Ahhh, beautiful Buenos Aires.

Parrilla ...for....3?

     As we are about to land in Argentina, Nate looks out the airplane window and says..."It looks like Pennsylvania."  He couldn't have been referring to the flat landscape so I had to probe deeper.  It was the houses, perfectly placed along orderly paved streets by highways with signs and traffic that seemed to stay in their respective lanes.  So different than what we'd gotten use to in Peru. 
     Buenos Aires reminds me of so many different cities rolled into one.  Beautiful architecture, lots of shopping and cafes, quaint neighborhoods, fantastic food and wine, subways and bars that never seem to close and amazingly affordable.  I wouldn't say it's the polar opposite of Peru, but more like the prince and the pauper, brothers separated at birth, even speaking differently.
     We've had some great meals...with vegetables...green ones...hard to find in Peru or dangerous to actually eat.  Here we took a picture of the grilled meat from our neighbors table.  This was after they'd finished a good portion of it.  They eat a lot of meat here!  And it's tasty!  The wine has been great and sometimes the same price as a bottle of water con gas.  For breakfast we have croissants with butter and dulce de leche which is a creamy, thick caramel that I can't stop myself from licking off the plate. 
     We will most likely leave here tomorrow for Cordoba and then, if there's time, down to Patagonia.   Another 10 hour bus ride that will show us the interior of the country.   I love to see the city but quickly want to get out into more open spaces and see life in the small towns.  Buenos Aires doesn't have many green spaces, in fact according to the tourista map, they call either side of the train tracks a green space.  We will look for a park today and let Nate run off some excess energy. 
     There's been no decision yet about returning mid-June, we'll see how things progress here.  I hope you are all well and eating your seaweed.  I miss you all.
Jenny
    

Drying Coffee -Road to Tarapoto

Sea of Moto-Taxis.  Sounds like being in the center of a beehive.

Gocta and other Falls after a rain in Cocachimba. You can see that the falls are in two parts.  If they were just one, it would be the 3rd tallest waterfall in the world.

Almost at the base of the Gocta Falls

The Chachapoyas Fortress of Kuelap

Hidden bones in the walls of Kuelap.  Friend or Foe? Hmmm.

Every house had its own Guinea Pig runs.  Keep your food close!

A view of the falls from our balcony.

With the exception of after a rain, Gocta's waterfall just becomes mist at the bottom.  This mist is what kept villagers from ever visiting the falls thinking an evil Mermaid lived at that base.  Discovered by a German hiker in only 2006, it's now the 16th tallest waterfall in the world.

Reconstruction of a typical circular house in Kuelap.  The Chachapoyas built circles as opposed to the Inca rectangles.

The Fortress is thousands of years old and has housed many different civilizations and used for many different reasons until the Spanish banned living at such high altitudes.

Nate at Kuelap overlooking the crazy road to get there. Directly opposite Nate, on that road, is about 1.5-2 hours away by car. Two minutes by hang glider. Kuelap sits up 2600 meter high, approx.

Nate's Picture of Turkey Lurky

The stairs of Kuelap. Enemy soldiers would have to stand on another's back to get up the tall steps and as they did, they got picked off one by one allowing the fortress to be defended by only a handful of warriors.

Pressing Sugar Cane.  The juice comes out quite brown.

Nate's Picture of Tortoise

 Yeh, that's the stinger!  Leaves a welt like being hit with a baseball.  Nate kept two as pets...don't want to talk about it....

 Hike to glacier at the base of Nevado Huandoy, second highest mountain in the Cordillera Blanca Range at 6395m....but you start the hike at almost 4k meters.  Nate is hiking with Aisa, a girl from Lima that we met at the Lodge.

 Nate took this picture.  He says he fits more in on the diagonal.

 Bridging the gap in the trail.

 This is Charlie, the owner of Llanganuco Lodge and a great hiking guide!

 You can see Nevado Huandoy in the background.  This is the lake and pre-Inca ruins located just behind the lodge. You can also see the trail, just above Dan's head, that leads to the glacier.

 This picture does the mountain no justice.

 Here we are in Huanchaco after an 8 hour overnight bus.  Nate loves this game of tide tag.

 Reed boats still used by fishermen for thousands of years and also called caballitos de tortora (little horses). They only last a few months and then they need to make a new one.

 Nate fishing off the pier with line, two hooks and some sand crabs as bait.

 Don't worry....we threw this little guy back.  Most of the others on the pier kept them, however.

The tortoise and the hair.

This is me, Shane, Salomon and Noah's hand playing Slap-jack. We are at the Llanganuco Mountain Lodge up in the Cordillera Blanca mountains.  We did a lot of hiking.  I hiked for eight hours one day, with a few stops because a lot of parts were really hard.  We had to climb and cross rivers.  I had to use a tree to cross the river.

This is me drawing the tortoise.
He lives in Naylamp Hostel where we are staying. 
 The town is called Huanchaco!
It's on the Pacific Ocean. 

By Nate

 This is me combing the horse, and I pet the horse too.  the horse is really soft. the horse is called  a ( Peruvian Paso)                                                                                            

This is me going to visit a nursery school in Peru.

These kids brush their teeth so well I cant Believe it.       

This is a animal chart in Spanish.

A day of relaxation at the Lazy Dog Inn

We have come to realize that every trip involves a bumpy taxi ride.  It's the kind of bumpy that I have to grip my abdomen to make sure all my organs stay intact.
We decided we had to get out of the city of Huaraz because it's so noisy (from fire crackers, taxis beeping, dogs fighting and howling) and dirty from car exhaust.  I had researched an eco-friendly inn located in the hills above Huaraz that seemed like a perfect escape and close to some of the hikes of the Cordillera Blanca.  Close is, of course, relative.  The map shows the Lazy Dog Inn 8 km from town, out of the city, but close enough to get supplies if needed.  After our 50 minute, 30 Soles (about $10) taxi ride up a long, windy, bumpy road I thought, "We'll never be coming back down." Let's abandon our laundry that we've left in town."    Unfortunately, this is par for every course or camino (path or trail).
Once arriving at the Lazy Dog, all is right with the world...beautiful, scenic, organic, friendly with every amenity.  Dan and I actually have a marriage bed instead of two twins pushed together.  Nate is so happy to be able to spend time outside playing with two Lab puppies and climbing on all the boulders.
The next day we feel refreshed and want to take a hike to the glacier which other hikers describe as an easy hike.  We take a taxi to the top, on others suggestion,  an hour drive up another bumpy road that has switchbacks that defy sense.  We find that it is almost as fast to hike up as to drive, if you were in reasonably good shape and acclimated to the altitude.  This taxi ride costs 100 Soles or about $35.  After the hike back down, we decide that it was worth it.
The hike was about 6 hours across paths that mountain goats could probably traverse easily.  I held my breath as Nate scrambled along, mentally keeping him from slipping and falling down some sheer rock face.
I think the pictures will tell the rest of the story.  The glacier, much smaller now than 20 years ago, is stunning.  I tried to paint it, futilely, finding I just have a picture of sky and few black dots.  Dan and Nate explored the glacier a little closer, finding an ice cave and climbing the many large boulders.
Today I rest up from the hike and try to hydrate, having bouts of altitude sickness which can be, but not limited to, headaches, nausea and fatigue.  The Peruvians serve coco matte, a tea which cures everything from cancer to constipation.  It tastes like steeped grass, which Nate just describes as tasting green.  We want to go visit the lakes region, a 3 hour taxi ride each way.  That probably means its just over the mountain from here.  I'm trying to prepare myself mentally....perhaps some coco matte will help.

 The glacier is behind the pass between those cliffs.  This is the trail to get there. The glacier use to come to the opening of the pass 20 years ago.

 The road to the glacier.  Crazy windy.

 The road, up close.

 The first lake we come to with beautiful seafoam green water.

 At the base of the glacier.

 Lupine

 Cave inside the glacier.

 View from the glacier.

 A shitter.  Another way to say it.  Servecios hermeticos.  (not sure if I got the spanish right)

 The valley floor.  A serpentine glacial stream.

Wild flowers and more of the crazy road.