Banos, Ecuador

We love Ecuador!
Besides making our lives easier by using US currency, we had an awesome day yesterday white water rafting. We looked pretty dorky in our sleeveless wetsuits and blue helmets, but the awkward appearance was well worth the thrills!
Although we were sad to leave Mancora - it's sun, sand, surf and most of all the hammocks - the lush greeness of Ecuador leaves little to complain about.
Oh! And the food is excellent. Traditional sweet potato pancakes stuffed with melted, stringy cheese, heaps of white corn smothered in more cheese, and salads loaded with avocado and sweet tomatoes are keeping our tummies happy. Plus ice cream is still a reasonable price at $1.50 for a cono doble - and the best part? We found cookies and cream again! (Note to ice cream lovers, ice cream in Chile, Bolivia, and Peru tastes gummy and over airfluffed - but Ecuador has the standard Baskin Robbins/Dryers consistency unless you go for packaged Nestle ice cream bars which are surprisingly consistent in quality no matter which country.)
Today we leave for the jungles - mosquito nets and bunk beds will be the norm and we're pretty psyched. Internet won't be available to us until Quito (Sadly, our city of departure from So. America). So the next time we blog will most likely be the last of the trip. Until then!

Lima,Huanchaco,Mancora.

Well we´re in Mancora now, trip is almost over, and half our group is gone. Havent posted inawhile because we´re uber lazy...sorry! Anyways Lima half our group left for home or for more of their trip. Melinda and I are still in shock when we go to breakfast and the bill is only for 7 instead of 15. Basically Lima we didnt do much. Huanchaco we went to the ¨Temple of the Moon¨ and ¨Chan Chan¨ both are mud ruins which are in amazing shape for being built over 2000 years ago. Chan Chan´s Massive 12 meter wall which surrounds the amazing 9 district castles within the city. The Temple of the moon had amazing colors and sculptures withing the mud on the walls. All and all not a bad way to spend two days. Mancora has amazing wather, with not a cloud in the sky and an almost clear blue ocean, it´s no wonder why people come from all over the world. I tried surfing yesterday(it´s alot harder than it looks -_-) and Melinda played in the water. Rachael ended up getting surfing lessons and enjoyed it. Today we have a hard life..sitting out on the beach and working on our tans =P 10 days left till we come home! and in 10 days i can actually upload pics of the trip. Oh and Pete was somehow able to upload a pic of the tattoo. woo hope to be home soon.

tattoo

basically, tonight i got my first tattoo, took 3 hours and its on my ribs, hurts like hell but looks so detailed.The inca trail was a life changing experience, i got my tattoo to remember it. Rachael just about has a broken hand from holding mine while i got the tattoo.Im kinda tripping since i took ibuprofen 3 400mg so im feeling way better than before. my tattoo feels good. the inca trail lasted 4 days and some at some points in the trail we walked 3 1/2 hours through straight rain. melinda had a ton of cookies and we survived without anyone falling off the trip. our group also won the race for the sun gate.

Cusco

Um so again alot has happened, got our new tour guide...I (Curtis) don´t like him.
He´s only been working with gap for 7 months he doesnt seem very experienced and yeh idk hes alittle douchey. Juan (our old leader) is really cool and he decided he like our group so much that he was gonna come with our group as a passenger but the new leader Louis told him no and then was withholding information from juan about where we were staying because he didnt want him to come. Juan just wanted to come and hangout with us before he had to start his new tour...so Melinda and I kinda skipped three days of the tour to come hangout with juan and a few other passengers here while the rest of the group takes a 9 hour bus ride here. Oh and the only keyboards we can find our here that are semi portable are the wii wireless ones which are usb...but they wanna charge 70 US for it >.> needless to say highway robbery. So we still cant upload pics without our own pc since all the hotels we´ve stayed at have windows 95 basically and no usb drives >.< Our group arrives tomorrow and we have to switch hotels. Holy Balls my fingers are frozen! anyways love you all, We´ll post again either right before or right after we hike the inca trail.

La Paz

So we´re in La Paz, um...yesterday was somewhat exciting. We were all cramed into a tiny van and shuttled off too the second highest peak near La Paz, it was fun and no one had altitude sickness. Sorry this blog is alittle rushed, again still havent fully gotten the netbook to work so we´re using the hotels pc...yay. Like I said before most of the time the internet is in spanish and im too lazy to use and online translator. Went to the "witches market" yesterday...that in itself was crazy. I mean who knew there was a market place where Llama feutus´s hang from the shops! To answer many of your questions; Yes we are in good health again, coming down from higher altitudes has helped..although we risked our lives last night when we tried sushi in Bolivia >.> Anyways today is our last night with our tour leader, tomorrow we get a different one and we´re all alittle bummed...especially Melinda. So tonight to celebrate we´re going out for drinks, although this time im staying away from the red wine =p

oh I forgot to add that the second to last day in Sucre we almost died when we went to lunch. Apprently some idiot hit a gas line right outside of the resturant we sat in. At first it sounded like a power saw just being used...then our tour leader jumped up and rushed everyone out and 2 blocks away as fast as he could. Things could have turned out bad with us sitting at fried chicken returant >.<

Oh and, we bought alot of Llama crap today, including really funny hats ;]
haha much love
"the chicken strippers"

Holy Fuck - curtis

so ya we´re in sucre its been a while since we last updated. Sorry folks. BTW when I type dont expect proper grammar im too lazy/tired. Anyways we went through the salt flats of bolivia about 3 days ago our last day in the 4x4´s through the salt flats/desert one of our 4x4s crazy and rolled twice; Needless to say it was bad..luckily the 5 that were in that truck escaped with only sore muscles and minor bruises. It was the middle 4x4 i was in the back out of the three melinda was in the front one. My truck drove past since there was so much dust in the air we couldnt see and at the last second i caught a glimpse of the wrecked truck. The front truck and mine went about another mile and a half before the drivers had realized what happened. When both vehicles stopped at the top of the hill, melindas turned back while mine stupidly waited there..So I said fuck it, grabbed my medkit and jumped out with two other boys and we full sprinted a mile and a half down rocky hills in the general direction of the crash. By the time we had gotten there One of the nurses that was in the wrecked truck had already patched everyone up. This was 7 in the morning; oh we left at 4 AM that day since we were in Uyuni where there was a protest and all the roads were blocked off, so we had to sneak out of town without being shot. Anyways that day was pretty bad. We all squished into the two remaining 4x4s and headed to Potosi..yes it was crowded -_- and yes my knees were up to my ears sitting cramped in the back. When we got to Potosi Melinda became sick, i think it was just traumatic for everyone. She didnt eat anything till the very next day. We left Potosi for Sucre and instead of taking the public bus which would have taken 3-4 hours, our tour leader juan found taxi´s that made the trip for the same price( Remember Bolivia is uber cheap)! Took 4 cabs to get here, everyone around here is terrible at driving and yeh driving on canyon roads on S curves at 140kmh = almost as scary as the 4x4 trip.. So here we are for another like 3 nights in a posh hotel.. posh compared to what we normal had. It´s basically like a motel 6. anyways alot of shit happened I had a fever for the last two nights kinda blows but whatev. Hope you assholes comment Melinda and I miss all of you <3

Santiago - hot dog!

Melinda here, reporting on the last 24hrs.

Last night: awkward dinner with the group.
3 Canadians
3 Americans
3 Australians
2 Brits
1 Scot
1 Juan the guide- Argentina(?)


The two of us (now known as the "twins") sat opposite of one another (Melinda at the head of the table, Curtis at the foot) at the giant Thanksgiving style table. We struggled to telepathically communicate our stress/hunger/boredom.

The food was tasty, but relatively expensive. Curtis's drink (he nursed a drink but abstained from food since I was too far away to scold him into eating), Rachel's steak, my congrio filet, and the extra delicious tres leches sponge cake (thick, not at all soggy, and perfectly rich) cost a whopping 34,000 Chilean pesos - a good $60. (Over the budget the first day since our cab for 3 was a bit pricey at 25,000 pesos - about $47 US.)

But today was much better.

We walked for 6 hours around the city, went to Pre-Colombian Museum (very cool), ate local fare and walked some more. We made good friends with Rachel's roommate, and found a great/terrible book called "How to survive in the Chilean Jungle." Essentially it covers all the bad words and slang you could ever hope to know as a native here. Needless to say, Curtis was overjoyed that he can swear in multiple languages now.

Chilling in the lobby before our agenda briefing, we sat down with some of the girls and learned "Asshole" (a complicated but very amusing Canadian version of B.S.) and then played a round of good ole American "Bullshit." When the Scot and one of the British dudes walked by and heard us swearing like sailors, they joined in around our tiny bistro table and it wasn't long before 9 of us we're jumping up and down pointing and accusing one another of cheating.

However, the fun was short lived. Soon the game was down to Curtis and 2 guys (Scot and Brit). Each had 15-20 cards and all the girls sat around bored while the game went nowhere. We broke to ready ourselves for dinner - where we learned how much Santiago loves hot dogs and how cheap all of us really are!

For about 1000 Chilean pesos (about $1.80 US), they serve up hot dogs loaded with funky toppings - gotta love the Italiano topped with canned diced tomato, guacamole and mayo. Fries served with tooth picks to keep your messy dog toppings on your fingers not on your papas fritas! Curtis looked suspicious of his two thin sausage patties on a bun that constituted his hamburger, but seemed happy with more familiar food.

Now the group is downstairs somewhere, alcohol laden and mid-way through a game of B.S. Curtis picked up a can of local Chilean beer and has taken the initiative to make friends.

Tomorrow it's off to La Serena. Just one six hour bus ride away. Adios!

P.S.
We have named all dogs here Carlos.