The First Hikes of Summer

Lucky for us, Wes got to come on our first hike of the season!

We drove to central Utah and hiked Bell and Little Wild Horse Canyons, and finished them in time to check out Goblin Valley before the sun set. The canyons were very narrow, less than 3-feet across at points. Much clamoring was required around some of the rocks wedged in the middle of the path.

More interesting than the swirling rocks and canyons though, were the lizards. I had more pictures of Wes and Travis chasing lizards on my camera than of the rocks, when all was said and done.

We climbed around on the goblins for awhile and hiked to the other side of the valley for some prime photo spots, and Travis finally caught a lizard as we hiked back to our car.

We enjoyed perfect foil dinners and marshmallows in a beautiful evening to a wonderful day.

Starting to catch the hiking bug, Travis and I headed out once again to Eastern Utah to hike Jones and Little Hole trails.

We saw pictographs and waterfalls along the Jones Hole hike, and found bunnies and lots of snakes along the Little Hole trail. The cactus were in full bloom, and as my mom says, "Nothing blooms like a cactus."

There were lots and lots of fish and fishermen alike along the river, although we never really saw someone catch one.

La Paz

We arrived in La Paz once again this morning, after taking an all-night bus ride from Uyuni. We found a hotel with a reliable hot shower (very rare here, but VERY appreciated since we hadn´t found one in over a week,) and settled in for a few days here.

The city is huge, over 2 million people crowded into a little valley. And the city is just on crack. There are people everywhere, and the roads are so crowded with taxis and trufis (these little vans that crowd 20 people into them) that we saw several cars crash into each other today. I´m not sure what the insurance situation is around here, but I don´t think it means anything to anyone. We saw several smashed headlights and taillights and didn´t see anyone stop to check it out.

We went to the "witch´s market" this afternoon, which is pretty creepy. It´s not something for tourists, but for the superstitious indigenous people. We saw shriveled old ladies grinding curious yellow rocks into powder on newspapers, and there are llama fetuses hanging all over the place. They use the llama fetuses as sacrifices, if they cannot afford to sacrifice a living llama. And there were just weird candles, shells, rocks, powders and just anything you could imagine for black magic.

We spent the past 4 days on the road, in a big 4x4 Toyota. We left out of Uyuni, and the first day were on salt flats. It is a very bizarre world, the salt flats. Just pure white: as far as you can see and as far as you can drive. And it is pure salt. They harvest it by piling it into big mounds (maybe up to my shoulders) and letting it dry out, then just raking it up and putting it into bags to send all over the country. They have the world´s biggest salt flats, but they do not export any of it. It all stays within the country.

We had one stop at an "island," which is truly an island. It´s a big piece of rock that is just covered in cactus. And then just salt again, at the base. We took optical illusion pictures on the flats, since it´s just so flat and identical for so long. You have one person walk a distance away, and the other person stay closer to the camera. And the closer one holds out their hand, like they´re holding a tiny little friend in their hand. We took pictures like that, and with other objects. So in one, Travis is jumping out of his handbag and in another, I´m leaning against my nalgene water bottle. They are very, very cool and I can´t wait for everyone to see them.

The next day, we saw tons of lagoons. Because the landscape is so volcanic and active, the lagoons are kept warm by the tubes of magma running underneath them (I´m guessing, from all my geology courses. Finally they came to good use!) since the water is warm enough above 13,000 feet to host flamingos and enough shrimp to feed them. But the lagoons have tons of flamingos in them! It was so crazy to see these bright pink flamingos picking their way around the blue-green water. They make muffled, honking noises and seem to just chat with each other. There are 6 kinds of flamingos in the world, and we saw 3 of them throughout the lagoons. Our guide said they usually migrate, and the ones we saw were either "lazy or brave." I´m glad they were there, so we could see them.

We stayed at a compound on the Colorado Lagoon National Park that night, and it was incredibly cold. I got hit with altitude sickness that day, as we were actually higher than the highest point of our Salcantay Trek.

We woke up very early the next day, and drove to active geysers a little above 16,000 feet in altitude. It is a very eerie thing to watch an active volcano bubble and burp right next to your feet. We took pictures and a few videos, so everyone else can hear them. They were some of the coolest things I´ve ever seen. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, as we just saw more lagoons and drove the rest of the way to Uyuni.

We saw (and herded with our car) tons of herds of llamas. Once a year, the owners of the llamas will tie hot pink and other fluorescent colors of yarn and string into the llamas fur and especially tassels on their ears to celebrate, essentially, their birthdays. And the babies get big bows around their necks. It is the cutest thing I have ever seen in my life, and I fully intend to try to put yarn on Gus when we get home. I find I just love everything about llamas. Their funny faces, fluffy bums, odd body shapes and all their colored strings... feliz cumplianos, llamas! And they are even tidy with their potties... they all poo in one communal mound, so that it´s not just all over the place. We also saw hundreds of wild llamas, called vicunas. They´re a much leaner, and less fluffy type. They kind of look like a antelope, with llama-proportions.

We also saw viscatchas, which are closest to a rabbit, but have long tails that curl up in a fluffy tuff at the end. Their whiskers are half as long as their bodies, and are pretty hard to find. We saw one at Machu Pichu, and then one on the drive.

Upon arriving to Uyuni that night, I got hit with altitude sickness so hard I was throwing up, and can honestly say it´s comparable to when my wisdom teeth were out. It´s probably one of the sickest times I´ve ever had, and am still incredibly woozy and queasy 24 hours later. We´re still about 13,000´though, so it´s understandable. Lots of nose bleeds, headaches, loss of appetite and just really queasy. I guess we´re going to a ski resort and the "valley of the moon" tomorrow, which will pull us incredibly high again. I only have one altitude pill left, I hope I make it. I slept more than 9 hours today, just trying to recover. All I can say, is I´m glad it didn´t happen on the trek. At least I can take naps here. Travis hasn´t been effected by it yet, although he said he felt a little light-headed when we were above 16,000 feet. (Just to give you a reference, a girl in our car´s lighter wouldn´t light at about 13,000 feet, because there isn´t enough oxygen in the air.)

The over-night bus ride back to La Paz was just horrific, and was as four-wheel as the days before. Washboard roads, and the big two-leveled buses, called floatas, just sway back and forth. It was miserable, to be sick and have to ride on the thing. And it was incredibly cold. INCREDIBLY cold.

Today is the 28th, and is when we should have been arriving back in the states. Luckily, we were reprieved and get to stay a few more days. However, as amazing as this trip has been, I will be very grateful to walk through my front door again. And be able to drink the water from my tap, and have consistent hot showers. And have more than 3 shirts to wear.

Cochabamba

I think we´re leaving Cochabamba tomorrow morning, and taking a bus-train to the Salar de Uyuni (salt flats of Uyuni). We´ll be there for 4 days, then travel back to LaPaz via bus and train and then after a few days in LaPaz, fly back to good old America.

We had the chance to go to the temple here in Cochabamba yesterday. It was a bit of a hassle, (isn´t it always?) since Travis had forgotten his recommend back home and we didn´t have the bishop´s number with us. But then we remembered it was stored in my cell phone, so we got that, had them call him, and after a few tries were able to go in. While we were in the temple, we met a senior couple of missionaries who both had grown up in Salt Lake before moving to D.C. and raised 7 kids. They were very very happy to see us, and Sister Ovard gave me a huge hug in the changing room and said "When the session finishes, come find me and tell me your life story!" We did the session all in Spanish, which was very cool. It was so neat to see all the old cholitas with their long braids and worn hands receiving such joy in the same words I was. They smiled at me, and gave me hugs. The people have such faith, and such incredible spirits.

We went to the tiny village of Arani, about 45 minutes outside of Coch, to visit the Corallas family. Travis served in Arani for a few months, and found the home-autoshop of the family without any problems. Sister Corallas was a pensionista (cook) for Trav while he was there, and she and her husband keep 10 extra children in their home who would be much worse off otherwise. They have 2 children of their own, Claudia, who is now 14, and Franz, who is now 9. (Trav used to stomp on the floor with his big feet, and it made scared Franz so bad he´d cry. And Trav would also take off his belt and snap it, and make Franz cry even more. And when Franz was misbehaving, Sister Corallas would tell him "Franz, if you´re not good the elders will cut off your lili!" -use your imagination- Luckily, Franz was not traumatized, and still was happy to see Travis.)

They showed us their 2 week old kittens, ducks, rabbits, parrots, dogs and a monkey. They fed us soup, cheese and soaked corn kernels called mote, and juice and jello from their little tienda. There was an incredible spirit in their very humble concrete home.

After the session, Elder and Sister Ovard invited us over to their apartment for lunch, and we spent the rest of the afternoon with them. Travis had been trying to find a doctor he had baptized, who he knew was still strong in the church and we took a taxi to his house, and called his old number to find he had moved. We had no way to get in contact with him, and absolutely no way to find him. We mentioned the doctor to the Ovards, and they knew someone who knew someone who knew everyone in the church in the area, supposedly. Throughout the next 24 hours of tracking down various phone numbers and names, we found dear Brother Dr. Guiermo today. He hugged us and cried and begged us tell our parents that even though he´d never meet them (you,) tell them (you) thank you, thank you for sending us to see him once more. He was a rough old man with a full head of crazy white hair, crippled arthritic hands, huge heart and has found great testimony in the pioneers. We spent this afternoon visiting with him and 2 of his little grandchildren in his daughter´s house he had moved into. His eyes were brimming with tears our entire visit.

It has been such a blessing to us to have found these people. And such a reminder of our Heavenly Father´s love... had we not made the effort to track down a recommend and get to the temple, had we not met the Ovards and shared an afternoon with them, we never would have found the Doctor. He is someone I´ll never forget, with a testimony I could not understand, but could feel the amazing power of. It was like hugging a life-long friend good-bye when we left.

We went to the giant Concha (market) again today and bought papayas, avocados, tangerines and a few more souvenirs to bring home. Travis tried to find a pair of the sandals everyone wears here, made of old tire treads, but his toes hung off even the biggest pair they dug out of the back and blew the dust off of. He said he had the same struggles on his mission, and came home with such worn out shoes simply because he could not replace them.

The Concha is several blocks wide on either side, and has sections: shoes, clothes, school supplies, plastics, curtains, meat, grains-potatoes, fruits-vegetables and handicrafts. And many more. It´s the city´s spectacular version of a WalMart. I don´t know how these people don´t get food poisoning every single meal. Or how we haven´t. The meat just sits in the heat of the day, buzzing with flies and being hacked into pieces with machetes and hack-saws on the same blocks of wood from the day before, never to be cleaned properly. And this is in the third largest city in Bolivia, in the very best market. In 2009.

It´s such an odd contrast of cultures here. Business men and women in suits take the same crowded little busses home as the Cholitas. Tired women push wheel-barrows full of grapefruits to sell juice they hand-press, with a child sleeping in the middle of the fruit. Every corner has fried chicken and fries under heat lamps, and little stands (tiendas) with candy, juices (sold in little plastic baggies... you tear off a corner with your teeth to suck it out,) and anything else you could want in the moment, stand every hundred yards along the streets. Even the very nicest homes don´t have a computer, and everybody just picks their mail up at the city post office, since nobody has a mailbox or usually even an address.

While we were visiting a woman named Daisy and her daughter, who Travis had baptized, a man walked by and grabbed our camera which was sitting next to Travis. Trav didn´t notice though, since he was so engaged with Daisy, and the man started walking off. Luckily, I noticed and quickly told Travis. But those 2 seconds while Travis was getting up were just enough time for the man to walk off, and so I lunged at the man and yelled "PARA!" (Stop!). I grabbed his jacket, as he was facing me, and he threw the camera on the ground and ran off. I didn´t realize until he was gone, that I had my hand cocked tight in a fist, fully ready to hit him. That´s a very scary thing to learn about yourself... that as a small girl, your first reaction is to hit a full grown man. And I really would have hit him. I hope I never see that reaction through... I could get myself into alot of trouble. Travis thought it was hilarious though. He said it´s why he brings me along, to protect him. I´m just glad we still have the camera, and all the pictures with it. And that I didn´t have to hit anyone.

We´ve finally had some time to nest in the city, and it´s been such a flood of new experiences. We walk several hours a day to get from place to place, and sometimes take taxis and crowded vans (big taxis) for pennies. Taxies usually have 6 or 7 people stuffed into them (normal cars), and the vans have maybe 20 people? Lots, anyways.

When I see myself in the mirror now, my bleached-out blonde hair scares me. I have not seen a single blonde person since we left the country. Trav´s eyes seem to get bluer and bluer, and we finally saw a Bolivian with green eyes today, although they might have been contacts. Everyone we meet thinks something is wrong with me, because my cheeks are so red. They all think I´m sick.

The Sun Island

We arrived in Cochabamba at about 3:30am this morning, we spent the last 24 hours traveling via ferry and bus, then ferry, then bus. It´s been a long day of traveling but we´re going to get a nice hotel here in Cochabamba since the exchange rate is about 8 Bolivianos to $1. We had a fantastic breakfast for less than $2 apiece. Crazy.

The 9 hour bus ride from LaPaz only cost us about $10 per person as well. We should be able to get a 3-star hotel here for about $10 or $15 per night. We´ll finally be spending more than 24 hours in the same city since April 4. It´s crazy to think about. But it will be so nice to have a nice bed with a toilet and shower that runs more than a few hours a day.

We ate ´Saltanias´¨ for breakfast, which are kind of like fresh hot pockets. And we had fresh papaya and passionfruit juices as well. We had them at the place behind Trav´s old mission office, and got to see the office as well. It´s fun for him to be in his old stomping grounds.

We spent 2 nights ago on the Isle de Sol (Island of the Sun) in the middle of Lake Titicacca. It takes a 2 hours ferry trip to get there, and once there we hiked another 3 hours to the far North side of the island. There were no tourists, and we spend the night in a tiny adobe hut in the middle of a corn and flower field on the beach of the lake. The stars were truely magical, and I had gotten Travis a star-chart for Christmas so we had fun identifying the new Southern constelations. They grew gladiolias on the island, so it was a beautiful sunrise with the reds and pinks just ablaze in the light. We hadn´t planned on visiting the island at all, but on a few recomendations from other travelers decided to take a detour. We´re very glad we did.

Cochabamba is only about 8,500 feet in elevation so it´s nice to be somewhere warm. Being in such high elevation had started to catch up with us, our heads and faces are sunburned and our hands and feet are starting to get very dark. I wore a skirt out to breakfast this morning, and everyone stares at my white legs. A boy even ran right into me he was staring so much. Travis said he´d wear his shorts later today to they have some whiter legs to stare at.

We´re starting to really feel like travelers. Last night, we had a 2 hour delay before our last bus came to the station so we went to eat dinner at a chicken place (chicken is their favorite here. they love it with rice and ´papa fritas´, which are big fries.) but upon leaving, we used their bathrooms and came out with our faces washed, teeth brushed, pajamas on and water bottles refilled.

You really find the full potential of a public bathroom when you´ve been on a bus for 24 hours.

Machu Picchu!

We just got back to Cuzco about an hour ago, and took some laundry in to be washed. Our conversation last night with our guide, Alvero, went like this;

Travis; Alvero, our room stinks!

Alvero; Really? Did you talk to the desk about getting another room?

Travis; It´s because we´re in it!

And it´s true, from all the rain, mud, animals and jungles our stuff had a funk for sure. Travis had quarenteened 2 pairs of his socks in plastic baggies they were so bad. But it´s good to get some clean clothes, since we only brought about 4 shirts and 2 pairs of pants total for the entire time we´re out of the country.

Some fun things you might want to hear;

The bathrooms are very scary. Usually just a hole in the ground, and in the nicest ones, a porcilan toilet but never a seat. And never, never any toilet paper. Ever. That was a rude thing to have to get used to.The taxis and busses here are out of control. I am afraid for my life everytime I climb into one. Pedestrians, cows, dogs, bikes or usually other cars have to jump out of the way and they never have the right of way. It´s very scary. And the streets are very narrow, usually barely enough room for one car. If two come in opposite ways, they honk until one gives up and backs up for the other to pass. there are also no gaurd rails, and as many people cram into busses and taxis as possible.

There are hundreds of dogs in the streets. They usually have homes, and hang around in the streets since there´s no porch at their house or just for entertainment´s sake. There is every type of dog inçmaginable. No specific breed, just all sorts. We always try to give them a scratch for good pet karma. (Poor lonely Gus!)

We saw Machu Pichu today! It was pretty crowded, but we managed to get some very good pitures without many people. Dad, I tried to fly my kite for you, but there was no wind. I packed it the whole way through the Salcantay trek and was so excited to fly it for a picture for you!

Maybe there will be wind in Bolivia. I was thinking about you though.

The dollar is about $1 to about 3 Nuevo Soles, the currency in Peru. We eat very well, Peruvian food is fantastic. Lots of soups and eggs. During the last day of our trek, some guiy climbed up a tree and started throwing avacodos down. I took one, and as soon as it´s ripe I´m gong to eat it for breakfast. (Breakfast is usually bread, butter, jam and hot water for hot chocolate or tea.)

My Spanish is improving in leaps and bounds, and I can understand most conversations and can jump in sometimes. I had a conversation with the cook during the trek when Travis and the guide were doing something else, and he didn´t speak any English. We talked about the cats and chickens wandering around in the ´kitchen´(the adobe hut the animals usually lived in) and about our families. I was pretty proud of myself.

We take a bus (6 hours) to Puno, Peru tomorrow. The floating islands are there, in Lago Titicaca. We´ll stay there the night and then cross into Bolivia the next day.

Aguas Calientes

We have just finished our trek to Aguas Calientes, where we will catch a bus to Machu Pichu tomorrow. The trek was very hard, but incredibly beautiful. Our highest pass was just shy of 15,300´ in elevation. It was very cold there, and we saw several glaciers. Then we dropped into a jungle, with monkeys, ant-eaters and parrots. We ate like kings, thanks to our cook Mannuel and our Porter, Walter. They have been very nice, and have worried over us constantly. Our guide, Alvero, is fantastic and also takes very good care of us. Most of the people in the other companies don´t carry their packs-- probably 75% of them paid for extra horses to carry their gear, and on the hardest pass, many rode the horses. Luckily, it was only Travis and I in our group. The guide said there are usually 12-25 people, so it´s been nice to have a private tour. We´re pretty sore now, but it was such a fantastic experience. I can´t wait to upload the pictures, you´ll then be able to understand. We were just in awe the whole trip.

There are hundreds of dogs here. Every house has them, and they are everywhere in the streets. Very friendly though. Just lots of animals in general. I had a cat sleeping in my lap during dinner last night, and we´ve seen pigs, chickens, horses, cows and anything else everywhere in the Andes.

We´re hoping to see llamas in Machu Pichu tomorrow. We saw a few babies in Cuzco during a parade, which were very cute. No one celebrates like South America. The parades and costumes are unbelievable, such a clash of color and brilliance against the primitive adobe houses and cement buildings.

Neither of us have gotten sick yet, thankfully. We´ve been very careful about the water and food, and are having a wonderful time. Many have commented on our blue eyes and how tall Travis is and how blonde I am. They think I am sick, because my cheeks are so pink. The people are beautiful here.

Lima

(To catch up with our South America trip, I will post the emails I sent home during our adventures. I'm horribly sorry for any of those who were not included in the first emails.)

Benvidos au Peru! Just to send out a quick update to all, we arrived in the Lima airport late last night. We will be shortly exploring MiraFlores, the section of Lima we´re staying in, which is one street away from the ocean. There are beautiful sea cliffs and flowers everywhere, it is one of the nicer parts of town.

Today at 1 we fly to Cuzco, and will be starting our trek to Machu Pichu tomorrow morning (Sunday.) I am just blown away at Trav´s Spanish. I think he is the coolest person in the whole world, and admire his ability very much. The roads last night were very scary. Little to no regard is paid to vehicle or road safety, and I was white-knuckled the whole way.

The immersion of American culture is sad to see. I recognize add campaigns and restaurants and businesses everywhere. Chilis, Burger King, KFC, MCDonalds of course, CineMark... The city is so beautiful and different, and has the big non-signs of America glaring at us still.

Lima is a very hot, muggy place. It is a giant of a city, with a constant cloud of smog hovering above it. However, we went to sleep last night with a cool breeze and clean teeth and woke to a breakfast of fresh bread and hot water.

We are doing wonderfully.