Christian April 27th, 2008
The bus ride from Quito to Tena was five and a half hours long. The closer we got to the jungle, the better the scenery was. It was great to look out the bus window and look over the rainforest from the dirt mountain roads. We arrived in Tena around 4:30 or so in the afternoon. We hired a taxi for a $1 to take us and our bags up the hill to our hostel. We were pleasantly surprised by the place (Limonchoca). For $10 a night we got a great view, cable TV, a kitchen, and complmentary hammocks to use on the balcony. It was a steal. The first night we talked to the owner about scheduling a white water rafting trip. Continue Reading »
Christian April 20th, 2008
Our time in the Galapagos was amazing. We spent 8 days on a 75 foot yacht exploring the islands. We had close encounters with all kinds of wildlife, and saw some of the most beautiful beaches. This is a longer post, but is filled with our adventures in the Galapagos. There will be three sets of Galapagos photos in our photo section, as well as hopefully a video at some point. Enjoy! Continue Reading »
Christian April 19th, 2008
Before our journey to the Galapagos, we thought we would do a touristy thing or two in Quito. One of the mini trips we did was to the Mitad del Mundo or “Middle of the World”. We got made our way to the blue line bus that would take us to a mini bus station an hour away or so. The bus was jammed with people, with more people getting on at each stop. We got off at the wrong stop to switch buses (thanks Lonely Planet). If you are using public transportation to get to the Mitad del Mundo, take the bus all the way to the end. We caught the next bus to the correct stop where we switched buses. At one point this kid jumped on the bus and started giving a comedy routine for money. After almost 1.5 hours in jammed standing room only buses the driver let us know we were at the mitad del mundo. We got off the bus on the side of the street and walked in.
The place was creepy. Continue Reading »
Christian April 5th, 2008
We scrambled around Cuzco getting all that we needed to go to Machu Picchu. We ran to the train station to get the tickets and to the INC office to get our entrance tickets. Surprisingly all of the backpacker train tickets were sold out for the days we wanted, so we had to splurge and spend an extra 20 dollars for the Vistadome train. It was not that big of a deal since we were able to get our entrance tickets for Machu Picchu half off since we had our ISIC student cards. The only thing that we did not have was a place to stay. However, this is the last month of the slow season there, and with the multitude of hotels it was not should not be a problem finding one when we arrived. Continue Reading »
Christian April 3rd, 2008
After our five hour bus ride from Puno we arrived in Arequipa, Peru’s second largest city. We were impressed by our room at the Casa de Avila. It had nice hardwood floors and a nice bathroom. We were starving so we made our way to the main square, the Plaza de Armas. We ate at a restaurant called Johnny Coyote. It was a complete rip off of Johnny Rocket’s in the states. The burgers were great. Arequipa is a nice city. The main square is pretty. Many of the buildings are made from white stone, which is why it is sometimes refered to as the white city. The next day we got our tour for the Colca Canyon figured out. We ended up going with a company named Land Adventures. Continue Reading »
