Costa Rica hightlights (so far!)

so far:

• the Pura Vida hotel in Alajuela - just north of san jose and beautiful!
• the breakfast at PV. . .yum!!
• leaves and lizards (name of our hotel) near Arenal. like being in a tree house
• going on a night hike up to the arenal volcano - and seeing lava. cool!
• going horse back riding to a water fall
• monica getting bucked off the horse - and getting back on! (okay, maybe not a highlight, but memorable!)
• the waterfall. . . ahhhhhh
• zip lining. awesome!
• finding the free hot springs under the highway.
• doggy - the house dog at l + l
• driving to manuel antonio. beautiful
• the beach here. unforgettable.

gotta go back to the beach now.

cheers, m + k

Ahhhh.....Puerto Viejo

That about sums up Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica. It´s all about relaxing on the beach, drinking $1.80 beers and surfing (if you are into that sort of thing. . .) Since we got to CR 3 days earlier, we decided to head to the east coast and check out this town. It took us about 3.5 hours to get there, including about an hour on a super bumpy road into town, but it was well worth it. it´s the most relaxed beach town we´ve ever seen. it felt like jamaica (although neither of us have been to jamaica, but who cares!) we were sad to leave it today, even if we did get nice sunburns as souvenirs.

today, we are in san jose, waiting to pick up olivia and eithne who arrive at 9 pm. kieran is getting a hair cut now (will he look like ricky martin?!) and i am online for just 500 soles an hour! sounds expensive, right? not! the exchange rate is like 500 to $1. I took out 10,000 colones bills. it´s only a $20, but boy does that make you feel rich!

cheers, monica + kieran

Mucho Humo

Today is our last day in BA. There are some major grass fires about 60 miles north of Buenos Aires that are producing major smoke. It was suppossed tob e 80 degrees and clear today, and the city is just covered in smoke. We were actually going to head north for a few days (to Rosario), but that is exactly where the fires our. our luck, right? we had actually decided against rosario before we knew about the smoke. just call us psychic!

the smoke looks like fog, but only dirtier. We were going to rent bikes and cycle through the city, yet the smoke is just too heavy. We are off to costa rica tomorrow morning - we have a 6:30 am flight - and we can´t wait!! sun, beaches, fresh fruit. . .yum

see you later buenos aires! or as the locals woulds say - ciao!

punta del este

we hung out in buenos aires until monday morning. we caught a football (aka soccer) match on sunday between 2 local teams, Racing + Arsenal (not the british arsenal). It was cool. the stadium shook a few times when the home team, Racing, scored. i really want to start my own crazy fan section for the SF Giants when I get home. It will be at the top of my to do list, for sure!

on monday, we took a 3 hour ferry to uruguay, then picked up our rental car in montevideo to head to punta del este. punta del este is considered the french riviera of south america. the problem, though, is that we decided to come in the start of their winter and on weekdays. the place is like a ghost town! the beaches are incredible though - and we did get in the water. even if it was cold to the locals, it was hot compared to sf and ocean beach! it's just eerie around here. it reminds us of Maui, but without anyone around. spoooookkkky. . . .

the saving grace of this trip is our cool hotel, L'Auberge. It's a 5 star hotel that we would not be able to afford had this been the high season. our room was on the top floor of their tower. i felt even more like a princess! also, we ordered room service (sooooo nice!) and the food was delicious!! we are getting tired of all of the meat and cheese that argentine people love around here, so it was nice to get some fresh veggies.

Today, we are heading back to buenos aires. being in a beach town makes us really want to be in the sun. we are thinking of heading to costa rica a few days earlier to get started on our sun bathing. the weather in BA is suppossed to be in the 70's, yet it is in the 80's in CR. . . ahhhhh. ..

cheers, m + k

Buenos Aires

We arrived into BA on Wednesday morning (around 4 am). we stayed at a hostel for just that morning - but then decided to find something nicer. spoiled, yes! we found a great hotel in San Telmo - the Don Telmo. San Telmo is one of the oldest BA neighborhoods. it reminds me a lot of the lower east side in NYC. Cool, trendy, yet sorta sketchy. I love it!

We met up with our inca trail friends, Jaime, Geoff & Jen the first night here to see a tango show. super cool. then, we went out until like 4 in the morning. This city is a SUPER LATE city. many restuarants don´t open until 8 pm for dinner and 10-11pm is the normal time to eat. last night, we ate at 11 and it was crowded! we have had our share of argentine beef. good, for sure, but i´m kinda done with beef right now!

yesterday, the olympic torch came through BA. we parked ourselves near the obelisk (a big monument in BA) and saw it come through. well, wait until you see the video i took. it was like being in a melee. i totally got manhandled by argentine police. but it´s all good. no big protests like in sf, london, paris.

today, we are going to mosey around again. BA is the city of walking, eating (late) and drinking. we love it! on monday, we go to uruguay for a few days.

cheers, monica + kieran

Inca Trail

There is so much to say about our 4 day journey on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. The first and foremost thing to say is - WE LOVED IT!!! It was incredibly challenging and rewarding. Far better than any marathon or cycle century I have done. We really lucked out with our group and tour guide though. In the end, no one wanted to leave.

Here is just a brief bit about the journey:

day one - 15 km
we were picked up at our hotel at 4:20 am, then took a 2.5 hour bus ride to km 82 of the trail. the whole trail from cusco to machu picchu is about 123 km. our portion was 41 km (about 26 miles. . .yeah, another marathon under my belt!) we started walking after a brief yummy breakfast. the first portion was very nice. gradual up and downs. then, we encountered a steep, yet short uphill climb. at the top, there was an andean family living there. it´s really incredible how people can live. i am so spoiled. anyway, at this point, one couple (in their late 30´s) decided to stop. the woman had breathing troubles, and according to our guide, erick, it was only going to get worse. another woman was struggling more, but decided to keep going. stubborn i guess.


then, we hiked and hiked until lunch. i guess we were a bit slow (we had to wait a lot for that woman) because as soon as we ate, we were out of there. the good thing at this point is that we got a porter to carry our bag. the best decision ever. it was 85 usd, but totally worth it in the end. all we carried were our camelback day packs.


after lunch, we climbed up 700 meters to our first camping site. Before i go on, the night before the hike, we had a briefing with our guide who said ´my friends, this is the inca trail.´then, he showed us a drawn outline of the hills. it looked like this:


___/\_/\_/\___


holy crap is what I thought. luckily, we hiked up almost half of the first pass on the first day. if not, we would have had to hike 1200 meters up in one day! that´s like over 3600 feet. And if you don´t know already, we are already at a super high elevation. Cusco is at about 10,000 feet above sea level. Basically, we were mountain climbing, not just hiking.

day two - 13 km.
before day two could even begin - I woke up in the middle of the night with major indigestion and stomach cramps. i knew that the cha cha chas were coming. I tossed and turned all night. we were woken up around 5:45 am and i was shivering. i felt sick and weak and could not think of hiking another mile - never mind the 8 miles we had to do that day. Plus, the first 500 meters was all uphill. I tried to eat - but had no appetite. luckily, our guide, Erick, gave me a pill to stop the cha cha chas that had arrived. i also bought some gatorade from a local there - and i think that is what saved me. erick took a look at me and said that i would be fine - just weak and slow. hey, i´m kinda used to that, so what the heck? i was going to do it.

I have to say, this was the hardest physical thing i have done - ever! 3 marathon, 2 centuries, a black belt test - none of it compared to trying to walk 13 km up and down hills with little food in your stomach, no energy, dizziness and the constant need to fart. i kept telling myself -´don´t fart, don´t fart´ as i knew it would not be pretty. (okay, that was a bit of TMI there - but honestly, i could have been a lot more graphic. . .)

The best part of the day, though, was that kieran stayed with me the entire time (ahh, how nice :-) and so did our guide Erick. it was like we had our own personal tour guide. the rest of the group wasn´t too far ahead, but Erick made sure we were okay. he was just so awesome like that!

There was an optional hike to some ruins right before our camp, but I decided to skip it. Kieran went and told me it was a bunch of rocks ;-) I rolled into camp around 3:30 pm and passed out! I was able to eat some dinner - and was starting to feel better. thank god because there was no way i was doing that again the next day. that night, it poured at our campsite - so much so that it woke us up. i didn´t care though - i woke up without stomach pains and knew the worse was behind me (no pun intended!)

day 3 - 9 km
This day was going to be a breeze. I woke up feeling like a million times better and the terrain that day was not going to be as hard. 150 meters uphill, then 1000 meters down (3000 steps!) to lunch, which was also our last campsite. It was a beautiful day - I could actually enjoy the terrain. The trail is made up of 2 major parts - the restored trail and the actual original trail laid out over 600 years ago. We learned that the trail was 'opened' back up in 1979 by the peruvian government who restored the parts overrun by vegetation. after lunch on day 2, the trail we hiked on was the actual inca trail. it was actually nicer in parts as the incline and declines were not so severe. there were still a million stairs, but not as bad. more narrow though. anyway, it was nice to really enjoy it on this day.

we got into camp (winay wanya) around 11:45 am, grabbed our 4 soles (about $1.75) and headed for the showers! we were the 2nd group to arrive it was so nice to get clean. then, we ate lunch around 1 pm, grabbed more soles and headed up to the bar! it was so much fun. there was music to sing to (sheryl crow´s 1st album played over and over and over again - but we did not care!) we missed the 3 pm hike that erick was giving, but when he got back around 5 pm, he had the porters bring down our popcorn (from the 4 pm tea we also missed!) and we got drunk with them in the bar. we ate dinner around 7 pm and seriously, it was a rowdy crowd! i have to say, it didn´t look like any other group was having not even one tenth of the fun we had. we lucked out, seriously!

after dinner, the porters sang us a song 'Sexy Woman' and we all danced with them. kieran has it on video and i will put it up here when i returned. they all had super pachamama hands! tough buggers, i tell you. the porters carry about 50 lbs each and practically run you over on the trail. the average height is about 5 feet tall and they can´t weigh more then 120 lbs. toughest people i have ever seen.

we all passed out around 9 pm as we had a 3:45 am wake up call. tomorrow: machu picchu.

day 4 - 4 km
We were all so excited to get going this day. only 4 km (about 2.5 miles) until machu picchu. we were the 2nd group at the check point that opened up at 5:30 am. we got there around 4:50. by 5:30, the line up the trail was about 50 meters back! this day, i have to say, was the most stressful when it came to hiking. we had been ahead of most of the groups up until this point (most camp where we had lunch on days 1+2), so all of a sudden, they were all behind us.

We got to the sun gate, where you could see machu picchu on a clear day. it was fogged over, so we just kept hiking. in just a few minutes though, erick told us to run as we were going to be the FIRST group into Machu Picchu that day! Our group had formed such a bond that we became a super competitive force at this point. there was this one british group that were always on our heels - and we beat them to the end! it was the closest thing to the amazing race in my life!

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I will write more later - we are leaving Cusco today (Tuesday) instead of thursday. the elevation is kicking our behinds. i will finish up my machu picchu experience later. in the meantime - plan your own journey here. it is hard, but SOOOOOOOO worth it! you can check out our tour company at http://www.enigmaperu.com/

cheers, monica + kieran

We made it!

We mawe arrived in lima about 5 hours earlier then we had expected. we originally had a 6 hour lay over in san salvador, but in a walk around the airport, we found a flight going to lima in about 40 minutes. we pleaded to get on the ´closed´ flight - using all of our amazing race skills, thank you very much! - and were able to get on the flight. yeah for not checking luggage ;-)! we had booked a hotel in lima in central lima thinking we were going to get there, sleep, then get up to get on a flight to cusco. now that we had a few hours to kill - we decided to explore. lima is crowded (10 million people) & polluted. if you ever get there - don´t stay long. we walked around central lima and didn´t feel like eating down dingy alley ways - so we took a taxi to the miraflores area. much nicer. touristy, but hey, we don´t look like locals, so why act like them! we had a yummy dinner (monica - loma saltado, kieran- ceviche) at a place called las trajas (anniette, barb - translation por favor¿¡) then, had a few cervezas and went back to the hotel with no hot water. nice place- but no hot water.

we flew to cusco on monday. we took elevation meds in lima to help with any sickness. none yet- just really tired- we took a 1 hour nap in lima when we got there - we took a 4 hour nap in Cusco! our hotel is called the Ninos Hotel and is super nice. plus it´s a nonprofit that takes care of street kids. www.ninoshotel.com if you ever come here. close to the plaza de armas and super hot showers! plus, they have a little cafe downstairs with good, cheap food. our full breakfast today (juice, coffee, fruit, bread with jam + butter, eggs, yogurt with honey) only cost about $4. and that´s considered expenisve here! yesterday, we just aclimated in the city and of course, found an irish pub - paddy o´flaherty´s. it´s the highest irish pub in the world at over 10,000 feet.

today, we are looking into some trips for when we return from the inca trail - macchu pichu. tomorrow, our trip organizers pick us up at 4 am. ouch. we hike for 6 hours tomorrow, 8 the next day, 7 the next, then 2 on the final day into macchu pichu. wish us luck! we will report back next week some time.

that´s it for now. back to exploring.

xoxo monica + kieran