Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro has been amazing so far. It's a city of around 6 million people, and somehow has the cleanest, most beautiful beaches we've seen on the trip. Since it was cloudy the first couple days, we took the time to climb a small mountain peak beside the city to get a view.

On the third day we did a motorbike/walking tour of Rio's biggest favela. It is an interesting time to visit the favelas because the city has just started "pacifying" them, which means finding all the drug lords/militia that have ruled the favelas for years, and throwing them in prison. The favela we visited was recently pacified, however we were told it is still dangerous to walk around in them.

This is James riding on the back of a mototaxi in the favela.

The favelas were sad, because they were easily the worst living conditions we've seen in South America. We saw some pretty rough looking characters, young mothers, and drug dealers. There were lots of children living there as well. There were some signs of improvement though; for example, our tour stopped to watch a group of kids playing drums and dancing. Also we checked out an art gallery with local art and a daycare run and funded by volunteers.

At the entrance to the favela the police parked the car they use for raiding the favela. It was pretty scary looking, and there were bullet holes in the windshield.

Some kids who live in the favela we visited came to our hostel to showcase a sport that originated in Brazil called Capoeira. Its a mix between martial arts and breakdancing. The kids were absolutely amazing at it, and we got a chance to try it out at the end.

Today we just got back from a beautiful sunny day at Ipanema Beach. The photo at the very top of this post shows Copacabana Beach in the background. The hostel we're staying at is near Copacabana. Both beaches are awesome, but Ipanema is a tiny bit more beautiful. The waves were perfect for surfing today. James and I stuck to body surfing (without a board), but we got some really good rides.

The beach is an experience in and of itself, with tons of people playing soccer volleyball (its like volleyball but you can't use your hands), paddle ball, and surfing. And, of course, lots of beautiful girls.

We were planning to go on a day trip outside the city, but something tells me we won't make it past the beach for our last days in Rio. My flight home leaves on the 15th, and I'll be home the 16th. So I'll see some of you soon. 

I figure since this is my blog, I need to have a picture of myself on the post. This one's a gem.

Brazil’s Waterfalls

Time is starting to run out for me in South America. I have only one week left, and plan to spend it under the shadow of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro. I’m really excited that I get to see everyone back home soon.

After finishing off in Uruguay we took a looong bus ride up the coast of Brazil, then inland towards Iguazu Falls. Both James and I had our doubts about giving up valuable beach time to bus approximately 8 hours to the falls and 8 hours back, but Jordan convinced us to go. I’ve seen Niagara Falls before, and found it hard to believe that these waterfalls would be able to top Niagara. Jordan claims that Iguazu is “One of the new natural 7 wonders of the world”. I don’t know if this is true or not, but I owe Jordan a big thank you. It was spectacular.

When we walked along the boardwalk to the top of “Garganta del Diablo”, which means Devil’s Throat, we found ourselves standing above huge amounts of water gushing over the cliff. There was so much mist coming up off the water that it was difficult to see the river below, and when the wind picked up it pushed into our faces, soaking us.

I was surprised to find that there are beautiful paths through the jungle surrounding the falls, and when we followed the paths, they took us to another, even more scenic  section of Iguazu. With waterfall after waterfall placed side-by-side along the cliff, surrounded by jungle with the sun beating down, it looked like a picture of paradise.

We also had the opportunity to get real close to the falls and find some cool relief from the heat, as well as stand above them.

The following day, we took a tour of nearby Itaipu Dam. It’s a damn big dam – the second largest in the world, but actually produces the most electricity of any hydroelectric dam in the world. It provides enough electricity for all of Paraguay’s needs, and 20% of Brazil’s. Other than the video they showed at the start (which was a propaganda video showing how great the dam is for the community), the tour was quite nice. We got to go on top of the dam and throw pennies off, as well as go inside the buildings where the workers work.

The columns of water were absolutely huge, and the wheel that it turns to produce electricity was going really fast. The tour guide claimed that almost as much water goes through the dam as goes over Iguazu Falls. (I personally don’t believe this. The fact may hold true when Iguazu is experiencing drought, which does happen, but there was A LOT of water going over those falls).

Finally, the Three Amigos took one last bus ride into the sunset. Rio de Janeiro. The Marvelous City. Heaven on Earth.

So far Rio is pretty cool, and I’m glad we’re finishing our trip here. Blog post to follow.

East Coast Style

I've been more than a little tardy with my blog posts, I'll admit. But we've finally made it to the BEACH, and its hard to pull yourself away from the beach to the computer...

After sky diving, we made our way down to Buenos Aires. Highlights of Buenos Aires were an all-you-can eat barbecued meat buffet and tango lessons. The buffet was ridiculous. I'd say between the 3 of us we probably cumulatively ate the equivalent of a quarter of a cow.

We then took a really fast ferry (it looked like a speeding bullet boat) across an expanse of water to Montevideo, the capital city of Uruguay. Uruguaians pronounce it Your-oo-gashz. Montevideo, as seen in the above picture, had a beautiful central square and beautiful sunny weather. We went on a really nice bike ride along the water front to the local beach.

Finally, we took a bus to a beach called Punta del Este. Its like South American's version of Cancun. It was low season while we were there, so things weren't too crazy, but the beach was warm and body surfing was fun.

Tonight we should be making our way into the final country along our journey: Brazil. Hello paradise!

Sky Diving

Bolivia is now behind us, and we've arrived back in a much more modern (and expensive) country: Argentina. Famous for soccer, tango, and beef, I hope to experience it all. 

After a long day and half of busing we made a quick stop in central Argentina on our way to Buenos Aires. One thing that has been on my bucket list is sky diving, and if the price was right, we were hoping to try it out in South America.

The stars aligned, and before we knew what was happening, we were hopping in a cab to take us to the sky diving centre in Cordoba, Argentina.

With a (very) quick instruction session in Spanish, we were apparently ready to hit the skies and make our first jump. Jordan had the honours first, followed by James, and then me last.

When the guide opened the door of the plane and pushed me towards the edge, my heart was pounding through my chest. I really didn't have a chance to ponder NOT jumping, because before I knew what was happening the guide pushed me out the door and I was falling towards the earth.

It was REALLY fun, the feeling of floating in the air, but it was over way too fast. The free fall lasted 20 seconds and then once the parachute was pulled I floated for somewhere around 4 minutes down to the ground. Over all a super fun activity and I recommend it to everyone.

We've arrived in Buenos Aires 2 days ago, and we're planning to spend a few more days here before taking the ferry across the Rio Plata to Montevideo, Uruguay. Tonight we have tickets to a Premiership League soccer match, and then we're going to check out the legendary Buenos Aires night life. It's nice to be back in warmer weather and hopefully we'll get a chance to hit the beaches soon.

The Salt Flats

After the jungle trek, and a day of hard-core downhill mountain biking (which I'm not going to blog about because I don't have the pictures), we headed South towards Argentina. But before we hit the border, we stopped for a tour of Bolivia's huge Salt Flats and a 500 year old silver mine.

The Salt Flats are something like 16,000 square kilometres of pure salty ground. There's no plant or animal life, and only blinding white landscape as far as the eye can see. Its a pretty surreal landscape.

The tour also took us into some very high altitude mountains (12,000 feet) with a desert landscape,  evidence of volcanic activity, red lakes, fumerols, and flamingos. At night we stayed in hotels made out of salt. I was slightly worried a little rain could put a hole right through our salt shelters, but apparently it doesn't rain there too often.

We were also blessed with a fellow tourist who likes to play hearts (card game) which added some excitement to James' Jordans' and my almost daily game of cards.

Our last stop in Bolivia was in a Spanish-built colonial town called Potosi. It was quite a nice place (Unesco listed), with Spanish style buildings and churches and narrow cobblestone streets.

Our main reason for visiting Potosi was to see the silver mines that we heard have enslaved millions of Indigenous Bolivians for hundreds of years. Thankfully that has ended and the mines have run out of silver, but they are still used for mining zinc and other minerals. And the mines are still quite dangerous; around 15 people die working there every year.

 

The mines are really narrow, dusty, and are big. There are about 12 stories of tunnels stacked on top of each other that are connected by a few "elevator" shafts. We brought coca leaves, pop, and other gifts for the miners which they seemed quite appreciative of. The work conditions are challenging, but the miners are paid a high salary by Bolivian standards: about $10 Canadian per day.

At the end of the tour we made a stop at the miner's god, "El Diablo", who they honour with gifts to provide them with good luck and safety.

Currently we're in Argentina's second largest city, Cordoba, but tonight we're taking a bus to Buenos Aires. I'm hoping to take in a football match, and maybe rugby and polo as well.

Jungle Trek

 

Hola again amigos. Due to computer problems (aka my computer refused to boot up) I’ve been a little bit delayed posting. However, a hero and computer genius by the name of Victor saved the day and got my computer working again. So thanks to Victor here is another blog post, short and sweet.

After about 5 days of hanging around the hostel sick, I finally found out about some antibiotics you can buy over the counter and got healthy again for a jungle trek. I spent 6 days in the Bolivian jungle with a group of 5 other Israelis, which was interesting. The trip started out with a van ride down some of the worst roads I have ever seen, but with beautiful views.

Driving down the "World's Most Dangerous Road"

The first day we hiked up the side of a river to our first camp site. The jungle was hot, and the numerous creek crossings were appreciated to help cool our bodies down. The second day our guides led us up a smaller river into a canyon.  The water was really clean, the walls steep, and the forest untouched. 

In the pictures you can see I’m wearing a White dress shirt I bought from the tour guides for $1.50 to help protect against mosquitoes and sun; of which I saw very little of during the trek. It was mostly cloudy and it even rained the third day, making the trip cooler than I was expecting.

The third day our guides helped us blow up inner tubes, loaded all our belongings on to a home made raft, and we tubed down the Rio Verde for 2 hours or so to our next camp site. The tubing was quite fun with lots of obstacles and rapids to help make it exciting. The home made raft was later hi-jacked by some local pirates (below).

Our guides built a bigger home made raft for the fourth and fifth days, which all 8 of us rode on with all our belongings. To my  shock and amazement, the raft stayed together despite some extremely turbulent water!

After the first canyon, our group split into two for the other canyon excursions so that the more confident members of the group (including me) could do some more challenging canyons without being slowed down.

Essentially, we hiked, waded, and swam up fast flowing rivers inside canyons. There were even small waterfalls that needed to be scaled. At a few places in the canyons our Ironman-like guide named Limber had to scale a tricky section first, find a long vine or stick, and dangle it down the river to help pull us up. It was a ton of fun. There was only one time during the canyoning that I thought I was going to die. While climbing across a small waterfall, the current swept my feet from under me and I landed flat on the rocks. Luckily Limber and the other group members grabbed me and dragged me to safety before I got swept away.

However, there was another time that I thought Ironman Limber was going to surely fall. He was cruising up a waterfall, not missing a step despite the raging waters, when he got to an exceptionally smooth and steep section. His feet lost their grip, and he slid for about 15 feet before coming to an abrupt halt on the tiniest of ledges. If he had kept going down the rock face, it definitely would not have been pretty.

I didn’t see too many animals unfortunately, but we did glimpse one monkey way up in a tree, and there were plenty of huge blue butterflies wherever we camped.

Since the last post I’ve been up to a few activities, including an awesome day of downhill biking and a 3 day tour of the Salt Flats from Uyuni. I’m hoping the bike tour company will send me a few photos so I can write a post on that. Either way, a few posts should be coming soon assuming I have access to internet. 

Unfortunately Bolivia has not been very internet-friendly. Tomorrow James and Jordan and I are going on a tour of a working silver mine in a Bolivian town called Potosi. I’m looking forward to it because it is one of the most striking results of Spanish occupation in South America, and millions of indigenous worked at the mine while under slavery.

Enter: Bolivia

Sunset over Lake Titicaca

After Machu Picchu we made tracks for Lake Titicaca. The highest lake in the world! Or was it the highest BIG lake in the world? No, I think its title is the highest "navigable" lake in the world. Whatever that means.

Call it what you want, Lake Titicaca is a really big lake at a really high altitude, with beautiful sunsets. The view above is from the terrace at our hostel in the Bolivian town called Copacabana.

We took a (very slow moving) motor boat to the Isle del Sol a few kilometres off the shore, to the right of the view in the picture. The Incan culture that existed in the rest of South America is said to have started on the Isle del Sol. There are some very old ruins on the island that suggest this may be true.

After two days on the island, I can see why its called the "Island of the Sun". The clouds never seem to cover the sun above the island. The views are beautiful.

Me posing on Isla del Sol with my sponsoring beverage brand.

Another gorgeous view of Lake Titicaca, with the Illampu Mountains in the back

After Lake Titicaca, we took another bus --thankfully much shorter than the previous few rides-- to the capital city of Bolivia, La Paz. La Paz is a beautiful city built inside a canyon. I would put a picture up for you, but unfortunately I haven't taken any of La Paz yet. I haven't found a view of La Paz that would do it justice.

La Paz is infinitely more enjoyable than any of the other big cities we've been to so far. The people here are genuinely nice, and aren't interested in squeezing every last penny out of travelers. In Peru and Ecuador I felt like every local I talked to was trying to swindle me, but in Bolivia I feel warmly welcomed by the locals. Interestingly, Bolivia is quite a bit poorer than both Peru and Bolivia, and is well known to be the least expensive country in South America.

James, Jordan and I spent one wonderful day just outside La Paz. We rented wheels (ATV's for James and Jordan, a dirt bike for me) and a guide took us out on dirt roads to explore the Valle de la Lune.

From left to right: Jordan, James, Adam

It was my first time riding a motorbike. Truth be told, it was pretty scary at first; the store owners, who were really nice, allowed me about 5 minutes to figure out how to work the clutch and get the thing moving, and then it was straight to the road. I really wanted to learn though, and by the end I was starting to get the hang of it.

We rode to the top of the canyon and had some breathtaking views of Bolivia. This is what Bolivia looks like (below):

Right now, James and Jordan are in the middle of an amazingly fun sounding jungle rafting/hiking trip into the Amazon. Unfortunately I've been sick for the last week, and was forced to cancel at the last minute. Fingers crossed, I'll be leaving on the same trip that they're on tomorrow morning. Two girls that were supposed to be on my trip got sick at the last minute and the trip had to be postponed a day. Alot of people seem to get sick in Bolivia.

To give you an idea of what the trip is like, we build our own rafts and camp in the jungle. That's about all I know so far, but a blog post will certainly be in order when I get back from the trip.

Also, for those of you that are curious, Friar James is in the history books, and his head is back to its dashing old self.

Caio amigos.

Machu Picchu

As I mentioned in the previous post, I split from James and Jordan for the trek to Machu Picchu. They pre-booked the classic Inca Trail, while I took a last minute “Salkantay Mountain” trek. To read about James and Jordan’s experience, check out Jordan’s blog http://beta.offexploring.com/johombre.

The Salkantay trek is a 5 day walk through the mountains, with long days consisting of 5am wake-ups (with warm coca tea to get our brains going) and around 17-22 kilometres of walking. It sounds hard, and it is, but the trek is made ALOT easier because donkeys carry everything that is needed, leaving ourselves carrying just small daypacks.

The first day we walked 20 kilometres up a dirt road to a very pretty but cold campsite nestled in between some peaks. The night made me very thankful I had warm long underwear and wool socks!

The second day was my favourite day: we left the road behind us and instead hiked up a narrow winding path. towards Salkantay Mountain.

My hiking group huddling for a picture in the cold wind and rain.

In the morning we reached Salkantay Mountain, the highest peak in the area surrounding Machu Picchu (maybe the highest in Peru?). There we reached the highest point of the trek, 4800 metres, before we descended in the fog and rain to our lunch spot.

By afternoon it warmed up, and the weather stayed nice for the remainder of the trek.  

The second night was a much more comfortable temperature, and the third day we continued to descend through valleys until we reached a tropical climate again.

Beautiful hot springs greeted our weary bones on the third night, and a bus took us part of the distance on the fourth day, leaving us at the town of Aguas Calientes on the last night for our final ascent: Machu Picchu. The hike up Machu Picchu was the most gruelling of the whole 5 days, but we did it at 5:00am so at least it was still cool out. Needless to say I was dripping with sweat by the time we made it through the gates and got our first glimpse of Machu Picchu.

Our guide was very knowledgeable about Machu Picchu, and it was very interesting to learn why it was built and to learn about the lives of the Incans who lived there. Contrary to what I had previously believed, the reason for building the town of approximately 1000 people is not a complete mystery to us; in fact Machu Picchu is strategically located at the end of the Andean region and the beginning of the jungle region to help the Incan king negotiate with the many nearby tribal leaders.

Machu Picchu was discovered by an American archaeologist named Hiram Bingham in 1911, and he made the town famous by writing articles about it and publishing pictures in National Geographic and other magazines. However, when Hiram Bingham found Machu Picchu, he also found families living right outside the gates of Machu Picchu. In fact, a 9 year old boy gave Hiram Bingham a tour of the town when he arrived! Many other village people living in the valleys nearby Machu Picchu were also aware of the town, which is how Hiram Bingham found it in the first place.

I was able to hike up a peak right next to Machu Picchu called Huaynapichu. Huaynapichu also has paths and terraces built by the Incas, and a bird’s eye view of the town.

Before I left Machu Picchu I took a quick stroll down one of the nearby Incan trails leading away from Machu Picchu. The path I took led to the “Incan Bridge”, which is a very narrow path chiselled into the side of a massive cliff by the Incas. People are not allowed to walk on the path today, because it is no more than a couple feet wide, and one slip would surely lead to death.

Keep your eyes peeled for the next blog post coming in a couple days. It will be a special edition dedicated to one of the three amigos!

The Desert Oasis

Today I am bed-blogging from my bunk bed in Cusco. Unfortunately James and I are both feeling the effects of a couple hard nights of partying followed by an 18 hour bus ride, and we’ve both acquired colds. Our fingers are crossed that we get healthy fast for the upcoming trek to Machu Picchu.

Since the last post, we arrived safely in the huge city of Lima where we spent a couple days poking around. Lima I find to be much more pleasant than Ecuador’s capital city Quito. The streets are much cleaner and smell nicer, there are some very picturesque areas of town such as the Plaza de Armas (pictured below) and the people are very cheerful and friendly.

The next stop on our journey was in the middle of the desert in a small resort town called Huacachina. The town is literally built around a desert oasis – with palm trees and a small lake included and is surrounded by high sand dunes. We ended up spending 4 days in Huacachina and activities included a wine tour (hence the hard partying), sand boarding, and lounging around the pool in the hot desert sun. Believe it or not, thus far we have not encountered any hot weather in South America (the weather has been comfortable, but not hot), so the warmer air was much appreciated.

The sand boarding was fun; the best way to describe it is that its like snowboarding  on really sticky wet snow.

But by far the most fun part of sandboarding was not the activity itself, but getting to and from the dunes. 10 of us rode in a big dune buggy with huge suspension and clearance, and the driver was an absolute maniac. When he saw some terrain that he liked, he puts the pedal to the metal and charges at it like a raging bull. We cruised back and forth across the dunes using them like jumps, rollers, and even a halfpipe. For the grand finale our driver took us down a huge hill until we were at the fastest speed possible, and then we hit a huge arc-shaped dune that sent the entire dune buggy airborn for what felt like a full second. It was incredible.

One other thing I have to mention can only be described by photo. The picture says it all (Yes, that is Jordan on the left).

Now James and Jordan are getting ready for their Inca Trail trek which leaves on October 7. The trek takes 4 days and finishes off at Machu Piccu. I, on the other hand, wasn’t able to book a spot on the trek with them (the spots filled up about 3 months ago), so I am going to go shopping and see if I can do one of the alternate treks to Machu Picchu. The next blog update will fill you in on how that goes.

I have had zero access to internet for the last week or so, so I apologize if I have been slow in replying to emails. I am going to get to them asap. Also, our NFL survivor pool took an interest twist when Jame’s risky Arizona Cardinals pick took a nose dive two weeks ago. Jordan and I are still both strikeless, but if James takes one more strike he will be sporting a brand new friar cut. And you can bet the photo will be up on this blog. All were safe last week since we all took Green Bay over Denver. Til next time.

A day in the life of an Ecuadorian

One of my favourite things about traveling is learning about how people live in other parts of the world. Some cultures value certain aspects of life more highly than others, and find different ways of accomplishing the same goals. As they say, there is more than one way to skin a cat. Or as Richard sometimes says “The Chinese know 101 ways to wok a dog”.

Yesterday we left Ecuador behind, and right now I am sitting on a bus in the Northern part of Peru driving towards the country’s capital city of Lima. Having just finished spending a month in Peru, I am now reflecting on some of the things I noticed about their culture that intrigued me, or was distinctly different from society in Canada.

Before I start, I want to quickly mention how AMAZING the bus we’re riding on is. First of all, the seats have more leg room and tilt back farther than the typical Greyhound bus – not to mention have individual leg rests. They just served us a hot dinner that was delicious: chicken and rice. They’ve brought drinks around twice and are showing movies for us with the sound on quiet; just in case I’d rather listen to my ipod (which I did). Each person is provided with a pillow and blanket upon entry into the bus, and there is onboard Wi-Fi! I’m actually posting this to the internet from the bus. The bus ride is 15 hours overnight, and it costs 85 Peruvian Nuevo Sols, or around $30 – not bad value.

One other quick update before I begin that unfortunately is not so good news: Jordan had a bunch of his stuff stolen at the Peruvian border including all his entertainment devices (ipods and such) and a fair chunk of cash. It’s definitely left a dark cloud over the group for today, and is causing us to be even more careful with our belongings.

But I digress, back to the main point of the article. From what I’ve seen, people in Ecuador seem to value above all else family and community. These values appear to permeate many areas of their life: work, leisure, and just overall how they spend their time.

Leisure

A great example of how important family is to Ecuadorians is when we were on a bus between Otovalo and Quito, after we’d just finished checking out the Otovalo market and the Cockfight. On the bus James was sitting beside a woman and her daughter, and was trying his best to make pleasant conversation with them in Spanish. These people, like most in mainland Ecuador did not look wealthy – and just taking the time and money to bus from Otovalo to Quito would be quite an investment for them. When James asked them why they were going to Quito, they said they were bussing there to celebrate a fiesta that was being put on for the woman’s uncle’s birthday. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a birthday put on for one of my aunts or uncles, never mind taken a 4 hour bus ride just to attend.

The impression I have received from people in Ecuador is that birthdays and other holidays are times for large family gatherings; and these fiestas form a key part of the people’s social lives and activities. There are at least a couple times when we were walking down streets and would see community halls rented out for some sort of fiesta or family gathering.

Work

One of the most surprising things I’ve found in Ecuador is the very minimal impact big business seems to have had on the country. I could count on one hand the number of fast food chains I’ve seen, and I don’t think I’ve run into even one Starbucks. Business in Ecuador is almost exclusively small businesses: mom and pop shops.

I’ve noticed a few implications of this phenomenon. First, there are some AMAZING salesmen here. I think when there are not many big businesses to work for, people are forced to sell products themselves. And with all the practise they have, some people get really really good. For instance, on one bus we were riding a man came on and started talking really loudly in Spanish. I have no idea what he was saying, but he kept his spiel going for about 20 minutes, and finally at the end started placing useless trinkets and fake jewellery in people’s hands. By the time he got off the bus, he had sold a useless trinket to over half the people on our bus! I was blown away.

But perhaps more interestingly, the lack of big-box companies forces Ecuadorians to be mini-entrepreneurs, and puts them all in an ownership position of their income. One result of this is that we constantly saw people bringing their children to work with them. I saw children “working” at fruit stands, restaurants, markets, travel agencies, hostels, you name it. Not that it is child labour, but rather the whole family tends to live at the place of work. My guess is that most people can’t afford to hire day-care workers to care for their children while they run their business, so instead they just bring their kids with them.

Sugar Cane ready for cutting. Lots of the people in Mindo processed sugar cane and turned it into sweet treats.

Spare Time

Not surprisingly, the activity of choice for Ecuadorians is soccer. All the children seem to play it, and days for kids are spent at the soccer field once school is done. James and Jordan and I joined the kids in a soccer game recently in Galapagos, and found their soccer skills quite impressive.

For adults, however, there is a different game that dominates the culture: soccer volleyball. The first time we encountered this sport was in Ecuador’s capital city of Quito. We were walking through the park, when we saw a huge crowd of probably 100 people all standing around a volleyball court. Naturally, we were curious as to what high calibre volleyball players must have been attracting all the attention. After watching a few rallies it didn’t seem like the players were any better than we probably were. And at that, they kept on cheating by “throwing” the volleyball instead of volleying it properly.

We’ve encountered very similar games going on all over the country, all with equally large groups of on-lookers. Our Sherlock skills have concluded that this is not an anomaly – this is a legitimate game that is not quite volleyball  but similar. Unfortunately the games were a little rich for our blood. If you want to play, you have to put up at least a couple hundred dollars, and the winners for the day go home with most of the bounty. For Ecuadorians its not just a sport, its a form of gambling as well.

Overall Take

I think there are alot of really good things about the culture in Ecuador, and their sense of community and family commitment seems great. However, there is one odd thing about people in Ecuador: they rarely ever smile. 

People seem to avoid eye contact, and for the most part don’t make jokes or show a positive interest in you and your life. I don’t think its something Ecuadorians hold against white people, or Americans, or anything like that. I think its part of their culture. For that reason, I don’t think I’d want to live in Ecuador for significant amounts of time.

Crossing the border to Peru really emphasizes this downside to Ecuador; Peruvians are very friendly, have big smiles, and are very welcoming to strangers.

Tomorrow is Jame’s birthday, so hopefully we’ll be able to find some cake for him!

Galapagos Islands: Part 2

The Sea

The Galapagos Islands has alot to offer on the land, but in my mind the most fun is had wearing goggles and a snorkel.

Every day our cruise allotted us at least one snorkel session, and sometimes two. We learned quickly that to get the most out of the snorkelling, we needed to follow our guide, Washington, around in the water. He knew all the absolute best places to go and he showed us some cool animals.

The most graceful creatures in the water are the sea turtles. They swim very slowly, taking no heed to the 16 tourists swimming after him snapping photos. I probably saw half a dozen of them, and our guide told us that they can dive 600 metres under the water. My ears hurt after diving only 2 metres!

On our second day of snorkelling, I could hear some sort of commotion going on, so I lifted my head up from the water to see what it was about. A group of people were huddled around Washington near the rocky shore of an island. I swam over, and was informed that we were outside of a “shark cave”. 

I ducked my head under water in time to see our guide, Washington, holding his breath and swimming INTO the shark cave. I dared not go in as far as Washington, but I poked my head just in far enough to see a family of White-Tipped sharks chilling out in the underwater cave. At the time, it looked to me like there were maybe 5 sharks in the cave; but after watching some footage of the cave that our guide took with his under water camera, I could see that there were actually about 12! I tried to load the footage onto this blog, but there seems to be some sort of technical error. The footage is incredible, so ask me to show it to you if your in Calgary when I get back in December.

James scouting out a possible snorkeling location

Other animals we saw under the water were Sting Rays, Marine Iguanas, lots of colourful fish, Barracudas, a Galapagos Shark, Starfish, and Eels.

But the highlight of my Galapagos experience (and James and Jordan’s too) didn’t come from following Washington to his secret snorkeling spots. On the fourth day of the cruise we were dropped off on a beach to enjoy snorkelling for 2.5 hours while the boat was re-stocked with supplies. Unfortunately, the water was so cloudy it was practically opaque, and on the sea floor there was nothing to look at but sand. We were all a little peeved that we had to spend 2.5 hours on this beach with no activities to do and no snorkeling.

I threw on my snorkelling gear anyway and walked down the beach a little ways to see if the water would get any better. On the other side of some rocks I saw some black bodies lounging on the beach that looked like Sea Lions. Upon closer inspection, I verified my observation as true, and went to take a look. The Sea Lions were just sleeping, and didn’t seem to be going anywhere, so after a few minutes I hopped into the water and started swimming back. 

I took a look over my shoulder, and to my excitement, one of the Sea Lions had awoken and was waddling into the water. He started swimming towards me, and then all of a sudden he darted right past me. I swam after him, and then he started swimming around me, like he was playing. For the next hour I swam with the Sea Lion, trying to keep pace with his quirky antics. From then on, James, Jordan, and I made a point of seeking out Sea Lions every time we went snorkeling. We found the younger ones were a lot more playful than the older ones, but most of the Sea Lions seemed just as curious about us as we were about them.

A photo taken by our guide. The Sea Lions swam really close to us!

By the end of the cruise it seemed like we had seen almost every animal there was to see, except for whales and Dolphins. But on the last day, a crew member knocked on our door while we were napping and was hollering “whale, whale!” Sure enough, a mother whale and her baby were swimming nearby our boat. The mother’s robust back was gently cresting out of the cool Humboltd froth while the spunky baby whale gracefully danced through the warm Galapagos air with several Elvis Stoiko-like leaps. The crew said they were Humpback Whales. It was a great way to cap off our Galapagos Sightseeing Tour.

Tomorrow morning the Three Amigos head back to the mainland so that we can take a bus down to Lima, Peru. After a month, we’re finally leaving Ecuador behind us. I wasn’t incredibly excited for Peru before, but now that I’ve started reading a bit about the country I’m now really stoked. It sounds like we’re going to see lots of history in the country’s Incan ruins, and there should be an interesting variety of climates and topography.

To make this trip a little more interesting, we’ve started a survivor nfl football pool whereby the Three Amigos make a pick each week as to what team we think is going to win. There’s alot of pride on the line,  not to mention public humiliation in the form of a forced friar cut. Jordan and I both picked San Diego to win -- so root for the Chargers this week!