miguel2006
Miguel Fernandez Joined: October 4th 2006
Logged in: September 17th 2007
Logged in: September 17th 2007
1) Australia and New Zealand (2002-03)
2) Spain, Morrocco and England (2005)
3) Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil (2006-2007)
Videos for these adventures can be found at:
www.youtube.com/miguelfernandez5
Enjoy!
Travel Blog Posts
Kuelap
The trip to Kuelap was an adventure. We decided to go after hearing from a few travelers and our guide book about how amazing it was. We heard that it was recently rediscovered and is the future Macchu Picchu of northern Peru, just not as touristy and busy. So even though it wasnt in our original travel plans we decided to go for it anyway. The only problem was how we were going to get there. We were in Cajamarca when we decided to go, and there were two options to get there: rough it by jeep for 20+ hours on unpaved rocky roads that could possibly be flooded because it was rainy season in the mountains, or head back to Chiclayo by a confortable bus on a paved road and then take another comfy bus ... read more
Cajamarca
We finally arrived in Cajamarca after a long and bumpy bus ride from Chiclayo. Cajamarca is an old historical city in the andes of northern Peru and is most famous for being the place where the Incan empire began to collapse to the rule of the Spaniards. The Spanish conqueror Francisco Pizzaro ambushed and captured the Inca emperor Atahulapa, and eventually executing him after he handing the Spaniards all his treasure. We decided to go there after hearing good things about it from other travelers while we where in Chiclayo and Mancora, otherwise we probably wouldn’t have ever come to this place. We arrived in Cajamarca late on a rainy night, not too welcoming…and took a taxi to the central Plaza de Armas to the best hotel we’ve stayed at so far on this trip. We ... read more
Chiclayo
Chiclayo After weeks of inactivity, I’ve decided to return to the world of blogging and try to remember what we did while in Peru……if the words aren’t all there, at least the photos are here to give you a bit of a visual idea of what my eyes saw while in Peru. So we begin with Chiclayo. We entered Chiclayo mid-day after a relatively short (about 4 hours) bus ride from Mancora. The first thing we noticed was that Chiclayo is a big city set in the middle of a dry desert, with many white and light coloured buildings. The minute we stepped off the bus we felt the blazing heat, and were greated by a friendly taxi driver named Herbert who welcomed us to his city, known nationally as the capital of friendship. After helping ... read more
Mancora
Our entry to Peru from Ecuador was problem-free at the border. Stepping foot in Piura after a long overnite bus ride was another story. The first thing that we noticed that was different from Ecuador is that in Peru there are no Terminal Terrestres, which are bus stations which hold spaces for all the bus companies. Instead, we were told that we had to take a taxi to a different station where our next bus would take us to Mancora. So we trusted our taxi driver to take us there safely for $2 USD. The moment that we began loading our bags into his car, a group of choros aka punks tried to rush us with pickpockets. They almost took off with Nolan’s bag if it wasn’t for our taxi driver’s cat-like reflexes. As soon as ... read more
Leaving Ecuador
After 3 ½ weeks in Ecuador, we decided to move on with our journey into Peru. The border crossing in Macara was problem free, as we arrived by our overnite bus at 2am. We were surprised that no questions were asked, just our passports were stamped; an exit one from Ecuador and an entry one from Peru. It was definitely different than border crossing in any western country, as we did not get grilled for our purpose or motives. I guess it was obvious that we were just gringos backpacking through foreign lands. Another thing that we found weird was the chicken trade that was happening on the Peruvian side of the border. A dozen burlap sacks full of tied up chickens greeted us as we entered Peru. It was quite disturbing, the smell and noise ... read more
Vilcabamba
After Guayaquil we decided to go to Vilcabamba, which is known as the valley of youth. Many people there grow to live much longer than most, plus we heard that its very nice, beautiful and relaxing, so we just had to go and have a taste of what water they are drinking! We took an executive 10-hour overnite bus from Guayaquil to Loja, the nicest one we have been on so far. Each passenger got a bag of goodies with a fruit drink, very nice. We arrived early in the morning, and took another hour combi ride to our destination, Vilcabamba. The scenery to Vilcabamba from Loja was truly breathtaking, as we passed through valleys of plush green hills, mountains, and river. After finally arriving in Vilcabamba after a long journey we checked out a couple ... read more
Guayaquil
After a fun weekend partying with our new friends from Guayaquil in Montañita, we decided to take up their offer to show us around their city. We left Montañita by a 15 seater van with a couple of friends from Columbia and from Spain and arrived in sunny Guayaquil in time for dinner time. Guayaquil is Ecuador’s biggest city, and is much quicker and crazier than Quito. That first night we indulged in some McDonalds, the first time in weeks that we saw one. They put guacamole in their McPollo’s, but it still tasted like the garbage at home. That was enough to hold of off for a few weeks. That first night our friends from Guayaquil took us out to the Malecon, a really long seawalk that goes along the bay. It was really nice ... read more
Montañita
We decided to take a bus from with the 2 swiss girls that we met during our jungle trip, to Montańita, a small surf village off the coast of Ecuador that is known to have a wild night life. We found that to be true when we arrived at midnight after a LONG trip from Bańos, which included having to switch buses at a crazy chaotic bus terminal in Guayaquil, and being stranded in Salinas before taking a cab to our destination of Montańita. We arrived in Montańita to a argentinian hippy with dreads greeting us and offering to take us to a nearby hostel. We dropped our bags in our rooms and went out to get some ribs at a nearby sandy beach-hut restaurant. Walking through Montańita at night was crazy at first, dozens of ... read more
Baños
Arriving in Bańos in the morning after a long overnite bus from the coast was a much welcomed surprise. Bańos is a small town located in a lush green valley with an active volcano overlooking it, and is full of adventure travel things to do. The first day we spent the morning catching up on lost sleep in the nicest hostel we have stayed in so far, called Hostal Marquez. We got a spacious room with really comfy beds, with a nice balcony and a view of the main waterfall in Bańos called the Virgin. We decided to do a night tour of the active volcano nearby, and got driven in an open aired “Chivy” truck blasting reggaeton music with 20 other people that took us to a viewpoint of Bańos. It was raining pretty hard ... read more
Jungle trip
Last week we decided to do a jungle trip to the Ecuadorian amazon outside the city of Puyo. We hunted around Banos looking for the best deal in an all inclusive package, and found the right scenario with a company with the help us a good friend named Xavier. We started our trip at 9am, and met with our new group that we shared good times with for the next 3 days. We were lucky enough to be put in a small group of 4 with Denise and Franchesca from Switzerland and our Ecuadorian guide named Marietza. It was a perfect small group, and everything that we could have wished for. After getting in a van, we drove out towards the jungle, and stopped at a couple of waterfalls along the way. The first one was ... read more
