New Adventures in Mexico

So our trip in South America ended and I failed at documenting all of the beautiful moments that took place but a new adventure has started and I am a little more determined to document this journey not only for my family but for myself. 

Mexico!! This trip is only for two months so I like to think of it as an extended vacation. Our main destination is Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca. We met with the owner of the cabaña we will be staying at today in Oaxaca City and it has just rekindled my excitement for the lazy days ahead.

Ive got two heavy bags with bikinis, books, snorkel sets, and music ready for the days ahead. My plan is to learn how to surf this trip, maybe take some lessons and buy a board. Nicolas is super stoked for Mexico´s pipeline and time in his hammock with his new ukelele. Things seem really tranquilo aquí so the beach will be even better. 

Ok brain is not quit working all the way yet so I should stop typing (traveling for over 24hours with a few hours of sleep). We have an overnight bus ride to Puerto Escondido tonight and had a few hours of extra time so I wanted to put out the first post. 

Paz y amor 

Worst Blogger Ever

Ok, I´ve realized that I am a horrible blogger and Nic forgets about the blog every time we go to the internet. Im just going to try and catch everything up more for myself than anyone.

After that amazing bus ride we were in the mountains in this smallish town of Chachapoyas which is probably spelled wrong. Its a bit of a tourist town with a bunch of tour companies trying to sell trips to nearby places. When we were in Cajamarca I read about Kuelap, from what I read it was supposed to be smaller than Machu Pichu but in a way just as amazing.

So many adventures in places with so little internet.

I apologize before hand for any spelling errors, this computer thinks everything is wrong because I´m writing in english.

We left Lobitos after the hot sun, lack of fresh water, and swarming flies finally got to me. It was a nice time of rest but I was ready to see more of Peru. For fellow travelers or an inspiring traveler I highly recommend Muelles Surf Camp in Lobitos just outside of Talara. I´ve heard from some friends that a lot of things have changed for the better but you cant beat the layback vibes and family you recieve while living there.

Anyways, we headed south to the next surf town, Pacasmayo. After a drive around in a moto looking for a cheap hostal we found ourselves at Sol y Mar. Closer to the point than the more expensive hostals and a family that was more than welcoming. They gave us almost a whole apartment to ourselves with a sun deck After walking around for a bit we found out that Carnaval is going on in Cajamarca only 4 hours away. The family was nice enough to let us leave some of our heavier possessions including the surfboards and we caught the next bus into the mountains.

Cajamarca is one of my favorite big towns. It has a little of the Quito vibe but less people. Beautiful church buildings, friendly people and the best holiday ever...Carnaval. Although most people think of Brazil when people talk of Carnaval, it is in my biased opinion that Cajamarca´s carnaval is the best. Its equivalent to Christmas in Woovile. All year they prepare for a few weeks of fun, water fights and never ending parades. Of course because we are gringos Nic and I became a huge target for all the water fights. At one point I stood in one spot with my rain jacket as a shield while balloons came from all sides with the last bit being a huge bucket of water thrown at my back.

I´m going to let Nic write a more intensive post about Cajamarca later.

After an amazing time in this mountain town we decided to head further into the mountains on a 12 hour bus ride to Chachapoyas. We had read a lot about this ride from other blogs and travel websites but the experience was still amazing. Before we left we took our map to the bus terminal and talked with the guy about the ride. He tolds us the small inch of the map took 9 our of the 12 hours. After a bit we soon realized this is so. The mountains are amazing and far past breathtaking but along with the view it makes for difficult travel. The snaking trail you see in the picture is our road and in many spots was way worse.

But views that made every hour worth the time.
Although I´m impressed by my cheap camera the fotos still don´t capture how amazing the views were. Its something that you just have to see for yourself.

Pancakes in the Desert

As time goes on, I find that I miss simple things from home. Little things like warm showers, more than 3 changes of clothes, and our dog Rocky. These are things that pop in my head at random times. I'll be walking through the market and all of a sudden miss my bed or swimming out in the ocean thinking of how good a nice green salad with spinach sounds. I was having one of these moments this morning as I woke up. I wanted pancakes and not just regular pancakes but chocolate chip pancakes. These seemed like a difficult task at first but here is the recipe I ended up using with my resources.

1 cup of harina (flour)
1/8  cup of azucar (sugar)
1 teaspoon of bicorbanate (baking soda)
1/4 or less of avena (oats) slightly wrong translation
1 huevo (egg)
2 tablespoons of vegie oil
1 cup of leche (milk that can be bought by the cup down the road, but bring your own cup)
1 Sublime chocolate (found at the tiendas in Lobitos, the chocolate also contains peanuts so peanut butter is not needed)
1 Banana(sold for only 6 bananas for 1 sole)
A little oro de somethings (butter)

I didn't mix the ingredients in any real order but I think your supposed to mix the dry things first then the wet but I did add the banana and chocolate last. After the mixture is ready you pour it on a hot pan with butter and fry one side then the other. Served with some miel, makes an excellent breakfast for the hungry surfer. I do not hold responsibility if a horrible batch of pancakes are produced by this recipe.

Nic and I really enjoyed this treat this morning and hopefully it will lead to more attempts.

A New Country

So here we are again starting over in Peru. After many long hours on the bus we get to the town Nic wanted to stay at for a month, Mancora. It took only a few minutes to make a change in plans. We ended up staying only one night. Mancora is crowded, hot, has the pan-American highway running through it, and not a whole lot of beauty. We quickly packed our bags the next morning and made our way to Lobitos.

We ask the taxi driver to take us to the cheapest hostal. He said it would cost about 20 soles which is a little lest than $10 a person. This wasn't really in our budget but we figured we could get a better deal long term. Supposedly the place was a friend of his but later when we were talking with the owner he had no idea what the taxi drivers name was. The taxi driver was also wrong because it was 25 soles each for one night and he told us there was no place to camp, which was also a lie. The hostal was in comfortable home with hot water and a tv but we needed something cheaper.

The next day we found our home for the month. I wish I had my camera because this place is something else. Its an old warehouse that has been turned into a tent camp. It reminds me of a giant kids play house with a small skate ramp downstairs, paint all over the walls of art and different surfer thoughts, and couches made of old parts over looking the beach. Nic and I have the best spot in the house. Its on the third floor with our own little silla and a room that we added a lock to. We also have a great view of Piscinas which is one of Nic's favorite surf spots now.

The town itself is like another world. Down the way used to be military but now all that is left is empty buildings and homes without roofs. Out in the water there are platforms that are sucking up the oil from below. And everywhere you look is desert. Time goes by quickly here and you loose track of what happened the day before. We met a pair of german twins that don't even surf but ended up staying here for over a month although they only planned a week or so.

So now the day consists of eating, surfing and maybe swimming for me, sleeping, eating, surfing, eating, and a sometimes more surfing. Everyone surfs here so much that they actually go to bed early. I went body boarding the other day with a board this guy let me borrow for free but I'm too cheap to rent a board so I'm waiting to either buy a cheap body board or long board. I'm also starting two different projects today. I want to make cookies bad so I'm going to try and make a solar oven. The other project is chickens!! One of our new friends has a killer spot and wants chickens so I volunteered. If Nic gets out of the water soon enough then we are going to go into town, get a bunch of food and chickens. I'm excited :) Hopefully with all this free time I'll be able to keep up with the blog a little better. I'm sorry again for falling behind but without a camera I was lacking the motivation to post anything.

Been a Long Time

I apologize to everyone for not posting in such a long time. I'll try and catch everyone up as quick as possible.

So we made our way to Mindo where we would be working on the zip-line. The first day was a lot of fun and we instantly fell in love with Mindo. Its bird watchers haven and we were living there! Every morning hummingbirds were flying all around us and up in the canopy we would see amazing birds like toucans.

One weekend we went to Quito and hung out in Old town for a bit. Saw a bunch of old buildings and were quickly over it, too many people and too much danger. We later heard that someone held a knife to a lady to take her purse and everyone kept walking by like nothing was happening.

When we got back there was one extra person who was very rude right of the bat. To make things short we left early because of him and headed towards the coast, which made Nic very happy.

We get to our next volunteer project in Auga Blanca which is a small community in the Machililla National Park. Right away we get a weird vibe, we only had one person tell us welcome when there were a ton of people sitting on the porch as we walked up. Isodro shows us to our room and says tomorrow we will work hard for 2 hours by the lagoon pounding or clearing brush. The next day we go down to the lagoon and they actually have us water a ton of plants with buckets. It was very beautiful and we enjoyed the work.

The next day they had me dust the museum and Nic water the grass. This was how it was for the rest of the time. There was no working with the community, no teaching english, and no organic farming like we read about in the description. Some days we wouldn't do anything because there was nothing to do and when there was something to water or sweep, we had four guys sitting around watching us do it. To make things worse we were a $3 taxi ride away from town and the price doubled if we came home late. We felt trapped and only stayed because we didn't want to loose our money.

One weekend we went to a surf town an hour away, Montanita. We love the food there but its mostly a party town. Normally we go to bed early but the one night we decide to stay out late, someone comes into our room and steals my camera as well as Nic's ipod. We realized the window we thought led to a drop off actually had a walk way from the other hostal. It was upsetting and has hurt Nic more than me.

Funny story with this little guy. We were walking back from up the hill when ghoatito here decided to follow us down to our place. There were so many goats that we thought he wouldn't be missed. We took him up to our room for a little fun and were planning on returning him. A bit later one of the younger guys that already called us stupid gringos came down and laughed at me. Nic was in the room with goat and there was an awkward moment as Nic returned the goat to his owner, like a sad parent returning the child when his week is up. This happens to also be one of the very last photos I was able to take with my camera as well :(

Quilotoa

So the bus ride from Latacunga to Quilotoa was one of the weirdest cultural experiences. The whole ride there was a girl who was standing in the aisle and during this whole time she was also sitting in my seat. My neck was cranked to the side the whole ride, it was the most uncomfortable moment (that went on for 3 hours). I should of said something but every time I heard her talk she was speaking quichwa so I doubted she could understand my Spanish.

After we had climbed up and up we finally got off with a bunch of other gringos. There were no signs and every one was looking around in confusion. I had to pee like no other so we started walking to the right. We came to a little barrier where we had to pay $2 each to enter the town of Quilotoa. We asked which hostal was the cheapest and they brought us to the closest one. It only took us a few minutes to realize that it was their hostal. The rooms had no fires and the bathroom was a short walk away so we decided to check out the other places. We ended up picking on that was $7 a night with desayunos, fire in the room, and a private bathroom. Right after we settled in we took a look at the crater.

Quilotoa is 4000m (about 13000ft) above sea level in the Cotopaxi province which means its really cold even though the sun feels like its right above you. The crater was formed about 800 years ago after a volcano erupted. For many years the locals believed the crater was bottomless but today it is known to be about 800 ft deep. In the evening the clouds roll in and it becomes a different world all though you could never imagine with these beautiful blue skies. We did the hike around the crater which was a lot harder than it looked. With a lunch break and many photos it took about 4 hours. By the time we got back it was freezing and there isn't much to do besides look at the crater in Quilotoa. We decided that night to try and get out of there as quick as possible.

The next morning we went to give our keys to the lady when she asked us where we planned on going. She said the next bus that way wasn't until 2 and it was only 9 am. Nic thought we could hitch a ride but most of the drivers wanted $20 for a 12 km drive. Things worked out great though after we talked to a couple of other travelers who were trying to get to Latacunga. They were hiring a driver and told us the town in the opposite direction is actually a lot easier to catch a ride to Bancos than the place we originally had our minds set on. So for $2 we made it to the next town and right after a bus pulled up that was going in our direction (perfect timing). After a couple of hours on the bus I started to see more green and it felt like a weight had been lifted. Quiltotoa was great but the cold and elevation was not for me. The whole time my face, hands and feet where swollen. I looked like a blow up fish. From Bancos we were heading to Mindo, our next volunteer spot.