Lares Valley Day 1, Peru

Sorry for the delay, but here goes; The day before our trek we had a debriefing at the tour guide office. I knew there were a few people from my hostel going and one of them mentioned that there were going to be at least fourteen on this backpacking trek. I let a little sigh out when i heard that. I like smaller groups, it's easier to manage and get to know new people.

We show up to the meeting greeted with tea and cookies. Half of the people wearing their alpaca hats. We go over the basic logisitcs for the trek. Two days of serious hiking through Lares Valley, then half a day of hiking and a train ride to a hostel, and lastly the long anticipated Machu Picchu.

Here's a short conversation between our friend Jake and Aldo the guide.
Jake: I heard it's going to rain, how should we prepare?
Aldo: Nah, nah... it's dry season. Don't worry about it.
Jake: Well, what about snow?
Aldo: Nah, the only snow you have to worry about is the snow peaked caps, but that's above fifteen thousand feet.
Jake: Will we have to cross any rivers
Aldo: No, nothing serious.

Lake at Huilquijasa Pass

It's pitch black out. My phone alarm is going off and it's 3:00AM. We quietly get out of bed trying not to wake the other dorm mates. Changing in the dark and putting on our backpacks. We sneak out and meet up with the other hostel people doing our trek. Waiting for the bus to arrive we hear the pitter patter of rain on the plastic roof. Not looking good. We pass out on the bus for a few hours. I wake up slowly to the bus taking turns on the top of a mountain with what I think is a dirt road, I can't tell it's covered in snow. Looking even worse. I can feel Aldo slowly eating his words.

We arrived at the bottom of a valley with a few houses made of mud, straw, and corrugated steel. Things were looking good while we had breakfast, but then right after it started to rain on us. Aldo actually gave us the option of turning back and skipping part of the hike. Half the people raise their hands to go back. That wasn't enough to convince Aldo, so we trekked on. The rain started to turn into sleet. Every once and a while there would be a break in the clouds. I'd unzip my two layers of jackets and whip out my camera and try to take a few pictures here and there.

Some of the guys On the way down.

The way our group was setup was one guide was at the head and another at the tail. The porters and horsemen would go at their own pace. I have to say I was probably the worst hiker in the group. My 65 liter backpack was probably a third full. and my camera strapped to my chest. It felt like I was wearing bricks at this altitude and my feet began to move slower. It became harder to put one in front of the other. The higher I went the more frequent I would need to catch my breath. Apparently the guides would typically make more and longer stops for us to catch our breath but they wanted to book it because of the horrible weather. Lovely. The picture above is part of our descent. If you look closely, you can see two of the hikers Jake and Sam wearing their huge backpacks which to me look full and pretty damn heavy. Of course they were always in the front of the pack too. Not doing cardio in my work outs is definitely not paying off.

The porters/mules passing us. [photo cred: Step]


We passed a few more beautiful lakes on the way down. Crossed some ice cold streams. We stopped to talk to the local kids and gave them some food. In fact the guides told us to stock up on food and snacks to give away to the poor farmer kids. we all make it down to the bottom of another valley and find all these tents setup for us with a huge tent for our dining/cooking hall. Finally a place to get out of the rain. They brought us a late lunch which felt like heaven after the first day of trekking. We ascended and descended about 650 meters in only two miles. The hot tea and hot soup was amazing. Maybe because we just touched the sky and came back. We arrived early to the camp site so we took a nap after lunch. Woke up for dinner, and then slept early. End of day one.

Cusco, Peru

Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus

Back when we were in Costa Rica we realized we didn't book our Machu Picchu trip. Being two weeks out from our ideal time and it being high season there wasn't much of a selection of tours. For some reason we were convinced that the only way you could see Machu Picchu was by booking a tour because there was only a limited amount of tickets to reach the top. The most popular trek the "Inca Trail" was obviously booked ahead of time probably about half a year ago. Two other alternatives were sold out which left us an eight day and a four day trekking tour. We didn't have too much time on our hands and the Inca trail was a four day tour itself so we figured, let's do it. You can't visit Peru and not see Machu Picchu right? We shrugged off the steep price and booked it. Later as we did more research we found out that the limited tickets are for Huayna Picchu which is the steep mountain that you always see in the postcards of Machu Picchu. Well, we already put our non refundable deposit down and read good things about this trek.

Qorikancha the golden Court Yard

The same company that we booked our trek with said we could join their city tour for free. We figure it was an easy tour and something to do on our last day before our Trek. We met at the tour office at noon and were handed off to someone, who then handed us off to someone else, who shoved us into a huge tour group of maybe 30 people. Our tour guide sounded like he was an announcer of a boxing match. Or rather he would be so enthusiastic it sounded like he was telling a children's fairytale and every other sentence was the climax. But in actuality all he talked about was how much gold and silver there was in the church and how he couldn't believe it. He also boasted how he was once a teacher and proceeded to give us lessons on the sun and how the Incas were great astronomers. It really is interesting, but after he kept repeating how the sun travels after we visit each site it seemed like that's all he talked about. The sun in winter, gold, the sun in summer, the sun again. We considered ditching the tour but the more interesting sites were up next.

Saqsaywaman [Photo cred: Steph]

This picture is probably my favorite one of the day.

So we made it to Saqsaywaman, a short bus ride right above Cusco sit's this ancient ruin of giant stones walls. I actually got yelled at because I started to climb up one of the rocks. Here's a little fun fact not learned from the guide; the name Saqsaywaman actually means "Satisfied Falcon", as most Americans will say sexy-woman. I'm absolutely sure the tour guide was talking about the sun again but i stopped paying attention. We found out the tour was to go on for a few more hours and we decided to ditch it this time around because we had to wake up at 3:30am to catch our bus for the trek.

Sacred Valley, Peru

Alpaca grazing in the Andes

Since we're taking our time in Cusco we did a day trip to the Sacred Valley. We weren't sure if it was going to be worth it because we already booked our four day Lares trek to Machu Picchu. Really, who wants to see more ancient ruins? We asked a few people and heard it was actually quite different and well worth it. And yes, they were right. Although I would recommend not doing the tour. Our dorm mate had a better deal, she somehow met someone by chance who knew a taxi driver that hooked them up and drove them around all day for free. That is my ideal way of visiting anything really; they're not trying to sell you anything, you take your own pace, and you get personal service. Lucky.

Incan family dressed up for tourists

The worst part about any tour is when they make their stops at the tourists spots where they get their kick backs or what not. So one of the first places we were supposed to visit was the Pisac ruins. We stopped in the village of Pisac and they said to get off the bus for 30 minutes. We did and walked around, looking for the ruins, getting lost in the tourist stalls. We come back and then they say now we're going to the ruins. I hate tours.

We ran into this family of Incans. Since I wanted to take their picture, we tipped them a little. This is after Stephanie stopped saying how cute the little lamb was. As we walked back to the bus I saw another five more families dolled up in their traditional clothes, carrying little lambs or alpacas, and holding a baby on their backs. All of them came up and asked for money. It kind of made me sad how people rely on tourism to make a living.

Terraces at the top of Incan Pisca ruins.

I believe the Peruvians pride them selves in how many different varieties of corn they produce. On the way up to the Pisac ruins we picked some up and it was crazy good. Each kernel was like a little plump potato. I've never seen kernels so big. The cool thing about this place was that we could spot the terraces from far far away as the bus drove around the mountains. These agricultural terraces they created allowed them to produce an abundant amount of crops which I imagine would have been hard at this altitude. That's probably why they have such a great selection of corn.

[Unimportant side note: So our tour of Pisac was done and we were ready to move onto the next site. After getting on the bus we realized two of our people from the group were missing. We had our own personal time to explore the site and then we were supposed to meet up at a certain location at a certain time. Thirty minutes pass, other members are getting impatient, they start to yell at the tour guide. Some had good reason because they were catching a train at the next site. After some bickering and another twenty minutes pass, it's decided that the bus leaves with out them. I don't exactly know what happened but they show up at the next site where we had lunch, and the tour guide wanted it on record that the entire group decided to move on with out them because people had to catch a train. So he wrote out the facts and wanted the people to sign it. The couple that showed up late grabbed the paper, crumpled it up, and threw it out the moving bus. The bus driver stops. I thought a fight was about to break out. Sorry for the anti-climax, but nothing ends up happening and Stephanie and I write down the facts on a strip of paper from my guide book and have everyone else sign it but them and hand it to the tour guide later.]

Standing ontop of Ollantaytambo ruins [Photo Cred: Steph]

Getting to our second to last and coolest place was this ruin. Ollantaytambo. It was the last resistance of the Incas against the Spanish Conquistadors. Every view from this place was scenic. Even if not the view from it, the ruins them selves were amazing. There were these giant stones which looked as big or possibly even bigger than the stones used in the Pyramids. It must have taken an amazing amount of man power to move some of these giant stones.

Cusco, Peru

Stephanie bargaining for the first time on our trip.

Someone how we spent an entire day doing errands; laundry, post cards, shopping... Stephanie was never a really big haggler, in fact neither was I. But after just experimenting a few tactics, we've managed to get away with a bunch of warm clothes for our trek up into the mountains. It also really helped out with the freezing cold weather at night in Cusco.

Peruvian women making belts on the street.

There were a lot of people trying to sell things to the tourists on the streets. Some of the things were Alpaca goods, fake raybans, and massages. Massages? At first I thought it was really strange that everyone was asking if you wanted a good massage, but after I thought about it, doing a four day trek over the Andes mountains actually sounded nice. The fake raybans were awesome. Guys would come up to and tell you they have real raybans, they would continue to bend them to prove they were real as if they were going to break it. After you would call them out and say they're fake, they would say "noooo, not fake, stolen my friend, stolen".

Plaza de Armas at night

After our day of errands, i went and climbed up the hill to take pictures at night. As I left the hostel I asked the lady if it was safe to walk around at night by myself since the book said there were lots of thefts at night for tourists. Not one problem. I deem Cusco safe.

Cusco, Peru

Sipping on Coca tea at our hostel

We flew to Cusco, Peru from Bogota, Colombia in hopes of doing day trips from Cusco, acclimating to the altitude, and psych ourselves up for Machu Piccu. Our plan was to check in to our trekking office for Machu Piccu and then spend a night or two down in Puno to see Lake Titicaca. When we got to Cusco, there were some strikes going on and apparently the 7 hour bus ride there turned into a 17 hour bus ride. Hurray for strikes. So we had some time to kill in this tourist town. We ended up sipping on Coca tea, took it easy, and did research. Luckily we didn't get altitude sickness but were close to it. I mean Cusco sits on the Andes mountains at 11,100 feet which I really didn't think we would feel any sort of effects. But we would fatigue easily, breath heavily while walking up small hills, and have slight headaches all day long. Yeah, our days were short.

Our view from our hostel of Cusco

Probably the best thing about our hostel was the view of Cusco. You can see on the mountain in the back it says Viva El Peru. Actually it seems like every town we visited would have something written on the side of the mountain with initials of something or the town name. Cusco is a beautiful town, just extremely cold at night.

Pisco Sour

Night came and we wanted to eat some local cuisine. We set off looking for a suggestion in Lonely Planet but found this hole in the wall where we only saw locals eating. Score. However it still had a tourist menu which is pretty much just a prix fix menu. I got the recommended Lomo de Alpaca, Sopa a la Criolla, and a Pisco Sour. the Sopa a la Criolla was amazing there, best one I had in town. It's a lightly spiced, creamy noodle soup with beef and vegetables. Lets just say I wouldn't order the Alpaca again. The pisco sour was surprisingly good. Here's some random facts about it; The alcohol Pisco is a brandy made from grapes. The actual mixed drink is Pisco, Lime juice, simple syrup, beaten egg whites, and bitters. You know, just in case you want to make it at home. Cheers.

The Lomo de Alpaca and fish fillet. [Photo cred: Steph]

Bogota, Colombia

Night life in Zona Rosa.

In Bogota I was sitting in the common area writing one of my blogs. A group of other backpackers come into the room and sit down with a handful of limes and a bottle of vodka. I could here some different accents; British and maybe Australian. After they asked me to take a picture, one thing led to another, and the next thing I knew Stephanie and I joined them in a night out on the town. One of the guys reminded me of my friend Charlie. He would always have his hands in his pockets, smoking a cigarette, and stumbling around. At one point he tripped on a curb and smashed into the side of wall, body slumped into the wall like a sack of potatoes. He rebounds and pretends nothing happened stumbling back into the darkness of the night. We drink a few Colombian beers at another hostel and then split up to check out other parts of the town. Stephanie, myself, and our new found Scottish friend Harry decide to check out the night life in Zona Rosa.

View of Bogota from Mount Monserrate.

The next morning we eat some food and walk up to the bottom of Mount Monserrate. We took this giant gondola up to the top. We hiked to the back side of the area where these two young police men offered to show us around. We watched the rain clouds come and go raining on parts of Bogota. The clouds would open up here and there allowing some sun in on occasion. On the way down we tried some Coca tea. I read in the guide book that it helps with calming altitude sickness. The lady at the stand poured each of us a cup. Steph's reaction; "It's really good!" My reaction; "what? it can't be th... oh my god it's hella tasty." Supposedly the mixture was with sugar cane, honey, and Coca tea.

Stephanie standing in the doorway of the church ontop of Monserrate.

We sat on the steps of the church sipping the Coca tea looking out into the city of Bogota. When we walked into the church and i looked back it almost looked like something out of a movie where Steph was an angel, standing in a glowing doorway. But nope, it was just Steph, nothing special. haha j/k.

Bogota, Colombia

Sorry for the late post; we're alive and well. We just finished our four day trek to Machu Picchu. Great pictures to come for that post later.

Hanging out in Plaza De Bolivar. [Photo cred: Steph]

So being the frugal travels we were trying to be, we booked a bus ticket from Cartagena to Bogota. The twenty hour over night bus turned out to be a twenty seven hour bus ride. Whoops. A regret we learned to live with. One of the things that you take for granted while traveling is toilet paper, something desired on bus rides like this. Since then we've stored some in our day bag. Anyway, we made it to Bogota and found it to be much larger and city like than we expected. Walking the busy streets during the day it reminded Steph a little bit of New York. Almost everything we wanted to see was pretty much walking distance. We walked through Plaza De Bolivar, dedicated to Simon Bolivar, the man who helped free Colombia from the Spanish. This square was spread out with four different types of architecture for every side. This one I'm standing in front of is the Mayor's office which is a French style Alcaldia.

Steph in the middle of the plaza.

I caught steph staring at the statue in the middle of the square while it started to drizzle on us. It was riddled with graffiti. Actually everywhere we walked you would see stenciled graffiti or tagging of some sort. I don't think it was real banksy graffiti but someone was borrowing his icon of the rioter throwing a grenade of flowers. FYI, Banksy is a is English graffiti street artist with a flare for politics. In fact, here's an example of some street art we saw on our way to the plaza.

Street art on Av Jimenez, artist unknown;

This painting is actually just a small snippet of an entire wall. But for some reason i liked the black and white punk rocker. It's kinda interesting to see street art taking up an entire building wall. I mean like three stories tall and it's untouched by other artists. You'll see people's walls tagged with random pieces of art, some even overlapping old art. But this one was thought out and had organization to it, and seemed somewhat accepted.

Looking at Picaso

Street art was not the only art we appreciated that day. We stopped by the Donacion Botero where they displayed probably ten rooms of Fernando Botero's art. Only a few other rooms were dedicated to other artists like this Picaso. You can see the pictures of his work later when i post all my pictures or you can just google him. You'll recognize his work since all the people he depicts are quite large or "fat" as he says.

Dipping bread in to hot chocolate at the Puerta Falsa

We were walking from Plaza de Bolivar to the Botero museum and of course I spot out of the corner of my eye some delectable sweets. Curious I was, I looked at the name and realized it was the place that Stephanie had already chosen for dinner. La Pureta Falsa. There were two things here we came here to try; first was the hot chocolate, second was the tamales. It was a small cute little shop with only stool bars lining the right side of the wall and an upstairs that completed the cafe atmosphere. The window display was filled with these banana leave wrapped goods and other confectionery desserts. After drinking half of the hot chocolate we realized the guy next to us and others were dropping their cheese inside the hot coco. I tried it, not sure if I was a huge fan. But damn was the tamale delicious and amazingly cheap! we ordered a second one.

We liked Bogota so much that we almost forgot we survived a twenty seven hour bus ride to it.

Convento De La Popa, Colombia

Kitten milking on the red tiles

Funny thing is, the reason why I chose this place to visit was not for the historical aspect or the religious value, but for the view of Cartagena. The view sucked. Haha, I'm slightly joking. You basically would have to have a lens that costs over a few thousand dollars to see Old Town. Don't get me wrong, getting a view of any city from a vantage point is enlightening. You just get the bad with the good. Enough of what I'm not showing you.

We hired a taxi to take us up here as there was no other public transport. We had to agree on a set price before hand because he had to stick around to drive us back down. I think we got ripped off. Somehow prices were agreed upon, and then changed.

The first exciting thing we saw was five little kittens curled up on themselves sleeping. As we take a few pictures of them, the mom comes up meowing waking them up while carrying two green lizards in her mouth. It was kinda gross but felt so natural. Two of the kittens play with the lizards like a ball of yarn. The others roll around, and this one just buried his little face in his mom's belly. Hungry little kitten.

Where our Taxi driver got married.

After viewing all the religious artifacts we noticed our taxi driver was wandering around the courtyard. As we talked to him he told us he got married in this part of the church.

Steph staring out into the atrium.

Probably my favorite thing about the Convento De La Popa was the atrium. A little well in the middle. Arches lined the brick courtyard. Vines growing on the columns. And a Stephanie looking into the sky.

Old Town Cartagena, Colombia

Looking out of our hostel.

It's the same day but now we're away from the crowded mud volcano and back in Cartagena. Strolling the streets of Old Town Cartagena. we reverse the order of the walking tour of Old Town soaking up the Colonial style architecture. As we walked aruond, one of the things that we agreed on was that other countries have local fruits and juice stands at every other corner. So We picked up these little fruits (The name escapes me) but they're green, on little branches, and they remind me of lychee. You crack the brittle skin with your teeth to expose the meat and suck it out and spit out the seed that unfortunately takes up most of the space.

Steph standing in a typical Colonial alley way

The colors stand out so well, I couldn't but help make Steph stand still. We followed the path but didn't really go into any of the museums or churches. Towards the end we gave up following the path because our stomaches dictated we search for food. I don't remember what logic decided this but we ended up just eating cheese bread and Arepas. A ritual we soon stopped. Even if we were't happy with the food, the drinks were quite satisfying. Before we left to visit the Volcano we walked down the alley way where we saw maybe twenty people preparing their juice carts. One guy slicing up fruits and pouring them into a this giant fish tank of juice, one guy squeezing limes so fast it looked like someone using a switch blade, and another guy chipping away at ice blocks the size of shoe boxes.

Sitting on the wall built by the Spaniards.


As you do the walking tour you see parts of the Las Murallas which is this thick wall built around the port of Cartagena to protect it from pirates and the like. Spaniards would store the riches they would steal from the indigenous people at this port. But after the wall came up it became a cornerstone for the Spaniards allowing them to influence Colombia.

Just another alley way [Photo credit: Steph]

Enjoying the colors of Cartagena

Volcan Lodo El Totumo, Colombia

Tourists sitting in mud volcano

So when heard of a volcano where you can take a mud bath we assumed it was a giant volcano with a mud spring like the hot springs in Volcano Arenal in Costa Rica. We were completely wrong, it was a mound of mud in the shape of a volcano with a pit of muddy clay that was probably 20 feet tall at most. It's said that there is organic matter below that cause the gasses to rise and create the mud. We got in our bathing suits and jumped in. Supposedly we were allwoed to stay in there for 45 minutes, but it was too crowded to enjoy. It was weird, you would jump in, they would give you a massage and then push you in the middle in the orgy of people. It was so bouyant that you could sit and float. It's a weird feeling not being able to feel anything below your feet. Felt like the dead sea, but in mud.

Mud man Sean. [picture credit: Steph]

Seriously, way too crowded. people grabbing you to move around, a random foot between my legs. We fought our way across the crowded pool of mud and climbed out. Scrapped off any excess mud and walked down to the lake below to wash off.

View of the lake from the mud volcano.

The massage ended up costing 1.50$, there were ladies who would try to wash you down in the lake for the same price. I some how got conned into paying some kids the same price for watching my shoes. Mostly because we didn't want them to spit in our food. I later found out the food on the tour was served from somewhere else. Oh wells.

San Jose, Costa Rica

Stephanie booking flight tickets at our Tranquilo hostel

This entry is dedicated on our style of traveling. It's crazy and fun is what it is. Every night so far we never have any hostels booked. We look at a Lonely Planet suggestions, show up at the hostel, ask for a room, and say yay or nay depending on the cleanliness of the place. Transportation on the other hand is a bit harder since we have so much land to cover and so little time. So we opted to cut out Panama the other day because of how long it's been taking us to get around Costa Rica. we booked a flight to Bogota, Colombia. We suddenly changed our minds, got a full refund, and decided for a cheaper but longer flight to Cartegena, Colombia. We laughed at ourselves.

Us making dinner in the hostel's kitchen

It's also been a great money saver by making dinner ourselves. This time we were semi inspired by a dish called Casados which seems to be a fairly simple dish of rice, beans, fried Plantains, and any other specialties. I'm making the rice, but Steph prepared most of the dishes. It seems like half of the hostels here in Costa Rica seem to serve breakfast. This place was universally known for their pancakes. Half the reason why I choose this hostel. They did not disappoint.

Sean and Stephs version of Casados

And voila; yellow rice, tomato & zucchini, black beans, and a side of papaya.

Manuel Antonio National Park, Costa Rica

A boat in front of Manuel Antonio National Park.

So the weather has been somewhat been less desireable. In the morning it's semi overcast with breaks of sun light here and there. Eventually later in mid day the clouds thicken and you can see the rain come. Every day, with out fail, this has been the routine. This was our first day at the beach and was hoping it would be slightly different.

This is the entrance to Manuel Antonio National Park. We were conned into paying full price when we could have gotten student discounts if we had only walked in a bit further to the ranger station.

Stephanie looking out to sea.

We ate lunch on the beach and had to run away when high tide almost swept away everything we were eating.

Trekking through the jungle. [Picture credit: Steph]

Walking in the sand barefoot was nice, but at somepoint we had to put on our sandals to hike around in the rain forest. We didn't get to see too much since the park closed at four and we got there at two. Even though it started to rain on us we trekked on. The majority of the rain was shielded from the canopy of the rain forest, but we were still sweaty and covered with dirt. So we hung up our gear and jumped in the ocean in the rain.

Monteverde, Coast Rica

Stephanie and I getting geared up for Zip lining.

This probably is the highlight of the trip in Costa Rica so far. We didn't actually know what we were getting ourselves into. We figured it was somewhat exciting, right? They first give us an intro course on how to stay aligned, how to brake, and how to traverse. Ok, Stephanie pushes me to the front of the line. We wait for a group of 6 guys, they run up the stairs and start setting up their posts by going down the ziplines. I get up, they lock me in and send me flying. Ok, not so bad, not even scary, it was only 40 meters. Pretty fun stuff.

Stephaine on 100m zipline.

Here's Stephanie on the second zipline of 100 meters. Our feet dangeling above the tree line. You do each zipline sequentially in a course fashion. On the third one, we spiral up these stairs to find the zipline going across the valley 425 meters away. What the hell, I can barely see the other side. If you fall, you fall what would seem like forever. This time we go in pairs. They linked us up and let us fly. Holy crap. You have to do this. Who ever is reading this, you HAVE to do this! There's some slight up hill hiking on some of the stations, but well worth it. They have twenty four platforms

Doing the tarzan swing

Towards the end they do an assisted rappel for you off this giant tree. We hike up some more and find ourselves on this giant Tarzan swing with maybe a thirty foot freefall. We waited for everyone to do it and everyone's reactions were different. This one girl swore her little head off like she was going to kill someone. Next up was the finale, what they call the "superman". You wear a body harness, and they hook you in and your body is completely suspended except your arms. This time you can't reach the cable to slow yourself down. All you can do is stare off into the clouds that are floating by at eye level and scream.

La Fortuna, Costa Rica

Stephanie eating Fish Casados, a local dish.


I have to say I've fallen in love with Casados. I've probably ordered it the past three times we've been out. Each one has been slightly different, yet still amazing. The first one had perfect pico de gallo and a fried egg on the rice. the one that Stephanie is mad grinning to had hash on the side. It's really cheap too!

Camping at the hostel.


So we spent the second night in one of these camping it out with sleeping bags. Kinda luxurious if you ask me but it was so comfy. All the windows and doors zip up. There's an outlet for power with a huge lantern on the side. At night it was pretty cool and refreshing compared to the humid and rainy day.

Baldi Hot springs at the bottom of Volcano Arenal.



So the main event of this day was to see Volcano Arenal. Sadly we only hiked up for about an hour to the base to look around for a bit before it started to rain on us. Arenal was mostly covered in clouds so no amazing pictures. Apparently a couple of months ago you could watch the lava flow down at night but it's fairly inactive right now. The second part of this day was to hit up the hot springs at the bottom of the Volcano. We went to the lesser of the two hot springs (the first being twice the price for all natural springs). But it was still worth it. They had crazy amounts of pools, all different shapes, sizes, and most importantly temperatures. I think we sat in one that was 113 degrees F. They had waterfalls, bars, and even water slides. there's a guy at the top of the water slide warning you that if anything happens to you it's not the resorts fault. You end up sliding down 45kilometers/hr(roughly 28mph) at one point.

Houston, Texas

This book has prooved to be quite useful, as a pillow.


Landing in Houston for an eleven hour layover is not fun. Everything here was closed when I landed. Walking to a resteraunt was too far. Taking a taxi would cost ten times the meal. The only things available was a vending machine. So I set off to break my twenty dollar bill. No luck, still starving. Wandered each terminal for change machines, of course they were out of order. It's midnight, I give up. I'll find a corner to sleep in. I desperately wanted to lay down but all the chairs had arm rests on them. The cold hard floor will have to do.

In a few hours I leave to Latin America. Strapped with Lonely Planet's South America on a Shoestring, my camera, and my backpack. I'm meeting my friend Stephanie down in Costa Rica and then we're blazing it to the bottom of the Americas. The goal is to reach Uruguay in 5 weeks. It might be a crazy idea but I think it's going to be fun. Depending on our internet connection, I'll be trying to keep this blog updated as often as I possibly can. Wish us luck!

Oh yeah, and I don't know ANY Spanish.

A bit more than the essentials. [I've actually cut out a few things to reduce weight/space.]

Pictures completed

Diyarkibar, Turkey

The farewell.

The reason this photo came so late is because I didn't take it. I have to give thanks to the amazing photographer Yosuke for this photo. Throughout my adventures, I have shared with you all my friends I've met along the ways except this band of thieves. From left to right is me, Yosuke, Josh, Wai, and Rajay. This is us in our pink hostel room in Diyarkibar.

I unveil the remaining month of my trip into two Galleries. The sunbathed and refreshing Mediterranean & Agean Coast as Part I, and then the natural beauty of the Anatolian Plateau as Part II. Please click on an album to view the contents.

Turkey - Mediterranean & Agean Coast 2010	Turkey - Anatolian Plateau 2010

I'm posting this as the conclusion to all the pictures of my Middle Eastern travels. If you have not already seen them, here are the pictures I previously posted of Israel, Jordan, and Egypt.

Israel 2010	Jordan 2010	Egypt 2010