From Copacabana we took a bus to La Paz. About an hour and a half into the journey the bus stops and all the locals disembark. In typical South American fashion, no one annouces or tells us what is happening or what to do. In fear of being left behind, or missing out, we got off the bus and realized what was going on. The road we were traveling on continued but first we had to cross a lake and there was no bridge. Thus, the bus boarded a rickety barge while we followed the crowd to buy tickets for a [View Full Entry]

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From Cuzco we took a train to the town of Puno. It was a little longer than the bus ride- but very worth it. We had lots of room to strech out since there were only 8 of us in the train car and they served beers.Lake Titicaca sits on the border of Peru and Bolivia. We first visited the lake on the Peruivan side, in Puno. There's not really much to say about Puno, except we did take one tour out on the lake to visit the island of Uros.Uro's is comprised of many small reed islands. The islands arent [View Full Entry]

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What can our lowly US college-educated minds say about Machu Picchu that other much smarter and more in the know persons havent. How about: Its a pain in the ass to get to! Well, maybe not that difficult but for being arguably the biggest tourist draw in South America they sure dont make it easy. After fumbling through our guide book (which wasnt that helpful), reading PeruRails website, and probably a full day of research and wandering around Cuzco we understood what needed to be done. There are basically three ways to get there: 1. Walk the Inca Trail, which you [View Full Entry]

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Our stay in Ecuador ended in Loja (a busy, not very attractive transport town). We arranged transportation with a bus company to leave Loja, go thru Ecuadorian and Peruvian border checkpoints and arrive in Piura, Peru. The trip isnt that far but when the driver stops for breafast, drinks and snacks, lunch, and more snacks it makes for a long, tiring, boring ride. The trip took about 8 hours but we reckon 3 could have been shaved if the driver didnt have such an affinty for taffy. After spending an uneventful night in Piura (also, a busy, dirty transport hub) we [View Full Entry]

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our last big stop in ecuador was in cuenca, the third largest city in the country. its a nice, colonial city but there wasnt much to do. we walked around, checked out the various markets (food and crafts), and went to the ice cream parlor a few times. we ended up spending more time here than we anticipated, because it took us longer to organize gear for our trek and sarah got sick (no, not of brett...just sick). once we were in cuenca, we decided that we wanted to go backpacking in nearby parque nacional cajas. which meant spending all of [View Full Entry]

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after mindo, we headed to the town of baños, a getaway for foreignors and ecuadorians alike. it is known for its numerous hot baths and their suppossed health benefits... but brett thinks the only health benefit is that the old-timers in town get to check out young ladies in bikinis. it was raining on our first day there and bretts yellow fever vaccination was working its magic (flu-like symptoms and general crabbiness), so we didn´t visit any of the pools. one of the highlights in baños, however, was visiting the bascilica de nuestra señora de agua santa. (the town´s patron saint [View Full Entry]

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so we had enough of the big city and took off for mindo, ecuador about 2.5 hours from quito. mindo is a tiny town, of about 2000 people, set in a cloud forest. it is beautiful- mountains covered in lush green vegetation, and tons of butterflies and birds. on our first day in mindo, we went to the mariposario (butterfly farm). we took a stroll around and snapped lots of photos. the next day we walked about an hour north of mindo to do some hiking. to access the park, you first have to ride on a terabita (cable car) strung [View Full Entry]

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first off, we saw fabio in the los angeles airport. we´ve spent the last three days making up ï can´t believe it´s not butter¨jokes, but none of them were funny enough to warrant writing here. we spent tuesday and wednesday in quito. it´s a big, bustling city, and honestly a little overwhemling. we wandered around old town (where we were staying), climbed to the top of the cathedral, and ate breakfast for 2 bucks. on to a more pressing story...brett did not receive his yellow fever shot in the u.s. (about 200 dollars) because our research found that it was readily [View Full Entry]

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