South America — Page 11

Princess Maria Hostal (Banos, Ecuador)

September 19, 2009 By Danny

Over 5 months on the road and this is the first review we have written for a hostal. Princess Maria was simply a breath of fresh air. The cheapest of all of our accommodations in Ecuador (about $6 each) we had only intended to stay in Banos one night but quickly extended our stay. The owners were always present ready to supply any and all visitors with whatever kind of information that might be needed or just to hang out and practice some Spanish.

Aside from being a cheap hostalling option, Princess Maria provided us with everything we needed for our stay in Banos. We had a private room with a private bathroom and all the hot water we wanted, which wasn’t much thanks to the nearby hot spring. There was a kitchen where we cooked ourselves a nice meal as well as free Wifi internet. The hostal is well decorated with a TV common room as well.

Usually we skip the hostal and go to the small hotel around the corner. If more hostals were like Princess Maria we wouldn’t go anywhere else….ever.

The Egypt of the Americas

September 16, 2009 By Danny

Peru may be known for Machu Picchu. It may be pondered for the Nazca Lines. It might even be remembered for its supurb pollo with a drink of Inca Kola. Really though, Peru is still so much more.

We spent longer in Peru than we have spent in any other single country on our trip. We had intended to continue with our Spanish lessons but caught up in trying as hard as could to ‘see and do’ it all. We nearly got robbed on our entry into the country. We toured the ruins of pre Incan civilizations. We hiked at nearly 3 miles in altitude while suffering from Diarrhea and made it in and out of one of the world’s deepest canyons. Best of all we were visited by our friend Leah who joined us as we did the Salcantay Trek to Machu Picchu.

Before heading out to Bolivia though there was one more thing we just had to do. We’d fallen in love with Peruvian chicken long before we ever entered the country. While here we became enamoured with the rest of her cuisine from from lomo saltado to rocotto relleno.

Last up though was something very very important, Cuy.

It really was fitting that Disney chose to release its G-Force movie about a bunch of crime fitting Guinea Pigs now so that we could watch it while we were here in Peru. Because for our last meal, that’s exactly what we ate.

Cuy is a delicacy here, one we first learned of while in Ecuador. Guinea pigs are indigenous to this region and have been cherished as a source of food and nutrition for millennium. Sure we enjoyed our Alpaca steak, rich in nutrients and low in fat like American Bison (one of our favorites and something we made sure to eat on our brief visit back to the USA in July) but that’s just not quite the same a cute and cuddly RODENT.

So we sought out an ordered. It came and we ate. We had been warned that it was very bony and did not contain much meat. There it sat on the plate, with a side of rice, some lettuce, and a couple of potatoes. We stared at it a bit, grossed ourselves out for a minute or two. The band in the restaurant continued to play and we continued to stare our formerly furry friend down. Finally forks went up and in we dug. To be honest, I think my pinky finger has more meat than I was able to pull off that carcass but we did manage a taste and to all of you wondering…tastes just like chicken.

To Bolivia (with our visas already in hand) we go!

Always COCA-Cola

September 15, 2009 By Danny

It is absolutely amazing just how common Coca-Cola is. We have found it in ever city, in every country, in every restaurant, of our entire trip. We have found in on islands and every sidewalk vendor we’ve seen. When we traveled La Moskitia in Honduras we encountered people with virtually nothing from the outside world, except Coca-Cola cooled with a solar powered refrigerator.

I think the thing that most impresses me is just how many different sizes of Coke bottles we’ve found: 237ml, 250ml, 12oz, 295ml, 410ml, 16oz, 500ml, 600ml/20oz, 625ml, 1L, 1.325L, 1.5L, 2L, 2.25L, 2.5L, 3L, & 3.5L bottles. And I doubt that’s even all of it. Cokes supreme dominance is something that is completely remarkable. So completely does it dominate that even though every snack stand is filled with Frito-Lay (owned by Pepsi-Co) products they almost never have Pepsi. Always Coca-Cola.

Fitting that in Peru, home of Inca Cola…the beverage that Coke finally purchased a few years ago rather than continue with beverage wars…we really start to learn about the Coca leave itself. (By the way, Inca Kola is basically liquid bubble gum. So if you like bubble gum you will LOVE Inca Kola).

So the truth you ask? Rumors have always abounded about Coca-Cola´s relation with this controversial plant. In Peru and Bolivia we chew it to help with the altitude and even make a tea out of it. Dare we bring it back to the USA, we´ll likely be arrested…so how could Coca-Cola be pulling this off?

They won their court case way back at the start of the century and up to at least 1985 it had been confirmed that our fuzzy drink contains extract from the coca leaf.

Really though, this isn´t so important. Coca-Cola, if indeed its newer formula does still contain coca extract, only uses it for flavoring. The ironic thing here is that many people will tell you that coca is not a drug. These are probably the same people who are drinking it in tea and chewing it to help with the altitude. Of course its a drug if you use it for these purposes…but that doesn´t make it any more dangerous than the fix any of us gets from the caffeine in a cup a coffee or relief from some Tylenol.

The coca leaf itself is one of the world´s first plants to come under domestication, used in the Andes by indigenous peoples for millennium for a variety of purposes a brief google search will only begin to mention. It´s powers to heal and help are many but obviously its power to cause harm can be great as well.

We´ve hit our minimum!

September 14, 2009 By Danny

6 months into our trip!

On Friday, March 13, our friend Alan dropped us off at the US boarder just south of San Diego…and we walked into Tijuana. We were scared, nervous, bewildered, and any number of other adjectives that one can use to describe confusion and fear of the unknown. But we were excited too. The world awaited and our time had come to go out and discover it.

Six months is significant for one reason and one reason only. It was our minimum. Six months was the amount of time we decided we´d force ourselves to meet. Once we´d been gone six months it will have been worth it to quit our jobs and make ourselves homeless. If we came home after six months, well, at least we gave it a good shot.

We´ll be home in November.

But in December we will fly to South Africa where we will begin the famed Cape Town to Cairo overland trek. Sure, we may have to fly over a space here or there but we´re going to Africa and that is exciting in itself.

To tell you the truth though, travelling like this has been hard and we plan to write a couple of posts in the near future talking about that. We are very much looking forward to our trip home to see our friends and family and hope that many more will follow in the footsteps of Poncho and Leah and join us along the way. Most importantly, thank you to all of you who have helped along the way with messages of support and reminisces of home!

Machu Picchu

September 11, 2009 By Danny

Trek the Salcantay Trail…check
Make it Aguas Calientes…check.
Eat hot yummy food…check.
Go to bed early…check.

Wake up the morning following 4 hard days of hiking at 3am…WHAT?!?!?!?

Yeah, that’s right. Not only that, but the volume on the alarm wasn’t high enough so we almost slept in. Getting up really really early after treking all the way to Machu Picchu is practically a right of passage for those who hike to the ‘old’ mountain. One needs to get up that early to hike up an additional 400 meters, straight uphill, to be in line at the entrance BEFORE the buses taking the ‘normal’ people even depart. All this so that you can get one of the coveted tickets to hike straight up Wayna Picchu, (young mountain) an additional 200 meters into the air, to view Machu Picchu from above.

And that’s exactly what we did.

We were nearly late meeting the group on account of that alarm clock but we made it out anyhow. Back out ofAguas Calientes we walked, practically sprinting, to get ahead of the other hikers. At the foot of the hill we started walking up the steps. More than three thousand in all I was told. Three thousand steps straight uphill, with sore legs, so that we could walk even more once we got up there. Crazy right? Welcome to our world.

Only the first 400 people in line get the coveted tickets to Wayna Picchu, and getting up so early we were within the first 100. We went up so fast that, despite the rather cold air, I was covered in so much sweat it looked as though I’d gone for a midnight swim. (And for all those racers out there, we passed waaaayyy more people than passed us….yeehaaaw!!)

With tickets in hand, into one of the world’s newest seven wonders we went. (Who decides these things anyhow?) Our tour guide showed how the mountain was divided into living and farming and brought us to the temple and the king’s house. We watched as alpacas grazed on their ancestral land and as one traveler got down on one knee and offered his hand in marriage to another. We learned how the Inca’s split rocks to build the historic mount and also got a chance to visit the king’s bathroom and take a seat on his “throne.”

The ‘Lost City of the Incas’ was only used for about 100 years, just before the Spanish Conquest of the Incan Empire. It wasn’t ‘discovered’ until 1911 when a Yale professor stumbled upon the find and excavations began. As with all great things, the actual date of discovery is still disputed, along with the purpose of the city, along with the reasons for its decline, along with wheather or not it should even be opened for tourism.

Despite of how little is known or agreed upon, or perhaps because of it, we were not disappointed. We’ve seen many ruins now: Tikal, Monte Alban, Copan, and others. These ruins were out of another world though, truly magnificent. So what next, we got up well before the crack of dawn for the right to walk up that ‘other’ hill so that’s exactly what we did.

Whatever you do though, when talking about Macchu (old) and Wayna (young) Picchu (mountain) be sure you’re saying the word Picchu correctly. Note that if you see a group of indigenous men laughing at you while you’re talking about summiting the ‘Picchu’ it’s because you didn’t say “mountain” but are instead referring to a man’s…yeah.

I’m not sure whose idea it was to get up that early, or if I would have been upset if I hadn’t gotten the opportunity, but hiking up this time, already having been up nearly 7 hours and with the sun now beating very, very, very hard on us, I just kept stopping and asking myself why. Eventually we reached the top and I received my answer. Three-sixty views over the valley we walked the day prior and one of the 7 ‘new’ wonders of the world and I knew why.

Only 11am though and what an incredible day. Only three things left to do. Share a pizza (OK, maybe I ate one myself), a couple of beers, and wait for that train to take us back to Cuzco.

Princess Maria Hostal (Banos, Ecuador)

The Egypt of the Americas

Always COCA-Cola

We´ve hit our minimum!

Machu Picchu

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