From Lima, we hopped a night bus to the city of Huancayo where we will spend four weeks teaching english to kids in 3rd-6th grade. We were greeted at the bus stop by a man named Aldo, who helped us cordinate this whole thing, but we quickly found out he was one of the strangest and most scatter brained people we have ever meet. After a few days of traing and constant changes to our schduels, we were thrown into a class of 40-50 over energetic elementary school kids. Here our reality was turn completly upside down, from anything we had ever experienced in a school setting. Each day we taught we would have countless interactions that would either severly suprised us, or have us restraining ourselves from brusting our laughing in class. First day, we walked in and asked the class to be silent, but one of the kids kept talking. The professor prompetly got up takes a belt, hits the kid in the face while the rest of the class cheers. We went on to find this kind of punishment routine with the teachers using, sticks, rulers, pulling the kids hair, or twisting there ears. However, sometimes the teacher would leave finding that when we were teaching it would be a good break for them. At that point we would each do our best to keep the kids under control while teaching them some basic englinsh.
For the time that we are here, we will be living with a local family. The family dynamics themselves are quite interesting and we still cant figure out who is related to who and whos kid belongs to what parent, it is really confusing. While we are here, one of the sisters cooks our meals and we eat what we are served, half the time not really knowing what we are eating. One lunch we were given this jello type substance for dessert. Seeing that we were rarely given desserts, we both dig in and immidiantly find oursleves spitting this substand back into the bowl. We quickly pulled out the dictionary and the two meanings of what we had just eaten were: foot or paw and duck. Upon asking what it was we found out it was ground up foot, cartilige and other parts of a chicken one normally would not eat.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Good bye Ecuador Hello Peru
After our adventures in Ecuador, we ventured south to the sunny beath town of Mancora, Peru, where we spent three days eating fresh seafood, chillin on the beach and getting incrediably sunburnt. We then continued onward to Lima, where we learned that Lima is for lovers. In the eight hours we spent in lima we saw more couples publicly displaying their affection for each other than either of us have ever seen in one place. Hanging around the main plaza at night became very difficult because every bench was taken up by multiple couples just going at it. We decided t obuy an ice cream, and realized that it was a better deal to buy a bowl we three scoops than it was to each buy a cone with a single scoop, we thought we were being smart shoppers. However, the workers at the ice cream shop thought it was really funny and we had no idea why at first so we just laughed along with them. It was not until we walked out of the store that we realized that the bowl was in the shape of a heart . We had ordered a dish ment for couples and the people at the ice cream store were laughing because theu thought we were some of Lima´s lovers. We only spent one day in Lima and then peaced
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Sittin down in a little old town
We arrived in Huancayo, Peru on Wednesday morning. We´ll stay here for 4 weeks while we work as english teachers in a local public school. Stay tuned next week for more updates on the past couple of weeks, and what´s going on in Peru at the moment.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
The Farthest point from the center of the earth
1. The clouds and our refuge
2. the refuge and the very first part of the trek
3. the view from the summit
Coropaxi Pictures
1. The volcano
2. Hut that we smoke ourselves out of
3. Matt and Danica, the canadian, walking up the 35km road
4. The three of us at the refuge
La Hesperia Photos
1. The general landscape at the reserve
2. One of the many very large and very interestly colored insects we saw
3. The lake on the property we would go swiming in
4. Machete masters´Jeffrey and Matt
We got higher than we´ve ever got before
From Baños it was off to try to summit Volcan Chimborazo, a massive snow-covered volcano that stands at 20,823ft. and happens to be the farthest point from the center of the earth, 2km farther than everest. We arrived at the first refuge (15,000ft.) at 2 in the afternoon, ate a quick lunch and walked up to the second refuge at 16,500ft. Here we were greeted by enormous clouds, snow pack, and cold temperatures. However, this time we had lots of warm clothes. No more dumb gringo pictures for us. After exploring around the refuge and drinking lots of warm tea, we went to bed around 7pm, knowing we had to get up in just 4 hours to begin our summit attempt. Sleep, however, was nearly impossible to come by. At 16,500ft. our hearts were working harder than ever to pump oxygen to our brains, so when we were just lying in bed doing nothing it sounded like our hearts were recovering from a 100yd dash.
After 4 restless hours, our two guides woke us up, we dressed, and quickly ate our breakfast before finishing our final preparations and heading out. Once we left the refuge we were soon stopped in awe by the night´s scenery. The monstrous clouds that sat next to us earlier that evening were all but gone, leaving in their wake a clear view of the mountain, and above the mountain shone millions upon millions of stars. Because of our proximity to the equator, we were able to see stars from both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. After several minutes of stargazing, our guides decided it was time to start the walk, so we headed out unsure of what exactly we were about to do to ourselves.
Almost immediately after we started to hike we hit the snow fields and were told to put on our crampons and pull out our ice axes. After about a 30 second instruction, all in spanish, on how to best use the gear we started to trudge up the masssive ice fields. The millions of stars and our headlamps were our only source of light, so we could hardly see where we were headed. All we knew was that we were going up, and each breath seemed to fill our lungs with less and less oxygen. As exhaustion and altitude started to set in, we fell into a routine. Crampon, ice axe, other crampon, ice axe, crampon, ice axe, for hours and hours. We moved like zombies as our minds wandered to different places on our way up the massive peak. We soon heard sounds, and saw colors and objects that weren´t there. Ira kept thinking the rock trail markers were trolls.
Hours and hours of walking--we were still going up. Hours and hours more--we were still going up. Our guides told us we were getting closer, but nothing seemed to change except that we were more and more tired. We would walk, then take a break, then walk some more, straight up a pitch of 35-40 degrees at some points. After one break our guide said we were verey close, and began hiking at a rather ambitious pace. We didn´t believe hime, but we were, in fact, very close, and the slope leveled out a little to uncover the beginnings of a sunrise of a lifetime. We dropped our bags at the false summit, and hiked the saddle to the actual summit, driven only by the great view before us and a desire to see that little flag that marked the top of the world. After agonizing ove the last steep pitch, we reached the top and despite our exhaustion, were able to enjoy the 360 deree view of the rising sun.
Above every cloud in the sky, we could see almost all of the other ecuadorian vocanoes that were tall enough to break through the seemingly impenetrable layer of orange and red clouds below us. We had made it to the top of a 20,800 ft. peak despite being exhausted and loopy from the altitude. We were thrilled.
After 4 restless hours, our two guides woke us up, we dressed, and quickly ate our breakfast before finishing our final preparations and heading out. Once we left the refuge we were soon stopped in awe by the night´s scenery. The monstrous clouds that sat next to us earlier that evening were all but gone, leaving in their wake a clear view of the mountain, and above the mountain shone millions upon millions of stars. Because of our proximity to the equator, we were able to see stars from both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. After several minutes of stargazing, our guides decided it was time to start the walk, so we headed out unsure of what exactly we were about to do to ourselves.
Almost immediately after we started to hike we hit the snow fields and were told to put on our crampons and pull out our ice axes. After about a 30 second instruction, all in spanish, on how to best use the gear we started to trudge up the masssive ice fields. The millions of stars and our headlamps were our only source of light, so we could hardly see where we were headed. All we knew was that we were going up, and each breath seemed to fill our lungs with less and less oxygen. As exhaustion and altitude started to set in, we fell into a routine. Crampon, ice axe, other crampon, ice axe, crampon, ice axe, for hours and hours. We moved like zombies as our minds wandered to different places on our way up the massive peak. We soon heard sounds, and saw colors and objects that weren´t there. Ira kept thinking the rock trail markers were trolls.
Hours and hours of walking--we were still going up. Hours and hours more--we were still going up. Our guides told us we were getting closer, but nothing seemed to change except that we were more and more tired. We would walk, then take a break, then walk some more, straight up a pitch of 35-40 degrees at some points. After one break our guide said we were verey close, and began hiking at a rather ambitious pace. We didn´t believe hime, but we were, in fact, very close, and the slope leveled out a little to uncover the beginnings of a sunrise of a lifetime. We dropped our bags at the false summit, and hiked the saddle to the actual summit, driven only by the great view before us and a desire to see that little flag that marked the top of the world. After agonizing ove the last steep pitch, we reached the top and despite our exhaustion, were able to enjoy the 360 deree view of the rising sun.
Above every cloud in the sky, we could see almost all of the other ecuadorian vocanoes that were tall enough to break through the seemingly impenetrable layer of orange and red clouds below us. We had made it to the top of a 20,800 ft. peak despite being exhausted and loopy from the altitude. We were thrilled.
Baños--gringo land
Our next destination was Baños, a small town a couple of hours south of Quito, and a hotspot for pretty much any outdoor activity that a tourist would want to do. Nearly every street in the small town was lined with either hostals or outdoor adventure companies selling horse rides, rafting, hiking, or ATV rides.
Our first day in town we decided to rent mountain bikes and ride 40km or so down the highway past several huge waterfalls. Though the seats were painful and the bikes in poor shape, the ride was almost all downhill, so we could hardly complain.
After a day full of mountain biking we decided to go hit the town with some friends we had met in our hostel. Unfortunately, it was the middle of the week, and despite the munbers of tourists in the town, everything was quite dead. After walking around for a little bit, we did find some open joints, and eventually ended up in a discoteca learning how to salsa dance with the locals. We´re not experts quite yet, but we´re definitely getting better.
We got up the next day eager to get out of town, so we packed our bags and headed to the bus stop where we were able to sample some of the town´s famous taffy and sugar cane juice, squeezed entirely from the sugar canes with now water added. It is the perfect drink for any sugar-obsessed person who wants a quick-and-easy way to destroy their teeth in a matter of minutes.
Our first day in town we decided to rent mountain bikes and ride 40km or so down the highway past several huge waterfalls. Though the seats were painful and the bikes in poor shape, the ride was almost all downhill, so we could hardly complain.
After a day full of mountain biking we decided to go hit the town with some friends we had met in our hostel. Unfortunately, it was the middle of the week, and despite the munbers of tourists in the town, everything was quite dead. After walking around for a little bit, we did find some open joints, and eventually ended up in a discoteca learning how to salsa dance with the locals. We´re not experts quite yet, but we´re definitely getting better.
We got up the next day eager to get out of town, so we packed our bags and headed to the bus stop where we were able to sample some of the town´s famous taffy and sugar cane juice, squeezed entirely from the sugar canes with now water added. It is the perfect drink for any sugar-obsessed person who wants a quick-and-easy way to destroy their teeth in a matter of minutes.
Otavallo Pictures
The top picture is of the magic tree outside of Otavallo, and the others are from the animal market.
We are only going to put up a few from each part due to the amount of time it takes to put them up
Can´t find Fritos in Quito
We arrived in Quito a couple of weeks ago. After walking around the city for a half day or so, we saw someone meandering the streets of the old town area who looked unusually familiar. We ran up several flights of stairs pursuing him, and finally caught up with him. Turns out it was Matt´s brother, Ira, who happens to be travelling through South America too. It was a nice surprise, and we have been travelling with him ever since. After that, we spent a few days wandering through the streets of old town, climbing a volcano, and getting sprayed and dusted with this colored stuff that all of the locals seem to have during Carnival(the weeklong celebration before Lent begins.)
Wandering aroung Old Town was amazing. Not only were we walking through a 12,000ft. valley, but we were also walking in and around true colonial-era buildings and plazas. The churches that we were able to go through were landmarks themselves. While large businesses and corporations dot the skylines of cities in the US, Quito´s skyline was dominated by giant church spires and domes. On our first day in town, we were lucky enough to be spared the usual afternoon thunderstorm, so we walked to to El Panecillo (¨little bread loaf¨), a hill in the middle of the valley, and marvelled at the city as it snaked through the mountainous terrain for miles and miles.
After several days in the city, we set out for a little change of pace. We started out the day by riding up the Telefèrico, a gondola that took us 2.5 km out of town and up to 4100m above sea evel. From there we decided to hike to the summit of Volcan Pichincha, a 2-3 hour hike with 800m of altitude gain. No big deal, we thought. So we headed out in jeans and t-shirts because it was pretty hot down in Quito. The hike was simple and straight forward until the last section which became a mess of loose gravel and sand, and finished with some boulder scrambling. We arrived at the 15,400ft. summit, a bit loopy from the altitude, cold, and lack of water and food just as the wind picked up and it began to snow. So there we were again, three dumb gringos. We figured it was the end of summer on the Equator and it shouldn´t be snowing, but I guess altitude changes everything.
After some time in the clouds on the summit, we headed down, wet and cold. We returned to Quito, and spent one more day before heading out.
Wandering aroung Old Town was amazing. Not only were we walking through a 12,000ft. valley, but we were also walking in and around true colonial-era buildings and plazas. The churches that we were able to go through were landmarks themselves. While large businesses and corporations dot the skylines of cities in the US, Quito´s skyline was dominated by giant church spires and domes. On our first day in town, we were lucky enough to be spared the usual afternoon thunderstorm, so we walked to to El Panecillo (¨little bread loaf¨), a hill in the middle of the valley, and marvelled at the city as it snaked through the mountainous terrain for miles and miles.
After several days in the city, we set out for a little change of pace. We started out the day by riding up the Telefèrico, a gondola that took us 2.5 km out of town and up to 4100m above sea evel. From there we decided to hike to the summit of Volcan Pichincha, a 2-3 hour hike with 800m of altitude gain. No big deal, we thought. So we headed out in jeans and t-shirts because it was pretty hot down in Quito. The hike was simple and straight forward until the last section which became a mess of loose gravel and sand, and finished with some boulder scrambling. We arrived at the 15,400ft. summit, a bit loopy from the altitude, cold, and lack of water and food just as the wind picked up and it began to snow. So there we were again, three dumb gringos. We figured it was the end of summer on the Equator and it shouldn´t be snowing, but I guess altitude changes everything.
After some time in the clouds on the summit, we headed down, wet and cold. We returned to Quito, and spent one more day before heading out.
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