The Pisac Market = Chaos!

Sundays in the village of Pisac are known for one thing and one thing only... THE MARKET! We decided that we should make our way there early in the morning to try and beat all the busses that come with hordes of tourists from Cuzco... So we woke up refreshed from our long sleep... and a little sore from the hard day of riding before... and started on our way to Pisac, we jumped on a bus and rode for about an hour. When we got to Pisac we started to explore and found out that the market was absolute chaos! It was huge, and you could forsure get lost!! We started in the section where you could find all types of food! We treated ourselves to fresh squeezed Orange Juice, and then walked about... there was chicken, fish, onions, peas


(Jeremia Loves peas and bought two huge bags, all the old Peruvian ladies were laughing at him because he was eating them raw... something they had never seen before!) mangos, grapes, avacados, every kind of spice, pineapples, apples, ginger, mushrooms, fresh herbs, and many more things I could not even put a name to if I tried! There wre also ladies selling pigments, to make your own paint! I deffinalty bought some,and am evry excited to start panting when I get home! THe market also consistied of every handi craft imaginable! So we did end up buying a few little things... well maybe not little, I think we will have to buy a new bag to bring ervything home in... oops! Anyways we had a great morning in Pisac and arrived back to Cuzco last night.

And today, sadly is our last day here, we start the long trek home tomorrow, a bitter sweet day for both of us it will be. As for today we plan to see some other ruins close to town here, and then just enjoy the last little bit of Peru... Cafe in the Plaza perhaps, stealing just one more look at the Beautiful Andes that surround the city... it wil be a good day!

Mountian Biking

This weekend we were able to take a bike trip out to the Sacred Valley, it was amazing! We started the day in Cuzco, met up with our guide and got all our equipment, and then rode to the bus station, we then took a hour ride into the valley and started trip to see the ruins of Moray and the Salt mines. We rode for about two hours through the country side, on single track, up and down... it was a bit difficult due to the elevation and again the thin air, but we made it, and for both Jeremia and myslef it was a good challenge, since we are pretty much both begginers at biking!

The ruins at Moray were very interesting, again, showing the geneous of the Inkas, as we rode up to the archeological site, we began to see circular terraces going down and down, into a huge valley of sorts, our guide explained to us that this site was actually a labratory for agriculture for the Inkas. Since the Inka empire was so large the climate for each region was very different. The labratory was a test site to see which crops would grow the best at each specific elevation, the crops being maiz (corn) and Potatos ( for those of you who dont know the potato originated from Peru, the Inkas had over 4000 varieties) The circular terraces that we saw were the test stations for the crops, each level varied in temperature of about 5 degrees! With this temperature change they were able to simulate the growing conditions of all the different elevations in Peru. When they found out which crop grew the best in each elevation they would tell the people what to grow in thier specific location! WOW... We both thought this was pretty amazing!


After the ruins and Lunch we started down to the town of Maras, a small villiage where most of the people make thier living by working in the salt mines.


The salt mines were also really cool to see, mostly because they still use the same method of cultivating the salt as the Inkas did so long ago. As we rode down into another valley we began to see the thousands of salt pools. Our guide explained that there was a natural salt water spring located here, and what the Inkas figured out to do to get the salt was to construct terraces, or small pools where they would funnle the water in every two weeks, once the water was sitting in the pool, they would cut off the water supply and then wait for the sun to do its magic... evaporating the water from the pools would take about two weeks, and once the water is gone, all you have left is the salt! The mines are only in use in the dry season, running from may to october, in the wet season, the rain messes up the system so they do not use the mines from novermber to may. We were told that about two hundred people work these mines, and it is run on a co op system. The salt mainly goes to the city of Cuzco, but is also shiped to all over the country. Being curious we decided to scrape off some of the salt left over, and low and behold, it tasted just like salt... although it was very strong.. or maybe thats because we just tried too much! Collecting the salt is all done by hand, as most of the agriculture is still done here in Peru. Once the water is all gone, men, women and children all set to work scraping up all the salt into bags, and then transport them by Mule back to the town of Maras, where they then go to Cuzco to sell it.

After the salt mines, we continued on our way down to the town of Urabumba. Where our guide left us, and where we stayed the night. It was a cute little villiage, we found a small palce on the river, had dinner and pretty much went to bed really early... the biking wiped us out!

It was a wonderful day, and a great way to see the valley, We would both recomend it over just taking the bus or a tour, we saw so much more on the bikes!

WE ARE COMING HOME...soon

Only 5 more days till we arive on the Tarmack back in Canada, home sweet home, where the gophers run wild dancing with the Pronghorns and cattle need to be branded and castrated in the spring. Oh home, the windy city where we will be coming to finish off our house and drinkingg water from the tap and drive cars and see our friends and family. Things that I, Jeremia, look forward to are as follows. Being able to go to a church where the service is in english, having a snow cone at Whoop-up days, driving a car (not sure how expensive gas is, in Venezuela gas is 2 cents a litre). I look forward to taking my little pseudo-nephews, cole and payton, swimming and splashing the other kids..mwa ha ha ha. And finally a major excitment will be the continuing of Dance lessons with my wonderful wife and Joe Meller.

We are very excited to be heading out to camp on the 1st of June as well and for anyone interested in camp ministry and creating some amazing relationships this summer with young students check out SABC´s webpage and see if God is calling you to a life changing summer out at camp.

A little news on what our last few days in Cusco will entail. Tomorrow we will be embarking on an exciting mountain biking trip to visit some amazing inca amphitheaters, ruins, lost cities and spend the night in a small village with a massive sunday market, we have heard that you can buy a pan flute over 5 feet tall, I don´t think Air Canada would let me bring something like that home... at least not for a small fee!

Well thats all for now, we sooo look forward to seeing you very soon

jer

Easter in Cuzco

Well I hope that everyone had a great Easter. It was a strange one for us here in Cuzco, we sure miss chuch and fellowship, we see how important it is now that we have been gone for 3 months not able to find any english chuches down here! We had a nice little easter service on our own, and then set to exploring for the day. We are still recovering from our hike, its taken a few days to feel normal again!

On good friday we were able to see the big procession to the main catherdral, it sure was something, everyone had candles and it was like a huge parade... floats of Jesus and Mary, big crosses and shrines, it was quite something, as most of you know it is about 98% catholic here, but the old Qechua and inka traditions still run thick so it is a interesting mixed religion.

Jeremia has put up some new photos on Webshots, there is also a second photo page since we filled up the other one, and as Jeremia loves to do there are more mullets up on photo page 2... crazy guy.

Well thats all for now, see you all in about a week, I can´t believe it, time has just flown by!!

cheers. Anya

123 km later...

We suvived nine days in the peruvian Andes and it was Amazing! I think forsure it was the highlight of our trip! We climbed four passes, the highest being 4600 meters, or around 16000 feet... the air was thin!! and what goes up must come down... and we did! Everyday we would acend and decend almost 1000 meters or more a day!

Day 1...
It all started at 4:45 am on april 5th... we were picked up in a car with our guide, cook and driver... and statred off into the mountains. The first stop was Cachora. Along the way, about an hour into the drive, we came along a huge rock slide that completly covered the road.

There were busses full of people throwing rocks everwhere to try and create enough of a flat area so that bus could pass, we watched for about twenty minutes as our car found a diffgernt route ( which was the river...) Anyways we trampled though the crowed and caught up with our car down the road, we later asked our guide if rock slides were a frequent occurance and he said that they happen all the time... we were a little nervous for the last few hours of or drive! Once we arrived in Cahora we met the mule guides, had lunch an started the trek, we thought we were wlaking 5 km, but ended up walking 20... a little language barrier with the guide, we soon found out that there would be many more suprises like this along the way! We camped near the river the first night, had a great dinner and were sleeping by 830, with no electircity it gets dark and we got sleepy early!

Day 2...
We woke up at 5am and packed up, had some Breky and hit the trail, we climbed down to the river and then started the trek up! up up up... that was the day, it was beautiful, waterfalls, the mountains everything was outstanding! From the river we climbed about 1500 m to the pass and then came down a good bit to the second nights camp. We saw some amazing terracing this day as well, it was really neat to see how the agriculture works here, and since there is no flat open space, the terraces are all over! We set up camp and just relaxed as the sun went down, we were looking out at the river and mountains in the distance, a really cool spot!

Day 3... On this day we explored the ruins of Choqecoaraw, a Inka city that has just recently been restored. It was amazing. The terraces and the buildings taht were built on top of this mountiain were unbelievable. We spent the whole day looking around the site, it was impressive!

Day 4... Today we had another hard day, we went down down down, then all the way up again, this time we were in the joungle, we say a huge terancula and some snakes, and the path today was a little scetchy... but we made it, and slept very well, we were really tired by the time camp came at 5pm, it was a good 10 hours walking today!! more beautiful sights, and so quiet, no cars, no villages, hardly any people, Gods creation is so beautiful. The ultimate artist, what we have seen in the last few days only reconfirms this! Wow, there is not words to describe it!

Day 5... more up, today we passed 4100 m, a difficult one, but rewarding at the end of the day!

Day 6... the last pass, and the highest, 4630m, 15 300 ft


It was going ok, and slow, we were almost at the top, when I relized that my sunglasses had fallen out of my pocket... Jeremia being the trooper that he is went down almost 300m to look for them, what a guy! He found them and climbed all the way back up! Something that I could not have done! The altitude did not effect us a lot, I mean we got the light head, head ache, short of breath thing, but nothing serious, we were very thankful for that! We also passed some huge glaciers and snow caped mountains today, all around 6000 m, now thats high!

Day 7... Today we followed the river, so it was not a lot of steep hiking today, for which we were very glad! We endded up in Playa, a small village that was connected with a road to Santa Teresa, this is where we wnded up spending the night, we got into the back of a big truck with about 30 other people from the villiage and rode it into town, another suprise for us... but a good one, it was a experiance thats for sure, I´ll just say that we were glad that we made it to Santa teresa safe!!

Day 8... Today we walked to a hydro station and then on to Agua Calienties, the town which is the closest to Machu Pichu. We followed the rail road tracks for most of the day, so again not to steep, although long!! We arrived in the town and were in shock with the amount of tourists and people, I wouldn´t want to be here in the busy season!! We stayed in a hostal, a shower was warmly welcomed after all the rain and mud that we had!! We also thought we would go to the hot springs, although that was a bad idea. We payed and started to walk up, and once we say them we knew... it was not worth it! since we didnt want to completly waste 20 soles we changed and went in the springs, it was horrible!! We now refer to the hot springs as the urination springs, since that was the putrid smell that permeated the air.... I shudder just thinking about it! we stayed for 10 min, all that we could handle, 1 soles a min... and not one more! Well needless to say, that was a let down!! We went to bed early and tried to get some sleep for the early morning to come!

Day 9... Machu Pichu! We woke at 3:55am to start the walk up to Machu Pichu, it was so dark and we were the only crazy ones on the trail, we wanted to beat the hoard of busses that start coming at 6am when it opens! It was a VERY hard climb to the top... 1717 stairs and 5Km that we climbed, all Inka, all uneven stone, all in the dark! It took a little over an hour, at a very fast pase set by our guide! We made it to the top and the sunrise was beautiful! There is no dought in my mind as to why people from all over the world come to see this lost city of the Inkas!

The stone work alone is enough... I can not begin to explain! We spent the morning walking and exploring, and then set off on the last peak... Wanyanupichu, the famuse mountain that you see in all the photos of Machu pichu. It was another hard climb, but once at the top, the view was well worth it! We had beautiful weather for the day and came all the way down by foot in the ealy afternoon, to catch the train back to cuzco, we arrived in cuzco at around 830pm. It was a long but wonderful day!

Over all the trek was great, we got rained on everyday, but always at night or in the early morning, The peruvian guys that were with us were great, we had yummy food, and were really able to see how thew people live in the mountians here, so different from home, so isloated. It was a really cool experiance! We are glad to be back here in Cuzco for Semana Santa... or easter as we say, we are thankful for a few days rest before we head out to the sacred valley early next week.

Ok Thats all the writing I can do for now, Its hard to explain what we saw in words, so Jer will put up some pics on webshots! See you all soon, Only 11 short days left.

lots of love, Anya and Jeremia

Comments and Other Blogs!

Hey everyone, it is soooo good to hear from home, and to read comments and emails... We just wanted to say thanks! I have spent the better part of an hour reading everyones blogs, it has been so much fun! Keep it up! We´ll see ya soon!

Lake Titicaca and beyond...

Hello there. It has been a little while since we have updated, we have been pretty busy here in Peru! We are really enjoying being back in the mountians and nature.

The First stop that we had in Peru was Arequepa. This city is the jumping off point to see the famous Colca Canyon, The deepest canyon in the world... so we were told! We took a 3 day trek down into the canyon, staying the first night at a tiny little home and the very bottom of the canyon, right near the river. It was so dark and quiet during the night, and so peaceful. There is no electricity in the canyon, so it was quite an experiance! We had a awesome guide, his name was yohan, so informative and really funny!! The second day was pretty tough, we walked up, up, up out of the canyon, but we were able to see Condors which was a real treat, they were pretty far away but it was really cool, they are massive birds, up to a three meter wing span!! The are like vultures, only eating dead animals, an interesting thing we learned is that, if they are really hungry and they have not found food for a long time they will prey on llamas. What they do is fly right up to the llamas on the cliff edge, as the llamas are walking, and spook them. When this happens the Llamas will usually fall of the cliff, and bingo the condor has a dead animal to eat! Over all the trip to the Colca was well worth it, the area was so breath taking, seeing the terracing and the way of life, way high up in the Andes was really something else!

From Arequepa we left to go to Puno. Puno is on the shore of lake titicaca. We were able to see the reed islands and the people that live on them, it is pretty amazing, that in todays world there are pèople who survive completly on thier own, on a floating island, litteraly living off the reeds. The Islands are made of them, thier boats are made of them, thier houses, thier hats, they even eat the reeds! Jeremia and I both tried them and they taste pretty good!! We only stayed one night in Puno, to see the islands, then we made our way to Copacabana, Bolivia. A beautiful town also situated on the shore of lake titicaca. Copacabana is a great jumping off point to get to isla del sol, or island of the sun. This island is really important to the people of the Andees since it is where the Sun was born. There are also some pretty impressive Inka ruins on the island. We were able to spend one night in copa and then one night on the island, in the best little B&B! We had quite a hike from one side of the island to the other, and I even was able to get us lost... oops, we ended way up in some farmers terraces... but all worked out ok and we were able to get back before dark! The island is situated at 4100 meters, so the air was a little thin, and hiking in that was a challenge, although it was good practice for the trek we start tomorrow!

We arrived in Cuzco last night, after a long day on the bus, we are thankful that our bus trips are coming to a end! The buses get so full, since any pax that the bus driver picks up after leaving the station are under the table, which means the money just goes into his pocket... needless to say, even if you buy your seat, it doesn´t mean you wont have the entire asle packed with men, women, babys, guinny pigs, chicks, ect.... it truly is an experiance.

We are enjoing Cuzco, we are getting ready for the trek that starts tomorrow, we plan to meet with our guide tonight to get most of the details sorted out, we are both really exctied about it! Last night rained the whole night, so we are hoping for better weather!

Well thats all for now, a little update as to what is going on in our world, we only have 21 days left...its going by sooo fast! so we'll see ya soon!

Lots of love,

Anya and Jeremia