Mango Madness remains copyright of the author edenjosh, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The tepuis (table-top mountains) are among the oldest rocks on earth and were formed before Africa separated from South America. Because the tops of the mountains are isolated from the Grand Savannah below, a large number of endemic plants have adapted to this environment and exist nowhere else. They are a kind of "Galapagos Islands" in the middle of a continent. The fact that most of the tepuis are unclimbable, due to 1000m cliffs, has enticed travellers and locals alike. The indigenous Pimon people believe that Roraima was a great tree that their ancestors fell in order to get its fruit. A large volume of water sprung from the trunk and flooded the land. When the water subsided all that was left was this huge stump (and it actually looks like a stump if you have a bit of an imagination). Some of the most interresting species on top are the carnivorous plants and black frogs that are more similar to frogs in Africa than those in South America.

While the trail to the top of the mountain is easy to follow, the top is a maze of eroded rocks, boggy areas and the shifting clouds make things disorrientating. For this reason most tourists go on a guided tour.

We began our trip at a small town nearby, and set off after a quick lunch. The path was through rolling grassland, and around 2pm it started to pour. The sky was dark and beautiful. Two hours later we arrived at camp in soggy boots and wet underwear but our raincovers had saved everything else. We quickly set up our tent and then hung up our clothes to dry.

The Gran Sabanna is very hot and dry and by 9am it was already 35C. We forded two rivers, stopping for a swim at the second and then a 2 hour siesta after lunch on the way to "base" camp. Given the temperature, it didn't take long for our boots to dry out.

The third day we began our ascent of Roraima up "the ramp". At first the mountain appears unclimbable, but a British expedition discovered this route in the 19th century. However, the jungle was so thick at the time that they were unable to get close enough to verify this. It wasn't until a large part of the jungle was burned (accidently by the Pimon) some 50 years later that the first two Westerners climbed to the top of the mountain. This was the hardest day, with an ascent of over 1200m. The top of the mountain is shaped by wind and rain into various shapes. Very little of it can be considered flat. One of the most prominent rocks is shaped like a car and is easily recognized from below. The two nights on the top we stayed at one of the "hotels". These are large rock overhangs large enough to accomodate several tents.

The fourth day we explored the tepui climbing the car, swimming in the jacuzzis (cold pools with quartz crystals on the bottom), and some other areas. The fifth day we went back to our first camp site. The sand flies and mosquitos were bad this day and we had a lot of distance to cover. And the sixth day we walked the final 12km back to where the Landcruisers were waiting for us with lunch and cold beer

Excellent trek, excellent people, 50km logged, 5 more nights in a tent. To date over 800km trekked and 70 nights in our tent.

Roraima trek remains copyright of the author edenjosh, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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At the border between Venezuela and Brazil, we were kindly offered a ride to the nearest city, Boa Vista, by a man working in the customs office. The trip was supposed to take about 4 hours because the road is so pot-holely, but our driver, drove an average of 160 km/hr with a maximum of 200km/hr!! This was while he was swerving to avoid pot holes and telling us about all the people smuggling cheap gas from Venezuela whose cars expolde like bombs if they are in an accident! Great! I cut my thumb while frantically digging under the back seat searching for the seat belt. It had been removed! Luckily, Josh had a belt in the front seat.

We arrived safely in Boa Vista and hopped a night bus to Manaus. Manaus is a large city in the middle of the jungle on the Amazon River. It was a really rich place during the rubber boom and has some beautiful colonial buildings and a grand opera house. What is even more amazing is that everything in Manaus -all the building supplies, food etc. is sent via the Amazon River. There are no roads connecting it to the coast.

From Manaus we went on a 4-day excursion into the Amazon Jungle. There we went pirranha fishing, saw fresh water dolphins, monkeys, caiman (alligators) and sloths and spent two nights sleeping in hammocks in the jungle. It was a lot of fun and we emerged from the jungle VERY dirty and covered with mosquito bites...and some sort of rash that could not be identified. Signs of a successful trip!!

After our nights in the jungle, we decided we hadn't had enough nights in hammocks so we boarded a boat headed for Belem, on the coast. The trip is at least 4 nights to Belem but we decided to break up the trip and stay in Santa Rem, a town half way that has a beautiful amazon beach. Unfortunately, when we got to Santa Rem, we were informed that the next boat to Belem wouldn't be for about a week, so we had to leave that day for Belem. The boat ride itself was pretty uneventful. There were about 100 passengers, mostly locals, and we all hung our hammocks together on the middle deck. It was really cramped so the old lady beside me kept kicking me all night from her hammock and the baby beside Josh kept sprawling on him -the baby also kept pooping her underwear and crying. I guess her mother though she was toilet trained, but she obviously was not! I'm not sure how often children usually poop in one day, but this one was a pro. The Amazon River is so big and wide that for the most part, you don't really see much besides water -except for the odd dolphin. At one point our boat broke down so we were marooned in a little town for about a day before we set out again. The most interesting part of the trip was when our boat went through some narrow passages. Natives from the jungle heard the boat and came out in their canoes -even really tiny kids were manuevering their canoes through the wake of the boat! Passengers from our boat threw plastic bags of food, clothes or whatever to the natives and they quickly paddled around to collect them. A couple people even threw a hooks from their canoes to our boat and hitched a free ride. It was a very special experience.

We arrived in Belem and spent a couple of days exploring the city. It also has a lot of old, colonial architecture and quite a bit of charm. It was so hot that we tried to find some respite in a couple of botanical gardens. The gardens were beautiful, but it was still about 40 degrees and humid! The port area was very interesting and we bought mangoes in the market and ate them while listening to a live band.

From Belem, we headed to São Luis. It is another historical city with amazing colonial buildings. Most of them, however, are in some form of disrepair or completely decrepit and inhabited by stray cats! It is still quite beautiful though to see these grand buildings being swallowed up by time and the tropical climate. The near-by Island of Alcantara was much the same but had fewer people and a real "ghost town" feel.

From São Luis we headed to Natal to hit the beach. We stayed in a suburb called Ponto Negro which has a nice beach with HUGE dunes! We spent a day jumping in the waves and then headed south to Praia de Pipa. Pipa is an old hippie town so it is very laid back. The beaches are beautiful too! We spent three days there playing in the water, swimming with dolphins, walking on the beach and eating mangoes. From Pipa we headed further south to another couple of beaches, south of Recife, at Porto de Galinhas (port of chickens!). Here they had natural coral pools in the ocean that you could snorkel around and of course, beautiful aqua-blue water. From there we headed south to Maceio and, you guessed it-another beach, Praia do Gunga. Gunga is amazing and is exactly how you picture an idyllic, tropical paradise in your head -complete with chilled coconuts to sip from.

We thought after all that beach time, we needed a bit more culture, so on to Salvador! Salvador has a very strong African culture. Many, many slaves were brought there from all over Africa and they have kept some of their own traditions, religions and have, of course, modified them to suit the Brazilian environment. The streets are busy with artists, musicians, dancing and food/beer vendors. Very interesting were the capoeira (sp?) performances. Capoeira is a martial art that is performed as more of an extremely aerobic dance between two people. It looks like break dancing with lots of head stands, spins and high kicks. Amazing!

From Salvador we are making our way to Rio de Janeiro. The bus ride is about 30+ hours so we have stopped half way at Porto Seguro for a day of beach. Tomorrow we hop another long bus all the way to Rio.

Bemvindo a Brasil remains copyright of the author edenjosh, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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From Isla Margarita we headed by boat and then bus to Ciudad Bolivar. It is a quiet little city with brightly coloured buildings. They seem to especially like pink. It was there we arranged a tour to Angel Falls -the highest falls in the world at 980m tall! The falls are deep in the jungle so the only way to get near then is to fly to a small town near-by, Canaima. The flight was pretty exciting! It was a 5 seater plane and we got great jungle, mountain and river views and not too much turbulance. Josh got to be co-pilot. After we landed in Canaima, we hopped in a motorised canoe and headed up river for 4 hours. Our driver was amazing and successfully navigated us by all the rocks and rapids we encountered. The scenery was incredible too! We were surrounded by table top mountains and jungle. After 4 hours in the boat, we had an hour hike through the forest to get close to the falls. Wow! They were so tall and so amazing! It was hard to grasp the true scale, however. We even swam in one of its pools about 2/3 of the way down. A great experience! That night we slept in hammocks in the forest and headed back to town by boat in the morning. After lunch, we toured some of the other amazing waterfalls in the area. We walked behind the "Sapo" waterfall and we have never experienced being so drenched! There was so much water it felt like it might push your eyes out of their sockets! I'm not sure if that is an actual risk. It was a wonderful excursion! the next morning we got back into the tiny plane and putt putted back to Ciudad Bolivar.

Very Venezuela -Beaches, jungle and waterfalls remains copyright of the author edenjosh, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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After Cuenca, we headed for Baños. Baños is a fairly small town, about 2000m in elevation and pretty much right on a volcano. Because of this, they have geothermal hot springs ...and don't worry, the volcano hasn't erupted for about a year or two! Josh and I had a really enjoyable time there hiking in the hills, riding bikes to explore the many, many waterfalls in the area and soaking in the near-scalding waters. We stayed there an extra day or two to wait out a referendum that was taking place in Ecuador at the time, but finally we had to move on.

From Baños, we took the bus to Quito, the capital of Ecuador. We picked a cheap hostel at random in the Mariscal district where most backpackers stay. The streets were lined with trendy restaurants and bars. The most interesting part of Quito has to be the old city. The colonial buildings and churches would rival those of Europe, I'm sure. We toured the sites, museums and churches and my favourite things were the Santa Catalina convent where the nuns live in isolation (even from eachother) but make soaps, creams, wine and elixers for sale and climbing up into the bell tower of the San Fransisco church. I had to go on my own because Josh is afraid of heights but I took the camera to capture the view from the top. The climb started up narrow stairways but eventually declined to ladders with unevenly spaced rungs. I climbed and climbed and was eventually ABOVE the bells in the tippy-top of the spire. There wasn't even a floor here but some chicken wire stretched over some beams. I balanced on the beams and carefully removed the camera from the case so I could snap a picture of the great view. Click, click -nothing. There was no battery in the camera! Oh well, I'll just have the picture in my mind. On my way back down, I had the (mis)fortune of being IN the bell tower when the clock struck 5! I was startled to say the least and a little deaf.

Adios Ecuador remains copyright of the author edenjosh, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The wildlife in the Galapagos is superb. On many of the landings we encountered newborn sealion pups who were just opening their eyes. At other sites were we able to swim with juvenille sealions, and on Isabella two played with us the entire time we were snorkelling. And when a white-tipped reef shark swam nearby, one of the sealions chased him away! These two pups loved floating up to our masks, blowing bubbles in our face, and then swimming away. On Isabella we also "discovered" a sheltered bay that had about 20 resting green sea turtles at low tide. On Santa Fe we snorkelled with a school of eagle rays and several turtles. At a few sites we swam with sharks.

Perhaps the two most interesting animals on the islands are the giant tortoises and the marine iguanas. It is believed that both floated to the islands on debris, and with no predators the tortoises grew to great size while the iguanas turned to the sea to feed on algae and seaweed. The tortoises were hunted to extinction on most islands (first by sailors and then by Ecuadorian colonists and introduced species). Three species of the giant tortoises are extinct while Lonesome George is the last of his species. On Santiago island Charles Darwin complained about not being able to set up a tent because the soil was undermined by so many iguana burrows. Today the land iguana is extinct on Santiago because feral goats destroyed the soil and out-competed the iguanas.

Birds are everywhere, with the most famous being the Darwin finches. These tiny birds have different sized beaks depending on their niche. There is even one that uses cactus spines to pick bugs out from under the bark on trees. The most amazing thing is that none of the animals are afraid of people. The boobies got their name from early sailors because they could just walk up to them and club them to death.

Click on any of the following photos to see more of our other photos from the Galapagos. Descriptions of the photos explain things better than I can do here.

Galapagos remains copyright of the author edenjosh, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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So the next day we switched to boogie boards, the waves were much larger, and we had more fun. Other than enjoying the beach all we did was eat lots of fresh seafood--including ceviche (fish cooked in lemon juice).

We then headed to Guayaquil, Ecuador to book a Galapagos cruise. In the three days before our flight (to the Galapagos) we went to Puerto Lopez where we were able to see humpback whales. They come up here to mate every year and the males breach over and over again to impress the females. It was awesome.

Click on the whale photo to go to our flickr site. We have the Galapagos photos there but haven't had the time to write about it yet.

Beach time remains copyright of the author edenjosh, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We arrived in Huaraz on the night bus from Lima and spent two days acclimatizing in town drinking french press fair-trade, organic coffee by the litre, and eating apple pie and reading magazines at the lovely Cafe Andino. The third day we headed up to The Way Inn at 3700m to further acclimatize and do a couple day treks before heading out for the 4-day, 50-km Santa Cruz trek. After catching the local minibus (combi) to the closest town, we walked for about 2-hrs to the lodge and set up our tent. With some daylight hours still remaining, we made a dash up to Laguna Churup--a 5 hr return trip and most popular day hike from Huaraz. Unfortunately we weren't fully acclimatized and got headaches on the way up to the lake at 4450m. After returning to the lodge Eden vomited and started shivering and we took a taxi back down to Huaraz.

Altitude sickness is a serious danger in the mountains so we spent two more days deliberating whether we wanted to do the Santa Cruz trek while acclimatizing at our favourite cafe.

Deciding to do the trek, we set out early in the morning catching a combi to Caraz, 90 minutes away. From there we got a shared taxi to the trailhead at Cashabamba and were on the trail by 10AM. The first day of the trek was relatively unimpressive. The trail was quite degraded from organized trekking parties and their donkey trains (we counted 15 donkeys and 1 horse for one group of 8 trekkers. I don't know why people would need so much equipment and are so lazy that most don't even carry a day pack.) Because of the steep valley walls, only brown/black dry mountains were visible until we arrived at the first campsite, Llamacorral, at 2PM. This is where the trekking agency groups camp and was full of donkey poop so we decided to go onto the next camp an hour away.

The second day we woke up reasonably early but didn't leave camp until 9:30. It was an easy hour and a half to a river junction where we had some snacks before climbing up the steep switchbacks on the way to the Alpamayo base camp. The views from here were stunning. We then turned around and cut across a traverse to the second campsite at Taulipampa. This site was beautiful. Surrounded by glaciated peaks. Again, however, there was lots of mess from the organized trekking groups.

The third day we climbed up to the Punta Union pass at 4760m with relative ease. It wasn't nearly as difficult for me as our 5000m passes on the Ausangate trek and I was carrying far more for this trek. We then continued down the trail for 5 hours to the campsite at Huaripampa.

The following morning we woke up early, walked for 3.5 hours to Vaqueria and caught one of the minibuses back to Yungay.

Huaraz and the Cordillera Blanca remains copyright of the author edenjosh, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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First, we took another long night bus to Trujillo. Trujillo is one of the richest cities in Peru so the hotel prices reflected that. We pounded the streets for a while until we found a place that was not TOO grungy and within our price range. Because the night buses arrive so early in the morning, by 10am we were showered and ready to explore. We hopped a local bus to some HUGE near-by ruins called Chan Chan. Chan Chan was a large adobe city that was inhabited by the Chimu people who occupied the northern shores of Peru from about 850-1470 AD. Most of the city now just looks like huge piles of sand but archeologists have worked hard to uncover the palace section of Chan Chan. Because the Chimus lived in a desert close to the ocean, they relied VERY heavily on the sea for life. This is obvious in their artwork. The walls of the palace are decorated with carved reliefs of fish, pelicans and other sea birds, octopi and fishing nets. The was very different from inca ruins that we have seen,
mostly because the incas did not seem to decorate their walls much.

The next day we hopped on another local bus (always an adventure) to the Huaca de la Luna. This is another huge archeological site, but this time from the Moche peoples who lived from about 200 BC-850 AD. The Huaca de la Luna was suspected to be a temple. The Moche worshipped first and foremost a creature called the be-header. To appease their god, they frequently performed ritual be-headings. These were illustrated clearly in their wall paintings and on pottery. Prisoners were tied up and led into the main square of the temple. The priest would cut their throats and a priestess would catch the blood. The priest would then show the blood to the crowd and drink it. All very brutal and grapically depicted in the artwork. I guess their be-headings didn't appease the god enough because they were all eventually wiped out, most likely by an el niño. The temple construction was quite interesting. It was built in an inverted pyramid form and every 80-100 years the people would built a whole new, bigger and better, temple on top of the old one. They would replicate almost the same artwork each time. In some places, the different layers were exposed so you could compare the older temples with the newer ones. On the same site, there was also a huge pyramid called the Huaca del sol as well as a Moche village but we could not look at them closely as they are still being uncoverd. The sand moves in quickly in a desert.

After Trujillo, we headed to Chiclayo. Chiclayo is home to the richest scientific discovery ever made. In another former Moche settlement, they discovered many tombs near a huge pyradmidal structure. Some had been plundered by grave robbers but some remained uncovered. Most contained pottery, gold and silver but the tomb of a King held the motherload. There was so much gold and other riches in his tomb that the weight actually pulverised his bones. He was also burried with three women, his army general, a boy, a dog, two be-headed llamas and two men to act as guardians to the tomb (their feet were amputated so they couldn't run away). The next day, we went to the museum where most of the artifacts found in the tombs are held. The intricate decorations were amazing! My favourite was a necklace made of big, gold and silver peanuts!

Because we still hadn't gotten our fill of old, crumbly ruins, we headed to Chachapoyas -further inland and into the jungle. Here we got to explore a village, high on a hill top that belonged to the Chacha peoples. They were eventually conquered by the Incas but in turn, helped the Spanish fight the Incas later on. The Chachas built their houses of stone and they all had a circular shape. Each house also had a low, hallow stone wall running through it where they raised guinea pigs for dinner.

The next day we hiked to the Gocta waterfall. It is thought to be the third highest waterfall in the world at over 700m. There wasn't much water volume, so that nearly all that reached the bottom was mist.

All three towns were an archaeologists dream! They were pretty cool for two science geeks too...

Trujillo, Chiclayo and Chachapoyas remains copyright of the author edenjosh, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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From La Paz, Bolivia, Josh and I headed to Puno, Peru. Puno is right on the shore of Lake Titicaca. One of the main attractions there, besides the lake itself, are the floating Uros Islands of the Uro people. This indigenous group many years ago were in constant threat of Incan attacks, not to mention the Spanish later on. They had always used tortora reeds for making boats but they decided, to be safe, they would make huge floating reed islands, far from the shores of Lake Titicaca, and live on them. They have lived that way since then even though there are no "pure" Uros left. Every year they pile new reeds on top of their islands as the ones on the bottom rot away.

The Islands were so interesting to visit. Walking on them was soft and springy. The children there will probably never experience a scraped knee! Many Islands contained just one extended family and they rely heavily on tourist dollars now for survival. Many inhabitants sell handicrafts and rides in their reed boats and the children sing songs for tips and candy.

After Puno, we headed to Arequipa for a second time. It is a nice city where you can buy a huge plate of Chinese food for just over a dollar! That wasn't our main reason for returning, however. We wanted to hike in the Colca Canyon -2nd deepest canyon in the world and more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in the United States! Our trek was only three days in total. The first day we hiked deep into the canyon and slept in a small village. The villagers grow lots of fruit that cannot be grown outside of the canyon because of the altitude and colder climate. The second day we hiked to the bottom of the canyon to a glorious oasis! We swam and relaxed in the sun -but only until about 3:30pm-afterwhich the sun disappeared behind the canyon walls! That night, we left the oasis at about 3am to start the long hike UP and OUT of the canyon! We got to the top in time to watch the sunrise. After that, we took a bus to a part of the canyon (Cruz del Condor) where we watched the huge condors playing in the up-drafts from the canyon. It was amazing how close the condors came to us while soaring by.

From Arequipa, we headed to Ica and then the near-by oasis of Huacachina. It is a relatively small oasis completely surrounded by HUGE sand dunes. We spent a couple of lazy days there hanging out by the pool and walking on the dunes. It was such a nice change from the cold weather we were used to. After a couple of days, we headed back to Ica and took a boat tour around the Ballesta Islands. There we saw tons of birds, including Humboldt penguins and pellicans, and lots of sea lions relaxing in the sun. It was a great tour of what is also referred to as the "poor man's Galapagos".

Needing to keep on keeping on, we headed for Lima. Winter in Lima means coastal fog! Even though it is only about 9 degrees from the equator, it was a cool 15-18 degrees during the day and foggy foggy foggy! It was strange to be in a desert that was so muggy! We enjoyed our time there and basically just pigged out the whole time. Because we hadn't had North American food for a while and figuring we wont be in a big, international city like that for another long while, we justified our binge. We ate at Pizza Hut, had massive sandwiches at TGI Friday's, ribs at Tony Roma's and Cinnabons for lunch! We left with our arteries a little more clogged and a few pounds heavier but happily satiated by American food

Reed islands, deep canyons, Oases and foggy seas! remains copyright of the author edenjosh, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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While our lungs were still trying to recover from the mines in Potosi, we boarded a bus to Sucre. Sucre is a very nice city with lots of colonial architecture. Many of the buildings are made of a sparkly white stone that is almost blinding during the day. We had a nice time exploring the city and we also went to a near-by town, Terabuco, for their famous Sunday market. Josh and I ended up buying a beautifully woven "manta" which is a large blanket/shawl that the women of Bolivia and Peru wear for warmth.

After Sucre, we headed for Cochabamba...mostly because we liked the name! The buses from Sucre to Cochabamba only run at night for some reason so we had no choice but take another exhausting night bus. This one was special though. One of our fellow passengers was a monkey! The monkey didn't get his own seat though. Neither did the 4 kids behind us trying to sit on their parent's laps but mostly who kicked our seats and pulled our hair. On the way out of town, there were these big groups of men trying to get on the bus. We had no extra seats but the bus driver did allow two police officers on who were transporting a convict out of town and he also opened the luggage compartments so that a man and his son could ride under the bus! The bus had no bathroom, but it did stop once in a small town. This town didn't have a public bathroom so I had to squat and pee on the road like the other women were doing. The huge Bolivian skirts are perfect make-do shelters for street peeing. Too bad I wasn't wearing one. The girl with the monkey bought it some dinner from the small restaurant. It ate its dinner from the plate and drank from the cup, then the restaurant lady just wiped the plate lightly and served up the next customer! Haha. During the trip, I became extremely nauseated. I couldn't get out of my window seat fast enough since Josh was asleep in the aisle seat and I was boxed in by the reclined seat in front of me, so I had no choice but to wrench open the window as far as it would go and let it fly. Of course, the open window was not directly beside me so I was also leaning way over the sleeping lady in front of me. She didn't seem to notice though...maybe she just thougt it was a bad dream. The bus pulled in to Cochabamba at 4:30 am! The station was in a very sketchy neighbourhood so rather than wander around in the dark, looking for a place to stay, we decided to stay in the crowded bus station until sun-up.

Cochabamba is not especially attractive but we spent a few nice days wandering the streets and basking in the warm weather. We also got to check out a few hostals and hotels because the first one we stayed at had bed bugs. Oh bed bugs, we meet again.

We headed back to La Paz en-route to Peru and stayed another couple of nights. We ended up buying more presents/souvenirs and mailed another large package home. Let's hope it makes it home!

Sucre, Cochabamba and La Paz (again!) remains copyright of the author edenjosh, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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During the colonial times, Potosi used to be the richest city in South America. The mountains were filled with pure silver. The Spanish used millions of Bolivians and black and indian slaves to mine the silver. It is estimated that over 8 milions workers died in the horrific working conditions. These silver mines bank-rolled Spain for hundreds of years.

Today, most of the pure silver is gone but there is still a lot of composite - silver, lead and zinc alloys. The mines are co-operative mines which means the miners work for themselves rather than an outside company. They haul out tons of rock themselves and sell it to refineries that separate the minerals and pay the miners based on how much of each mineral the rocks contained.

Josh and I took a tour of one of the biggest mines. The working conditions were shocking! The men and boys work in this mine where the temperatures are sweltering and there is almost no air to breathe. What air there is, is so full of dust that most of the miners die a very early death from lung problems. We wore bandanas over our mouths but even still, after less than 2 hours in the mine, we were completely hoarse.

Because these mines are co-operatives, the miners must buy all their own supplies, such as dynamite and shovels, and decide where to blast and tunnel. These tunnels are not built or approved by engineers so the younger miners depend on the experience of the oldest men to prevent cave-ins and to find the mineral veins.

The working conditions were appaling, however, most men in this city are miners because there are few other jobs and mining tends to pay a little better than other jobs. One miner told us that most of them have 6 plus kids and even working in the mine does not earn them enough to support their families, so many boys have to work as well. The miners also feel abandoned by the government who refuses to build them a smelting plant. As a result, they must sell their silver powder at a very low price to Chile where it is smelted into a useable product which Bolivia must then buy back at a very high price.

Potosi is a very nice city but unfortunately its hay-day is over and as the mountains run out of silver, I'm sure it will eventually become a ghost town.

Potosi remains copyright of the author edenjosh, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We checked out lots of agencies offering trips and most seemed pretty similar. We chose one almost at random and set out for our 3-day jeep trip the next morning with 2 men from Germany and a French couple.

The trip was beautiful and the scenery was stunning, however, we witnessed a horrific jeep accident on the Salar that prevents me from raving about the experience. Another jeep of tourists that we were following flipped. Three of the passengers died quite soon after the accident. The other 4 were bady injured and we (other tourists stopped to help) tried to take care of them until the ambulance came. After 3 hours the ambulance/police still hadn't shown up so the injured had to be transported back to town in jeeps. One woman died later. It was a terrible tragedy and one that could have been prevented if the jeeps had only had seat belts. The lack of an emergency respose was also shocking and makes us both sick with regret for the 4 lost lives.

Uyuni remains copyright of the author edenjosh, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We arrived in Copacabana, a small city on the coast of Lake Titicaca on July1st. There were some American's on the bus with us and they had to pay $130 USD in order to enter the country! I wouldn't even come here If I were American! We were given only a 30 day visa, instead of the 90 day one we were supposed to be entitled to because they wanted us to pay for the extra days. Just par for the course here. Too bad Bolivia, we will be gone by 30 days and you will miss out on the tourist money.

As soon as our bus entered Copacabana, a man came aboard and made everyone pay admission to the town because it is a "sanctuary". Copacabana is a touristy town, but pleasant enough. There are tons of trout restaurants that grill them up any way you like. They farm trout in Lake Titicaca so there seems to be no shortage of the fish. One of the main things people do from Copacabana is hop a boat to Isla del Sol. It is an island about 10km or so long, with some inhabitants and some Inca ruins. We took the boat over to the South side of the island in the morning and the ride took close to two hours. As soon as we stepped off the boat there were men selling admission tickets to the island for "conservation" purposes. Of course, as soon as they sold you the ticket, they ripped it and threw the other half on the ground. Hmmmm, yes, conservation!

We explored the south end a bit and visited the ruins of the Temple of the Sun. This also required an admission ticket. Then we started to walk to the north side of the island. Following the foot path ALSO required an admission ticket. The walk to the north took about 3 hours in total and we got to see some nice views of the lake and some more ruins. Once on the north end, we looked for a place to stay. There are fewer inhabitants in the north compared to the south, but we found a clean room to rent for the night. We also had a wonderful dinner in a woman's house.

The next morning we got up early and started our walk back to the South side. We made it there with plenty of time to catch the morning boat back to Copacabana. Lake Titicaca was beautiful but we were a little let down because you hear so much about this particular lake, but in reality, most of our lakes in Canada are much more beautiful! Also, we try not to use our lakes as garbage dumps anymore, but that is still the norm for Titicaca. Too bad.

Back in Copacabana, we hopped a bus to La Paz. La Paz is built in a huge crater. The poorer you are, the higher up on the hill you live where it is colder and there is less oxygen. It was quite a stange phenomenon to witness on the bus -entering the high slums and descending into more affluent areas. La Paz is not a particularly nice city, and the car exhaust is enough to kill you, but we were told it was a good place to buy and mail souvenirs. So, we have spent much of the last few days shopping for presents for our families which we will mail off tomorrow. It has been pretty fun especially since we hadn't bought ANYTHING yet on our trip because our bags are too heavy. We've also checked out a few interesting museums while we've been here and the "Valle de la Luna" which is an area with interesting land formations near the city.

Bolivia! remains copyright of the author edenjosh, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We tried to call the small town of Tinqui to arrange an arriero (horse driver), but didn´t have much luck with the one phone in town, so decided to go with an agency in Cusco (Apus Explorers on Suecia). They were a bargain at $130 per person but what was left out was a stove and gas, horses, a cooking tent, and a tent for our guides! These were arranged by our guides Luis and Alejandro in Tinqui, but cost us some time and we ended up spending the first night camping in Tinqui.

The following day we set off, but Eden had gotten a bit sick from the boiled water and wasn´t feeling well. Lonely Planet Trekking in the Central Andes describes the trek as 6 days, but now we were going to doing it in 4 with horses. The first day we climbed steadily through brown puna grassland, past grazing sheep, cows, llamas and alpacas. We made camp at 4750m below one of the satellite peaks of Ausangate. The view was stunning, but when the sun went down it became very cold and our water in the wash basin froze at 6:30pm even though there was still some light out. While the guides were cooking I climbed two of the orange hills, first by running and then gasping my way to the top.

The next day we woke early to cross the first of the three passes for the day! The first wasn´t difficult because we already had the altitude, and then we descended into a valley. On our left a huge glacier was hanging above two large lakes. The second pass was quite a bit harder at 4850m (4861m on GPS), but we were going to have lunch and a 1 hour break after. From the top of this pass, our guide/arriero Alejandro pointed out the third pass. I couldn´t believe it. 300m higher than where we were standing, but we also had to descend 250-300m to the valley below. Doh!

The guides ran ahead to start lunch while we went down slowly. After lunch we started the slow climb up to Palomani Pass with me stopping every 5 steps to catch my breath above 4800m. So while Eden (still ill) was ahead, I was struggling every step. We reached the top, which registered 5123m on the GPS (5165m according to Lonely Planet). From there the view was stunning. Glaciated mountains to the left, a green valley below, and orange desert to the right. We then walked for several more hours to our camp on the Rio Jampamayo. When we arrived we were cold and exhausted.

We were happy that the third day had only one pass, even though it was the second highest of the trek at 5080m. Along the way we passed a few other trekking parties. The largest was a group of Israelis with 19 horses!! We knew that Israelis like to travel in large groups, but this made us wonder how many there were. Along the scree on the side of the trail we encountered rabbit-like viscachas. The trail then steadily climbed, and the pass itself was very broad (we were over 5000m for over an hour). The nearby peaks of Pico Tres and Collapa Ananta (both over 6000m) were stunning. We then descended into the valley where there were lakes with varying shades of blue. Stopped for lunch at a small tarn (didn´t think it was the cleanest water source for soup and tea), where two 8-year-old girls came to see what we were up to. Gave them some candy, crackers, and lunch and they gathered our horses afterwards.

After lunch we continued down valley, past more alpacas, stone fences and houses to the village of Pacchanta. Here there were hot springs and electricity, but we used neither since the tub was packed with Israeli trekkers and we decided not to stay in one of the small hostels.

Next morning we headed back to Tinqui, stopping for last looks at the mountains, then unloaded the horses and let them graze, tipped the guides, and caught the bus back to Cusco. At the first stop in Ocongate, our guide Luis got out with three other guys and downed a litre of chicha (not very tasty but cheap (20 cents) corn beer) and confirmed our suspicions that his yellow corneas are from liver problems.

Our arriero Alejandro was very good, is from Upis, and we recommend him to anyone considering the Ausangate trek. Even for experienced trekkers, the altitude makes things much more difficult and having an arriero makes things safer as there have been reports at South American Explorers of robberies along the trek. However, for trekkers going solo the trail is not difficult to follow with the description in Lonely Planet Trekking in the Central Andes. Other agencies in Cusco charge between $180 and $800 for this trek with two people ($800 with SAS). If you call Alejandro two days ahead of time (only Spanish spoken), he will arrange everything for updated $120 (old price $80) per person for a 5-day trek. This includes horses, stove, gas, tents, cooking tent, food, and of course him. The only things he doesn´t provide are sleeping bags and mattresses, but you can rent these in Cusco. You may be required to get to Tinqui on your own, but this isn´t difficult. Two busses leave daily at 11am behind Coliseo Cerrado in Cusco. The better bus is Huayna Ausangate. Alejandro Gonzo Huaman can be reached on his cell phone at updated 984 382333 (old number was 984230664), or if you can´t get through you can try his brother at 984391965 and tell him you´re looking for Alejandro. He can also be reached via email alejandro.gonsalo(at)hotmail.com but the phone is probably better.

Ausangate trek remains copyright of the author edenjosh, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Inti Raymi is the second biggest festival in Latin America -second only to Carnival in Rio de Janiero. It is an old Quechuan (Inca) celebration of the equinox. Hundreds of thousands of tourists descend on Cusco from all over Peru and the world. The ceremonies start at the sun temple in Cusco which also has a cathedral perched on top by the Spanish colonials. The prosession them moves to the Plaza de Armas (main square) in Cusco which is where Josh and I waited a few hours so we could have a good view. Many dancers, male and female, dressed in traditional costumes, danced and sang around the square. Some were carrying offerings of corn, potatoes and coca leaves, some incan deities and others carried mummies of former incas. Eventually the man acting as the king (the inca) was carried into the square on a large throne. He was preceded by men sweeping the way with bundles of hay and women dropping flower petals. The Inca made a speech in the Quechua language and then eventually the whole procession left and headed towards Sacsayhuaman (pronounced sexy woman) which are incan ruins up on a hill in Cusco. The crowd followed. Thousands and thousands of people (including Josh and I) then watched another ceremony for their sun god. It was very interesting but not easy to follow since it was in Quechua and because of the huge crowds. They also had a mock llama sacrifice. Apparently, they used to kill the llama in a very slow and brutal way, so they don't do it for real anymore.

The whole week has been very interesting and we have culture pouring out of our ears! Tomorrow we head out on a 5 day hike around the highest mountain in southern Peru, Ausangate, so it will be a nice change.

Photos at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=53235&l=1411f&id=553935978
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=52920&l=8fddb&id=553935978
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=54567&l=6f37f&id=553935978

for those not on facebook.

Cusco Day and Inti Raymi remains copyright of the author edenjosh, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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First on the list is CUY. It is served in many restaurants and is also eaten at special times like the Corpus Christi festival and fairs. Cuy is guinea pig!!!! Many families have their own little hutch of guinea pigs, not as pets, of course, but for Sunday dinner! Often walking along the street, restaurants will display their cooked cuy outside. They look like huge leathery rats with their big rodent teeth very prominant and usually a little fur still stuck to the shrivelled ears and a whisker or two. Josh and I have yet to try this "delicacy". Not because we don't want to, but because we don't want to buy the whole rodent which is quite expensive compared to other foods.

Next on the list is CHICHA. Chicha was the drink preferred by the incas. It is a cloudy pinkish liquid made by fermenting corn. Traditionally, someone used to chew up the corn and spit it in a vat to be fermented with occasional heating. Today we were assured that people no longer chew up the corn by mouth. We visited a chicharia however (where they make chicha) and they might as well chew the corn by mouth because the place was so dirty and CRAWLING with guinea pigs everywhere! They burn the guinea pig dung to heat up the chicha. We tried a little chicha so as not to be rude but it was not very good. It just tasted like sour corn. There is a tamer version of chicha though which is much more delicious. It is called chicha morada and is made with purple corn and spices. It tastes kind of like cider with a popcorn aftertaste.

The other "C" food that we encounter daily is CHICHARRON. Chicharron is hunks of pork, usually on a bone, that is deep fried in oil. It is then left to sit in a pan where cups of oil are poured over it periodically. The worst part of chicharron is the smell and that it seems to be a breakfast food. Early in the morning, when we would be heading to our Spanish classes, we would have to pass tons of restaurants selling chicharron and the smell was so pungent that we would have to try very hard not to be sick.

Another common item here is COCA. Coca leaves, also used to make cocaine, are used very commonly for tea, and chewing. The coca leaf does not have the effects of processed cocaine, but they are used to help prevent altitude sickness, increase energy and supress appetite. The coca leaves were very important to the incas and were used for many reigious ceremonies and sacrifices. Coca tea does not have a very strong taste and it is quite pleasant. Coca is also used in candies, cookies for some beers and soups.

Cusco Cuisine remains copyright of the author edenjosh, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Our last class will be on June 17th, so we will be here for a while. Also, one of the biggest festivals in Peru happens to be in Cuzco on June 24th so we may stick around here until then. In our free time we are really exploring the ins and outs of the city. Actually, we also spent a LONG time looking for a new place to stay because where we were had BED BUGS!!!! What a pain! We have found a new place to stay and have sent almost all of our clothes to be laundered (there are no do-it-youself laundromats here). Hopefully the washing gets rid of any that might be in our clothes but no one uses hot water here for laundry so I don't know if the cold, handwashing will do it. Here´s hoping!!!

Hangin' in Cuzco remains copyright of the author edenjosh, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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On May 26, we left Cuzco at 6 a.m. to start an 8-day journey in the Manu Reserve zone in the amazon basin. Also in our group were three recent Waterloo University grads from Canada, a Dutch girl and a retired couple from Colorado, USA. The first day was long, bumpy and dusty as we drove in a van towards the edge of the park. We spent the first night in the tiny village of Pilcopata. The temperature change from Cuzco, where it is cool and dry, was extreme. All ready we were hot and sticky.

The next morning we entered the park and loaded all of our gear into a long canoe-type boat. The trip down the Madre de Dios river was so pleasant! It was warm and breezy and there were few bugs to bother us on the boat. We sailed down river all day and arrived at our lodge in the jungle in the late afternoon. This lodge was run by local indiginous people. There were little thatched huts for sleeping and a dining hut. There was no power but we had running water from the river. The people from the lodge had a large tortoise tied up which they were going to eat for dinner!!! They untied it so we could look at it and it "ran" away when no one was looking. They were upset their dinner took off but we were happy it escaped. That night we went for a walk with flashlights to looks for bugs, snakes and other night creatures. We saw many insects, frogs, bats, an anol and a snail-eating snake. After dinner, we all headed to our huts to sleep. Josh and I walked into ours and there was a HUGE spider, as big as your palm, on our floor. We yelled for the guide to ask if it was poisonous. He said it was VERY poisonous and aggressive and we were suppsed to "kill, kill, kill" in his words. Everyone rushed into our hut to watch the show. Our guide got a broom and smashed the spider which made a terrible noise. Meanwhile, one of the boys spotted another spider on our ceiling because of its glowing eyes, and another and another and another... The next hour sounded like a war was going on in our room as we all hunted and killed spiders. There was a lot of shouting, laughing and "EWWWWWW!!!"s. Just when we thought all was clear, we spotted the mother of all spiders, guarding a huge, writhing egg sack. Our guide smashed the spider but accidentally got the egg sack as well! Tiny, transparent spiders sprayed everywhere -all over our sink AND MY BED!!!! We tried to brush off as many babies as possible (the babies are not poisonous yet) but eventually, I just had to crawl into bed with them to "sleep". In order to keep out the mosquitos and poisonous bugs with my bug net, I basically had to seal the baby spiders in with me. Ewww. I still feel a little like throwing up when I picture that egg sack.

The next day we left early to stake out a macaw "clay lick". Macaws and other parrots have to eat clay to get minerals to help with their digestion. We watched over 60 blue-headed parrots eating clay, a few orange-cheeked parrots and about 16 red and green macaws. After that, we headed upriver towards the reserve zone. We spent that night in a small town called "Boca Manu".

The next day we spent about 8 hours in the boat going up the Manu River deep into the reserve zone. We saw tons of birds, caiman (small alligators), some capybara (the largest rodents in the world -as big as pigs), a tygre weasel and more. We arrived at our next lodge and went for a walk in the jungle. We saw squirrel monkeys, spider monkeys and capuchin monkeys. That night we got to try and sleep with weird howling and russling sounds going on just outside our tent. It was even worse because Josh had a few "bathroom emergencies" that night and had to run into the darkness scantily clad! Dangerous in the jungle! Not to mention the mosquito bites on your bum.

The next day we took a catamaran and paddled around an ox-bow lake. We got to watch a family of endangered river otters fishing and playing and some howler monkeys sleeping in the trees. While we were on the catamaran, a cold wind started blowing and our hot, humid weather was replaced by COLD, humid weather for the rest of the trip. That night we went for a walk along the shore and saw some caiman lying in wait for prey. We also saw some huge spiders bigger than your hand!

The next day, we headed back on the river to Boca Manu. On the way we all had our eyes peeled to spot jaguar that might be warming in the sun. We were nearing Boca Manu when our guide jumped up in the boat and said "JAGUAR!" There was a beautiful, huge jaguar sunning on the river bank. It watched us for a while then streched, yawned and walked off into the jungle. We were all very excited after that! We stopped at one point for a hike in the jungle and we saw a big, tan anteater taking a rest in a tree. It was pretty cute. The hike was pretty wet, especially after two of the boys slipped into a stream. It was pretty funny for the rest of us. We celebrated our jaguar sighting with beers in Boca Manu that night.

The following day, we spent mostly on the river heading for home. At one point though, we were able to get out of the boat and soak in some natural hot springs. We all enjoyed it very much especially since we were quite dirty and chilled. We stayed in a lodge not too far from the park entrance that night. They had a semi-pet capuchin monkey who was very interested in stealing our dinner. We had a peaceful sleep listening to all the frogs chirping in the distance. However, we also heard HUGE, BARKING bamboo rats. Not as soothing.

The next morning, we headed back by boat towards the town of Atalaya where a bus would be waiting to take us to Cuzco. The river was too shallow at one point so we all had to walk the final 500m on the shore while the boat went ahead with just the luggage. The ride back to Cuzco was again, bumpy and dusty but we all arrived back safely. It was a GREAT trip!

Manu National Park remains copyright of the author edenjosh, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The first town we visited in the Sacred Valley was Ollantaytambo. There is a large Inka fortress there that was really impressive! They quarried all the stone from a mountain about 6 km away and then had to drag the massive stones -some the size of trucks- up another mountain for construction. There are abandoned stones all the way along. They even had to cross a river and used the huge stones to divert the flow of water so they could cross. SO MUCH WORK! The town itself was very interesting too and is one of the best examples of inka city planning and architecture.

The next day we boarded an even more crowded bus than the day before to head to the town of Pisac. Pisac has many inka ruins high in the mountains, inka baths and also an inka cemetery, which has been completely plundered of course, so we could only view it from a distance. It looked like a honey comb on the side of the mountain. I have no idea how they dug those holes and dragged the dead bodies up such a steep cliff.

Pisac is also famous for its huge Sunday market. There were hundreds of stalls selling fresh produce and handicrafts. We wanted to buy a lot but we have no room in our bags for souvenirs so we just bought freshly squeezed orange juice from an old lady and some other fruit.

The bus on the way back to Cuzco was so packed we could barely breathe...but considering the smells coming from everyone who had spent the day in the hot market, we were happy to hold our breath!

The Sacred Valley, Peru remains copyright of the author edenjosh, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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So we met up with the McFriesens on the 16th and then headed on a four day Inka Jungle Trek to Machu Picchu the following day. The trek itself was fun, hot, and smelly. The first day we biked downhill for four hours or so on a very dusty and bumpy road. The second day we hiked along a section of an Inka trail linking Machu Picchu with Vilacabamba (the final Inka stronghold, where the last Inka king was killed), relaxed at a lady´s house where she had a refridgerator (in the middle of nowhere) pet monkey and anteater-like creature, crossed the river in a flying fox, and had a much deserved soak in a hot spring. The third day we walked to Agua Calientes and then hiked up a neighboring mountain to view Machu Picchu from above. The fourth day we woke at 4am to begin hiking at 4:30 to get to Machu Picchu for sunrise. We spent the day exploring the ruins and spent a couple hours climbing Wayna Picchu, the mountain seen behind the ruins in the postcard pictures of the site. Headed back to Cusco that night on train.

The following day was Corpus Christi, the second largest festival in Cusco, and the streets were filled with dancers, bands, folklore creatures, and floats of Jesus, Mary, and saints. The colours, sounds and smells were a sensory overload.

First week in Peru remains copyright of the author edenjosh, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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A few days later, we hopped a bus to Chile and the town of San Pedro de Atacama. SP de Atacama is an oasis in the desert. I guess when we picture oases in our heads, we picture them as they are depicted in cartoons -lush areas of palm trees with sparkling pools of blue water. We were surprised to find out that an oasis is still just a desert but with a few scraggly, dusty trees here and there! The town was beautiful none-the-less. All the houses were built in the adobe style out of mud and rocks. The day after we arrived, we started a tour at 4 a.m. (!!!) that drove us into the desert to see a field full of steaming, erupting geyers. It was truely an amazing site! Worth getting up at 4 am for and enduring the minus 12 degree weather of the desert at sunrise. After that, we relaxed in a natural hot spring until we were all thoroughly cooked through and wrinkley. Next, we visited an aboriginal village that raised goats, llamas and alpacas. There, we were treated to llama kebabs. They were very delicious! Our final stop was cactus valley. A beautiful valley lined with 3 hundred year old cacti. Amazing!

The next day, we took an afternoon tour to Death Valley. The views were amazing! We were able to run down the steep, huge sand dunes. Very fun but we were completely covered in sand! Sand in our ears, hair, even underpants!! Not comfy! Then we headed to Moon Valley for the sunset. It really did look like the moon with craters and strange, barren landforms. The colours from the sunset were accentuated by the reddish tones of the earth. It was a great time, however, after this, we had to board another night bus (to Arica, Chile) and endure an uncomfortable night trying to sleep on a bus with your pants full of sand! I guess some people pay for exfoliation like that!!!

more photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/edenandjosh/

Salta and San Pedro de Atacama remains copyright of the author edenjosh, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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From Bariloche we headed up to Mendoza, wine country. Sitting in the warm sun we were able to count up some of the stats from our time in Patagonia. They are as follows:

Lodging:

Tent - 54 night (25 free)
Hostel - 29 night
Boat - 13 night
Bus - 1 night

Trekking:

Total km - 605
Total days - 41
avg km/day - 15
avg calories/km - 100
avg calories/km when hiking uphill - 150

Top 3 views: Ushuaia and Cordilla Beagle from the top of Cerro Guanaco in Tierra del Fuego National Park, Glacier Gray from the top of John Garner pass in Torres del Paine National Park, Cerro Castillo.

Hardest day: day 2 of Sierra Valdivieso. 11 hrs, 3 mountain ¨passes¨, no marked trail (Thank God for 16 hrs of sunlight).

Longest day: day 2 of Torres del Paine Circuit. 30km.

Temporary addictions:
Empanadas - like pizza pockets but stuffed with ham&cheese, beef, or chicken
Dulce de Leche - caramelized sweetened condensed milk
Helado - ice cream
Pancho - hot dogs with excellent toppings
Churrasco - thinly sliced steak sandwiches (best with cheese, guacamole, and chili sauce)

Patagonia by numbers remains copyright of the author edenjosh, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We woke up early to catch the 7:40 bus since the next wouldn´t be till noon. Because of the cold the previous night EVERYTHING was covered in frost (which stayed until about 11:30). The bus dropped us off 13km from the park, so we had some walking to do, but some friendly lumberjacks offered us a ride in the back of their pickup, awesome.

The park receives somewhere around 4000mm of rain a year so everything was wet, muddy, and smelled like that. The foot bridges that were built over the muddy parts had been covered in an algae or something similar and were incredibly slippery (I must have fallen hard at least 6 times). We saw some very large alerce (larch) trees, some around 2500 and 3000 years old and around 3-4m diametre. Similar to the largest one at Pumalin. The only disappointing part of the trek was that the log bridge 10 minutes from Catedral Alerce had collapsed and there was no way to cross the river otherwise. Luckily, these alerce aren´t the largest in the park but are "just" a particularly beautiful stand.

Parque Nacional Alerce Andino remains copyright of the author edenjosh, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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