Trujillo, Peru

From north to south, Peru is layered in Milennia of ancient civilizations dating back beyond 2000 bc. Heading south from Ecuador, we stopped at the city of Trujillo and enjoyed visiting several of the impossibly well-preserved temples - "Huacas" del Sol y de la Luna - of the Moche elite (100-500 ad), and the witch, Magdalena de Cau, who ruled them. Brightly painted murals sitll decorate each of the seven-story high walls, which tell the story of the Gods they worshiped.

Later that afternoon, we wandered the carved halls of Chan Chan, once home to 20,000 - the largest community in South America at the time - within its high adobe walls that sprawl as far as the eye can see to the ocean. Then we shared some ice cream on the nearby beach of Huanchaco while watching the surfers, and realized what an incredibly beautiful natural setting these ancient people chose to make their home. It is no wonder that people have gathered in Peru for so many hundreds of years!

Quito, Ecuador

We arrived in Quito, Ecuador after a very very long bus ride and went out for burgers and watched the NBA All-Star Game, How American! The next day we visited Monastery San Francisco, the oldest and largest Monastery in South America. It was an amazing learning experience about the spread of Catholicism in Ecuador. Next we headed up the Basillica de Voto, a huge Gothic Cathedral in the heart of Quito´s old town. We climbed to the very top of the towers (400ft), a dizzying height, that had our hearts pounding for incredible views of the entire city. Walking the streets can be a sensory overload of vendors yelling, street food aromas, cars honking, and crowds moving in every direction all around you. We ate at a delicious restaurant called San Agustin where we tried Seco de Chivo - stewed goat with avocado salad, tasty! Other highlights included the cable car ride to the top of a mountain, relaxing in the great plazas, and most of all an awesome hotel room right in the historical center with hot showers & tv/movies. The town has a lot of character and many charming Ecuadorians.

Popayan, Colombia - Valentine´s Day

We spent a wonderful Valentine´s Day in Popayan, Colombia. We took a 30 minute bus ride to the tiny mountain town of Coconuco and visited Aguas Hirviendo. This amazing hot springs is nestled in the mountains and we spent many hours soaking in the warmth, which was very appreciated because we did not have hot showers during our travels in Colombia! We arrived on a Saturday yet there were only a handful of locals and we had the chance to get to know several of them. It was fun day topped off by a great dinner at an Italian Restaurant in the historic part of Popayan!

Cartagena, Colombia

We spent four lovely days in Cartagena, Colombia. This romantic town has done quite a bit to keep the historic center of the town well maintained, so a walk through the center is truly like stepping back 500 years. We stayed right in the center which is surrounded by high stone walls that were used to protect the port from Pirate sieges. We spent our afternoons strolling around beautiful plazas, along the high sea wall, and through narrow cobblestone streets shaded by wooden balconies drapped in colorful bougenvilla flowers. We also visited several churches and museums, which are housed in some of the restored colonial buildings. There are tons of vendors on the streets selling everything from fruit to paintings. One morning we went to visit the Castillo de San Felipe which was built around 1637. This amazing fortress was really only used as a place for the soldiers to kill invaders that were trying to come into Cartagena. Perched on the top of a hill it overlooks all of Cartagena. There are miles of winding tunnels through the fortress with little nooks called "killing houses" where the soliders slept and hid to kill intruders that came into the fortress. Much of the fortress has been preserved and we wandered through the many dark tunnels and surfaces of the castle, learning about it´s many fortifications & history. We also had a pre-Valentine dinner in Cartagena where Merritt and I went to a fancy Argentine restaurant (Parrilla) for a delicious grilled steak and some fresh fish and listened to live guitar music (Merritt´s missing playing the guitar!). He also bought me some beautiful emerald earrings! As you may know, Colombia is home to the biggest Emerald market in the world, so there are emerald shops on every corner. After much searching we found a trustworthy dealer to buy this great momento. We also saw part of where Romancing the Stone was filmed!

Taganga, Colombia

As we continue westward along the northern Caribbean coastline of South America, our first true destination in Colombia was another small fishing village called Taganga. We arrived late on a Friday afternoon to find all three hostels recommended by Lonely Planet full, but one of them pointed us to a new place, The Cactus, up on the hill. Lucky for us, because it was fantastic. At The Cactus, we had our own cabin with a private deck and an unbelievable view looking out over the town, the beach, and the deep blue and turquoise water of the bay with the mountains behind. SO nice - plus a hammock, A/C, fan, private bathroom, etc.

We stayed for three days and spent our time exploring the area, hiking along the cliffs to a couple of nearby beaches, sampling some of the delicious fresh fish dishes and blended fruit juices at beachfront restaurants, and then our first scuba experience, including a training course and two dives on the Tayrona National Park coral reefs, all of which could not have been better. We also tried some very unusual exotic fruits (one was kinda fuzzy), witnessed an interesting pre-Carnivale parade with crazy colorful cotumes, and met some very nice locals.

What an amazing three days! We couldn't have asked for a better start to our time in Colombia, and a much-needed, refreshing break from the security issues, illness and struggle we encountered while traveling through Venezuela.

Chavez - Si or No

The Venezuelan Election is just days away and we thought we would share some of the campaign signs we saw ALL over Venezuela when we were there. It was interesting to be in the thick of it for several weeks while we were in Venezuela. A couple of days before we left Venezuela, Chavez declared a public holiday in honor of himself being in power for 10 years. On t.v. he had commericals and shows about everything he has done for the people etc etc. His face is plastered all over Venezuela. We talked with several Venezuelan´s about their thoughts on Chavez. All of the people that we talked to that were involved in the tourism industry were not voting for Chavez and did not have good things to say about him. Basically, he has turned his back on the International Tourism Industry. Getting around the country, getting money out of banks, and the black market for the American Dollar, all make it very difficult to be a tourist in Venezuela. However, in lots of the smaller towns we saw tons of signs that said Si for Chavez. I think he has made a lot of promises to these people and they still see him as a sign for hope. Nevertheless, on every street corner in Venezuela you can see the Si or No marked on the walls. It will be interesting to see the results next week.

Merritt & Hanalei learn to Scuba in Colombia

We spent a few days in the small town of Taganga, Colombia. This is a top place to learn how to scuba dive in Colombia. So we signed up for a minicourse (we didn´t have 4 days to get PADI certified). It included an instructional video in English, a practice in calm shallow water and two dives that ranged from 30-40 ft under water. We took a boat to our first practice and dive spot. Luckily we had an English speaking instructor from Barcelona, Spain. He gave us great instructions and before we knew it we were going on our first dive seeing beautiful, colorful fish, coral, lobsters and more! We were both a little nervous at first but after getting the hang of it we were exploring under water. We came out to the beach for a quick lunch and then we boated to our second dive spot which was near the beaches of Tayrona National Park. We did this dive from the boat and saw even more gorgeous coral, eels, more lobsters and many many amazing fish. All in all, a great adventure and a wonderful exploration of the sea. We hope to get fully certified at a later date, but this was a great first taste of scuba diving!!!

Coro, Venezuela

We spent two nights in the lovely town of Coro at a cool hostel called El Gallo run by a sweet French family. The highlights include Venezuela´s finest colonial architecture, shady plazas with grand statues, great art museums, a small university, and a gorgeous national park. We arrived at Parque Nacional Medanos de Coro around 5pm and enjoyed the quiet break from the city as the light changed on the dunes approaching sunset. The park´s vastness can be felt immediately and you can walk and walk and still feel far away from civilization. We watched a lovely sunset and then Merritt got a quick work out in the park with the locals. We had quite the adventure trying to find dinner that night asking at least 5 people how to find Barro de el Jackal. Finally we arrived to a great terraza and sat outside to a yummy meal. We enjoyed our time in Coro before heading on to cross the Colombian Border.

The Venezuelan - Colombia border crossing proved to be quite the challenge. We spent one night in Maracaibo the city closest to the border only to find that buses to Colombia were extremely expensive. We decided to go shared taxi (por puestos). So early in the morning we headed out in a ¨car¨ (if you can call it that) older than Hanalei with a sweet Venezuelan family. The passenger door had to be closed from the outside and the overstuffed trunk barely held our bags in, tied together with rope. We honestly didn´t think it would make it the 3-hr trip without breaking down, but our faith was rewarded when our driver lead us to each checkpoint and directed us to trustworthy money exchange and bus service on to Santa Marta Colombia with reassurance that Colombia would treat us a little more gently than Venezuela. So far-so good!

Puerto Colombia, Venezuela

We spent a few days in Puerto Colombia, a small fishing village on the Venzuelan Coast. While it wasn´t the same peaceful experience as Los Roques, we enjoyed hanging out and talking with some fun Venezuelanos. We ate some great calamari and fresh seafood and camped on the beach with quite a few locals. Merritt made friends with some of the guys next to our campsite who grilled us some food! Good times.

Roraima

We just completed our first South American trek to Mount Roraima, a tabletop mountain on the border of Venezuela, Guyana and Brazil. It was also the longest and likely the most challenging trek of our trip, with more miles and more days (6) than any other we´ve planned.
Mount Roraima is beyond description, totally unique and otherworldly. It is one of many tepuis (GIANT tabletop mountains) which dominate the horizon in an area called the Gran Sabana, a vast (3 million acres) stretch of grassy hillcountry crisscrossed by many rivers and waterfalls, groupings of high jungle canopy, and punctuated by these magnificent mountains with sheer walls rising several thousand feet that existed before South America and Africa separated. These huge tepuis make their own weather systems, so the cloudscapes and light are constantly changing. We formed a group with Norico, a sweet Japanese woman, in Santa Elena. After 2 hours driving off-road, we arrived at an indigenous Pemon village called Paraitepuy, where we met Leno, our guide, at his home. After a quick lunch, we began our trek. It took us two days hiking to reach the base camp at the foot of Roraima, and about 5 hours to make the ascent. From the top of Roraima you can see forever - breathtaking - and the top surface is a magical blend of bizarre rock formations that are over two billion years old shaped by the elements, pink sand, white quartz crystal, eerie shifting fog, and many plant species found nowhere else on earth. We spent two nights camping in a cave to protect us from the unpredictable weather on the top, and Leno showed us the fascinating characteristics of the quartz crystal basin, waterfalls, ¨jacuzzi¨ pools, rock formations and endemic plant species.
The decent was EXTREMELY difficult, and our legs are still healing up from the severe muscle soreness. I´m very proud that we were able to make it safely to the top (and back down!) to share this incredibly unique and beautiful part of creation.

Los Roques