the pre-Incan peoples, with some fairly well preserved bodies (mummy feet, eeek!) Grave robbers have stolen most of the items of value, and also scattered bones around the site. What was insane to me was that the graves were completely open without any security. I guess maybe the bodies aren't very valuable? But I think something like that in the states would be a little more closely watched....if any of us had wanted to we could have easily climbed into the graves and taken stuff out! It was also really strange to me that they left the site littered with bones. There was just a random femur sticking up near the path in one section.

After the cemetery visit, we made a couple of short and interesting stops to learn about traditional ways of making pottery and textiles. I think they take us there to buy stuff, and we did buy stuff, so, I guess it worked out for everyone!

Dude has been making pottery his entire life

At about 7 PM, the Peru Hop bus swung through Nazca, and we hopped on for an overnight trip to Arequipa, which is where I'm writing this post!

Lima in a day

March 10, 2017

My introduction to Lima was a terrible traffic jam from the airport! I thought Bay Area traffic was bad, but this was about 10 PM, and the traffic was so stopped that my driver just turned off the car. We finally got moving, and I made it to my hostel, Miraflores House, which is run by the friendly and enthusiastic Francis. I headed straight for bed, but the next morning he spent a good 30 minutes with me going over the sights and tons of amazing restaurants.

He also explained to me the taxi system there, which is basically as follows: There is no meter. Ask the first taxi for the price, they will quote you an extremely high price because they see your blonde hair and therefore think you’re a millionaire. Make a big NO sign with your hands, and go to the second taxi in the line. That guy will also give you a way-too-high price. Wave NO again, and go to the third taxi who will by now see you know what you’re doing and give you the normal price.

Oh hi there would you like to get ripped off?

That all sounded a little too challenging, so instead I just called an Uber to take me to the historic center :) I put in the Gold Museum as my destination and after a 40 minute ride in a 90 degree, high humidity, no air-conditioned taxi (yes, I called an Uber, which ended up being a taxi….) we pulled up to….definitely NOT the historic center. Apparently there are two gold museums and I’d put in the wrong one. So, the guy agreed to take me to the town center for a fairly high price, but I didn’t exactly have a lot of options. So another 45 minutes of hot, sticky taxi ensued.

When I finally got to the town center I was sweaty and cranky, but it did feel pretty good to get out of that cab. I strolled around a little bit until it was time to see the changing of the guards in front of the presidential palace. The ceremony is accompanied by a great marching band, so that was pretty fun to watch.

After watching the band play, I went to get some lunch at a restaurant recommended by Francis. I had a tasty ceviche, and then did a little more uninformed sightseeing in the center. Then it was time to try my taxi negotiation skills to get to a museum on the other side of town. It didn’t quite work as described, and I think I still got ripped off, but at least getting ripped off in Peru only costs you about $3.

The Larco museum houses a nice and well-explained collection of pre-Incan artifacts, including a whole exhibit of “erotic pottery” (definitely for adult eyes only!). The building is also a beautiful little oasis from the chaos of Lima. After the museum I headed back to the hotel to rest a bit before the main event of the day- dinner at Central.

Central is one of the top restaurants in the whole world, and probably the best one in Peru (though that’s very subjective of course!) It’s usually recommended to book weeks in advance, but I put myself on the waiting list and got a table for one. Score! The theme of their tasting menu is altitudes, since Peru has such diverse altitudes from sea level to towering mountains. I enjoyed 17 small tastes from different regions of Peru, each with its own poetic description like “Forest Cotton” or “Marine Soil.” Each course had vibrant flavors and interesting textures, and was a very cool way to sample (a high end interpretation of) Peruvian cuisine. I actually enjoyed having that dining experience on my own (and without any cell phone/wifi) because I was able to totally focus on the experience of the food. It may have cost more than a week’s lodging in hostels, but well worth it, I think :)

My Lima writeup would not be complete without sharing one of the highlights- the AMAZING GROCERY STORE. The grocery store had a huge selection of gourmet greek yogurt, and American delicacies such as peanut butter and Ritz crackers. I was extremely excited to stock up on some snacks for the next few days.

I'm sure the chefs at Central would be horrified by this photo

The next day it was up early for the next leg of my trip. I can’t say I left feeling much love for Lima. The food is great, but it’s hot, crowded, ugly, and the traffic is terrible. I was glad that I only spent one day there, and glad that I don’t have to return (except to fly out of the airport). Next up, I am trying something different on the Peru Hop bus.

Planning three months of travel is a lot- think about how much planning you do for a week’s vacation, and multiply that by 12! The Peru Hop bus seemed like a good way to see a lot of the places I want to see without having to figure out all of the details. The idea is similar to those hop-on-hop-off busses in big cities, but you can hop on and off in different towns on the way to Cusco (from Lima). They suggest how long to stay in places, but if you want to stay longer, the choice is yours. They also can help you with booking hostels and activities along the way. The reviews I read also said that it’s a great way to meet other solo travelers!

I just wrapped up my first day on the bus and so far so good. It’s definitely a very different style of travel to get used to. Even though it’s a lot of work, there’s a certain amount of pride in figuring things out for yourself. On the bus everything is as simple as “Want to do this activity? Okay just sign up and meet at the designated time.” I’ll still have a week in the Cusco area to plan on my own, so I think I should let myself just sit back, relax, and enjoy someone else taking care of this leg of the trip!

Eating and drinking our way through Buenos Aires

March 10, 2017

Today's blog is a collaboration between me and Bunny, my BFF who came for an amazing week in Argentina! Here is what she has to say about Buenos Aires....

Hola chicas!

I’m on my flight home from and AMAZING trip with Kate and just realized that my total travel time is 20 hours. I thought it was only 15 (which doesn’t even make sense, womp womp). My flight left this morning at 6:15 which meant I had to be at the airport by 4:15—way too early for anything productive to be happening!

I arrived in Buenos Aires a little before Kate— she was meeting me there after a great week in Bariloche. It was perfect that I came in the afternoon and she arrived in the evening, because the first thing I did was take a long nap and then freshen up for our first night!

I didn’t know what to expect at all for Argentina. Looking back, I probably should have done more research on the culture but I just knew it was a fun place with great food and great wine, and that’s all I needed to hear to be convinced to go!

Kate and arrived and the first thing I noticed was she is SO TAN! South America has clearly been treating her well. We stayed in a darling Airbnb in Palermo Soho, which is a happening neighborhood…and actually reminds me a lot of SoHo in NYC. Lots of boutiques and great restaurants, we spent a lot of time just walking around in the VERY humid weather window shopping and catching up.

I was surprised by how many dogs there are in Argentina as pets (and also strays, sad). In BA the most popular breed by far seems to be the poodle, clearly they haven’t been introduced to Chihuahuas which is unequivocably the best breed and I think everyone agrees. In Northern Argentina there were lots of street dogs, mostly big mutts but we also saw purebred dogs like a dalmation, a lab, and a hound dog…all living on the streets! I have no idea where people in these rural communities are getting these animals.

Our first stop was a cute little place called Bartola for a bottle of rose and a snack around 7PM because we had 10:30 reservations at a “closed door” restaurant called iLatina with Briel, who Kate met in Bariloche.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Kate taking over the blog post from this point!]

iLatina features a seven (I think?) course tasting menu of Colombian-inspired food. It was definitely better than any food I ate in Colombia, though! We had a great time at dinner savoring all of the flavors and tasting a bunch of different Argentinian wines.

The following day, we continued the food theme with an Argentine cooking class, with chef Norma. She is a psychiatrist by trade, but started doing cooking classes at her home after some friends enjoyed her lessons. We learned how to make a traditional lentil stew, empanadas, and alfajores, YUM!

Teaching us how to fold empanadas....Bunny is like "I already know how to do this because I'm a master baker"

Following our cooking lesson, we met up with Briel again, and checked out El Ateneo, a famous and beautiful bookstore. We don’t read Spanish, so it didn’t take us too long to breeze through and then had a leisurely walk to the Recoleta cemetery, with some shopping stops along the way.

The cemetery is famous for its interesting tombs, including those of some famous Argentinians like Evita. We got there not too long before closing, so enjoyed a brief walk among the graves (which feels weird to write).

Bunny’s husband Jake has some friends who are living in Buenos Aires for a few months, so they invited us to meet up for drinks that evening. We had some delicious cocktails and some so-so tapas at a very cool place called Milion. It’s in a cool old mansion whose bar was super bumpin’ when we were leaving, since Argentinians start their evenings when Americans are usually going to bed!

We spent our last day in Buenos Aires checking out some local shopping. First stop was the huge San Telmo market. On Sundays the streets are closed for blocks and merchants line the way selling all souvenirs, art, and clothing. We stumbled upon a little restaurant midway through that had some live music, beers, and empanadas, so we stopped to enjoy some tunes and a beer!

Then, we headed back to our adopted neighborhood for a delicious lunch of salads at La Panera Rosa, a cute-as-a-button bakery and restaurant with huge cakes on display. We passed on the cakes and instead went in search of gelato, since it was still about a million degrees outside. We didn’t have to walk far to find Tufic, with the helados of our dreams! We did some more shopping in Palermo and Bunny picked up some cute new outfits (I was too hot/tired/full of ice cream to be interested in buying much!)

Naturally, after a day of shopping, the only thing to do in the evening is to drink a pitcher of ice cold champagne with fruit, which is exactly what we did!

To follow up our champagne, we walked over to Palermo Hollywood to finally get Bunny some Argentine steak at Miranda.

Don't worry, there were way more fries on the side

The next day, we were off to Salta, which you can read all about here, since I have done my blogging out of order this week!

But, since I’m on the topic of Buenos Aires, I’ll talk about the other two days I spent there after Salta. I was supposed to go from Salta to Iguazu, but when that flight was canceled, the alternative flight would have meant that I would have had to stay up all night, which didn’t feel like a good way to visit the waterfalls. So, I instead opted to skip Iguazu, and fly to Buenos Aires for two extra nights.

Luckily, this week the weather was MUCH cooler and more enjoyable. I decided to take these couple of days as a rest from exploration and just take it easy. The airline put us up in an adequate hotel the first night, and the second night I used some accumulated hotels.com points to stay at Home Hotel in Palermo Hollywood. It’s so amazing that I regret staying there because it will be hard to go back to hostel living for the next 3 weeks!

There isn’t too much to say about what I did the last couple of days, I just strolled around the neighborhood, relaxed by the hotel pool, and got a much-needed pedicure. I ate some amazing pasta at Cucina Paradiso, and had a very disappointing steak at Las Cabras, a fun neighborhood spot, and, my last meal in Buenos Aires was a healthy salad at a cute cafe called Ohsawa, a macrobiotic place that would fit right in in LA!

And now, off to Peru!

Epicly long blog post about Salta

March 7, 2017

After an indulgent weekend in Buenos Aires, Bunny and I flew to Salta, a province in the north of Argentina. To be honest, I pretty much knew nothing about it, except that some friends said they’d loved it, and some quick reading of message boards called it out as a highlight of people’s Argentina travels. Sometimes my way of traveling is “let’s just show up and someone will tell us what to do here.” Which is exactly what happened! And it was definitely a highlight of my travels!

We flew in to the city of Salta which was pretty much dead because we got there during the celebration of Carnivale, where everyone takes to the surrounding towns to celebrate, leaving the usually-thriving city extremely quiet. We checked in to our hostel, Las Rejas, and had a lunch of empanadas and tamales, (which this region is especially known for) at a place nearby called La Criollita. YUM

As you can see, these empanadas are very tiny so we obviously had to order more

I’d decided after extensive (10 minutes of) Internet research that renting a car was the way to go. So first order of business was to find a car to rent. Almost every rental storefront in town was closed, but a guy saw us looking in the windows, and ushered us into his office. Just as I’d hoped, this guy told us exactly where we should drive, what towns to stay in, and what we’d see there.

[BTW for anyone going to Salta who wants to rent a car, I can HIGHLY recommend Alpha Rental Car, Armando the owner was extremely reliable and great to work with every step of the way, even gave me a free ride to the airport! His cell is +54 9 387 4829473]

Do I remember how to drive a stick shift after 10 years of driving automatic? Yes, I do!

With that business taken care of, we did a little sightseeing, riding a funicular up to a nice viewpoint, where they were selling wine and popcorn, and then continued to eat lots of good steak at a parilla called El Charrúa, which was luckily open despite the holidays.

First stop on our gringa road trip was Tilcara. We loaded our stuff up into the car, I remembered how to drive stick shift, and we were on the way! We made a pitstop in Jujuy, not very cute, and also very closed due to Carnivale, and had a nice lunch and stretched our legs before continuing on. We swung through the town of Purmamarca (more on that later) on the way to Salinas Grandes, which are some salt flats in the wayyyyy North, almost to Bolivia. It was a steep and winding drive about 2 hours from Purmamarca but totally worth the journey! The drive there was beautiful! I was jealous of Bunny’s passenger-seat view, but managed to take my eyes off the road a few times to enjoy, and of course we stopped for some photos along the way.

After two hours of twisting roads and views, we reached Salinas Grandes! It had rained a bit the previous day, which gives the flats the appearance of a mirror, and makes for great photos.

After our photo shoot, and picking up some salt/llama themed souvenirs, we departed the salt flats and headed to our hostel in Tilcara (Antigua Tilcara). When we arrived, the Carnivale partying was still going strong! We had take some detours since the streets were completed packed with revelers. For dinner, we checked out a spot recommended by our hotel, La Picadita, where we had a shepard’s pie made with llama meat (very common there as there are tons of llamas), and an amazing bottle of local wine.

The next morning, we hit up some ruins in Tilcara. They date to before pre-Incan times, and also offer some nice views of the surrounding mountains. To me, they weren’t the most exciting thing in the world, but a nice way to spend the morning nonetheless.

Afterwards, we took the opportunity to browse the souvenir offerings in the town square (llama stuff galore!) and had yet another scrumptious meal at a restaurant recommended by a local shop owner, called A la Payla.

It'd be hard to overstate how obsessed with these balls we were. They are. EVERYWHERE. At first I thought they were lame then ended up buying some because Bunny convinced me they're cool.

Tummies full, it was time to hit the road again! We headed north, with the destination of Humahuaca in mind, where our map showed a cool viewpoint of some more cool rocks. Unfortunately, we were not very successful in seeing said viewpoint. First we drove up some wrong road, then we came back down, and found what looked like the correct road. We started driving, and it started raining. Unfortunately that road is made of something like clay, which then turned into mud in the rain. When our car started hydroplaning, we decided to turn around before things got worse. I’m sure the viewpoint is great on a sunny day, but sadly we’ll never know! [There are no photos from this part of the trip because even Bunny, the photo queen, was too scared to take her eyes off the road/my driving]

Slightly discouraged, we headed straight for our hotel in Purmamarca (Colores de Purmamarca) and headed up to a viewpoint to take some photos with the town’s famous Seven Colors Hill. In town, I noticed post cards with way better views than what we were seeing from the viewpoint, so I asked a woman working in one of the souvenir shops where we could take THAT picture. She showed me on my small map, and we were determined to check it out.

We had dinner in town at a place called Tierra de Colores, because our first choice restaurant was closed, and it turned out to be super fun and lively. They had a live band and the singer asked every table in the restaurant where they were from….everyone but us and one other table was from Buenos Aires!

The next morning, we got a somewhat early start and walked about 3K around the Los Colorados (the seven colored mountain) and obviously did a cool photo shoot on the rocks:

Then we went in search of that viewpoint from the postcards. It was actually really easy to find. We had to cross the freeway (there aren’t that many cars so it was safe), walk across a dried up river, and hike up about 5 minutes. And then, voila! The views we’d been craving!

The BLACK pen with the squiggly at the end is how you get to the viewpoint. This is pretty accurate to how we navigated the whole of Salta.

Satisfied with our views, we got in the car and drove North again, to the village of Uquia, where we were able to do a small hike in Las Señoritas, stunning red rocks. We stopped at the “information center” which is like, one dude who has a gift shop, and he told us how to get to the hike, and directions to what is probably the one restaurant in the whole town (Doña someone) where we had what I expect was a very authentic meal (and also there were tons of flies).

The hike was an easy one but, as usual in this area, incredibly impressive! We loved the contrast of bright red rocks with green shubbery here and there.

That evening, we had a pretty long drive back to Salta. Now that Carnivale was over, the town was back to normal, and was a super bustling city. Believe it or not, it was harder to park in Salta than in San Francisco! I ended up keeping the car in a garage overnight, not wanting to drive around endlessly searching while angry Argentinians honked at me. Feeling pretty tired we, decided to have our last dinner together back at La Criollita.

It was so sad to say goodbye to Bunny after an amazing week together (and actually I didn't say goodbye, because she left at 4 AM and I was asleep), but alas, it was time to get on the road solo again!

My first stop was Cafayate, a pretty substantial drive from Salta. I took about 4.5 hours to get there, with frequent photo stops. The first part of the drive was nothing to write home (or blog) about, just some small towns you have to drive through, then, all of the sudden, you find yourself driving through scenery that gets more beautiful at every turn. I kept stopping about every five minutes to take a photo! At one moment it looked like you were driving through a lush red canyon, and the next looked like something from another planet. Unfortunately I don't think my camera accurately captured the awesome-ness of the scenery, but here are a couple photos to give you an idea:

Garganta del Diablo "Devil's Throat" rock formation

Rocks near El Obelicso (a big rock that I found less impressive than the stuff around it).

Vineyards and mountains as you drive into Cafayate

I arrived late in the afternoon, so settled in to my hostel, Casa Arbol, and walked around the sleepy town a bit before enjoying a local wine flight and dinner at a restaurant called Bad Brothers Wine Experience with a great patio.

The next day, I was considering a visit to some ruins, but wasn't really in the mood to drive a bunch more, so decided to partake in one of the most popular activities in the area, wine tasting! I met another girl from San Francisco in my hostel, and she joined me for tours and tastings at Domingo Molina and Piatelli.

Domingo Molina was a small, laid back winery with a beautiful outdoor space where we enjoyed a leisurely tasting.

Sorry Napa, but I think Cafayate is prettier!

Piatelli was a bit more upscale and reminded me a lot of Napa (but way cheaper- tour + tasting was about $7!). They have a beautiful restaurant where we enjoyed some lunch among posh Argentinian tourists, and then joined a tour where we got to see some of their wine making in action since they just began the harvest.

That evening, I ate ice cream for dinner and called it an early night! The next morning, it was time to head north on Route 40, a mostly unpaved road that I was a little nervous to drive. It turned out to be totally fine, just slow going. You may have started to notice a theme here: the drives are jam packed with jaw-dropping scenery. This drive featured some more intense rock formations, but in subdued, desert tones and with huge mountains further away (the camera never does a good job capturing those). It was easy to stop and take photos, because there was almost no one else on the road-- I probably saw 20 other cars the whole day.

I stopped for lunch in a town called Molinos. I think there are two restaurants in the town, and I happened to pick a very cute one in the lone hotel in town (Hacienda de Molinos). There was a small group of tourists from San Francisco also dining there, and one of them even owns a building on my block. Small world!

Amazing salad in the most random of places!

It was lucky I ran into them, because they were on their way to a winery called Colomé which ended up being a Salta highlight. A friend of mine works at a winery in Napa and he recommended Colomé to me, but I wasn't sure I'd make it since it was about a 60 minute detour from my route. But, not really having anything else to do, and seeing that these San Franciscans were excited about it, I decided to go. Their tour guide called to make a booking for me, because I guess you need an appointment (also lucky they told me that!)

To get to Colomé you take an even more unpaved road from Molinos for about 30-45 minutes (45 if you drive slowly like I do). You go through two small rivers, and pass no one else coming or going. When you start to wonder if you are actually going in the right direction, finally you see a couple of signs, and then a big metal gate where you buzz and are let in (if you have an appointment!). Then, you are shocked to find that the winery is super modern, and that there is a James Turrell museum on site.

It's kind of hard to explain how cool it was to find this winery there- LITERALLY in the middle of nowhere, it comes as a complete surprise. But let's actually talk about the museum. When I heard there was a museum there, I wasn't that excited, but it's a collection of nine James Turrell works, and they are freaking MIND BLOWING. They don't allow you to take anything inside, so I don't have any photos, but the coolest works basically feel like magic in your eyeballs- like you're staring into infinity or floating. Super cool.

We also had a short tour of the winery, and an expensive tasting ($20 for two tastes, but well worth it for the whole experience).

These vineyards don't look like anything too special, the cool part is how hard it is to get to!

The only downside to visiting Colomé is that I was a little stressed about getting to Cachi (where I'd stay the night) before the sun went down- the road is not only unpaved but of course also unlit, so not a place you want to be driving at night. I made it to my hotel, only to find that they were booked up, despite the fact that I had a reservation, but they sent me over to their sister hotel a couple blocks away. The room was nice, except for the bathroom which smelled horribly of mildew and had a "shower" that was a small dribble of water. Oh well, for $45 in the middle of nowhere you can't have too high of expectations!

Cachi is a really small town that I didn't get much time to explore, since I got in late and left early. It has a cute little square, and hotels and restaurants for tourists. I had dinner at a vegetarian pasta restaurant (so un-Argentinian of me) called Ashpamanta, which was friendly and delicious.

The following day, I left Cachi early (for me) at 8 AM to return to Salta. Surprise! The drive was gorgeous, and the scenery again totally different from the previous day: snow covered peaks in the distance, and huge, lush green mountains with clouds resting among them.

In case you're wondering how we navigated our way through Northern Argentina, it was ALL this map. And some help from Google offline maps :)

I dropped off the car in Salta and had an afternoon to spend walking around, which turned out to be super boring, because everything closes down for siesta, so I spent a lot of the time in McDonald’s using their free wifi to do some trip planning.

Last night, I was supposed to fly to Iguazu Falls for a day to check out one of the wonders of the natural world. Unfortunately, the flight was canceled, and the airline’s plan was to fly everyone to Buenos Aires (arriving at midnight) and put them on a flight at 5 AM to Iguazu, which would essentially mean sleeping 2 hours or not at all. Since I would only have one, exhausted day at the falls (before flying to Peru), I opted to skip them, and just fly to Buenos Aires, which is where I am now. I had a free night saved up from Hotels.com, so checked myself in to the LOVELY Home Hotel, where I am currently relaxing and catching up on things like blogging, which require reliable internet. Tomorrow I’ll enjoy some more time exploring Buenos Aires before I fly to Lima in the afternoon, to spend my last couple of weeks of sabbatical in Peru!

A break from solo travel in Bariloche

February 25, 2017

Last week, I enjoyed a nice break from traveling alone in Bariloche with a group of old and new friends.

My friend Lisa, a sorority sister from college, “accidentally” won a silent auction for a week at a vacation home in Bariloche. She placed the opening bid never expecting to win, but there were no higher offers! Since I was on the same continent, I decided to join Lisa and five of her friends in the mountains of Argentina. Even though Colombia and Argentina are both in South America, it was quite a journey to get to Bariloche, three flights over two days, but well worth the effort.

Bariloche is a huge spot for all kinds of outdoor activities- in the winter it’s all about skiing, but we were there at the end of summer, where people enjoy the beautiful lakes and mountains. There are picture-perfect views in every direction, and we never tired of the amazing scenery!

We managed to pack a ton into our week there, and what I loved about it is that we did some great outdoorsy stuff followed by luxurious activities (often both in the same day!) I was a terrible part of the group because the other girls literally planned everything, and I just showed up and enjoyed it all (and also they took most of these photos). Thanks guys!

First, let’s talk about the house. It was AMAZING- I will probably never stay somewhere that nice again. Definitely a change of pace from hostel life :) It’s in a private resort area called Arelaquen, and had a huge, beautiful living area with stunning mountain views. I think there were six bedrooms in total- I ended up in what I dubbed the “kids club” - a room with six twin beds, all for me!

Day 1

Most of the girls arrived a few hours before me; they’d reserved a rental car only to discover that none of them could drive it because it was a stick shift! I know how to drive stick, but by the time I got there, they’d already arranged some taxis. After setting in, we headed into the downtown (about 20 minutes from our place) to visit some of the famous chocolate shops of Bariloche. I’m not sure exactly why there are so many, but I wasn’t complaining! We sampled some cakes at Mamushka and popped in to a few others.

We walked down to the lake but it was super cold and windy, so headed indoors to a bar call Manush, for some drinks and fries. Afterwards we hit up a traditional Parilla, El Boliche de Alberto where we ate TONS OF MEAT. Except for the vegetarian in the group who ate grilled cheese. Not a sandwich just literally cheese, cooked on a grill.

Day 2

Our second day there, the weather was not cooperating for enjoying the outdoors. It rained pretty much the entire day. Even though it wasn’t how you picture ideal vacation weather, it gave us a chance to relax and enjoy our palatial home. We cooked a big brunch, and then just hung around reading and chatting (and I managed to get in an indoor workout for the first time in a while!) When it finally stopped raining, there was an amaaaaazing rainbow! We headed back into town to have a casual dinner back at Manush (great burgers!)

Managed to shower and get out of the house to eat burgers

Day 3

On our third day, we headed out for some adventures on the lake. We booked an all day boat excursion through Turisur. Unfortunately, the weather was still not great in the early part of the day. We went to Puerto Blest, which is supposed to be beautiful, but was pretty clouded over. We still managed a fun rainy day photo shoot!

After lunch though, things started clearing up, and we were able to do a ~45 minute hike to a stunning waterfall and lake before heading back home on the boat.

Very happy that it stopped raining for a bit and we could climb to a cool lake

That evening, we got dressed up to visit Butterfly, the nicest restaurants in town. We had a seven course tasting menu, everything delicious, with the steak and dessert being my favorites.

At this point, I should give a major shout out to one of our trip highlights, our driver JULIO, who helped us get to and from all of these activities. Since we abandoned the idea of the rental car, we got connected to Julio, a driver with a van large enough for seven ladies. He was always on time, and had a great sense of humor and knows everything there is to know about Bariloche. He helped us find places to rent camping gear, made some reservations for us, and even found a masseuse to come to our house (after I left, sadly).

Days 4 & 5

On Tuesday, it was time to abandon the luxury lifestyle for a big hike and overnight stay in a cabin a called Refugio Frey. For the trip, we rented some sleeping bags and one more big pack (in addition to mine) at Del Cruce Outdoor Shop.

Since I had been so out of it with the planning, I had no preconceived notions of what the hike or accommodations would be. The hike was described by multiple sources as “easy” which we all disagreed with. I’m not a major mountaineer, but I’ve been doing 3-4 hour hikes about every week, and this one was HARD. It took us about 5 hours to get up, and the last hour was especially taxing as it was mostly uphill on rocky terrain. It was beautiful though, and I thought well worth the effort (even if, as Lisa says, the light was draining from my eyes for the last stretch).

Enjoying the views despite being SO TIRED.

Refugio Frey is a small accommodation at the end of the hike- set next to a beautiful mountain lake, with bunks and a “restaurant” (not really a proper restaurant, they had pretty good pizza as the dinner option when we were there) and sleeping arrangements that surprised us all. We had booked a reservation for the seven of us (DEFINITELY needed) and walked upstairs to a room with basically one huge bunk bed against the wall. It looked big enough to accommodate about 20-25 people, everyone sleeping next to everyone else. We were able to grab the last spots on the top bunk, but they don’t turn away people without a reservation, so by the end of the night there were probably 40 people there, including covering the entire floor. I wasn’t as horrified as I think some of the girls were- having slept in hostels for the last few weeks has toughened me up a bit, but it was definitely not comfortable, and I probably ended up sleeping only about 4 or 5 hours.

We got up early as we were eager to get back to our comfortable accommodations and hiked back down, which took a good 4 hours, during which I was super tired and not having a great time. Once we got to the base (which is a little ski village), we were disheartened to find that taxis were not readily available, but Lisa was able to manage to get a van to come pick us up. So note to anyone doing this hike- try to have transportation back arranged ahead of time.

Despite the uncomfortable night’s sleep, I had a great time at the Refugio and was really glad that my friend Lisa planned that activity for us.

That night, we definitely rewarded our hard work on the trail. The girls had arranged for a private chef, Lucas Mallmann (nephew of the famous chef Francis Mallmann) come to the house and cook for us. The weather was so perfect that we were able to eat out on the deck, and all of the food was delicious. After a long hike it was so amazing to just sit back and relax at home with someone else doing all the work of cooking and clean up. I could definitely get used to that lifestyle!

Day 6

On Thursday, we went on a horseback riding adventure organized by Briel, one of the gals who grew up riding horses. She found a great trip with Ariane, who lives in a magical cabin with horses and five super sweet and friendly dogs. We spent about an hour and a half basically riding through a postcard- the scenery was (as usual) breathtaking, before enjoying delicious homemade picnic lunch beside a river. We loved seeing the different personalities of the horses, the one female horse was a bit of a rebel who wanted to take her own way; mine was named Wayne, and we kept making fun of him because he refused to walk at the same pace as the others, and Briel was on Simon who, we learned, LOVES to eat bread!

After showering off the trail dirt, it was time to get dressed up again for high tea at Llao Llao, the fanciest resort in Bariloche. It’s a beautiful place that reminded me of the resort at Squaw Creek in Tahoe, but with better views. They had a buffet of cakes, and obviously we tried every single one of them. A healthy choice for dinner, to be sure.

YUM (this is like 1/3 of the total desserts we ate)

We explored the grounds a bit after dinner and took some photos. I also bought a hat that I am SUPER excited about, because I hate the white hat that I brought on this trip. It was time for an upgrade!

We thought we’d hit up a bar after Llao Llao, but we unanimously decided we’d rather just chill at home and a few of us were excited to watch The Bachelor, which I’d downloaded on my computer :)

Sadly on Day 7, it was time to pack up and head out for the next leg of my adventure! One of my best friends in the whole world is meeting me in Buenos Aires, where we’ll spend the weekend, and then head to the north of Argentina to explore Salta!

A brief stay in Bogota

February 19, 2017

To wrap up my trip to Colombia, I spent two nights in the capital of Bogota. I’d heard mixed reviews of the city, a lot of travelers I’ve met didn’t like it too much, so I didn’t allocate too much time there. Overall I enjoyed my short time in Bogota, though didn’t get to see much!

I stayed in a hostel called El Pit, which was recommended to me by a girl I met in Medellin. The beds were comfortable and it was walking distance to everything I wanted to see as well as some great restaurants, but for some reason I didn't love the vibe there.

I arrived in the afternoon, and headed over to the Gold Museum. They had a free English tour that I was able to join about 10 minutes after it started- it was interesting, mainly for some of the history of Colombia than information about the gold. The museum was definitely worth a visit. For some reason I didn’t take any photos, but here’s a photo from Viator.com of one of the cool things- an intricate little boat.

I'd heard a lot of stories of people being mugged in Bogota, even in daylight, so I wasn’t very enthusiastic about taking a stroll at night, so I hung out at the hostel for a bit, and then went to a nearby restaurant called Ocio, a nice little place with good Colombian food. I was definitely pleasantly surprised by the good food in Bogota, everything I ate was delicious, which was not always the case in Colombia!

The following day, I went on a free graffiti tour - the guide was awesome, she is a street artist herself so told us a lot of interesting anecdotes. We mostly walked through the Candelaria area, and saw a lot of different styles of art.

After the tour I went to a French/Colombian restaurant recommended by the guide called Sant Just, where I, for once, had some healthy food!

After lunch I went up to Montserrat, a church waaaaay up on the mountain (over 9,000 feet above sea level). You take a little cable car up there, of course as soon as I got in it, I remembered that I’m terrified of heights, so spent the short ride staring at the back of someone’s head instead of looking out the window. The view from the top is really impressive, and you can see just how HUGE Bogota is. There isn’t actually too much up there- a couple of nice restaurants, and some souvenir stores so it was a quick visit.

I found a cute coffee shop called Varietale (which might be a chain?) where I enjoyed some tea and cake after my sightseeing. There were tons of students there, so it felt like a nice little local hangout. I walked back towards the Candelaria area, but it didn’t feel super safe, so headed back to the hostel.

For my last meal in Colombia, I ate at a Thai restaurant near my hostel called Takrai Thai (https://www.facebook.com/takraithaicuisine/), which was super tasty. Then, it was time to pack up to head to Argentina to meet up with a group of friends from New York!

3 days in paradise (and one in San Andreas)

February 15, 2017

I was sad to leave Salento, I easily could have spent a few more days enjoying the beautiful mountains, but it was worth it to squeeze in some island time on the tiny Isla de Providencia.

Getting to Providencia isn't easy, which is one of the things that makes it great (no crowds!). Since I was coming from Salento, I took an hour bus to Armenia, then flew to Bogota, and from there to the island of San Andreas. From San Andreas you can take a propeller plane about 20 minutes to Providencia, or a 3 hour boat ride. Everything I've heard indicates that that the boat ride is horrible and almost everyone barfs. So naturally I opted for the plane. I wasn't able to get on a flight the same say, so I spent one night in San Andreas, which is a very strange place. It's surrounded by beautiful clear blue waters, but is full of duty free stores, traffic, and generally ugly buildings. I visited one beach there during my free afternoon, it was pretty nice, but also quite crowded. I also had a really really salty fish and a juice I didn't like. Boo!

Providencia: actually not that close to mainland Colombia

Providencia isn't like anywhere else I've ever been, it's super small, friendly, and everyone knows everyone- if you want to go somewhere or do something, someone will take you on the back of their scooter or on their boat. I stayed at the lovely Posada Enilda, run by a brother and sister who made my stay really wonderful (also it was amazing to have my own room after sharing dorms for a couple of weeks)

The most common way to get around the island is by moto. Given my recent accident, I wasn't itching to drive a motorcycle again, especially since nobody on the island seems to own a helmet. So, I opted to rent a regular old bicycle, and quickly realized I was the ONLY adult on the whole island using this mode of transportation :) I can see why- biking around the island is not easy!

The first day I went almost the whole way around to get the lay of the land, and there were a ton of hills. SoulCycle did not prepare me for this! I've always had trouble just laying on a beach and relaxing, so getting some exercise on the bike with beach pitstops was perfect.

On Sundays, locals head to Manzanillo beach and gather around Roland's Bar to hang out drinking and socializing. I biked on down to check it out, and enjoyed a pina colada right from the coconut and some fresh fish with some people I recognized from my hotel. The island is so small that I pretty quickly met or at least recognized all the tourists. There was an incredibly friendly Canadian girl at our hotel who was like the social chair of the island, she got a bunch of us in the hotel hanging out together.

The following day, still not feeling capable of just kicking back on a beach, I decided to tackle hiking "The Peak" for a view of the island. The hike isn't all that difficult, unless you take a wrong turn, like I did. At one point I was going straight uphill, pulling myself up using little tree trunks for support. I definitely did think to myself "Hmmm, nobody mentioned this part of the hike" - but there seemed to be a bit of a trail carved out, so I kept going. Until it was really clear that it went up no further, then I went DOWN, which was just as hard. Luckily, some guys were doing construction on the real trail, so they showed me the right way, and I managed to reach the top without incident.

Then, finally, it was time to eat some lobster, and lay on the beach!

Sunset views from my hammock on Southwest Beach

For dinner, I went with the Canadian and her friend to a restaurant simply called The Caribbean Place where I tried some local black crab. I thought maybe just their shells are black, but the meat is as well. It wasn't my favorite, but I was also just getting kind of sick of seafood by that point (clearly, I am not cut out for island life).

My last day in Providencia, I finally got around to doing some snorkeling. One of the highlights of the island is Cayo Cangrejo (Crab Cay). It costs 40,000 COP ($14) to have someone take you there and back on a boat, and it's easy to organize. One of the owners of my hotel just drove me down and asked a guy, and that was that.

The family on the right had the most annoying kids ever, one of them was crying at all times.

The waters there are so beautiful, it was nice to just sit on the dock and enjoy the view, but the snorkeling was also awesome, I saw tons of sweet fish. Sorry if you want a picture of said sweet fish, I don't have an underwater camera!

After a couple hours getting nice and sunburned, I went back to the main island,then got a ride over to Santa Catalina, another even smaller island that you walk across a short bridge to reach. There's a small beach there where some people let me borrow their snorkel to see MORE SWEET FISH.

My last night I enjoyed dinner at a place called Cafe Studio that is really known for their pie, so obviously I ate a giant slice of cappuccino pie on my own. Happy Valentine's day to me!

I was super sad to leave Providencia today, I could have easily spent a few more nights there, but I'm nearing the end of my time in Colombia, so had to get to Bogota; I have two nights here, then off to Argentina!

Hiking and coffee in Zona Cafetera

February 10, 2017

Beccy and I traveled to Salento together, a fairly easy 6 hour bus ride. It was a little scary at times (lots of curves, not many railings), but the driver played a couple movies to distract/entertain us.

Salento is a beautiful town surrounded by mountains in Zona Cafetera, the coffee region of Colombia. I was thinking about staying at a place a bit outside of town, but our new friend Jenna has just been here, and recommended her hostel, Luciérnaga. We ended up loving it, comfortable beds, nice views, live music every night, and the food is INCREDIBLE. Literally the best food I've had in Colombia. They even have kale, just like being back in SF!

Avocado toast with fried eggs and a view

Anyhow, there is much more to Salento than just good breakfast. The main attraction here is Valle de Cocora, where you can hike to see a forest of wax palms, which can grow to incredible heights. You load up into a jeep, and drive a quick 20 minutes or so to the trailhead.

The hike is about 4-5 hours, and parts of it were pretty hard. I'd like to think the altitude was making me tired, and not my out-of-shapeness. If you go the usual direction, you hike through a valley, and then up into the mountains, with an optional stop at a hummingbird house (not that impressive), then loop around for what is supposed to be stunning views of the valley.

Unfortunately for us, the clouds really came in as we reached the coolest part of the hike. In some ways it made it even more interesting, the mist gave it a dramatic feel.

It was not warm. We took off our jackets to look cuter in the photo :P

AND THEN it started raining and thunder-ing (and, I assume lightining-ing somewhere but we didn't see it). So we hurried up through the last bit of the hike, getting pretty wet along the way!

Having now been here a couple of days, the clouds always seem to come in in the afternoon, so if I were to do the hike again, I'd actually reverse the order (which is easy enough to do) to hit the view part in the morning sunshine.

Our second day in Salento, we did the other popular tourist activity- tour of a coffee farm! On the recommendation of some Canadian guys, we decided to go to Finca Don Eduardo. Thanks to Google maps being wildly inaccurate, we started walking about 20 minutes down the freeway until I decided to check out the coffee tour's website and found that it's actually right in town: 5 minutes, not 40, from our hostel.

The tour was informative, and the guide was the owner, a kooky Brit named Tim. We trekked down an extremely muddy path, and learned about different types of coffee and the process from bean to cup, and of course, got to try some of the coffee from the farm.

Required coffee farm attire: rubber boots

After the tour it was time for Beccy to head back to Medellin in time to party on the weekend. I walked around the town a bit- it's pretty cute, and there's a street with a bunch of little restaurants and souvenir shops. I picked up a little framed watercolor painting from a local artist, which is probably ill-advised given how packed and heavy my backpack already is.

Tomorrow, I am flying off to the islands for my last week in Colombia- I'll stay over one night in San Andreas before spending three nights in the super remote Isla Providencia.

Medellín: Part 3

February 10, 2017

I left Medellín a little bit earlier than I would have liked to, in order to visit Parque Tayrona before its closure. So after a couple of weeks on the coast, I decided to head back to Medellín to see some things I didn't have time for the first time around.

I checked in to the Black Pine hostel, which was in a quiet area in Poblado, with really helpful staff and where I met a couple of great girls.

First up for me was a day trip to Guatapé, an easy two hour bus ride from Medellín (the ride felt really long to me, and then I realized it's about the same as my normal commute!) The big attraction there is El Peñol, a huge rock. The cool thing about the rock is the amazing view from the top. After tackling 657 steps, you're rewarded with amazing scenery in every direction.

The town of Guatapé is also worth a visit- it's a UNESCO World Heritage site, and wandering it's adorable streets was a nice way to spend the afternoon. I also had a completely random and delicious lunch of Indian food at a restaurant called Don de Sam (or maybe Donde Sam, not sure). They offered Colombian, Italian, Mexican, Chinese, and Indian food, but given that the owner and chef was Indian, I decided to go that route. Yum!

All the houses have different paintings on the walls (sorry these ones are a little covered by the trash!)

That night, I met a Canadian girl named Jenna in my room at the hostel, and we then met another new German friend, Beccy, at breakfast the next morning. We all wanted to go up the metrocable so decided to go together. Oh, also this was my birthday!

The metrocables are part of the Medellín public transportation system, allowing more disadvantaged people living up the hills of the city to easily get into the city for work. It also offers a great view for tourists.

We rode the metrocable all the way up to Santo Domingo, and then transferred to another cable that's more for sightseeing than for local transport. At the end of the line is Parque Arví. For some reason even after more than two weeks in the city, I had no idea that there was basically a forest with hiking at the end of the metrocable! It was a nice surprise, and we all decided to go on a 45 minute hike, even though we weren't really prepared for it.

At the end is a tree and a sign about hugging it and breathing deeply and communing with nature, so obviously we did that.

Beccy, me, and Jenna. We didn't want to actually hug the tree because there was a lot of sap on it :)

After our little outdoor adventure, we took the cable back down to the Santo Domingo neighborhood and had a typically bland Colombian lunch.

Since it was my birthday and all, I decided to treat myself to a massage. It was....okay. It was mostly a leg massage, with a healthy dose of stomach massage (that was new for me), and about 5 minutes of back massage.

The other girls decided they wanted to cook dinner that night, so we made tacos (actually really tasty!) and I bought myself a birthday cake.

The next day it was finally time to bid farewell to Medellín for good :( ...and head to Salento!

Adventures in Alta Guajira

February 4, 2017

The very north part of Colombia was on my list of places I really wanted to visit. It’s extremely remote and hard to get to, but I’d heard the scenery was incredible, so I looked into how to go there. Going on a tour is the most recommended way to see it- and now having been, I don't think it'd be possible otherwise.

It was harder than I thought to find a tour there, but managed to join one at the last minute through Magic Tour, who actually outsourced the tour through Alta Guajira Tours. The reviews of most tour companies that go up there were bad, so I set my expectations low (and yet still the company managed to disappoint!)

The tour picked me up at 4:30 AM (ugh) from a hostel in Santa Marta, and continued to Riohacha for breakfast, and to switch from a van to a 4WD SUV for the rough roads ahead.

The first day we drove to Cabo de la Vela; I wish I’d recorded how many hours it took. I don’t remember, but it was A LOT. Once you get past a certain point, there are no roads. The drivers clearly have a lot of experience taking cars to the area, and they basically just follow each other’s tracks. It’s bumpy, curvy, and generally not a super pleasant way to spend 5+ hours. For anyone prone to car sickness, this would have been a nightmare.

Along the way, local kids hold up little ropes that block the car’s passage, hoping for cookies or candies in exchange for letting the rope down. Our driver brought lots, but not enough for everyone! Luckily they let you pass even if you can’t pay the toll :)

Paying the "toll" (these kids were actually super hard to get a photo of)

Our first stop was Manaure, a salt harvesting place? I am not really sure exactly what anything is, because our driver gave us literally no information! Anyhow, it made for a nice place to stretch our legs, and some cool photos. It looks better in photos than in real life. There was a lot of trash all over the place!

We finally arrived in Cabo de la Vela, whose landscape varies from Africa-looking barren dessert, to turquoise waters, to a coastal area that looked like Mars with an ocean, all within a 10 minutes' drive:

We stayed in the “town” of Cabo de la Vela, it’s a few rustic buildings, a few hostels and restaurants since the area is one some come to for windsurfing.

After watching an extremely windy sunset, we checked in to Happiness Hostel, where I paid an extra $7 to have a room with a bed, instead of sleeping outside on the hammocks. I felt a bit like a princess for this luxury, but I think it was worth it in the end!

Next morning’s wake up call was at 6 AM- never thought that would seem like sleeping in! We got back into the 4Runner and continued our trek through the dessert to the end of the world! I was not in an awesome mood on this day, I had a mild migraine and some stomach issues (not helped by the car drive) but tried to enjoy it anyway.

There was less driving today, luckily. Near Cabo de la Vela, we stopped at a super crazy place. It’s a big sand dune that looks like a desert from a movie, and then when you walk over it, there’s the ocean with red sand beach. It was like nothing I have ever seen, but it was so windy that it was actually painful to walk there- the sand blew up onto you at high speeds like tiny little bullets. Ouch!

The guide said we would be spending TWO HOURS there, but after about 30 minutes I think we had all had our fill, so we continued along to the most northern point of South America- Punta Gallinas.

People built little stone stacks at the point which were fun to see. I think they should make a sign for people to take photos with, because there isn't really much else here. I guess that might not be very eco-friendly though :)

The most northern point of South America

After taking a few photos at the end of the world, we drove a short distance to a super remote hostel. My guide book says that only about 100 total people live in this area, and I can understand why, it’s impressive they can get any kind of basic necessities all the way up there, and that they have a hostel at all!

Our hostel. Not sure why the military and their big trucks were there, but a bunch of army guys were eating lunch there.

After a nap in the hostel, we went to another viewing point to see the sun set on our final day in Guajira! The drive back to Santa Marta took less time than getting to Punta Gallinas (about 8 hours total, 20 minute boat ride and the rest by car). I never thought I'd be so happy to be driving on a paved road, but it felt like heaven after all the off-roading.

Overall I am torn as to whether I’d recommend this experience to other travelers. The scenery was definitely very unique but it was hard to enjoy due to the harsh weather, and required an extremely long and uncomfortable ride. And, as I alluded to earlier, the tour company was total crap. The guide didn’t tell us anything. I didn’t expect a bunch of knowledge about nature or local people, but he didn’t even tell us basic things like when we needed to be ready to go in the morning, or where we were driving to. I’ve read bad things about all the tour companies, so I don’t think there is currently one that does a good job with this tour. But they did get us there safely, arranged all the accommodations, and the included food was tasty and plentiful (and maybe made me sick).

I'm back for another layover night at The Dreamer in Santa Marta (nice hostel, terrible WiFi). Tomorrow I'm flying back to Medellin for two nights to do a day trip to Guatape, and then move on to the coffee region!

Magical Minca

February 4, 2017

After my accident, I needed to quickly make some alternate plans, since going to Palomino and Minca on a motorcycle was not in the cards anymore! Minca was one of the places I was really looking forward to visiting, and luckily I was able to get a bed at Casa Loma, which some girls in Tayrona told me about.

Minca is about 30 minutes up a mountain from Santa Marta, and a world away. It's lush, green, and peaceful. Being at Casa Loma was like being back at summer camp. I was in a cabin with about 6 other people, and there were some people camping in tents there, in addition to some private rooms.

Casa Loma- my cabin is kind of in the back in the middle.

The main activities in Minca are relaxing and enjoying nature. The hostel has "happy hour" with a great view of the sunset every night. The "bartenders" were both young girls volunteering at the hostel to save some money for their travels. They were both really sweet, and I ended up hanging out with them and another woman named Abby during the two days there.

My first full day in Minca, I ended up doing a pretty touch hike (and my leg was totally fine, thank goodness). First we hiked about 1.5 hours to a waterfall called Las Marinkas. The water was too cold for me to want to get in, but I did pose on a rock:

From there, the girls working at the hostel turned back, because they needed to work that evening, but my new friend Abby and I continued on another hot, sweaty 1.5 hours or more to a hostel called Casa Elemento. Lots of other travelers had told me about this place and how awesome it is. They were all booked up when I tried to stay there on late notice, but for about $3 you can hang out there for the day, enjoying their giant hammock, freezing pool, lunch, and drinks. There are two routes you can take to get there, we went on one that was more trail-like vs the one that is more road-like, and there were a few times we felt a bit lost, so I recommend sticking to the road.

It was a great place to relax for a few hours after the hike. We ended up hanging out with some other girls from our hostel who are both midwives, so I got to learn a lot of things about childbirth. Bonus!

Giant hammock at Casa Elemento! The view is actually better out of the hammock, but it's a nice place to relax.

New fraaaands at the top of the mountain!

We were exhausted from hiking up the hill, so, even though I wasn't exactly thrilled about getting back on a motorcycle, we decided to take moto taxis back down (a 40 min ride vs. a 3 hour walk. No regrets!)

The next day, I went with Jana (one of the girls working at the hostel) on a much shorter, easier hike to Los Pozos waterfalls. They didn't actually seem very large or impressive, and there were a lot of people there. We kept hiking on a trail along a stream (that we may or may not have been allowed on), and found a peaceful spot to cool off about 10 minutes away from the crowds.

I didn't really take any great photos, but here is one of the peaceful stream we dipped our feet into.

After the hike, I went into the small town to use restaurant Wi-Fi, and managed to arrange to join a tour up to Alta Guajira, and area I have been wanting to see. I really wanted to spend one more night in Minca, but the tour was departing at 4:30 AM from Santa Marta, so I had to take off that afternoon for yet another layover night in Santa Marta!

That time I got hit by a car

January 30, 2017

When traveling, of course things don't always go as you expect. Up until now, everything has been really great, and almost every experience I've had has been seamless. Yesterday was one of those days I knew would come, where things went pretty badly.

I was really excited to try something totally out of my comfort zone, riding a motorcycle to some destinations along the coast. I came across a great moto tour company that had some of the best reviews I've ever read, so I booked a tour with them to Palomino and Minca.

I went to their office on Saturday where I learned how to drive an automatic motorcycle, which was a little scary, but rewarding once I got the hang of things (it's like a mix of riding an electric scooter and driving stick shift). The next day, I met the guides and about 6 other guys for our tour. First stop: Palomino.

The ride there was amazing- getting out of town was a little tricky with the traffic, but once we were on the open road we passed through jungle, farms, and amazing views of the beach.

Amazing lookout point over crystal blue water

We turned off onto a dirt road to head to lunch - the best pizza in Colombia (according to the guide)! Getting a little taste of off-roading was bumpy and fun...until a car turned out from a perpendicular street and knocked right into my motorcycle. The bike knocked over and I flew off. As they say, it all happened so fast, so I don't know exactly how I fell. But I don't think the bike fell on top of me, and also luckily, I fell on dirt road and not pavement. I keep replaying things in my head, and feel extremely grateful that the accident wasn't worse. If I'd been driving faster, or it had been on the highway, or if we were on a different road, I could have gotten injured really, really badly. I guess I understand now why motorcycles have a bad reputation.

The guy behind me happened to be wearing a Go Pro on his helmet, so he caught the whole thing on video. I'm waiting for him to send me the actual video, but here is a video of the video.

It was definitely the scariest thing that's ever happened to me. At first I wasn't sure if I was seriously injured or not, but realized pretty quickly that nothing too major seemed to be wrong. A few English speaking locals/tourists gathered around the scene and helped me get some ice on my leg (the most injured part of me, where I think the car may have hit me), and checked to see if I was okay.

Disappointingly, the guides of the actual tour seemed to have no idea what to do in the situation, and seemed more concerned with whether the bike was broken than whether I was okay. They're pretty young guys, and maybe this has never happened before, but in one of the most terrifying moments of my life, I felt like nobody knew what they should be doing to help. They suggested that I just go to the Palomino hostel and rest, but when I tried to put weight on my foot, it REALLY hurt, and I wanted to go to a medical center to make sure nothing was seriously injured. The tour guys didn't know where the closest medical facility was, and ended up putting me on a bus back to Santa Marta (~2 hours ride) on my own, to meet up with the other company owner, who was still in town. I probably looked like an insane person on the bus because I couldn't stop crying from being generally shook up, injured, feeling abandoned, and also being super hungry (low blood sugar people, it will mess with your emotions!).

I made it to the urgent care center in Santa Marta, where the fun continued. To make a long story short, I was there for about 6 hours, mostly waiting for someone to look at my X-Ray to see if anything was fractured. The good news was, nothing broken! They put an extremely giant bandage around my leg scrapes, and gave me some pain killers and antibiotics. To leave the hospital, you have to have certain paperwork, such as the ownership card for the motorcycle (WHY?) which I didn't have, but the moto tour company did. So I had to wait at reception until the company emailed it to them. At one point I just started crying again because I was SO CLOSE to being done with the situation, yet unable to leave the hospital. And also, still really hungry!

I have to admit, I enjoyed looking slightly badass in my giant bandage :)

Luckily, I was able to easily get a large private room at the hostel where I'd left my bags, and FINALLY got some food (two sandwiches and ice cream) and had a beer while trading war stories with some Australians: their bus literally burned down...not sure if that's better or worse than getting hit by a car!

The tour company is also going to refund almost the full price of the tour, they're keeping about $30 (out of $250) which seems fine to me since I got some lessons and part of a day with them. Also- way too exhausted to argue over $30 at this point.

Today I am going to head up to Minca by taxi, NOT motorcycle, which is an area up in the mountains with hiking and relaxation. I'm not sure if my foot is up for hiking yet, but it will be a great place to chill and rest in some cooler weather.

Let's hope this is the last kind of blog post about getting injured, and that there are only happy stories to tell from here on out!

A visit to Parque Tayrona

January 30, 2017

When I first decided to go on Sabbatical, I wasn't even sure if I wanted to travel, or just take it easy in San Francisco for a few months. I had dinner with my amazing, inspiring friend Jess in New York just after deciding to take a sabbatical, and she said to me "PACHER! Leave the country the first day you can and don't come back until the last possible moment." If Jess told me to jump off a bridge, I'd probably do it, so here I am, partially thanks to her insistence.

Jess was the first person who told me about Tayrona National Park during that same dinner, sparking my interest. Thanks to a chance encounter with a Colombian at my work holiday party, I learned that the park was closing for a month beginning Jan 28. So that meant I had to arrange my trip a bit around visiting before its closure.

When I checked in to my hostel here in Santa Marta, they were not very optimistic about my chances of getting in. A ton of people obviously had the same idea as I did about visiting the park before it closed, and the hostel said it was all booked up in advance. I didn't even know you could buy tickets in advance, I think it must be a new option (available on their website here)

To maximize my odds of getting in, I woke up at 5 AM to take the first bus to the park- an easy $3, one hour ride on public bus. In the end, I had no problem getting a ticket, or a tent (see more below on campsite for anyone planning a visit).

With the worry of not getting in behind me, I could finally relax and enjoy the park! I did what most people do there, hiked a couple of extremely hot and muggy hours to a beautiful beach. I expected there to be slightly better directions, but signage was lacking at the entry to the trails. But it was easy to just ask a few people who seemed to know where they were going, and follow them. The hike itself was pretty flat and easy, though with some pretty muddy spots. People were doing it in bikinis, crocs, or even barefoot, and carrying tons of stuff like blowup mattresses and thermoses of hot water.

The scenery on the hike ranges from tropical to boulders and beaches

After about an hour hiking, you reach Arrecifes, the first beach and first possible campsite, which I’ve heard described as a little more quiet of the two main options. You can stop in there for a pretty clean bathroom, restaurant, water, and beach (I actually never ended up seeing that beach).

After a short stop there to rest my feet, I hiked another hour to Cabo San Juan, the most popular beach and campsite in the park. It was as pretty as the pictures, though seemed really crowded- I’m not sure if it was because of the impending closure or if it’s just always that crowded. There were some less crowded beaches easily reached with a 10-15 min walk through the jungle, so that’s where I spent most of my time.

If you've ever seen a photo of Tayrona, it's probably this one! This is the beach at Playa Cabo San Juan. There are hammocks up in that little hut- they're the most sought after accommodations in the park, but I opted for a tent.

The campsite was more robust than I expected: it had rustic showers, (dirty but usable) bathrooms, and even a restaurant and place to buy other essentials like water and beer :) And, best of all, it was pretty easy to meet other travelers to hang out with. I ended up hanging out with some American girls for the evening (really immersing myself in the culture, haha).

Tents packed in tightly at Cabo San Juan

The tent came with a little mattress, so my night of sleep wasn’t terrible. I woke up around 6:30 and after a good breakfast at the restaurant, decided to go on a hike that started from the campsite, called the Pueblito hike (since I didn’t think I needed another 6 hours on the beach!)

I’d read about the hike, but it ended up being a lot harder than I expected. There were a couple of parts that required some scary jumps up rocks, the only way I made it was there happened to be a strong Czech guy ahead of me on the trail who helped me up. Naturally, I later saw people doing the same hike in flip flops…I have no idea how they didn't slip and die. The end point of the hike is a small indigenous village where people are living, and some ruins from ancient peoples. The journey was a bit more interesting than the destination, in this case.

An interesting tree along the Pueblito hike (it was hard to get pics showing the crazy rocks we had to jump onto)

The village at the end of the hike- people live in those huts!

After 3 hours of hiking in hot, sticky weather, it was time to jump back in the water! I went to La Piscina, a popular beach for swimming, and cooled off and relaxed for a couple hours before hiking back to the entrance of the park.

Super hot and sweaty, but happy with my Tayrona adventure! Shoutout to my nerdy hat that kept my face mostly un-suburned.

I checked in for another couple of nights in The Dreamer hostel, and then ended up going to a movie with a couple of new friends. We saw Lala Land in a super nice theater with big comfy seats for only $5!

Today is a relaxing day in Santa Marta, and tomorrow I’m going on a tour to visit a couple of other areas in the Caribbean Coastal region!

A LITTLE KNOWN FACT ABOUT BOOKING THE CAMPSITES (for anyone planning their own trip)

There are tons of great blogs out there if you want to plan a visit- here is one I found super helpful. However, I learned something that I hadn’t read anywhere else online: you can book a tent or hammock at the entrance to the park and skip the long lines at the campsites.

There isn’t an official stand, you just talk to the guy with a hat and microphone at the entrance and he steers you to a guy who you can make a booking with. I was worried this might be a scam, but ended up being legit, and a great decision. A lot of people weren’t able to get accommodations at the popular beach (Cabo San Juan) but I got to go right to the front of the line and had no problem getting my tent. I still tried to get to the campsite pretty early, to make sure they didn’t give away the tent I’d booked.

Welcome to my blog!

South America...and beyond!

In early 2017, I took a 3 month sabbatical from work to travel in South America, and blogged about it along the way. Since then, I’ve taken a few more noteworthy trips, and am sharing my experiences with you here!

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