Monkey Business

(Preto, means devil in monkey language)

(Natalie with Paulina and Patricio)

(Dave with his new best friend)


(water taxi crossing the río beni)

Well, officially, monkey non-profit.
Our trip hasn´t been all fun and games, as we spent the last week volunteering at a small animal sanctuary. Our work there included harvesting peanuts (mani), harvesting yucca, and hacking a path to the water well in the jungle. It was some tough work in the hot sun. But who are we kidding, it was mostly fun and games with the spider monkeys, China, Paulina, Preto, and Patricio.
Despite the four plus hour combi bus ride in each direction over some of the worst road conditions we´ve ever seen (or our rear ends have ever felt), we had an amazing experience. Run solely by seven-month-pregnant Franci on sixty hectares of land with no electricity or flushing toilets, Esperanza de Libertad is a wonderful little refuge for some fortunate rescue animals. The land is located about 15 km (half hour by said road) outsite of Ixamas, which is 3-5 hours outside of Rurrenabaque, which is an 18+ hour bus ride from La Laz. We were glad we could make a small contribution to the work that Franci is doing to help some animals in need of some friends.

Sure footed as a mule?

Greetings from Copacabana, Bolivia (see picture 2). While it has been great to be in this tranquil, lakeside town, I am dismayed to report that the intestinal monster has struck again. While I have an affinity for mosquitos, fleas, sandflies and whatever other insect that bites, poor Dave seems to be well-liked by intestinal parasites and bacteria. The good news is that he is on the mend once again and today we head off to La Paz eager to try the cheapest, tastiest, organic, fair-trade chocolate in the world!

Given that we´ve been too ´distracted´to post frequently, here´s a quick recap of the last two weeks or so. First, the name of this post is inspired by our trip to Cañon del Colca, the second deepest canyon in the world. As you can see in picture 1, it´s pretty crazy but not quite the same sort of image as the grand canyon. We hiked down into the canyon to this small oasis. Unfortunately, given the blazing heat of the sun and effects of the altitude, I was too big of a wimp to hike back up the 1000 meters we descended and we hired mules. It was quite the nail-biting experience because Dave´s mule was either sick from exhaustion or just too old to work hard and fell down numerous times. Now, imagine you are on a mule, now imagine this mule hopping up a very steep ascent with a huge drop off, and finally, picture this mule slipping and falling every 10 minutes or so. Pretty scary. We were very relieved to reach the top although our bruised butts were not. Still the scenery made it all well worth the experience.

Finally, the last two pictures are from my trip to Isla del Sol (unfortunately, Dave was home sick with said intestinal ailment). I´ve already written too much so I´ll be brief: the first picture is of Lake Titicaka and Cordillera mountain range in Bolivia. The second picture is of Isla del Sol. Very pretty trip although it would have been better if Dave could have been there.

That´s all for now, since we´re heading off to our jungle adventure soon, it may be a while until our next post.

Holy Crap!

(Arequipa, Peru)
(Bus ride from Nazca to Arequipa)

The title of this post refers, in triplicate, to the week following the previous post. The religious processions continued throughout the week in Ayacucho, and were unlike anything we´d ever see at home. Appatently every Peruvian vacations during Easter week, making it nearly impossible for us to book a room for our onward travel. Luckily, after many desperate telephone calls, we booked a room and were prepared for departure on the overnight bus to Ica.

Remember when Dave was getting better, and then Natalie was getting better, and things were looking up? That was before Natalie had to request that the overnight bus pull over so Dave could remedy his intestinal problem to the viewing pleasure of the entire right side of the bus. Fortunately it was only eight more hours until our next stop...

Upon arriving in Ica (translates to ¨worst place in Peru¨), that hostel with the one room available in Ica claimed that we had not made a reservation and there were no rooms left. By the grace of our cab driver, we found a room (and a bathroom) ten hostel/hotels later. A day and a half spend in said bathroom ensued for Dave.

After complete recovery, we left Ica in the literal and figurative dust for a night in Nazca, and then Arequipa. Despite the exhausting bus rides and intestinal recalcitrance, the scenery in Peru has left us in a perpetual state of amazement. The vastness of the landscapes, the towering Andes, and the deepest canyons in the world are just a few of the visual highlight. These can be seen above in the latest round of pictures. Today we´re in Copacabana, Bolivia, on Lake Titicaca, for another highlight on what seems to be a never ending reel of ¨holy crap¨ inducing sight. Our South America adventure is past the halfway point, and the light quickly advances.

Thousands of mg´s of cipro later...

Picking up from where we left off...we find ourselves in the Jesus capital of Peru, Ayacucho. This week is commonly referred to as Semana Santa (the week before easter) and thousands of Peruvians flock to the Andean town of Ayacucho to celebrate in what´s known as the biggest celebration of Semana Santa in the country. Dave is getting attention in the form of dumb-founded stares, smiles, chuckles, eager hellos, or the basic "Jesus" or "Christo" cat calls. We have seen religious processions a plenty, including the one in the third photo. Otherwise a sleepy town that rarely sees gringo tourists, during Semana Santa the streets are packed with thousands of people. Hectic, but exciting.

Prior to our pilgrimage, we visited some Moche (pre-Inka) ruins outside of Trujillo. The top photo is the Temple of the Sun, which wasn´t actually called that in Moche times, so they are struggling with what to call it now. The second photo is from inside the Temple of the Moon, which, you guessed it, wasn´t actually called the Temple of the Moon. No matter what they´re called, they are some remarkable ruins, dating to sometime around 500 ad. The second photo shows a well-preserved likeness of their god, which looks slightly different than diety being paraded around in photo 3. We head southwest to rejoin the "gringo trail" tonight, and will be in Ica tomorrow. Maybe we´ll post some photos of us sandboarding, or maybe not...stay tuned.

Huanchaco! Huanchaco!

For all you anxious readers who were expecting some glorious pictures from the awesome mountain treks, we have some bad news...upon our first 24 hours in Huaraz (Dave's birthday to be exact), Dave was confined to bed with a fever and not the most pleasant intestinal situation. Thank god for Cipro. After three days of being bed ridden, we realized that glorious mountain treks were not in our future. In the first image you can see the beautiful Cordillera Blanca mountain range that taunted us every day from our hostel patio. After much disappointment and many trips to the bathroom, we decided to let go of Huaraz and head to the beach for some recuperation. Our lovely hostel family took great care of us until we embarked on the 9 hour overnight bus ride to Trujillo. From Trujillo we hopped on a rickety yet brightly painted "combi" (short bus) to Huanchaco, an old fishing village on the north coast of Peru. The name of the post is inspired by what the bus navigators yell at you from the street in effort to coax you onto the combi. So far, Huanchaco has been well worth the trip and we've eaten some ceviche, in defiance of the intestinal troubles. Stay tuned for more as we head back to Lima tomorrow to begin our journey through the Central Highlands of Peru (but not before we find a sports bar for the final four...sigh).

Maracuya = Passion Fruit

So Natalie found some jugo de maracuya, which comes in first on our things to blog about list. Second is the fact that the symbols on the keyboards dont correspond to what shows on the screen, so until we figure it out you will be seeing limited apostrophes, parentheses, and colons. Third, is the fact that Iron Maiden played the national stadium in Lima and people were waiting in line for 5-6 hours all well equipped with their Iron Maiden or Dio shirts. We seriously considered going but given that we had left our Iron Maiden shirts at the hostal, we figured we'd wait until next time.

The photos above are from Lima. The first is our lovely little hostel. The second is from the Plaza de Armas. The third is of the changing of the guard at the presidential residence. Quite a silly little picture if you ask us. We just had to post it. Anyway...we are in Huaraz now, after an 8 hour bus ride, and are trying to acclimatize to 9000 ft or so. Pardon the short post and check back soon for more exciting scenery.

Robert Burns, Penguins, Airplane Sunsets: What do these things have in common?

They are all sights we've been to lazy to post about until now. But "wait," you say. Robert Burns, in New Zealand? Yes, Dunedin has a strong Scottish heritage, and the name Dunedin actually comes from the Scottish Gaelic words for Edinburgh, Dun Eideann. Dunedin is home to the University of Otago, and it is quite the nice little college city. We found some surprisingly good museums, and a spectacular (i.e. cheap) fish market. Also of note, our room was nicer than most hotel rooms we've stayed in, but the Hostel was named Hogwarts. I didn't want to disclose that fact, but we'll let it attest the candor of our blogging.
But "wait," you persist. Penguins? Yes, New Zealand is home to several species of penguins. The photo above was taken at a sanctuary/rescue center north of Dunedin. The penguins were molting during March and are particularly sensitive to the elements and vulnerable to predation during this period. There were several dozen birds being taken care of in the rescue center, but we were able to snap a photo of this little fella out in the open. I can verify that Natalie was slightly whelmed by her sighting of wild penguins.
So concluded our New Zealand vacation. It is impossible to describe the welcome we received and the helpfulness of people we met, both Kiwi and fellow travelers. Similarly, the photos betray the grandeur of the natural scenery. A nearly perfect trip was had by both of us, despite the less than luxury sleeping conditions, a few burnt tuna melts, and a good soaking or two. As if the sights from ground had not convinced us to return to New Zealand, we were left with one final sunset from 30,000 feet.
As I write this it is 1:30 am (my excuse for unfixed typos or nonsensical sentences), and our journey to South America begins in less than three hours. Hopefully, we will post as (ir)regularly as we did during the first half of our adventure. We are scheduled to arrive in Lima at 4:30 on Wednesday morning, and depart from La Paz on the 11th of May. Stay tuned to see what actually transpires. Thanks for reading, and don't be afraid to post!

Gee, New Zealand is Pretty

The Milford Sound is the one thing everyone is told that they have to see when going to New Zealand. So, we decided that it was the one thing (well technically second besides Tongariro Crossing) that we were going to definitely see. I think we would both agree that it was worth it. I don't even know if words can describe what it was like. Imagine landing in Neverland and seeing tons of waterfalls falling from the cliffs of these crazy green land masses. They say that it is best to see Milford Sound during the rain because the ground cannot absorb the water and therefore it releases the waters in the form of hundreds of waterfalls. Anyways...the picture may give you a glimpse of what it was like. The last picture is there because of personal request for more pictures of the two of us and I think it had the lowest resolution of the pics of both of us. Anyway, the internet timer is running out. Miss you and hopefully we'll post again before we vacation in SF for a week.

Pancakes and Glassy-ers

Hey there patient blog readers. We're finally at a place and have the trifecta going: free time, a decent internet connection at a reasonable price, and a slight interest in blogging. There are so many things to post I'm not sure where to start. I suppose I'll start with the West Coast of the South Island, including the Pancake Rocks and Fox Glacier (that's pronounced glassy-er for those of you not on our guided bus rides) and then let Natalie take over.
The first image is of the Pancake Rocks. They are layered rocks created from the shells of sea creatures. The rocks built up at the bottom of the sea floor when the ocean level was much higher. Erosion over time has made them the shape they are now. Want to know why they are in such odd layers? Nobody knows, so we can't help you.
The second image is Fox Glacier. It is a glacier. It is big and icy. That's all I have on that one. We did a nice 2-hour hike to get some good (or maybe not so good, you can decide) views of the glacier and the valley. It was pretty impressive, sort of like everything else we've seen since we've been here.

Lani, Shiloh, and Aarla's Farm

It turns out that being ditched by our wwoofing host was a blessing in disguise. We decided to stay with a friend of a friend of someone we volunteer with (at the Alemany Farm) at their home in Ngatimoti (outside of Motueka). Good luck finding it on Google Earth. The first picture is of the general setting of the property and the second is of their house, which they built themselves.
The property is about 60 hectares (roughly 120 acres I think?) in all, but they don't use all of it. Some is native forest restoration. They grow probably 99% of their food, everything from apples to zucchini. Probably the most impressive was the fact that they had enough rye and other grains to bake bread almost every day (even challah for Shabbat!). They grow around 25 varieties of apples, along with plenty of other fruits. The first day we were there they were pressing the fruits for juice. On the second day Natalie helped pasteurize and bottle the juice which they will drink throughout the year. They use a composting toilet, have a water wheel and solar paneling for electricity (which they use very little of), and make their own baskets and candles from things on their property.
We felt very blessed to have been taken in for three nights with no expectation of having to work or help out in any way, even though we did contribute a few hours of field hoeing. It was an impressive example of how to live your life with very little impact on the environment, and was exactly what (Dave) was looking for in a New Zealand farm experience. There is so much to tell we can't begin to write it all here, so feel free to ask us all about it when you talk to us. For now it's back to the tourist track, so we'll post more mountains, rivers, oceans, and maybe even something from our wine-beach-sunset photo set soon!

Farewell Spit

Hello! This post will be brief because we're doing one more tomorrow morning! Super brief actually. These pictures are from our last day in Takaka. We hitched up to the Farewell Spit (pictured first) which is known as a sanctuary for lots of migrating birds. Black swans were an example of one of these bird species. We then proceeded to hike along the hillside of the coast to Cape Farewell where we saw a cove of seals (pictured second). It was (again) a beautiful hike with tons of wonderful views. The hike ended at beach with the craziest sand dunes we've ever seen. We then got a ride back to Takaka from the only Mexican we've ever met in New Zealand and looked exactly like Fez from That 70's Show. He had actually lived in Castro Valley for a couple months and had family in San Jose. We were his first hitchhikers ever. Luckily, at that point, we were not attacked by sand flies....which I can't say is true anymore.

(Mis)Adventures in Paradise

Hey everyone. We're back for another installation of our sporadically updated blog. The last few days have been a wild ride. The first photo you just looked at was from the Cuba Street Carnival, a bi-annual festival in Wellington. Unbeknownst to us, the Carnival was scheduled for the weekend we were to be in town, thereby limiting our hostel choices. The Carnival was actually a great time, with closed off streets and a nighttime parade. It really made our Wellington experience pretty exciting.
We departed on the ferry to the South Island on Sunday morning, and arrived in the lovely town of Nelson Sunday afternoon. Our experience there could not have been better, with a near-bed-and-breakfast experience at the greatest hostel in New Zealand.
Then the trouble started. We arrived in Takaka for our next wwoofing (farming) stint and our host was not at the bus stop. After a frantic hour, we ended up at a hostel and found that our host had come to the bus stop at the wrong time. We decided that was a bad sign and nixed the wwoofing all together (i.e. more vacation). The next day we borrowed bikes from the hostel and rode to the beach (about 10k, see picture 2). After a lovely few hours we decided to beat the storm clouds home. Our bike tire had other ideas. We carefully navigated the curvy roads until a very generous couple offered us a ride back to our hostel, bikes in tow.

p.s. For those of you having trouble posting, we've talked to the blog administrators and hopefully the problem is solved.

Tongariro Crossing

Sorry for the delay. We're been constantly on the road since we left Naomi's place on the 18th. The pictures above are from our one day trek on Tongariro Crossing. The hike is meant to be the best one day trek in all of New Zealand. Unfortunately, as you can see from the pictures, it was quite misty (it felt the way we imagined it felt for the two characters from the Road...either that or the hobbits' journey to Mordor). Luckily, the mist cleared long enough for us to see one of the main sights of the trek, the Emerald Lakes. It was a beautiful hike - completely prehistoric for the first bit and then we ascended to the top of the red crater (which was completely covered in mist). At this point it was rugged and had volcanic rock formations on the mountainside. The post card picture portion of the hike was definitely the Emerald Lakes (pictured above). We then headed down to the lunch hut where we munched on peanut butter sandwiches and pumpkin seeds and made our way down to our pick up spot. It was pretty amazing because the desolate, volcanic, mountainous landscape was suddenly transformed into a lush jungle. We even thought for a while that we had made a wrong turn! All in all it was pretty cool and so were the victorious Cadbury chocolates and Mac beers that we had to celebrate afterwards.

Castle Rock

We're almost finished with our first wwoofing location. We can't believe we've been in the Coromandel for two weeks. Yesterday we figured we better do something exciting, since most of the time we've spent sitting on the beach, sitting at the creek side, or huddled in our caravan pining for burritos. Our journey began with a quick hitch into town to stock up on the necessities: smoked mackerel, granola bars, and apples. After a 4k walk to the start of the 309 Road, we parked our butts on the side of the road, awaiting the assistance of a kind soul (see photo 1). In the background you can see our destination, Castle Rock. After 1/2 hour of twiddling our thumbs, a wonderful pair of kiwis picked us up and drove us right to the trail head. After searching for the trail head for another half hour (that's right, they dropped us right at it and we still couldn't find it), we did the hour climb to the top (see photo 2). It was a mildly challenging hike and was a good warm up for what's in store for us at the end of the week (see photos not yet posted). After another kind soul brought us all the way back into town, we picked up a bottle of wine and some artichoke hearts for a shared dinner with eight of our closest friends (Naomi, our wwoof host; Simon, German wwoofer; Ruth, Scotty and Roni, Naomi's kiwi neighbors who work at the market and garden with us; Naomi's son and son's girlfriend; Lynn, English herbalist visiting Coromandel). We'll definitely be sad to say goodbye to all our new friends but it's time to move on!

Hot and Sweaty

Hello! It's Monday and we spent the morning shovelling horse poop and turning over beds. The work is only hard because it's a million degrees in the sun and they have some blood thirsty mosquitoes in this area.
The top picture is from a hike we did through a small kauri grove on Saturday. Dave had us take the "roughing it" road to the water where that picture is shot. It was a bit of an adventure and there were times when I wished I had some bread crumbs so we could find our way back through the brush.
The next picture shows our wwoofer accommodations. To the left, is our lovely camper van that you've heard so much about. To the right are our dining quarters fully equipped with propane stove and a refrigerator. (Not pictured is the outhouse that we use to go to the bathroom) If you head down behind the eating area there's a wonderful little creek AKA "the swimming hole" that has a nice little family of eels living in it.
That's all for today! Hope you all are well and miss you!!

Rings Road Herbal Dispensery

Hey there patient readers. Sorry we haven't posted in a while (and that there is no accompanying picture for this post), but we do not have an internet connection in our lovely camper. We do, however, have large spiders, mosquitoes, and plenty of flies to go around. Today (Sunday) is our day off from the typical two-hour workday and we plan to spend it hitching around to more remote locations. The weather is hot, the scenery is amazing, the town is quaint, and folks are quite friendly. We'll be busy lounging on secluded beaches, so we'll post some pictures when we have a chance.

Superbowl XLIII

In case you guys were worried, we found an American themed bar called the Mustang Saloon where we watched the superbowl. Trying to be inconspicuous with the camera, we couldn't capture the full Amercian-ness of the establishment in the photo. But in case you're curious: every employee wore a cowboy hat and NFL jersey, swinging saloon-style doors, deer antlers, license plates hung on the walls, and much much more.

As for tomorrow (now today for us but two days later for you!), we plan to go on a day hike, maybe check out a beach and then we head off to Cormandel Town for our first farm. More to come later!

Queen Street, Auckland, NZ

7 am this morning and don't we look well rested. Thinking of going to the Auckland museum today and finding a place where we can watch the superbowl without getting cross-eyed looks...Brain dead right now. Will write more when our brains function above 20% of capacity.

First Stop, Security Lines!