Phnom Phen

We have managed to travel to three countries in three days-Indonesia, Malaysia, and now Cambodia! It has been a little overwhelming and a bit exhausting, but we are glad to have finally made it here in Phnom Phen, Cambodia. Upon our arrival, we were approached by a tuk tuk driver and a taxi driver who offered to take us to our hotel...we decided to go with the tuk tuk. The drive was fun and definitely different then the typical taxi drives. Especially because the driver payed more attention to us then the road... a little concerning, yet funny all at the same time. For our first day here we headed down to the river front to visit the National Museum and the Royal Palace. We tried to go into the palace, but we were not dressed appropriately (we needed to have covered shoulders and knees)so we had to go back the next day. After we were turned down, we headed back to the hotel and ended up resting for the late afternoon, and then slept through the night. Since we were finally more rested, we got up this morning energized and pumped to return to the Royal Palace. Wow, is pretty much all i can say... the detail that went into the building are amazing. The RP, as well as temples and building, here are just amazing, nothing like we have seen yet on our trip. The colors of the building are so fresh and warm with gold, white, yellow, blue and a little bit of burnt orange... what a sight. After our visit we stopped for a late breakfast and then found a tuk tuk that took us to the Killing Fields. Boy, we not prepared for the emotions we felt this afternoon. So here is a quick run down of Cambodia's history... on April 17, 1975 Cambodia fell to the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot's leadership. This then implemented one of the most bloody revolutions the world has ever seen, which is now seen as geniced. During Pol Pot's regime, which was between 1975-1979 roughly 2 million Cambodians died. Today we visited the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek where roughly 17,000 men, women, and children were executed. Upon walking in we saw the white stupa (religious monument) which holds 9000 human skulls which were found during excavations. Seeing the skulls and reading the sign posts which told briefly about what went on here, we were taken back at the idea of one human being taking the lives of their own people. Emotionally struck, yet eager to learn and understand more of what went on, we headed to Tuol Slend Museum- which was once Pol pot's Security Prison 21. Before it was a prison, it was once Tuol Sway Prey High School. During the regime the prisoners were morally violated, electrocuted, beaten, slashed, and water bourted for "miss behavior." Those who died during torture were buried in the prison grounds and most everyone else was sent to the killing field. Today these former class rooms which were then turned into cells hold pictures of prisoners who were torched on rusty metal beds. The rooms also shared stories of Cambodians who survived, as well as mug shots of most of the prisoners who were held there. The mug shot pictures of the children as well as some of the others who conveyed strong fear in their eyes were the worst to look at. After a while we just had to say it was enough our hearts and stomachs could not take any more. It is a great thing that Cambodia wants to preserve these places but it can only be consumed in small dosages. By preserving these ugly and tragic years we can only hope that something as horrible as this will never happen again. Our heart goes out to all the Cambodians who suffered through this and may those who died rest in peace.

Bali Bliss...and a day in Malaysia!

After being back in the English speaking world in NZ and Sydney, we eased our way into Asia by spending a week in beautiful Bali. We flew in on a Friday night, arrived, hopped in a taxi, and headed to Kuta. After accomplishing the necessities-lodging, food, drink, we headed to the beach for a quick look. It looked amazing!...however, since it was dark, we couldn't see how filthy it actually was, eh. The next morning, after setting up diving and plans to get out of Kuta, we went back to Kuta to see it in daylight. Although the shore was literally covered in dead fish and trash. That didn't stop us though, we rented surf boards and paddled out to the surf. Unfortunately the water did not get any cleaner, it actually was difficult to avoid being covered in garbage if and when we got up on the surf board! Yuck.
The next morning, we drove 2 1/2 hours up the island to do a wreck dive called Tulamben. The ship was an old US Cargo ship that was sunk by the Japanese in WWII. Our dive team was Toriann, Luke, 2 Austrians and myself, plus 2 dive masters. The water was warm, the fish were plentiful and AMAZING, and it was really cool to explore the sunken ship. Highlights of the dive were the great barracuda (apparently a friendly one), lots of Nemos, a sting ray, weird ribbon looking slugs, and the multitude of coral. After the dive, we headed back to Kuta and made plans to get out to a nicer, less touristy beach the next day. There are so many places that sounded amazing, but we decided due to our time restraints we would go to Nusa Lembongan, a small island about 1 hour away.
We took a small boat to Lembongan and when we arrived, we were picked up on the back of motor bikes to our guest house. We decided we liked the motor bikes so much, we rented them for the next 2 days to explore the island. We hopped on, Toriann and Luke taking the lead and me on the back, and rode to Sunset and Dream beach. Both beaches were absolutely stunning, definitely on the top 10 most beautiful beaches ever list!!! It was a good call to leave Kuta to discover these seemingly untouched beaches.
The rest of our time on NL was great and we had to leave much too soon. Toriann did another great dive, while I just enjoyed scooting around and exploring the beaches. She took a boat out to Manta Point and Crystal Bay where she saw several Manta rays swim by and one in particular circled around them for several minutes during their dive. She also saw a small shark, colorful coral, a trigger fish which seemed to attack them as well as a variety of other colorful fish we normally only see at the aquarium. After her dive we spent our last afternoon body surfing on the killer waves that were rolling in do to the rain storm. We met a man doing the same that lived on the island, and he informed us the waves would be even better tomorrow...I think he probably meant that there was going to be a small monsoon because when we made the short walk to catch our ferry boat back to Bali, it was POURING and us and everything we owned got drenched. Our ferry ended up being canceled, but we caught the 'speed' boat over to the mainland, and it was probably one of the only times in my life that I actually would have loved to be wearing a life jacket. Unfortunately, there was not a life jacket in sight...eh! But we made it, safe and sound, and spent the rest of our afternoon in Kuta before running to the airport to fly out to Malaysia!
We caught the 9:30 flight to Kaula Lumpur...which meant we arrived at 1:30 am!! It always seems like a good idea to book these crazy flights, but then when you are doing it, its like what were we thinking!! However, we found some comfy benches and actually got some good sleep. When we woke up, we took the very nice subway into the city, found a hostel near Chinatown, and headed out to see the sights! We certainly made the most of our day in KL, and we ate in Chinatown, visited the Central Market, went into (not up) the Petronas Twin Towers, and the National Mosque. When the afternoon rains came, we headed back to the hostel and met a guy from the US named Cameron, who had plans to meet some locals that evening. He invited us along and we met up with 2 guys from KL who were kind enough to take us out for tea and hookah. We had a great time and felt like our 1 day in KL was complete. After a short nights sleep, we headed back to the airport to fly to our 3rd country in 3 days-Cambodia!

Sydney in a week...

Its summer time in Sydney (yah!) and the weather was amazing most of the week we were there. Our week in Sydney flew by, but whats new, every week just seems to go by so fast. Upon our day of arrival we took a stroll through Darling Harbor and sat on the harbor steps and enjoyed a delicious gelato ice cream to cool us down. That evening we meet up with Isobel and Ken, friends of Bonnie (Heathers sister) and attended church at Hillsong- one of the biggest mega churches in the world. The service was interesting...it is definetly different then the traditional church, with its fancy technology, stadium seating and suround sound, but nevertheless we had a good time and the people were nice.
As for the rest of the week, Heather and I got into a bit of a routine which consisted of getting up in the morning, having a cup of coffee at several different little coffee shops, heading to the groceriy store to pick up food for lunch, and finally doing our excursion for the day. Our first excusrion was down in Circle Quay where we took pictures of the Opera House and the Sydney Bridge. Excited to be here we looked into different shows at the Opera House and decided on attedning The Pig Iron People, a theatrecal drama. The play was amazingly well done. It tells a humurous story about the differences between generations when the governement changed from conservative to liberal. Although it had a lot of Australian humor, we managed to understand most everything and really gained a better insight into the bluecollar Australian lifestyle.
As I mentioned before its summer here, so we just had to spend a day laying on the beach. We took a bus out to Bondi Beach and just relaxed and read for most of the day. The weather was perfect and it really rejuvinated us... sometimes you just need a day like this one. Anxious to see Kangaroos and Koalas, we took a visit out to Taronga Zoo. In order to get to the zoo we had to catch a ferry boat which dropped us off on the other side of the harbor, right by the zoo. The zoo was great we saw tones of different animals- from Kangaroos and Koalas to penguins and seals. Our favorite part was the Koala exhibit were we got to see them be feed eucalyptis leaves. Aparently Koalas sleep some 20 hours a day becuase their body spends most of its energy digesting the eucalyptis leaves. Hum...sound familar...they reminded me a lot of sloths and are equally as cute. Heather and I took one and put it in our bag with the other animals we have picked up along the way. JK :)
That evening we meet up with Isobel and her friend Anka for drinks and dinner. Our evenign out with the girls was tons of fun. We meet them in a Newtown, a neighborhood outside of Sydney. Isobel, the Australian she is, insisted we try vegemite(a very strange yeast extract spread), so she went in to store and bought bread and vegemite. Un sure whether we would like it, we each braved it and ate a slice of bread with vegemite. Not so bad... definitely not my favorite nor do i think i will ever have a craving for it but edible. Excited by our reaction she gave us the jar of vegemite as a souvener.
As for our last day and a half, we spent some of our hours in the STA office working out flights for the next part of our trip and doing some planning. The guys working in the office suggested we try kangaroo pizza at the Australian Hotel. Un sure how we felt about eating kangaroo(it just seems so wrong!), but we thought, hey, we are in Australia so we should do as the Australins do. That evening we meet them for dinner and tried kangaroo as well as crocodile pizza. After a bite, I said it wasnt for me, but Heather didnt seem to mind the kangaroo. Im not sure whether either of us would eat kangaroo or crocodile again, but hey, at least we tried it! This concludes our speedy week of Sydney... it was enjoyable, food adventurous and historically insightfull.

NZ # 3: WOOFing on Blueberry Bliss

Before i begin to tell you about our time on the farm... first i will explain what woofing is...woofing is really an organization which can be found all over the world and it means Willing to Work On Organic Farms. Heather and I volunteered four hours a day on Wendy and Don's Blueberry Bliss farm in exchange for a place to stay and meals. In essence, we spent our last week working on a blueberry farm- getting it ready for picking season, which starts Jan 1st. Our week on the farm went surprisingly fast... we spent several hours weeding the rows of blueberries, shoveling dirt to lay over the netting that we sowed up to keep the rabbits out, as well as mending the bird net (to keep the birds out). At times our days were long, but it was good physical exercise, which we enjoyed since we've lacked it since leaving. Heather and I put in a few extra hours our first couple of days so we could take a day off at the end of the week. We took friday off to meet up with our friend Luke who had just arrived from visiting Queenstown. The three of us spent Friday relaxing and enjoying Christchurch. We visited the Art Museum, the Botanical Gardens, stopped and smelled the roses and then went to see the new James Bond movie. The movie was good and very action filled so if you were wondering if you should see it i suggest yes. As for our last day on the farm as well as in New Zealand, Heather and I put in our last hours of work and then headed in to the city. Anxious to see the beach, we decided to rent a car for the day and drive along the coast. Luke, being from England, would be the most practical person to drive but since he didn't have his license that left Heather and I in charge of the wheel. Our drive went surprisingly well and by the end we were moderately confident left hand drivers. We started our day visiting Littleton and then driving along Summit Road, which took us along the coastal hillside towards Akaroa. The views along the drive are amazing with the blue/green water in front of us and the hills along the side. We stopped in the small town of Akaroa, had a picnic lunch along the beach, and took a walk around town. Before heading back to Christchurch we stopped at another beautiful beach and went for a cold but nice swim. Our three weeks here in NZ have gone by fast...we feel confident that we saw and did everything we wanted to. However, the highlight of NZ was definitely meeting up with old friends (Sarah and Craig) and meeting great new ones!
We are now in Sydney, Australia for a quick visit so check back soon to read more about our time here in Sydney... so far so good :)

New Zealand #2: South Island

On Sunday morning, we said goodbye to Craig and his family and got on the ferry to the South Island. However, compared to the ferries at home, this was more like a cruise. There were recliner seats, restaurants, a bar, a children's play area, a movie theater, and not to mention beautiful scenery along the way! We arrived to the city of Picton, boarded a bus to Blenheim, our first stop on the SI. After finding beds at The Grapevine Backpackers and meeting our new roommate Luke from England, we all went out to explore Blenheim. We figured out it was a pretty lame small town, but that was ok because we had really stopped here to go wine tasting! The Marlborough region is known for their white wines, and my favorite wine Oyster Bay is made here, so I was super excited to go out and try more NZ wines. The next day we rented bikes, got a map and some directions to some of the good wineries, and started our winery tour. We visited 5 wineries-Villa Maria, Matua, Highfield Estate, Fromm, and Wither Hills. All were good, but our favorites were Villa Maria and Wither Hills. It was a great success for our first bike/wine tour :) Oh and did I mention the tastings were free!!!
After an afternoon of wine tasting, we bused it to the city of Nelson. Nelson is at the edge of the Abel Tasman National Park, which we had heard was amazing. We arrived into Nelson around 8pm and had our first experience with not being able to find a hostel. Our bus driver was kind enough to call around for us and found us (and our friend Luke) 3 beds at Paradiso Hostel. They only had 3 beds in different rooms and for the first time in over 3 months, Toriann and I didn't sleep in the same room, crazy! But, somehow we managed :) We found that Nelson was another city that closed up very early and after settling into our hostel, we went for a wander into Burger King, as it was the only place still open (at like, 10pm). The hostel itself was pretty cool, complete with a pool, hot tub, volleyball court, and large busy kitchen which offered free soup at dinner time.
The next morning, bright and early, we headed out to the Abel Tasman for a full day of hiking and kayaking. We rode the water taxi to our first stop at Bark Bay Beach with scenic stops at Split Apple rock and Pinnacle Island. From Bark Bay, we hiked for 3 hours or so along the coast to Torrent Bay. We had heard the sand flies were bad at these beaches, so I had decided to try out our all natural 'jungle juice' that we purchased from a man in Panama. He had claimed that this magic 'jungle juice' was mosquito and sand fly repellent, relief from insect and stingray bites, sunscreen, could be poured in your ear for ear infections, and...and, could cure melanoma cancer if applied properly. Sounded good to us, so I generously applied it to my legs. After hiking for a bit, I realized that although I was not getting bit (but neither was Toriann), I had heaps of dead sand flies stuck to my legs. I'm not sure if I would consider the 'jungle juice' a success or not... Back to Abel Tasman, after enjoying Torrent Bay beach, the water taxi picked us up and delivered us to Watering Cove, where we had a picnic lunch of veggie sandwiches and banana chocolate muffins (so good!). We met our kayak instructor, had a crash course on kayaking, and headed out to sea. We first kayaked to a small island that often has seals. We saw one seal and he swam right up next to the boat. It was really cool, but a lot of work to see him...because, we then had to turn into the wind and paddle back to the coast. Toriann and I were taking our time, but apparently we were too slow and our guide decided we should be towed by the boys boat. So, the strong men helped pull Toriann and I to safety, and then we continued on down the coast back to Marahau, where the whole day had originally started. We figured out that maybe we had been a wee bit slow because we rolled in about 1 1/2 late. Luckily, the bus had been kind enough to wait for us, and drove us home to Nelson!
Our next day in Nelson, we debated whether or not to go skydiving. We both had been going back and forth for days, and ended up deciding against it. However our good friend Luke decided to do it for his birthday and ended up loving it although i am not sure he would do it again... ooh well maybe next time. We instead had a leisurely day in the city and caught up on life (whatever that means...)
Our days of traveling before having to be in Christchurch to start work on the farm were very few, so the next day we left Nelson and 9 hours later arrived in Franz Joseph. The buses here are great, they pick you up and drop you off at your hostel, and they provide tea and lunch stops. One of our stops was at Punakaiki, where they have 35 million-year-old pancake rocks, created by the waves pounding on the limestone and mudstone cliffs. The rocks are beautiful, unique twisted formations with the gorgeous west coast in the backdrop. It was definitely a worth while bus stop! Sure made us hungry for pancakes:) Franz Joseph is a town based around the Franz Joseph Glacier, one of NZs most famous glaciers. The climate is really unique because the glacier is surrounded by rain forest. We did a half day hike, through the valley leading up to the glacier and then up onto the ice. We were fully suited up with warm gear and crampons, and we had an excellent guide from Delaware. The walk on the ice was really awesome, up and down steep staircases of ice, through a naturally carved tunnel, and through a very, very narrow crevasse. We spent the remainder of the day, hot tubing, staying warm, and enjoying the scenery of the town.
And that completed our speed tour of the South Island, from FJ glacier, we did another long bus journey to Christchurch. Next adventure in NZ, WOOFing...

New Zealand #1: North Island

Truth be told we have just a few days left here in Kiwi land and have yet to blog about our weeks. Here is a quick run down of how these next few blogs will go...we spent a week in the north island, a week in the south island and our last week here WOOFing on the farm. First thing first let me tell you about the north island. We arrived in Auckland and Heathers high school friend picked us up from the airport and took us back to her house. Sarah and her husband Ken moved to Auckland, NZ a little over a year ago and offered to let us stay with them once they knew we were coming. Once we unpacked, Sarah took us out for a bite to eat and showed us around Auckland. We ate lunch down by the beach, shopped, and just roamed the streets near where she lived. Sadly we missed "thanksgiving dinner" which Sarah and Ken had enjoyed with some other American friends the night before we arrived, but as usual their were left overs which Heather greatly enjoyed. Before leaving Auckland, Ken drove us to Mount Eden, a view point (and extinct volcano crater) where you can see most if not all of Auckland city and its various volcano's. Afterwards he dropped us off near Parnell street where Heather and I then proceeded to walk the streets and see downtown Auckland. Parnell street/neighborhood is Auckland upscale neighborhood filled with boutique shops and Victorian homes. Not interested in the boutiques, Heather and I sat at a little chocolate shop and enjoyed a Flat White (NZ way of saying a latte) and a maple chocolate cake. Oh so good. Its great being back to western foods. After our sugar and coffee fix we proceeded on our tour through Auckland and visited the Auckland Domain (park), Auckland University, Albert park, Auckland Art Gallery, and the Waterfront. Aside from the many parks all of which I loved, the art gallery was great because it was free and had some interesting art on display.
Since time is precious we hoped on a bus early the next morning and headed to Rotorua to see the geysers and take in the oh so delicious sulfur air...or should i say the rotten hard boiled egg smell which makes you want to vomit. Luckily you only get the egg smell when the air blows it in your direction. The hostel we stayed in suggested to go and visit Te Puia a Te Whakarewarewa (Maori word) thermal reserve and Maori Cultural Center. Our visit was great because we got to see nature and culture in one. Our guide who is a Maori gave us a brief history lesson on the geysers and then showed us and told us about the Maori carving and weaving schools which they have there. We also visited the Kiwi house where we saw one kiwi moving around. did you know that kiwi's cannot fly and are nocturnal...i didn't until she told us...very interesting. After our tour around the grounds and our visit to the boiling mud pools and geysers we saw the Maori's perform some of their dances. The show lasted about 30 min. and it was all very interesting and beautiful but the part we most liked was the warrior dance. The men perform this and while dancing, they hit themselves on their chest, arms and legs and make their eyes freaky big and stick out their tongue. Oh so strange looking, but it is their traditional warrior face and you will see it carved into most wood carvings.
Disgusted by the smell, it was time to travel to our next stop which was Taupo to do the Tongariro Crossing. Upon our arrival into Taupo we made friends with Grant from Aussy. The three of us stayed in the same hostel and since we had some time left in the day we all ventured out for a quick hike to Huka Falls. Along the way we stumbled upon this spot were hot thermal water spills out into the Walkato River. Bummed that we didn't have our swimsuits we continued walking to the falls. The falls were beautiful with its blue/green water. Interesting enough it dumps enough water every second to fill two Olympic size swimming pools...crazy huh... also Taupo uses this fall as a hydro electric power station. Exhausted from traveling and our little hike we crashed early to rest up for our upcoming 20k hike. Since we are short on time we opted to do the day hike instead of the three day circuit around Tongariro. The bus picked us up at 6:20am and drove us out to where the hike begins. The fist part of the hike is up these steep steps called the devil stairs but once your at the top it dumps you at the bottom of Mt Ngauruhoe and Mt. Tongariro. Continuing on our way, some of the guys we were hiking with decided to climb the volcanic rock path up to the top of Ngauruhoe summit. Heather, Dino and myself continued walking on the path crossing the south crater, red crater and then up Tangariro summit. The view was amazing. We were able to see so much with the weather being so perfect. Once we descended down the summit, we stopped for our tomato and avocado sandwich lunch break. After refueling we passed the emerald lakes, central crater, blue lake, north crater and then proceeded along the never ending path to the finish point. The first half of the crossing was amazing and we saw so much, but the last half was long with switch backs down the mountain side and through the forest. I thought the end would never come but at last it did were we meet up with the rest of the gang and waited for the bus back to town. We made it back to our hostel, but since we were taking the overnight bus to Wellington, we had checked out and in essence were homeless for the evening. The hostel offered to let us use the showers for $10, but to save money we decided we would head back to the spot where the thermal water flowed into the river to bath. It ended up being a party with our new hiking friends, Grant, Carle, Ben and Dino. We all enjoyed soaking our sore muscles in the hot water with beers and music provided by Ben and Grant. It was the perfect end to a long day of hiking! After our party at the river, we went out for dinner and drinks to pass the time till our 1 am bus came and picked us up to take us to Wellington.
Last stop in the north island, Wellington, to visit our dear friend Craig whom we traveled with in Central America for a month. When we arrived we were tired yet excited to see Craig. He picked us up and took us in for the next few days. The kind man that Craig is, he drove us to two view points- Mt. Victoria, where we saw the panoramic views of the harbor, and the Carter Observatory, which has a great view of the city and its hills. We also visited the Botanic Gardens and took in all the wonderful smells of the roses. Oh so beautiful with its various colors and what delicious smells they each had. We loved it.
Craig is a sailor and works as a sailing instructor. On Fridays evenings they have sailing races and Craig happened to be taking out his current class, so he invited us on the boat to tag along. Unfortunately, many hours into the race, the race was sadly canceled do to no wind...bummer. Craig had to dock the boat at a different dock so he asked us to drive the car over. Nervous yet excited to drive I got to experience what it feels like to drive on the left hand side of the road. Lets just say it feels strange and a bit scary, but no worries we made it safely and with no near crashes.
For our second day in Wellington, Craig and his dad dropped us off at the New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa Museum, while they went sailing. The Museum was great for many reasons- first, it was free, but it also had interactive exhibits on NZ land, history and culture. It was very child friendly which is probably why we liked it, it kept us entertained. Later Craig took us off roading along the beautiful beach coast which was fun yet a bit car sickening. The coast was amazing with secluded beaches with bright turquoise water that was so clear you could see the bottom in parts!
To end our time in the north we sat down with Craig's family and enjoyed a delicious family dinner. Oh how wonderful it is to be in a house verses a hostel. Well that was our quick trip through the north...now we are just a ferry boat away from the south.

Inka Trail to Machu Picchu...

After leaving Huancayo, Tino, and the kids, we set off for our next adventure-hiking Machu Picchu! We took the bus back to Lima, where we were determined to keep ourselves busy until our flight left at 5 am the next morning, without getting a hostel! We found a hostel that was kind enough to store our belongings and we managed to entertain ourselves until we headed to the airport at 3:30 the next morning! On the flight to Cusco, Toriann began to feel sick and by the time we had settled into our hostel, she had full blown stomach flu. This was more than concerning as we were about to set off on a 4 day hiking trip!! But, after some rest, meds and TLC, the next morning Toriann was feeling good enough, thankfully, to pack and start the Inca Trail!!
And so, we were off. We met our guides, Juan Carlos and John Carlos, our 10 porters, and the rest of our group-2 Canadians and 5 Slovenians at 6:30am and bused to Piskacucho. We hiked about 1 1/2 hr until we stopped for lunch, where I began to feel sick...uhhh. But luckily it wasn't our toughest day and we both made it to our camp site for the night at Wayllabamba. The porters are amazing, they not only carried all the gear, they also went ahead and set up camp, cooked the meals, and then cleaned up. The average career of a porter only lasts 2 years because it is such strenuous work, but the oldest known porter is 77!!
The second morning we woke up at 5am and forced down breakfast because we were heading into our hardest day of hiking. We hiked from 7 am to 2 pm straight up the trail to the Dead Woman's Pass, 12,000 fasl. It was incredible...the scenery breathtaking! They told us, take your time, dont go too fast, and fast is definitely not how I would describe how we made it up...we would go for about 2 minutes before we had to stop and take a break. But, we made it to the top of the pass, had a bag of skittles to celebrate and then prepared for the next 2 hours. The last 2.5 kms were down winding steep steps across the valley into our 2nd camp. To celebrate completing the hardest day we had popcorn at tea time! (Other than the popcorn, the food on our whole trek was below average!)
The third day was the longest, 15 km, but easier and more interesting than the 2nd day. We stopped at several ruin sites along the way and Juan Carlos was a wealth of information regarding the Inca buildings. The final camp site was buzzing when we arrived, full of tired, but excited hikers to be so close to MP...and also for the showers and beers!! We got the chance to clean up and relax a bit (still not eat much!) before sleeping a bit before getting up at 4 am to walk the last 2 hours before reaching MP. The last morning was a race! Noone wanted to be passed, and although it was only an hour to reach the Sun Gate, we worked up a sweat. Our first view of MP was quick, before the clouds covered it completely. But as we hiked down from the Sun Gate, the clouds lifted, the sun appeared, and we saw MP! The ruins are ridiculous, the best we have seen of the many ruins site we have visited, and are 80% original. After taking our pictures off the famous viewpoint rock, Juan Carlos gave us a 1 1/2 tour.
After the tour, the group was meeting in Aquas Calientes town to have lunch and visit the therapeutic hot springs. Our options to get there were either, one, take a $7 bus or two, walk another hour and twenty minutes down steep steps. Toriann and I, being on a budget, somehow made it down the steps to the town and arrived after the rest of the group had just finished eating lunch. But we had lunch, did the hot springs, and finally, got on the train to return to Cusco. Needless to say, when we arrived back at our hostel, we were wiped.
We packed, slept, and got up early the next morning to fly back to Lima! We spent the next day in Lima, seeing the sights, enjoying the city until our flight left for Buenos Aires at 12am. We then had a red eye flight to Buenos Aires and spent the next 15 hours in the airport, still exhausted from sickness, hiking and traveling. But at last, we boarded our last flight to get to Auckland, New Zealand-only 13.4 hours to go! The flight actually went by fairly fast, which was amazing, because Argentina Airlines was HORRIBLE. They only played 1 movie and fed us 2 very small meals...crazy.
It is hard to believe that we are saying good bye to Latin America. It has been a remarkable first 3 months of our trip. We have met amazing people, done and seen great things, and learned so much, about the culture, the people, and about ourselves.
Love, having no geography, knows no boundaries.
-Truman Capote