We´re so high we barely know whats going on...

First of all, not to sound anti-American, but why do we insist on going against the grain? For example, the metric system. It turns out 1 meter actually equals 3.281 feet. So the standard factor of 3 is a bit off. With this new information, I figure the city of Cusco to be at 11,023 feet! However, Machu Picchu, which we are allegedly hiking up to, is lower at 2400 M (7874´)´. Other areas for comparrison sake: Aspen = 2422 M (7945´). Portland = just over 15 M (50´). Cuenca, Ecuador = 2579 M (8300´)

Then there is Farenheit. To convert Celsius to Fahrenheit, multiply by 1.8 and add 32 degrees. Now thats just silly. We let some sick girl use our thermometer, and it read 102 ish, which didnt alarm her in the least, as she was looking for something in the 37 -38 range. Celcius freezes at 0 and boils at 100. Im just sayin...

Last bit of did you know... The furthest point from the center of the earth is not Mt Everest, but rather Ecuadors Volcano Chimborazo. This is because of the ¨Equatorial Bulge¨ that occurs as a result of the constant rotation of the earth on its axis. Correct me if Im wrong, but I beleive it can be correctly deducted that: further from the center of the earth = closer to the sun...? If that is correct, and I dont see why it wouldnt be, then the beaches of Ecuador (where I was surfing on Christmas day) are closer to the sun than the peak of Mt Everest. Chew on that!

The breif thunder storm and rain burst that allowed me to ponder these thoughts in response to Annies ¨how high is it there¨ question, has passed, and Id best go wander the streets of this high land while Im here. Cheers!

MaX

Max y Vanessa en CUZCO!!

We've made it out of Ecuador after a full month and are now in Cusco, Peru! We traveled starting yesterday at 3pm and fly to the Lima airport where we set up shop and stayed up all night until our 5.30am flight, then we got into Cuzco at 7am tofind that our hostel reservation was crap! They had us in a horrible room for to much $ / 14 a night/. SO, we set out and found the LOKI hostel we're currently at, slept of 3 hours, then expored the city for another hostel, as we can only stay here for a night and it's bit out of town. We found one finally and hooked up with the travel company we're hiking Machu Picchu with and now we're trying to stay awake so our time frame doesnt get off for tomorrow. We did that once in Montinita and I was up at 2 am cleaning our room.
We are oriented here now and look forward to exploring morein the upcoming days. We had some coca tea for elivation and don't seem to have any problems.
til next post,
v and m

¿Donde estan nuestra familias?

Feliz Navidad from Montanita Ecuador!

Its getting a little weird not being around any family for christmas. Yesterday we successfully said good bye to Cuenca, our home town for the last, 3-1/2 weeks, and bussed our way for almost 8 hours through Guayaquill and up the coast a ways to a chill little beach town called Montanita. Sad to see Cuenca go, as we grew fond of that town and our friends there, but we are excited for what is to come. We will be here till the 26th, when we will head back to Guayaquill for a night and off to Peru on the 27th.

Today, being the 24th is celebrated as Christmas day in Ecuador. Yesterday, after a long bus ride, we had 1 beer with dinner and were in bed by 9. This morning we were both up early and walked down the beach in the Oregon-esque drizzley rain. We dont have any big plans for the rest of the day. We might try surfing this afternoon or tomorrow as the water is a bit warmer as you get south of Newport a ways. While vanessa stayed in Cuenca, I went to Cajas national park to hike around some lagoons in the high Andes (13000 ft) with some Aussies and Californians on saturday. good times. The internet is a tad expensive ( 1.50/hr), so I wont dilly too long.

We wish a pile of smiles upon everyone who should read this.

Merry Christmas,

MaX and Vanessa

Navidad on the beach

Feliz Solstice y Navidad!

Hola friends and family!
Today was our LAST day at the spanish school here in Cuenca (muy triste), but we feel that we´ve learned at least enought to jump off into the unknown and get down to exploring this beautiful continent. We will continue our studies and look forward to some more ´hands on´spanish speaking situations. despues este fin de semana nosotros vamos a la playa por navidad. Being on a beach for Christmas should be great if we can get there. There could be troubles with finding a bus that is not booked once we make it closer to the coast, as it turn out that we´re not the only people who fancy this idea, but this trip is about adventures and we´re ready for whatever happens.
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!
We LOVE your posts, so please keep them up, it´s wonderful for us to know you´re all out there keeping up with us during our travels and we´d love to keep up on what you´re up to as well.
Best wishes,
Vanessa & Max

whose the foreigner now?

actually mostly gringos at a lively get together

Pictures!

Beautiful Ecuador!

Cabaña in Villcabamba

We spent the better part of a whole day lounging in these hammocks, as one of our new aussie friends serenaded us with his guitar. I actually slept one night outside in a hammock in my bag. Nice!

The valley of longevity

Last weekend we made an excursion with some kids to Villcabamba in the Valley of Longevity. Allegedly, it is not uncommon for people there to grow to be well over 100 years old. Makes sense , as it is a very mellow and beautiful spot. I cant confirm seeing anyone who was in their early 110´s (as I didnt ask), but I suppose a 114 year old man there would only appear to me to be in his 70´s or 80´s to my untrained eye... Anyhow, it was a relaxing weekend at a beautiful resort called Izchayluma. It cost us all of 9 dollars a night too, including a big breakfast. We went on a 5 hour hoarse ride on Sunday through the jungle. In what Im sure is an ongoing joke, they stuck me on the smallest hoarse of the lot. Funny stuff. Ill get some pictures up some time before too long.

an update on routines and birthday´s

The past few days have been suprisingly routine. We wake up and eat breakfast with our host family(always the same spread of: warm agua de flores, a fresh fruit bowl, granola, bread with butter and marmelade, and Coffee). After breakfast we walk 25 minutes into the city center for class which starts at 8:30. There we learn hard for 4 hours, with a little break, getting done at 12:30. We dilly dally for a few minutes, then usually get back to the house at 1 or just after for almuerso(lunch). After gorging on a big 3 course lunch (biggest meal of the day in Ecuador), we read at the house for a minute and head back to school or a cafe to do our homework and study spanish. Every evening there is an activity at the school which we usually attend, be it salsa lessons, cooking class, a lecture on ecuatorian politics, or a city tour. Then we walk back home for dinner at 7:30 or 8, finish our homework, read our books and have been in bed by about 10:30. All of this with relatively few variations.

One variation was on Tuesday. Vanessa´s 26th birthday. Conchita (our host mom) made a delicious chocolate cake with a cerme broule topping, and the family and I sang happy birthday after an extra awesome shrimp lunch. After an afternoon massage and cooking class in the evening, 8 or 9 kids from school (and all over the world) joined us at a nice Italian restaurant, La Viña, for dinner. The food, as is the standard here, was good and cheap. There, we got a few liters of the house wine to pass around with the meal and had a dandy time with our new little group of friends we´ve made in the last couple weeks. For a night cap we went to the apartment of some friends from Australia and played cards till after 1 am. Good times!

Tomorrow, with the same group of people, we are bussing south to a little town called Villcabamba, in the ¨Valley of Longevity¨. Not too sure what the weekend holds, but it sounds like fun. More upon our return. for now. Ciao

M & V


--

puente

Shaman clensing

We wrapped up our first week of class today in Cuenca with a trip to the outdoor market with our teacher Chela to practice buying things and conversing in Español. While there we both had a spiritual clensing ritual done to us by an old shaman lady. She first rubbed a handfull of aromatic plants all over us and proceeded to lash us with this bundle of plants for a few minutes to rouse our senses for the release of spiritual information from within us. Then she rubbed an egg all over our face, arms, and pretty much everywhere else, next she spit some concoction of spiritual rubbing alcohol stuff on our head stomach and back. Last she cacked the egg and examined the contents revealing the type of energy we are attracting and projecting. Sounds weird, but it was actually really neat. The bundle of plants left us smelling good all day, (once the rubbing alcohol wore off).

A bloke from Australia named Adam is a kid going to school here who decided to extend his stay and got an apartment in Cuenca. We are headed over for a few beers this evening. Lots of nice kids from all over the world kids that we have met in the school and otherwise.

We are having an awesome time so far, and are excited about the rest of our time in Cuenca and beyond. Our only minor screw up was not allowing ourselves enough time in Peru for the 4 day hike up Machu Picchu, and have settled for the 2 day trip.

ciao

MaX & Vanessa

A picture!!

Holy nuts, a picture has been posted! that only took 45 minutes too.... lets see, we have 487 pictures, at 45 minutes a pop, ... Ill be out of here by june.

This is from Baños where we rented bikes and cruised down the road 25 km to a bunch of waterfalls toward the amazon basin. good times. More later.

MaX

lo ciento

Sorry about the absence of pictures on this blog jobber so far. I´m not too sure how to post them... of course I havent given much of an effort. Our school/internet access is a 25 minute walk from our host families house, and I sparingly bring my camera . I think the easiest way is to use picassa and post the albums to be accessed by the slideshow and put the must see pictures directly into a posting... any ideas?

Vanessa is writing an update, so Ill fill in more later.

What up with the storm in Oregon? It sounds pretty gnarly. Hope the house, cat, and everything else are OK.

holler.

MaX

06 de Diciembre update!

Well, this is my (Vanessa´s) first blog posting! We have been in Ecuador just over a week and all is bueno! We have one teacher between the both of us for 4 hours every week day, plus we eat 3 meals a day with our host family who speaks solamente español, so our Spanish skills are coming along well! This is a relief because it´s so difficult and frustrating to NOT be able to communicate. As I believe Maxie stated, we are in the beautiful city of Cuenca after a few days in Baños. The city reminds me very much of a little Florence, Italy and the people are ´muy simpatica´. It is a bit larger than we anticipated, but it is a very walkable ciudad, as we were told before arriving. We have already made a few amigo here and tonight will be our 2nd night of salsa dancing clase at our school (very fun and funny). There are only about 8 students right now at the school, so it been fun getting to know everyone. It seems are though there are many Australians and Germans traveling in Ecuador. Both are wonderful people.
Being a vegetarian, we were a bit concerned with the selection I would be able to eat while traveling. This is NOT a problem. Every place has options just like in the states but proably more so. Baños especially. Out of 4 of us girls in the school, 3 of us are veggies and have had little if any problems. One things Max and I have found interesting about Cuenca and Baños is that the cities seem very wealthy - much more so than we anticipated. It will be interesting to travel outside cities and experiance a more rural Ecuador... we hope to do a few weekend trips.
Sounds like there is a lot going on in the states. Floading in Portland and shootings in the south (que triste). I hope everyone is well and we expect full updates from friends and family. _V_

Español escuela en Cuenca, Ecuador part 1...

Today was our first day of class at school in Cuenca. After 3 days in beautiful Baños, we hopped a 7 hour bus through Ambato, Riobamba, and over high Andean mtn passes. We made some traveller friends there from Germany and Canada who bussed w/ us part of the way. Phillip & Julia, nice kids.

We arrived in Cuenca, where we will be for the next month-ish, just before sunset on saturday night. With our ¨back-packing foreigners¨ colors shining brightly, we were unable to find the house of our host family, nor was the cabbie with the correct address. As the sun was setting we got a room at Hostel Monaco in the city center, which was very nice and relatively cheap ($20 total w/ breakfast).

the internet is shotty here, so Ill post this now...

In Ecuador!

We made it in to Quito after midnight last night. We thankfully got a ride to a hotel. We slept in a bit and hopped on a bus to Baños around noon. Quito seemed too big and bustling for the intro to our adventure. The bus was super nice and got us safely to our first real stop in just over 3 hours. The altitude hasnt affected us too much yet, although we are really high... (quito is 2900 meters... you do the math)

Baños is an amazingly awesome little town of around 10K people. So far we´ve seen waterfals, a volcano erupting, and met some aussies & brits among others. Our hostel is 7.50/night with a big private room, a steam room, and a sweet 360 view on the rooftop patio and communal kitchen. Nice spot, ¨Hostel Plantañas Y Blancos¨ if anyones planning a trip. We ate a nice dinner tonight for around 5 bucks total. Met a nice old guy from Minnesota... what else...? Just slimmed our 100+ pictures down to 67 and will figure out posting them in the AM.

Thats all for now. More later. Comments?

M & V

practice

a picture of a couple knucklehead dogs as I am learning about these blogging shenanigans.

Number 1

We are trying to get our collective heads wrapped around this blogging idea. This is the first post of our south American Adventure to be! We leave the states on Tuesday for Ecuador. Thanksgiving at la casa de Payne near Santa Cruz, CA. was a hit as usual. We still have some loose ends to get tied up before fly away day, but it is looming ever larger. .... We'll get an itinerary posted, and figure out a picture posting set up.