Hello my dear friends,
it will be shortly more than a week before most of you will see me. We left cusco a few days ago, but not before wasting a day on a sacred valley tour. I have never felt so much like a sheep as on this tour. oh well, now i know better than to EVER TAKE A DAY TOUR AGAIN IN MY LIFE!!!! arrgg ok, it's all good. We took as plane into the city of Lima for a day where we hung out in the Miraflores district, famous for it's restaurants. We ended up being talked into paragliding by some guy in th epark. What an increible experiance. we were flying 300m above the tallest building and spinning and dipping through the air currents along the coastal cliffs. Lima is HUGE. Even from the sky it stretches out in every direction like a giant smoggy spider. Dad and i found climbing gym right across the street from our hostel. It was a little sketch, but it was nice to strech my arms (not to mention the guys there were quite nice/nice looking) :) anyway... Lima is a big dirty city so it was nice ot get out of there. we took a bus to Huaraz, which a city about the size of Red Deer set between two mountian ranges. it's sort of the base camp for numerous treks and mountian trips. it is so cool here. our hostel has a roof top patio which over looks the city and you can see several 5000m peaks from our window. Right now i am staying in an eco lodge outside of the city. we biked here this morning and will go back into town tommorow. Before we go home, we will be doing another 4 day trek through the cordillera blanca, the white mnountains. I can't wait to see you all.
love and hugs
sydney :)
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Hello dear friends
I just returned from my first real high altitude experiance and all i can say is wow. Or as My guide for the trek, Freddie would say mucho wowowow. Five days of hiking through fields, and over mountain passes, descending into rain forest and ending up in the amazon basin. This has been by far the most amazing five days of my life. We started in a small city outside of Cusco called mollepata. from here we hiked about 15 km through fields and along a concrete aquaduct. we camped within view of two snowcapped peaks, salkanaty (the savage) which is the second highest in peru and umantay (?) another tall mountain. it was freezing cold, like -5 at night . t0eh second day we started very early, 5 in the morning and hiked up to the top of the salkantay pass. at the top, we were greeted by an inca shaman who performed a ceremony asking the mountains to keep us safe on our journey. Ten inca believe in the pachamama, or mother earth. It´s a religion based on respect and undersatdning for nature. It was absolutly gorgeous from the pass, on one side, you could see the moraines that we had climbed up and on the other, the cloud forest. we hiked about 20km that day and ended up in a small village over looking a valley. llamas horses, cows and pigs run wild around here. there are way too many roosters that wake you up way too early. our third day we got to sleep in a little bit as we only hiked 10ish km. we stopped at a hot springs along the way and then we entered the rainforest. there are so many bugs here !! they call them mosquitos, but they aren´t like any mosquitos i´ve seen before. it was really hot in the forest, but our final campsite was at ¨la playa¨ which means beach in spanish. There was no beach. the last day we hiked into the city of aquas calientes, at the base of macchu picchu. the last ten kms we walkewd on the train tracks which kind of sucked. We had to gget upo at 4:30 the next morning to cathch the bus into macchu picchu. I thought the city itself was rather over hyped, but uit was still neat to see the ruins and our guide told us all about the incas and how the spanish massacerred them when they came over. this trip was so amazing. we were a group of 17 and had 12 people and 5 horses to carry our food and tents and clothing. They served us three course meals for every meal and the views were absolutly spectacular. I can´t wait untill you can see the pictures, it will blow your mind.
Tommorow we leave for lima where we will stay for a day before catching a bus to Huarez to do a couple more treks.
Love you all
Sydney :)
I just returned from my first real high altitude experiance and all i can say is wow. Or as My guide for the trek, Freddie would say mucho wowowow. Five days of hiking through fields, and over mountain passes, descending into rain forest and ending up in the amazon basin. This has been by far the most amazing five days of my life. We started in a small city outside of Cusco called mollepata. from here we hiked about 15 km through fields and along a concrete aquaduct. we camped within view of two snowcapped peaks, salkanaty (the savage) which is the second highest in peru and umantay (?) another tall mountain. it was freezing cold, like -5 at night . t0eh second day we started very early, 5 in the morning and hiked up to the top of the salkantay pass. at the top, we were greeted by an inca shaman who performed a ceremony asking the mountains to keep us safe on our journey. Ten inca believe in the pachamama, or mother earth. It´s a religion based on respect and undersatdning for nature. It was absolutly gorgeous from the pass, on one side, you could see the moraines that we had climbed up and on the other, the cloud forest. we hiked about 20km that day and ended up in a small village over looking a valley. llamas horses, cows and pigs run wild around here. there are way too many roosters that wake you up way too early. our third day we got to sleep in a little bit as we only hiked 10ish km. we stopped at a hot springs along the way and then we entered the rainforest. there are so many bugs here !! they call them mosquitos, but they aren´t like any mosquitos i´ve seen before. it was really hot in the forest, but our final campsite was at ¨la playa¨ which means beach in spanish. There was no beach. the last day we hiked into the city of aquas calientes, at the base of macchu picchu. the last ten kms we walkewd on the train tracks which kind of sucked. We had to gget upo at 4:30 the next morning to cathch the bus into macchu picchu. I thought the city itself was rather over hyped, but uit was still neat to see the ruins and our guide told us all about the incas and how the spanish massacerred them when they came over. this trip was so amazing. we were a group of 17 and had 12 people and 5 horses to carry our food and tents and clothing. They served us three course meals for every meal and the views were absolutly spectacular. I can´t wait untill you can see the pictures, it will blow your mind.
Tommorow we leave for lima where we will stay for a day before catching a bus to Huarez to do a couple more treks.
Love you all
Sydney :)
Thursday, July 17, 2008
cusco
Hello from Cusco!!
We arrived here two days ago and i love this city. It´s much smaller than arequipa and we are staying in the cutest little artisan district. yesterday we took the bus into a town called pisaq and we spent the day at the market. we also hiked up to some inca ruins and yu coudl see the whole of the sacred valley from the top. There was a celebration in the town for the virgin del carmen so there was lots of dancing and music. Before we ledft arequipa, we went of downhill bike tour off teh side of a volcano. It was so neat!! we rode down hill for 74 km straight. we also vivsted a museum that is home to juanita teh ice maiden. she is an almost perfectly preserved incan sacrifice from nearly 550 years ago. Tommorow we leave o a day trek up to Machu picchu. Trekking here is so plush. 3 course meals, donkeys to carry your gear... i don´t know howi ever survived hiking in canda.
I love you all
Sydney :)
We arrived here two days ago and i love this city. It´s much smaller than arequipa and we are staying in the cutest little artisan district. yesterday we took the bus into a town called pisaq and we spent the day at the market. we also hiked up to some inca ruins and yu coudl see the whole of the sacred valley from the top. There was a celebration in the town for the virgin del carmen so there was lots of dancing and music. Before we ledft arequipa, we went of downhill bike tour off teh side of a volcano. It was so neat!! we rode down hill for 74 km straight. we also vivsted a museum that is home to juanita teh ice maiden. she is an almost perfectly preserved incan sacrifice from nearly 550 years ago. Tommorow we leave o a day trek up to Machu picchu. Trekking here is so plush. 3 course meals, donkeys to carry your gear... i don´t know howi ever survived hiking in canda.
I love you all
Sydney :)
Saturday, July 12, 2008
well, i survived my first high altitude trek. What an experieance!! I apoligize in advance for any major spelling errors as i am on a spanish keyboard. On the way to the canyon (Colca Canyon) we stoppeda t a lot of view points and man, the views fhere are incredible. I did feela bit like a herd of sheep being sheparded from poin to point, but i guess that comes with the tour. We drove througha pass that was 5000 m high, which is way higher than anything i´ve ever been on. Interesting note... to help combat altitude sickness, we´ve been drinking coca tea, which can be refined to make.. that´s right, cocaine!! i found that interesting. anyway, all narcotics aside the scenary is really beautiful here. The people farm for a living despite the fact there her is no flat place to put a field. The mountains have been terraced since pre-inca times. It´s neat to look out and see teh mountains covered in these fileds all in differant colors. Not much grows here naturally, so they have a pretty seriuos irrigation suystem.another interesting note. The traditional dress that the peruvians are always wearing in pictures.. they actually wear that . It´s awesoem to see these ladies workin the field in a full skirt. The trek was fantasitic. We walked down teh first day and lost about 1100 m in elevation. The camp spot at the bottom is like something out ofa story book. There are spring fed swimming poolsm small shops to by coke ans fanta , a full kitvhen, showers, running water... it was incredible. we went for a walk downeth canyon abit and crosse dteh river. There isa path that leads to several differant villages taht are only accessabel by foot. And yeat they all have electricity and internet. Today we walked back up the canyon. we got up at 4 am to avoid hiking in the sun. Marni and i made it up in 2 hours. I thought it would take longer, but oi am glad that it didn´t. we reached teh top justa s teh sun hit the trail and then it really started to heat up. Aftera few days in teh quite country side, it was strange coming back to teh city. This place is a mad house!!
well, that´s all i have time for.
I love you all!!
Sydney :)
well, that´s all i have time for.
I love you all!!
Sydney :)
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Hola folks
Hello from Llama land!!
ok, so i haven´t seen a llama yet, but i so will !! well, after 27 hours of travel and about 3 hourr of sleep(and a lot of coffee)i now sit at teh computer trying o battle with a spanish keyboard, so please don´t judge my spelling. I ojly have liek 5 minutesleft on teh computer, so i´ll make it brief. Wow, what a n increible vibrant country. everyone here is so alive with culturea n color. It´s a beautiful thing. I am staying ina city called Arequipa for eth next few days nd we are doina g trek into the world´s deepest canyon (colca canyon) we went fora walk throught the city and everytime you turn a corner there isa nother brilliant piece of architechture. Old churches, concrete buildings, cobblestone strets and zero pedestrian rights make for an interesting trip. Every time you try to cross teh street you are running teh gauntlet :P, but it is seriously exciting. Intersting note, teh whole city is going on political strike tommorow, sao basically the whole city shuts down and has a mass walkout to show support for their favorite party. we aren´t supposed to leave teh hotel tommorow. (i had more written, but then the computer was being stupid and now my internet time is up)
Love you all
Sydney
ok, so i haven´t seen a llama yet, but i so will !! well, after 27 hours of travel and about 3 hourr of sleep(and a lot of coffee)i now sit at teh computer trying o battle with a spanish keyboard, so please don´t judge my spelling. I ojly have liek 5 minutesleft on teh computer, so i´ll make it brief. Wow, what a n increible vibrant country. everyone here is so alive with culturea n color. It´s a beautiful thing. I am staying ina city called Arequipa for eth next few days nd we are doina g trek into the world´s deepest canyon (colca canyon) we went fora walk throught the city and everytime you turn a corner there isa nother brilliant piece of architechture. Old churches, concrete buildings, cobblestone strets and zero pedestrian rights make for an interesting trip. Every time you try to cross teh street you are running teh gauntlet :P, but it is seriously exciting. Intersting note, teh whole city is going on political strike tommorow, sao basically the whole city shuts down and has a mass walkout to show support for their favorite party. we aren´t supposed to leave teh hotel tommorow. (i had more written, but then the computer was being stupid and now my internet time is up)
Love you all
Saturday, July 5, 2008
3,2,1... GO!
My dear Friends and Lovers,
I am off. Tommorow I leave on my trip. I'm not sure how often i will be able to access a compiuter, but I promise updates when ever I can. So now this page will stop being such a bitch fest and begin to be actually important (or, as important as it can be). Hopefully all goes smoothly and i will be in Peru by Monday night. I will miss all of you very much, please comment and let me know how you are all doing (via e-mail or facebook) See you in a month.
Love
Sydney :)
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
And then the earth died a little
Happy Canada day to one and all!
oh the merry happenings of my life. I have been cleaning out my room (trying to find the source of a rather musty odor) and instead found a box of things. Random things from various parts of my life. Things that must have been important at some time. race numbers, ticket stubs. Every single card i have ever received. That's right folks, if ever you sent me card, i still have it in a box under my bed. I left the box undisturbed. I guess it's sort of a time capsule built in layers. The further down you go, the older the memories get. In between cleaning i have been semi packing. basically I've just been throwing things into a box in the hallway, but whatever. I worked both jobs today. Valhalla was average, but man was LICASS fun!! turns out that Canada day is the one day of the year when all of the over 18's get wobbly pop (as Krista calls it ) while there working. I say we drink to make the crowds more bearable, although it wasn't as busy as i expected. She bought us Canada day aprons and I wore my Tyrolean hat ( and got some funny looks which made me happy) I went and saw the fireworks and decided that i am the most depressing person to see fireworks with. All i could think about was all of the chemical crap going into the atmosphere... i can't help it is my inner environmentalist escapes now and again. and of course the whorish teenage girls were out in droves( i swear to god, they travel in flocks like little whorish birds flying around and shitting on society). I don't know who they are trying to impress because it was my guy friends who commented on how gross that was. But all in all it was fun. Tall Irish brought the vampire. I probably won't see him again before i leave (cam if your reading this...i luv you buddy). I have really figured out how lucky i am to have such good friends. I am really going to miss them all when i am gone summer. When i get back... call me up for drinks!!
Love you all
Sydney :)
oh the merry happenings of my life. I have been cleaning out my room (trying to find the source of a rather musty odor) and instead found a box of things. Random things from various parts of my life. Things that must have been important at some time. race numbers, ticket stubs. Every single card i have ever received. That's right folks, if ever you sent me card, i still have it in a box under my bed. I left the box undisturbed. I guess it's sort of a time capsule built in layers. The further down you go, the older the memories get. In between cleaning i have been semi packing. basically I've just been throwing things into a box in the hallway, but whatever. I worked both jobs today. Valhalla was average, but man was LICASS fun!! turns out that Canada day is the one day of the year when all of the over 18's get wobbly pop (as Krista calls it ) while there working. I say we drink to make the crowds more bearable, although it wasn't as busy as i expected. She bought us Canada day aprons and I wore my Tyrolean hat ( and got some funny looks which made me happy) I went and saw the fireworks and decided that i am the most depressing person to see fireworks with. All i could think about was all of the chemical crap going into the atmosphere... i can't help it is my inner environmentalist escapes now and again. and of course the whorish teenage girls were out in droves( i swear to god, they travel in flocks like little whorish birds flying around and shitting on society). I don't know who they are trying to impress because it was my guy friends who commented on how gross that was. But all in all it was fun. Tall Irish brought the vampire. I probably won't see him again before i leave (cam if your reading this...i luv you buddy). I have really figured out how lucky i am to have such good friends. I am really going to miss them all when i am gone summer. When i get back... call me up for drinks!!
Love you all
Sydney :)
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