track our trek

We landed on Aug. 24, 2007 but we spent a few days in Dallas  with dd's uncle Larry and his family. dd's dad, Ron also flew in from L.A. to check us out in Dallas that weekend. We're so sorry Debbi couldn't make it...as she was out of commission w/ a bad back. We understand that she is all better now. After spending the weekend in Dallas we then grabbed a flight to Dulles, Virginia... but passed through Atlanta where we received a major WELCOME BACK by the Bobb family.
Thanx ya'll that was awesome!!

We then landed in Virginia where we were picked up and treated like royalty at the Berrian-Laboy household. Lashaun THREW DOWN as she made us some good 'ole home cooking that consisted of BBQ ribs, potato salad, and corn on the cob. dd and I are still smacking our lips......wooooweeeee!!
You may be surprised at how difficult it is to get BBQ ribs outside of the US!!
They even reunited us w/our old car.
Thanx Sam & Lashaun....we owe you big time!

The next few days consisted of running administrative errands like car registration and checking up on dd's condo, and catching up w/ a few friends in the DC area.

On the Sat. of the Labor Day weekend we jumped in our old car and drove to NYC where we were greeted by Harvey & Emris with plenty of hugs and kisses. We had more friends and family come through to see us. Emris threw down with some good ole home cooking of curried goat roti. We had leftovers for days!!

After laying low for a few more days dd took a bus down to DC again to see her aunt Jeannette. Yes.....dd and I separated for over 24 hours. It was the first time in over a year that we had been separated from each other...for that length of time. We admit that we both needed the time apart.

I caught up w/ her and Ryan a couple of days later as we all drove up to Buffalo, NY to see dd's grandpa and the whole Buffalo crew. After 3-4 days there we drove back to Brooklyn and Ryan drove back to DC. We've been camped out in Brooklyn ever since.
We both admit for the next few days we were a little beat, we needed to just sit still and relax for bit. It has been almost 2 weeks so far and we haven't had to move anywhere. It feels great!
We're settling into the groove of putting clothes in drawers, acquiring a few new ones and donating some of our old ones. After wearing the same clothes for a year straight you kinda get tired of seeing/wearing the same thing over and over again.

We've managed to get new cell phones, hook up my folks w/ broadband internet, look through and sort out old mail, go to 4 theater productions, have a mini b'day for dd, and get into the process of wedding planning. We even managed to sort out all of the amazing worldly contacts we've made in the last year. Its been great....we've come across over 60 new friends in our travels and we're trying OUR BEST to stay in contact w/ each and everyone of them.

Even with all this running around we still have yet to contact everyone we know here. We'll catch up with them very soon.

It feels good to be home!

Although, we enjoyed our time at Bahia de la Luna....we were very excited to leave. It meant that in only a couple of days we would be on a plane to Dallas, TX. Yep....we're coming home!!!!
We took our last overnight bus and landed back in Mexico City at Terminal Sur. Familiar territory now; we took the metro to one of the best diggs on our entire trip, the Sheraton Centro Historico. We used the next two days to do some serious cleaning up, cutting and shampooing our hair, shaving....etc. The next couple days were spent pretty close to the hotel as dd was still at the tail end of her bout w/ montezumas.

Well....we were on our plane back to good ole U-S-A and we were introduced to all of the new cost cutting that American Airlines is doing. Can you imagine this??...a 4 hour, international flight in the middle of the afternoon and we were told that there would be NO FOOD ON THE FLIGHT. We didn't even get a bag of peanuts. We were told that we were allowed to bring food on the plane at our own expense of course. No....it wasn't a budget flight. These flights from Mexico City to Dallas, TX cost an average $400.00 a ticket!!
Another interesting incident happened when one guy flipped out because a passenger behind him asked if he could push his seat forward (the guy behind him was quite tall). Anyway, the guy that flipped out displayed such arrogance and self-entitlement that dd and I wondered if we were even ready to enter the country.

So, after spending a week in PE we made our way to the highlight beach of our trip. We had heard from folks on tripadvisor.com that the beach at Playa La Boquilla the site of our hotel Bahia de la Luna was one of the best beaches one could go to. After about an 1.5 hour trip we landed in the small town of Pochutla, then we grabbed a taxi to Bahia de la Luna. The problem with taking a taxi to this place is that it is somewhat remote. For instance, the taxi took us almost all the way down the hill but because the road was so torn up our driver called it quits near the bottom. We threw our packs on our backs and finished walking the next 350 meters to our hotel.

Well, its all true what people said about the beach. It truly is spectacular. The hotel sits inside of actual jungle and along the bay. There are a number of cabanas...some of which sit up in hill surrounding the bay. The cabanas themselves had thatched roofs, with plenty of wildlife living in them. There is also a shortage of water in the area so you needed to mindful of that while taking a shower.  All in all I don't think the diggs were all that great. After being out most of the day....you'd always come back to your cabana and see gecko shit littered all over the room. We heard of folks who had snakes and mice trolling around their room as well as others getting stung by tarantulas and/or scorpions. Fortunately, for us we didn't have to witness any stinging insects, but what we did witness was an awesome beach. Because the place ran on limited electricity, there was no lighting on the trails leading to our cabana, so flashlights were a must.

Bahia de la Luna has white sand and essentially a remote beach with hardly anyone on it. The people that really used the beach were people from the hotel....yeah....all 15 of us and NOT all at the same time. We caught up on a lot of book reading and honed our critique on pina coladas, margaritas, mezcal, and cerveza. The downside to being in such a remote place is that we didn't have car to get out of there. We always ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the hotel, but every evening there was always a new special entree that one could order. I think we left only once the whole week and that was to visit Puerto Angel and get our return bus tickets in Pochutla. Another downside that happened was dd getting sick!  Yeah, after avoiding street food and shady looking restaurants she got sick eating at our hotel. Stomach craps, diarrhea, and even vomiting. All the signs of Montazumas revenge (or the mexican weight loss plan)!!! On the flip side....the hosts were extremely nice about it; dd got hooked up with some antibiotics, and electrolytes. She was a champ through it all, although making sure the bathroom was not too far away. dd slowly got better as time went on...and I think I remember her knocking back a mango margarita a day before we left!

The next day we decided to take a nice Sunday stroll to two areas close to Zona Rosa called Condesa & Roma. We were interested in the areas to get away from all the crowds we witnessed the day before at Zócalo. We had a pleasant walk down to see a nice neighborhood with tree lined streets and small parks. Our walk included checking out the architecture, parks, and restaurants in the area. We were also told by the staff at our hostel to purchase our bus tickets at least one day in advance...cuz the buses may be all booked. So we jumped on the metro and took Linea 2 to the last stop called Tasqueña. A busy station that also had Terminal Sur nearby (one of 4 main bus terminals). Here we had to buy our bus tickets to Puerto Escondido (PE), a 14-hour bus ride from Mexico City.

We jumped on to our 6:30p bus to PE, we arrived the next morning around 8:00a. Coming from Mexico City where it was rather chilly and cool, PE was balmy and humid. Perfect weather for the beach!!! We grabbed a local taxi and arrived at our hotel called the Tabachín del Puerto. We heard good things about it through our Lonely Planet book as well as through TripAdvisor.com. We had a room that was one of the largest on our entire trip. It included 2 double beds, TV, air conditioner, private bath, kitchen, and large water cooler. The first thing we did was change into shorts, which we hadn't been able to do since June. Then we spent the rest of the day walking around Playa Zicatela and Marinero, putting our feet in the warm water and getting sand stuck between our toes.

Believe it or not PE doesn't have the large chain hotels that other beaches in Mexico may have, mainly because of the rough surf that affects Playa Zicatela in particular. The truth is that many people have died because of the rough surf and the big chain hotels don't want anything to do with the place.....which was cool with us. In fact, Zicatela is known mainly for its good surfing (one of the best places in the world), however, as a swimmer it is one of the most dangerous beaches in the country. It has a nasty rip current that comes at you quickly and pulls you out to sea. Playa Marinero is better but you may still have to watch yourself on some days. Carrizalillo was probably the calmest out of the whole lot.

The rest of our week was spent eating wonderful breakfasts at our hotel, jumping in the lovely seawater at Marinero beach, going to the pool at a local country club, sipping on margaritas and cervezas, eating Oaxacan mole enchiladas, enjoying the calm waves at Playa Carrizalillo, walking along the strip along Playa Principal. We met some really cool people along the way....Gabby from L.A., ex-pats Michele Gibbs and Annie, as well as some others.

We met Gabby at our hotel, she didn't stay there but she would come for the wonderful breakfasts that they had. She stayed at a new hotel on the far end of Zicatela called Aqualuna. It was quite nice but the host of the place needed a few lessons on learning to chillout a little.

After spending almost 11 months traveling from country to country....believe it or not we were physically tired. We were at the point in our trip where we needed a little vacation from the vacation. The one thing we had in mind was spending some hardcore time on a beach!
After doing a little research in Peru we decided that we were NOT trying to spend too much money. So places like Baja California, Puerto Vallarta and Acupulco were considered off limits. We had heard of a place called Puerto Escondido (PE) through a friend of ours from Germany. The prices seemed a lot better and it was quite close to Mexico City....so we decided to go for it. PE is situated in the state of Oaxaca (pronounced wa-ha-ka) along the Oaxaca coast.

Mexico City was a place we always wanted to check out. Partly cause it is the second largest city in world with a population over 18 million, it is also the capital city of the country, it sits inside of a large valley, and it is the most important economic, industrial and cultural center in the country. It is somewhat notorious for having a lot of crime.

Well, flying from Lima, Peru we landed in Mexico City in the morning. After reading about the many stories of people being jacked for their money in taxis we opted for an "authorized taxi". Essentially, authorized taxis are booked inside of the airport at a customer service desk. You pay the people at the desk and you take your receipt to a particular set of taxis or in our case a certain color.  We also read that you must make sure to give your receipt to the "actual" driver and not some person who may pretend to be a coordinator or manager.

The hostel we decided on was located in the neighborhood of Zona Rosa, its an area w/ plenty of restaurants, sidewalk cafes and good streets to do a lot of walking and people watching. We didn't realize at first but it also "THE" place for the gay and lesbian scene. A few clubs, and major hangout spots as well.

While we spent most of our first day in the local area of Zona Rosa, the next day we took ourselves to the Historic Center. We started by walking to largest plaza in the world called the Plaza de la Constitución aka Zócalo by locals. The plaza is probably one of the most important places in Mexico also representing the heart of Aztec culture. It includes Templo Mayor, the Palacio Nacional (presidential palace), Cathederal Metropolitana and offices of the Distrito Federal. Its a little wild because the plaza is paved with stones from the ruins of of Temple Mayor as well as other Aztec buildings.

Prior to the Spainards, the city was known by the Aztecs as Tenochtitlan and the Templo Mayor was called the Teocalli of Tenochtitlan. As far as Aztecs were concerned the temple marked the center of the universe. It sits on the very sacred spot that the Aztecs saw their symbolic eagle, with a snake in its beak, perching on a catus,....this is essentially the symbol of Mexico today. Take a look at the Mexican flag and you can see this same symbol in the center. The temple had been built over and top of its self about 8 times. Although you are not allowed to go into every facet of the temple....you can still see alot, as well as  the museum that houses a lot of stone sculptures. It seems that on Sat. and Sun. some of the streets in and around the Zócalo are closed to traffic but are available to street vendors to sell their items. The place is PACKED w/ people.

We wanted to try the street food but we were concerned about getting sick so we balked at the idea. We stayed safe by eating at established restuarants. After walking from Zona Rosa to Zócalo and back we were pooped!

at last! now that we were in cusco, we were excited to make our pilgrimage to machu picchu...it would be the last major tourist attraction on our trip & it promised to be a trip highlight. and in light of its recently being named one of the new 7 wonders of the world, we figured we'd better get there quick before that new title ups the prices even more!
machu picchu is not easy to get to...lots of folks do the inca trail, a 5 day hike along the trail used by the incas long ago...there are actually many ruins along the way which are inaccessible to tourists except by way of the inca trail. alas, we knew were in no shape this time around to handle the 12-hour/day uphill hikes at high altitude and camping in the cold to get there. we'd recently heard horror stories of people getting stomach viruses and diarrhea along the way...when i say it's a 5-day hike...i mean it's a 5-day hike...you have no choice but to walk the whole way...whether you're running from both ends and dehydrated or not!! no thanks... i think it would require some very serious training to be ready for that! so we joined the bandwagon of tourists who sign up for two day/one night trips by bus and train...this means taking a 1 day bus tour through the sacred valley, then the tourist train to aguas calientes (the town at the foot of machu picchu) for 2-3 hours from there. the trip can be done in one day, by leaving cusco at like 4:30 am, but you spend about 10 hours traveling and only 2 hours at machu picchu. so we opted to spend the night in aguas calientes...it is a miserable town whose sole purpose is to handle tourist traffic to machu picchu...hundreds of restaurants with terrible tourist food and cheap ugly hotels...on the day of our visit to machu picchu, we woke up at 5:00 am to catch the first bus up the mountain. at that hour, the tourist buses are lined up in the rain and mist, idling and waiting to take off in a caravan up the windy muddy road. the reason you leave so early is to watch the sun rise over machu picchu, but it wasn't in the cards for us that day...in fact, our first few hours were fairly miserable in cold heavy rain climbing among the slippery rocks. but that didn't take away from the fact that the city is incredible!! and the mist and clouds actually made the light quite dramatic! we had a two-hour guided tour, after which we were free to explore on our own.
the city is in an amazing state of preservation, because it was never found by the marauding spanish. it is believed to have been abandoned by the 300 or so incas who were living there as other communities along the inca trail picked up and fled the invaders and carried their treasure to hide it in the jungles. it was discovered at the turn of the 20th century by a guy looking for the "lost" inca treasure. and it is incredible to learn about how sophisticated the city was...right down to the 3m wide channel that was left unbuilt because the incas knew it was a dormant fault line! after our tour, while we huddled under a leaky tent sipping overpriced, and not-very-chocolate hot chocolate, we contemplated calling it quits and heading back down to aguas calientes (a.c.), but we couldn't fathom what we would do for a whole day there! i'm glad to say we stuck it out in the rain, and were rewarded with warm sunshine later in the day. we met monique, from the netherlands who has been traveling all over south america for months. and we passed a nice afternoon chatting with her and watching the light change over machu picchu change below us before we hiked down for an hour and a half back to a.c....it was magical! one minute we were in the clouds, and the next minute, a cloud would shift to give another breathtaking view! that night we had dinner and headed up the hill to the hot springs everyone raved about (hence the town's name)...sounded like a good idea right? soak in the natural hot springs after a long day of hiking in the rain...that was an experience i could've skipped for sure! luke warm water of very questionable cleanliness, jammed full of tourists and locals in their underwear, and freezing outside air...can we say breeding ground for ringworm?? blech...jokes...

we'd found it difficult to find decent lodging online in cusco...i suppose it was because high season was in full swing...(that is, unless you count the $3 dorm beds that abound in the city). as you might imagine, the last quarter of our world tour has found us running out of steam a bit... we passed the same nasty cold back and forth to each other for half of june and most of july...and we've had a decidedly reduced appetite for filthy, smelly shared bathrooms and dorm rooms, and a decidedly increased willingness to step up our quality of accommodation, even if it means using the credit card! lol! heaven help us when we get home...
anyway, we managed to find a private room for 2 nights at the hotel arqueologico, then we moved across the street to the hotel el grial...really sweet little place for a whopping $18 per person. we were in san blas...a really charming section of the city, with tiny cobblestone streets, beautiful colonial buildings, and tons of little shops and restaurants...uh oh...
on our first day out and about cusco, i decided it was my favorite of the cities in south america we'd visited...really beautifully set up in the mountains with wide open blue skies and well-preserved colonial squares, plazas, and churches, and tons of interesting museums...also, the city, having once been the capital of the inca empire, is surrounded by lots of archaeological sites that were important to inca civilization...of course, that also means much of it is built on top of and from the destroyed pieces of inca temples and schools and public buildings...sigh...boy those pesky spanish looters and thieves were really brutal weren't they?

we spent almost a week in cusco, relaxing, recuperating, eating good food and soaking up the sun...it was warmer there than it had been in any other part of our south american travels, though we still needed to layer up. we took a half day city tour to see some nearby inca sites, like sachsayhuaman (the running joke is "...not sexy woman") which was believed to be a ritual center & is still used today for annual festivals.

we had a wonderful time in cusco meeting people, and running into friends we'd meet in chile and bolivia. we found the people really genuine and friendly. raul, who worked at our hotel even took us out one friday night to a local peruvian club to hear samba and cumbia and afro-peruvian music...it was great fun!

after our brief detour into bolivia, having been able to obtain no more substantial information about the strike situation in peru, we decided to brave the trip...in any case we'd come across enough other tourists with varying stories, none of which indicated the trip might be dangerous. so after our day trip to isla del sol, we booked a bus ticket from copacabana to cusco. we chose the early bus, in hopes that we'd arrive at a decent evening hour in cusco.
we gathered along with all the other backpackers early saturday morning to fill out our immigration forms and get our seat assignments on the bus. turns out the bus to puno, the peruvian town on lake titicaca where all buses to cusco make a pit stop, was terribly overbooked. with no seats left on the comfy big bus, we, the overflow travellers started piling into two tiny minivans for the 3 1/2 hour trip to puno. we handed our packs up to be tied on top of the vans and squeezed in with knees up to our chins amidst a great deal of confusion and worry that we'd have to make the entire 12 hour trip in those cramped quarters. the border was a short 10 minutes away, where we disembarked, got our stamps to exit bolivia, and carried our backpacks 200 meters to the peruvian border post to get our peru entrance stamps. then we loaded our packs on a different tiny minivan, this one more cramped than the first, for the 3 hour trip around the south of lake titcaca to puno. the company was good and the scenery was beautiful, so we made it to puno not much worse for the wear. we had a two hour wait there until the departure of the big bus for cusco, so we had lunch, picked up some snacks for the road and enjoyed the warm sunshine. thankfully, the rest of the trip went smoothly, and we arrived in cusco at 8:30pm without incident...no sign of strikers, demonstrators, or protesters...phew! welcome to peru! so far, so good...

during our couple of days in arica in northern chile, we heard multiple rumors about teachers and miners striking and demonstrating in peru. we heard from some travellers that the border between chile and peru had been closed days before, and that demonstrators were crowding the roadsides and throwing stones at buses. we heard some people had been delayed hours and days trying to move between towns in peru & that the government was giving priority to tourists on buses, making tempers among locals flare even more...we also heard reports that things had since quieted down & it was no problem to cross the border, though we could get no confirmation that once we crossed to tacna, the border town, we'd be able to get safely to arequipa, the next town on the backpacker trail...sigh...so, despite our plans to skip bolivia, we decided to head to la paz for a few days to wait things out and see if we could learn more.
we'd not been enthusiastic about visiting bolivia for two reasons: one, the cold weather...we'd had enough & were interested only in moving towards warmer environs; and two, it's reputation as a cocaine haven... almost every backpacker we'd met had some story to tell about spending days smoked out on cocaine in la paz...right...sounds like our type of place for sure!

la paz turned out to be quite a unique city set at such a high altitude with all it´s brick buildings set into the mountain sides...we´re glad we didn´t miss it...though we didn´t take much advantage of the tourist attractions as dp was suffering pretty miserably from altitude sickness...we upgraded to some relatively cushy digs - with heat - so he could recuperate comfortably, and spent a couple days wandering around the city checking out all the cheap souvenier shopping. with a little coca leaf tea and lots of rest, we both felt a lot better, except for getting winded climbing the slightest hill...  so next, we headed to copacabana, a small town on lake titicaca...the 4-hour bus ride there was an adventure in a tiny, cramped local bus through breathtaking countryside, with a trip across a small stretch of water!we were confused when the bus stopped for what we thought was a pit stop. we had to get off and board a little boat to cross the water, while the bus rode a separate little rickety barge across...we had visions of our packs sinking to the bottom of the 60m deep lake strapped on top of the bus! copacabana proved to be a nice little place to spend a couple of nights, and we took a day trip to isl a del sol, a huge island in the middle of the huge lake that has several inca ruins and beautiful views of the famous lake...

we took the advice of the lonely planet and flew across the andes from buenos aires to santiago in chile...wow! what a view of the snow-capped mountains as we were coming in to land!but once we were on the ground, it didn´t take long to get swallowed up under santiago´s smog cloud! we jumped in a taxi headed for our hostel after negotiating a fair price. our driver, who was clearly not an "official" taxi driver, was very friendly, pointing out sights along the way and offering to stop at an atm for us. when we got there, he insisted that he´d meant 10,000 chilean pesos per person, not total...sigh. sorry buddy...you should have caught us at the front end of our trip before people in vietnam and egypt and india and every other developing country we´ve visited had tried that scam! we launched into our usual routine...flat out refusing to pay. daryll stayed in the car while i got out to get the bags from the trunk. (in vitenam, if you argue over price, then get out of the car without your bags, drivers sometimes drive off with your stuff in the trunk just long enough to get you panicked and willing to pay any price to get your stuff back.)

but after that illustrious introduction  to santiago, we settled in to our hostel quite well and met lots of really nice folks. we even met a couple from spain who were 1 week into doing the same thing we did! they´d saved up and quit their jobs and are travelling the world for a year! aww...it made us feel nostalgic about having so little time left in our trip! and excited to share all sorts of info about good places to stay and things to do in some of the places they´re headed to.

we spent a week relaxing in santiago, where it was very cold at night. (our little private room had a faulty radiator so we scored a small electric heater from the front desk...if only we´d known that was the warmest we´d be for the next 2 weeks, we´d have appreciated it more!!) most hostels here in south america do not have indoor heat!...not nice at all when it is proper winter outside! barrio bellavista is a charming neighborhood of santiago with lots of shops and tasty restaurants. we sampled pastel del choclo, a yummy chilean casserole with corn and ground beef and cheese...mmm...sticks to your ribs! we rode the cable car and took in the views of the city, and we took a day trip to a nearby winery, chile´s oldest. the wine was nice, and it was a relief to be able to understand much of what the tour guide said in spanish before he translated to english. unlike most of his fellow chileans, he had a knack for speaking slowly and clearly, so dp and i didn´t feel as bad as usual about only catching occasional words in a string of sentences! jokes...