Monday, April 27, 2009
Bolivia-Was life created here?
Copacabana-
After Machu Picchu, we went to Lake titicaca in Bolivia, where the Inkas believe life was created on the Island of the Sun, in the middle of the big lake at 12000 ft. We spent a couple of days hiking around the island trying to answer the never known answer of where life was actually created while transcendentalizing ourselves mind, body and spirt. We were then ready to continue our voyage.
Uyuni, the endless salt falt?
Once upon a time 20000-40000 years ago, there was a gigantic salty lake situated in east southeast Bolivia at 14000 ft. the lake disappeared and now there is a giant salt flat in the middle of a marshen desert in the middle of nowhere Bolivia. The landscape was amazing an like nothing we had ever seen before. We spent four days explore this rugged area in a jeep and hiking around, each day discovering something new.
After Machu Picchu, we went to Lake titicaca in Bolivia, where the Inkas believe life was created on the Island of the Sun, in the middle of the big lake at 12000 ft. We spent a couple of days hiking around the island trying to answer the never known answer of where life was actually created while transcendentalizing ourselves mind, body and spirt. We were then ready to continue our voyage.
Uyuni, the endless salt falt?
Once upon a time 20000-40000 years ago, there was a gigantic salty lake situated in east southeast Bolivia at 14000 ft. the lake disappeared and now there is a giant salt flat in the middle of a marshen desert in the middle of nowhere Bolivia. The landscape was amazing an like nothing we had ever seen before. We spent four days explore this rugged area in a jeep and hiking around, each day discovering something new.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Walking with the Inkas
After leaving the teaching business, we headed off to Cusco and packed up or gear and headed out on a four day backpacking trip on the Inca trail arriving at Machu Pichuu. We went with a group of 13 others that included Swedes, Aussies, Canadians and Brits. We started walking the first day through amazing landscape with some of the greenest mountains we had ever seen shooting up all around us. We walked for about 4 hours and then reached our lunch spot. This is when we realized that this trip would be entirly different than any other camping trip we had ever done. When we arrived at our lunch spot, there was a tent set up with table and chairs and we were served a lunch cooked by a professional chef. At first we were wondering how all of this was possible, but we quickly realized that the 21 porters that were along the trail with us were carrying all of these things. The porters were some of the smallest men we have seen on our adventures, but they put incredibly large makeshift backpacks on their backs and take off running with all of our gear so they could beat us to camp and set up. Not only were they kick ass little dudes, but they were some of the nicest and friendliest little guys we have ever met. Almost all of the porters opted not to carry water, because it added extra weight. Instead of water, they stopped at stands along the way to buy the local corn beer and rest while they downed a pitcher of the stuff. The porters also loved receiving little snacks and treats. If we ever had leftover snacks or candies, we gave them to the porters, and watched their eyes light up as if they were little kids.
We walked for 2 more rainy days along a winding path that led us up, over, and around several mountain passes, and all the while we were constantly in awe because of the giant green peaks and scattered Inka Archeological sites that we continually discovered.
On our fourth and final day, we woke up several hours before the sun rose so that we could hike the last portion of the Inka trail and arrive at the scenic overlook over Machu Picchu just as the sun was rising. However,there were about 200 other hikers who had the same idea as our group, so the hike up to the overlook was more like a two hour long cattle herd up the side of a mountain, and instead of cattle, there were a bunch of grumpy tourists. We decided to run for the last two hours to try and reach the ruins before the herds of tourists. All in all, our plan actually worked and we reached Machu Picchu before the rest of the hikers and were able to get our hands on some tickets to climb up to waynapicchu the big mountain that is all of the pictures of the ruins. We spent the day wandering around in amazment of the work these people were able to do and the structures they were able to biuld. After awhile in the ruions we climbed to the top of waynapicchu which let us have some amazing views and spent the rest of our time on top of the mountain in awe. Tonight we are off to Bolivia.
We walked for 2 more rainy days along a winding path that led us up, over, and around several mountain passes, and all the while we were constantly in awe because of the giant green peaks and scattered Inka Archeological sites that we continually discovered.
On our fourth and final day, we woke up several hours before the sun rose so that we could hike the last portion of the Inka trail and arrive at the scenic overlook over Machu Picchu just as the sun was rising. However,there were about 200 other hikers who had the same idea as our group, so the hike up to the overlook was more like a two hour long cattle herd up the side of a mountain, and instead of cattle, there were a bunch of grumpy tourists. We decided to run for the last two hours to try and reach the ruins before the herds of tourists. All in all, our plan actually worked and we reached Machu Picchu before the rest of the hikers and were able to get our hands on some tickets to climb up to waynapicchu the big mountain that is all of the pictures of the ruins. We spent the day wandering around in amazment of the work these people were able to do and the structures they were able to biuld. After awhile in the ruions we climbed to the top of waynapicchu which let us have some amazing views and spent the rest of our time on top of the mountain in awe. Tonight we are off to Bolivia.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Adios Teaching, Hello travel
As of yesterday, we are finished teaching english to giant classes of energy-filled peruvian kids. While we are glad to be back on the road again, we are also sad to leave behind the scores of entertaining situations that occurred each day. Although we could fill a book with funny anecdotes from our experiences, here are just a couple that stand out to us right now:
1.) Almost every class Matt and I (Jeff) would ask the students if they knew certain words in english that pertained to our respective lessons. Everytime the class would go quiet for a moment, then one brave student would venture a guess, which was usually a shortened version of the spanish word he was trying to guess. Almost instantaeously the class would erupt into a thunderous chant with every student acting like they knew the answer. When we finally got the class back in order and told the kids the correct answer, the kids laughed at and/or hit the kid who started the chant. One of our favorite chants occurred when I was asking the class if they knew how to say peach (durazno) in spanish, and in every class I was greeted with the chant, "Duraz, Duraz." Our other favorite chant happened one time when Matt asked the class if they knew any Greetings in English. Following the lead of one brave but terribly wrong student. The whole class started chanting "Blu-ay, Blu-ay." We have no idea why.
2.)In another instance, I (Matt) was writing on the whiteboard with my back to the class. I had only turned my back to the class for a little bit, but pretty soon a student was at my side, politely asking me a question. I bent down to hear his question: "How do you say, Peleado, in english?" Assuming this an innocent question, I told him--"fight." However, he immediately turned around and ran to the back of the class chanting, "Fight, fight, fight!" I looked behind me to see where he was headed, and sure enough, two other kids were in an all out brawl at the back of the class. The chant was soon taken up by the rest of the class, and while I walked back to break it up, I thought to myself, "At least they've learned one word during my time here that they won't forget.
Right now, we're getting ready to head off to hike the Inca Trail, and ultimately arrive at Machu Picchu a couple of days after Easter.
1.) Almost every class Matt and I (Jeff) would ask the students if they knew certain words in english that pertained to our respective lessons. Everytime the class would go quiet for a moment, then one brave student would venture a guess, which was usually a shortened version of the spanish word he was trying to guess. Almost instantaeously the class would erupt into a thunderous chant with every student acting like they knew the answer. When we finally got the class back in order and told the kids the correct answer, the kids laughed at and/or hit the kid who started the chant. One of our favorite chants occurred when I was asking the class if they knew how to say peach (durazno) in spanish, and in every class I was greeted with the chant, "Duraz, Duraz." Our other favorite chant happened one time when Matt asked the class if they knew any Greetings in English. Following the lead of one brave but terribly wrong student. The whole class started chanting "Blu-ay, Blu-ay." We have no idea why.
2.)In another instance, I (Matt) was writing on the whiteboard with my back to the class. I had only turned my back to the class for a little bit, but pretty soon a student was at my side, politely asking me a question. I bent down to hear his question: "How do you say, Peleado, in english?" Assuming this an innocent question, I told him--"fight." However, he immediately turned around and ran to the back of the class chanting, "Fight, fight, fight!" I looked behind me to see where he was headed, and sure enough, two other kids were in an all out brawl at the back of the class. The chant was soon taken up by the rest of the class, and while I walked back to break it up, I thought to myself, "At least they've learned one word during my time here that they won't forget.
Right now, we're getting ready to head off to hike the Inca Trail, and ultimately arrive at Machu Picchu a couple of days after Easter.
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