Sanyu's World

The Girl in Ipanema

Long long freaking overnight flight to Rio de Janiero. I was completely wrecked but somehow found my way onto the bus into town. The LP lists it as a 45 minutes ride but it was almost 2 hours. I found my hostel last week and was happy to get anything because it was such late notice. It's great but expensive. Shoot, everything in Rio is expensive. The downstairs of the hostel is a pretty swanky bar where lots of people hang out. I was super tired so I just headed up to bed. I was just tucking in when 2 young Irish guys came in to my dorm and practically dragged me out to a club. They were super fun and there were about 6 of us hailing cabs to go to Help and crazy club in the middle of Copacabana. The club was not only 80% prostitutes but underage prostitutes. The guys loved it! The music was good and we danced til our feet hurt. A pretty crazy introduction to Rio.

Spent the next day running errands and met up with the Irish guys to spend a little quality time at the infamous Ipanema beach after eating lunch at one of the ubiquitous pay by weight restaurants. There were lots of people hanging out on the beach and unlike Copacabana, the water is clean enough for swimming and cooling off. Back to the hostel for a quick shower and to get ready for a hostel tour to a Samba School Rehearsal which has won for the last 3 years. The school was in a suburb about 45 minutes outside of Rio. We all thought it was going to be a little show but when we got close we saw kiosks selling food and beer and all sorts of stuff. The streets were packed with locals all heading up to see the rehearsal. People were playing music and dancing everywhere. We had to hike though the crowd up to the big auditorium where watched them go though their paces. The did play the same bloody song for 2 hours straight but it was fun watching the slow procession of different groups of dancers. Everyone was wearing their blue and white colors but the costumes weren't at all as outlandish as I had thought they would be. Everyone from the hostel all pretty much stuck together and enjoyed the show, as we were the only non locals there, til we had to meet back to catch our bus driver at 2am.

I joined yet another tour the next day to go see J.C., the big man himself. Rio's most famous attraction. We headed up about noon, the hottest time of the day but it was as cheap as trying to find the right bus up and much simpler. Really is a spectacular sight and you can see him from almost everywhere in Rio. You drive up the hill or take the expensive train ride up and then there''s a big elevator cut intothe hill to take you even higher so you don't have to walk the stairs. The view from the top was pretty crap that day because of all the smog. We stayed up there for about an hour before heading back to town. Off to the beach for a few hours with some girls I'd met on the tour before getting cleaned up to head over to our sister hostel in Copacabana where they were having a bit of a party. The party never ends here in Rio. We took a little stroll afterward to check out the colossal stage they've set up for the big Rolling Stones concert. They even have a 15 foot high walkway setup so the band can go directly from the hotel to the stage.

Finally it was Rolling Stones day. There was a big group of us to meet up at the hostel to head over early in the day but I missed the message they left me and ended up sitting in the bar wondering what had happened. I was almost ready to give up and head down by myself when I found out they were all waiting for me at the Copacabana hostel. A bit of a nightmare getting there by cab. Most of the streets were closed off to traffic so I ended up hoofing it a lot of the way but I made it and after waiting around for a few more people we finally headed down to the beach. We found a spot near the middle behind a giant screen and camped out on the sand for the 5 hour wait. One of the cool things about the beaches here is that you never have to move to access anything. Locals are walking up and down the beach selling anything you could ever want. Just before the Stones came, a girl Noo and I decided to go and run and pee near the water like everyone else. Not my finest moment. I've pretty much blocked out the whole nasty event but it meant we were able to make it back in time for the start of the concert which was amazing. There were over a million people but our area wasn't super crowded like the front. 2 hours of free Stones music. Does it get any better. By the time it was all over I was just ready to fall off my feet. There had been some much buildup that once it was over, so was my energy. I walked back with some of the guys and luckily found the right bus back home and collapsed into bed.

Took it pretty easy the next day. It is so hot here it's really hard to get up an appetite so I pretty much spend all my money at a juice place around the corner. Everyone here drinks acai, a purple fruit that is made into an icy drink but its too sweet for me. The watermelon or passion fruit juices are my staples. One last tour to see a football match. The stadium is half under repairs but it didn't matter, there was hardly anyone there to fill up the seats anyway. We were in the home team section but unlike Buenos Aires, we had little seats which was terrific. The drums and the singing were tops but it wasn't a patch on the Cup final game I saw in B.A. There was a big street party that night in Gavia but most of us were too pooped to party and just had a few drinks at the hostel before turning in.

I had big plans for my last full day in Rio but they got wheedled down to just going to the beach by the time I was done with breakfast. It was hot but there was a nice breeze wafting off the water. All the girls were happy to cook themselves but I rented an umbrella. Gotta take care of your skin you know. Spent the entire day on Ipanema, what more could a girl want. Later we met up for dinner and a few drinks before some of us headed to a big party in Lapa. It took forever to get in but since you can drink on the street, it didn't matter. We danced for a while but it got really hot and crowded and everyone got lost. I looked around for a while but finally gave up and caught a van bus home. Off to Salvador tomorrow for Carnaval. I know. According to my schedule I'm supposed to be in Bolivia but I've had to make a few last minute modifications. My so called fried (ha ha, kidding D.) bailed on coming to Rio only a few weeks before Carnaval. I emailed around to friends in the area to try and get a line of where to go and stay since getting a room for Carnaval is both expensive and hard to find. Dee and Bob from Sandanzas in BA have hooked me up with an apartment in Salvador for Carnaval for cheap. Were stuffing 8 people in a 3 bedroom apartment. Should be fun. My flight from La Paz, Bolivia to Rio, Brazil was cancellable. Talk about luck. So I canceled and came straight from Lima so I could catch the free Stones concert. Traveling logistics can be so crazy sometimes but it's all worked out well for me. I'm just hoping my liver will last me til the end of Carnaval.

Reserva Amazonica

Back in Cusco by train. my mom and her friends had dinner while I did my on thing for a few hours. Up early the next day to walk around the tiny city with my mother snapping pictures of gorgeous churches and pretty streets along the way. It all went too quickly. I would have loved to spend a few more days there but Sharon, Carollyn and I were headed off to the Jungle in Madre del Diaz while my mom and Anna were planning on a few days in Cusco before trying to catch a flight to see the Nazca Lines.

The plane to Puerto Maldonado only takes about 50 minutes while taking a bus can take 2 days or more. We were quickly shuttled on a bus from the airport to a a small port where a boat was waiting for us to take us  on the 45 minute trip to the reserve. My mother had joked about how we´d be roughing it in the jungle but the reserve is really set up as a jungle-lite. The main houses where we meet our guides and eat meals and generally hang out were beautiful open wooden structures and outrageously clean. Our bungalow while small was really lovely. After getting ourselves sorted we met up with our guide Luis to find some wellies for hiking (too muddy for hiking boots) and go on our first hike to a place called The Canopies. After about a half an hour walk all the color drained out of poor Sharon´s face when she found out why it was called The Canopies. It´s a series of 7 swinging bridges about 30 feet up where you can get a great view of the jungle. For someone deathly afraid of height, Sharon surprised us all, by going for it.

We next joined another group to take a boat out to a farm where they showed us all sorts of plants that can grow in the jungle including a cocoa plant. it got dark really quickly so we hurried back to the dock to catch the boat home. along the way we were all on the lookout for nocturnal creatures. they finally spotted a caiman (lizardly thing) and our guide, our hero, Luis reached in and grabbed it by the scruff of its neck to give us a better a look. Dinner back at the lodge was excellent. Really fresh natural food with an amazing desert to finish. We were on our second serving of flan and still laughing about one of the guests at a nearby table, a young woman, who had come back from the buffet table with nothing but 2 tiny medallions of chicken centered on her plate that she was delicately nibbling on. Blech!

5am wake up call the next day. We could hear the guy walking from bungalow to bungalow waking people up but very few answered the call. At breakfast there were only the 3 of us and one other couple. Back into out wellies and after a 30 minute ride in the boat we started out hike. There were lots of puddle and sticky mud so it was pretty slow going but Luis is a natural comedian and had us in stitches all the way. so much so that we got shushed by a group up ahead of us who trying to concentrate on finding so bird or other. We made it to a small islet of water which after a few minutes of paddling opened up into a large shimmering lake. Luis pointed out and explained about all the birds and wildlife we encountered. there were little turtles and a weird bird that looked like a snake when it swam in the water. Hiking back we passed through scores of butterflies just waking up I presume. a really beautiful morning.

A nice relaxing lunch break before our afternoon hike in Monkey Island. Mosquito Island would perhaps be a better name. There were 3 groups of us wandering the island looking for monkeys for 2 hours and we never saw a single one. All the while the mosquitoes were biting every stray piece of flesh they could find that was unprotected. I had DEET bug spray on but they didn´t care and even nibbled me through my shirt. We were glad to leave finally and headed off to see a nature preserve that students from the National Geographic are tending. The sun set beautifully and the full moon rose and was a stunner. They took their time taking us back to the lodge looking for more wildlife in the dark and giving us a chance to really appreciate just being. Our last night in the lodge was wonderfully relaxing. We´s had a long day and enjoyed kicking back with our books on the couches. The lodge is only about a quarter full so it´s an even more relaxing place than it would be in high season.

The next day we were shipped back to the real world. Before hitting the airport we had a quick tour of a nearby butterfly farm which would have been much better if we could have just wandered around on our own. our flight arrived only an hour before my mom and Anna were due to arrive from Nazca so I decided to wait for them. when they didn´t show up i got a sinking feeling in my stomach. Back at the hotel I found out what a harrowing day my mother and Anna had had. There was a mix up at the airport and by the time it had all been cleared up with the help of the airport manager, his first day on the job, they had missed their flight. they were troopers though and got a flight confirmed for the next day. We all headed out to Miraflores to our favorite restaurant by the water and caught up with each other before heading back to the hotel. They went to bed and I went off to the casino and bar. Fun, fun, fun.

The last day was really relaxing. Mom and Anna headed off the Nazca at 5am while I slept in and took one last bath. Sharon, Carollyn and I did a bit of last minute shopping and they relaxed by the pool until my mom and Anna came back exuberant about their day seeing the Nazca Lines. one last dinner together in the hotel. It was Valentine´s Day and Sharon and Carollyn happily dived into desserts instead of dinner. A nice way to end it. i tucked them into a taxi and said my goodbyes. My flight wasn´t to leave for another 3 hours after theirs. Hope you had fun, ladies! I had a blast!!

Machu Picchu & The Inca Trail

Our early morning flight to Cusco was delayed about 2 hours so we didn't have much rest time between checking in to the hotel and heading out on a tour. Not the wisest thing to do at such a high altitude. My mother and I had eaten a few candies on the plane made from coca leaves and drank lots of the free coca tea offered at the hotel to try and stave off the altitude sickness. I feel so much heavier up here at 3300 meters above sea level. Just walking down the street mamade my heart beat faster. We went to see four sites, the first and best one was Sacsay Huaman (pronounced "Sexy Woman"). Our guide was really knowledgeable and had such a great amount of pride in his culture and its history that it was infectious. He even answered a long pondered question I've had on why children's cheeks here look so red and streaky (excess red blood cells due to the elevation). The site itself is the remains of rock walls intricately put together by shaping large boulders to precise irregular dimensions so that they all fit perfectly together like a jigsaw puzzle. We kept on walking up to the top of the hill behind the runs to take in the view of Cusco and also the Jesus statue on the next hill over. On the way up our guide picked some wild herbs for us which help with altitude sickness. They smelled like a combination of mint and thyme. Sniffing them was a bit addictive I think, I couldn't get enough of them.

The next 3 sites were not as big or captivating and my hands were starting to freeze. The change in temperature from Lima is shocking. Most of our excitement came from checking up on Carollyn. If I hadn't been with her all day I would have sworn she was drunk or hungover, a telling sign of altitude sickness. Back at the hotel they rolled out their canister of oxygen (hotels deal with this a lot) and gave her a 5 minute dose. She was looking better when we went out for dinner to nice restaurant across the street. It took me forever to decide what to eat. I thought everyone's order had already been put in but I found out that they had all be sitting there hungrily but patiently waiting for me. Not a star moment for me.

Early morning train to Aguas Caliente which I pretty much slept though except for the first hour when the train changed directions about 10 times each time changing tracks in order to descend the 1000 meters safely. My mother, Carolyn and I of us sat by a grouchy (is there any other kind) Canadian nun while Anna and Sharon sat behind us. The weather changed from cold to sunny to rainy before we finally got off. Our guide, Sylvia met us and brought us to our hotel which like everything else in town was about 5 minutes away from the station. In fact, it is such a small town that there don't seem to be any cars other than the big buses that come and go every 5 minutes to transport people to and from Machu Picchu.

We had a 3 hour hike on the Inca Trail planned for the afternoon but the rain wasn't letting up so we canceled and decided to head to the hot springs instead. It was a 15 minute uphill walk following the raging Urubamba river which made my mom and her friends realize that canceling the 3 hour hike was definitely for the best. Sitting in the hot sulfur water with the light cold rain coming down was oddly pleasant. I wanted to order a rum and coke while sitting in the water but in order to get the waiter's attention one of us had to whistle and there were no whistlers in our group. Yet another skill I need to improve. After a short downhill walk home, and wonderfully long hot showers, no one wanted to leave the comfort of the hotel so we bunkered down there and had a lovely meal before turning in.

4:45am wake up call, a quick breakfast and on to the bus for Machu Picchu. It was still drizzling so we waiting under some cover by the entrance to to let it ease up. The site is surrounded by mountains and, for us that morning, a thick mist. A lone Israeli girl traveler asked if she could join our tour of the site but Sylvia the guide said no. I felt bad, that could have been me. As we walked around the site and listened to the history we were all surprised to hear that over 80% of the site is a reconstruction, some parts better reconstructed that others. The mist and lack of early bird tourists gave the whole place an amazing ethereal aura. So much is unknown about the site because it wasn't discovered by the Spanish Conquerors. The locals had always known about it and had used the many terraces for planting corn and potatoes. Up at the top of the site we took a short hike up part of the Inca Trail to the Sun Gate. It was still too misty to get a good picture from the vantage point but when we made out way back down the sky had just cleared and the mist opened up to offer up an amazing view of the whole site.

Beside the entrance of Machu Picchu is a pricey lunch buffet that was included in our tour. The food was excellent and we left stuffed and happy. While we were eating the rain had started up and mist had closed in again so our hour of pristine views felt really special. It was a long day and the rest of the evening was spent getting massages in the hotel. With the incense, candlelight and sounds of the rushing water outside the window I fell right asleep. How am I going to go back to grubby traveler life?

Mother Lima

Yet another airport charge in Quito. $25 charge this time. After 8 months of flying they choose this flight to ask me if I'd mind being bumped. Since I'm meeting my mother in Lima it was a definite no but I was tempted to see what they would offer me. I arrived in Lima about 11pm and crawled through customs out to find a cab on the street. I knew it was an $8 ride so once I'd gotten past all the people offering to take me for $20 and above I was on my way. The driver was a total creep during the ride first hitting on me and them mentioning that the price was actually going to be more than our agreed upon price. I was steamed but when we arrived at the hotel I grabbed my stuff, handed him $8 and didn't look back. My hostel was a bit run down but I chose it mostly for it's proximity to the Lima Sheraton. I woke up and headed over to the Sheraton at 6:30am to make sure I didn't miss them. After about 2 hours of sitting and a bit of worrying and pacing they walked in with their new Peruvian friend Eduardo looking much more fresh-faced than me.

I thought they would need to rest after so much traveling but they were all raring to go. My mother furiously unpacked all the things she'd brought for. Jeez. I'd asked for a few small things and for her to bring a large enough suitcase to bring back some of my recent purchases but it looks as if I'll end up with less room than I started with. We headed out to check out the old city passing Recoleta church on our way to Plaza San Martin. We had a little excitement, that I'll have to expound upon at a later date to protect the innocent, before heading off to on the hotel shuttle to Miraflores, a very nouveau suburb on the beach that is oddly foggy for most of the day. They have a big new outdoor mall high above the beach where we spent some time browsing before heading off to the cheaper artisan markets. Sharon and Carolyn decided to walk on ahead. We were also going to walk up but when I checked the LP map, I could see that it was much further than it looked on the little map we'd gotten from the tourist desk so we caught a cab and my mother and Anna shopped like troupers. We headed back to the mall and had a wonderful dinner overlooking the beach. My first meal of ceviche. It was excellent and I was in heaven. We all met up back at the hotel where the longness of the day finally caught up with all of them. My mother keeps plying me with money which she then 'borrows' back to buy souveniers. I still had a little of her stash of cash left so I hit the casino in the lobby of the hotel where I ended up money $30 richer before calling it quits. Not a bad first day.

We were all up early the next day to have breakfast at the hotel buffet (mmm, bacon) before heading out with Eduardo to check out the beach. We were all secretly happy that he called and bailed on us because we'd seen just how miserably foggy the beach was. We decide to hit the old town again and check out some of the Cathedral and the Monastery of San Francisco. We made it to Plaza des Armes and saw rows of people sitting on the steps of the Cathedral. We were about to head off when we heard the music around the corner. An elaborate parade was just starting a block below us. The costumes, music and dances were all amazing and seemed to represent a different region. We were all thrilled at our luck while we hung out and enjoyed the festivities. We found out later that it was a celebration for one of their saints. We headed over to the huge monastery where we took a tour of their mouldy old catacombs before heading back to the hotel. On the way back we saw that the parade was over but it looked as if the party was just beginning. Some of the bands were still playing and everyone was dancing and singing in the streets. That night we headed all together back to Miraflores to have dinner. More ceviche for me. I think I'm addicted. The shuttle brought us back to the hotel where we enjoyed our complimentary welcome drinks, pisco sours. They taste a lot like extra strong lime margaritas. We all felt as though we'd burnt a hole in our esophagus. I talked Sharon into taking a few slot pulls before turning in. She borrowed $2 off of me to continue her losing streak for a little while longer, at my urging of course, but I agreed to tell my mother the next morning that it was actually more like $40 to get a little rise out of her.

Day 3 with my mother. Shopping, shopping and more shopping. We finally got a tour of the Cathedral but it was a bit rushed but beautiful all the same. I can't seem to force my camera to not flash in low light conditions so I missed out on some great photos. My mom got a few I hope so I'll post them if they turn out. We quickly checked out Kennedy park which was really just more shopping before enjoying a perfect pizza on Pizza Street in Miraflores. The shuttle bus back to the hotel was so full this time that they had to ask some people to take a taxi instead. I was ordered up to the room to sort through my stuff as we are leaving tomorrow for Cuzco. Even though I've taken out almost a third of my backpack for her to bring back to home, she's plied with enough extra stuff to fill my pack back up twice over. Oh mom. Let's see, so far she's told me I'm fat. OK. She didn't say I was fat, just that I'd gained 'a bit of weight'. Ha! She's tried to pull out one of my grey hairs, nice. And, she's been flaunting her new tattoo that she got herself for her xxth birthday. The tattoo I expressly forbid her to get, xxth birthday or not. Most of the people she knows at home think it's a fake but I can tell that it's real AND that I will be personally filing it off before I see her off back to Canada. So don't worry, everything is fine. Really.

Mitad del Mundo

Banos is a beautiful little town about 3 hours from Quito with it's name deriving from all the hot baths peppered around the area. When I arrived at about 4pm it was a beautiful afternoon so I walked around the tiny town before grabbing a bite to eat and heading back to the hostel. Just like in Quito, they have lots of cheap chicken restaurants where you get a piece of chicken, rice, fries, soup, salad and a drink for $1.50. Or you can get the set lunch/dinner called merienda which is pretty much the same thing but a bit cheaper. After eating so much red meat in Argentina I'm finding it a nice change of pace. the hot baths are unfortunately more like swimming pools than hot springs which didn't really excite me too much, the closest one is right beside a beautiful waterfall cascading down the hill on the outskirts of town. The hostel was full of Germans and when I walked in they were all huddled around watching Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, my kind of people.

The next two days were pretty dreary. The weather here seems pretty predictable, it rains all morning and afternoon til about 4pm and then its sunny and nice for a few hours before the sunsets about 8pm. I've been following summer for so long and had such good weather luck my body just could not adjust to the gloom of the overcast skies. I chucked all my plans and just hung out around town and watched movies and TV at the hostel which I suppose isn't a bad thing. I've been going and going for just over a month and I think my body really needed a break. It probably didn't help that for less than the cost of a dorm bed in Quito I have a room to myself with my own TV. Better now I suppose than when my mom comes in a few days and I'll have to keep up with her and her friends!

My last morning it actually looked nice outside but by the time I had breakfast and was ready to checkout the gloom started to descend. I was going to try and brave the weather but I got into an argument with the hostel owner because she wanted to charge me an extra $5 because I'd pulled the blanket off the second bed in my room to keep warm. I'm not sure if she thought maybe I'd snuck someone up to my room but I refused to pay. I was steaming a bit because my limited Spanish doesn't cover such eventualities and I couldn't understand why it was such a big deal. I decided to just get on the bus and head back to Quito. I'm not a fan of huge cities but Quito has such charm and the differences between the new and old cities makes touring around a joy.  I was really happy to be back at Secret Garden. Most of the same people were still there and I even got my same bed which was the lone separate single bed in a room of bunk beds. I lay there for a few hours chatting with 2 European girls, one I'd met before and the other a newbie traveler over to do 6 weeks volunteering in Otavalo. We headed out for a merienda dinner in the old town followed by a few drinks in the new town, at a Canadian bar no less, before turning in.

My alarm woke me up at 7am but I went right back to bed after seeing the previous night's fog hadn't abated. What am I in freaking Newfoundland? Before I went to bed I couldn't even see the huge Basilica out the window. I slept for another hour and got up when I decided that the sky seemed to be clearing. At breakfast, my roommate Lisa decided to go hiking near the Mitad del Mundo or the Center of the World which was where I was heading so we went looking for the bus together. It took us about 20 minutes of staring at buses going by to finally a realize that we were probably not at the correct bus stop. Asking people questions in Spanish isn't that bad but understanding their answers is a killer. Luckily I got it right, 4 blocks down the street from us a bus for Mitad del Mundo was pulling up. Lisa took off to find her  hiking path while I headed into the complex. It was a bit like a mini theme park. I walked into the solar museum where I thought I would get a demonstration of toilets swirling in different directions but was informed firstly that it was gimmick done by the museum down the road, and secondly on the true nature of the equator line. I was given a terrific multimedia presentation of how the line was determined over a thousand years ago and mistakenly changed to this little park (300 meters away from the real line) about 30 years ago by the French. The guy was a scientist studying how many of the churches and great buildings build by the Spanish years ago have incorporated the line in to the design so that on the solstices, the sun shines directly on certain statues and stained glass windows in Quito. Really fascinating, almost Davinci Code-esque.

Well I'd come all that was so I decided to walk over to the real line where they have a really gaudy outdoor museum and of course the requisite water swirl experiment. I was hoping for water swirling down a toilet but had to settle for a water swirling down a sink. It was a fun enough tour though and I got my 'Mitad del Mundo 0' 0' 0' stamp in my passport, not that I have a square to spare though. Back on the bus to town and now I'm in the new town finishing my blog before heading to the airport for my flight to Lima. My next post should feature my mom and her friends tearing up the town. Look out for it!