More Montana

Dog tired.


Megan and Pepper.


Probably discussing rocks or something.

Megan, Malinda, and Me in Montana

Calf A Cafe. Good name.


Hiking.


Elfish and intellectual?


Cooking a frozen pizza in the campfire. Classy.

Chugchilan and Quilotoa

I spent two days and two nights on the Chugchilan loop just south of Quito. Chugchilan is a very small Andean town with three competing hostels and plenty of young gringos searching for the experience that comes so very highly recommended in every Ecuadorian guidebook. The guidebooks are right though. I would definitely say the hike near Chugchilan at Laguna Quilotoa is one of the most beautiful I've ever done. These photos almost do it justice. The light was better when I was there...


Laguna Quilotoa. It's in the crater of an old volcano. This is the start of the hike. You can also kayak around for pretty cheap, which I did, and it was awesome.


View near Chugchilan. Lots of gulleys and valleys in this area. We had to cross a landslide that was still sliding.

Cuenca

Cuenca is a very nicely-kept city also in the south of Ecuador. It was my next stop after Loja, and I spent about three days there, admiring all the buildings, watching a local soccer game, and visiting museums, including one exhibit on the shrunken heads of the Shuar people in the Amazon. Very cool. Cuenca is also the cultural center of Ecuador, the home of panama hats and free hippie concerts in the plaza where Colombianas dance around and throw flower petals at the crowd in overly emotive gestures.


Cuenca corner, not too far from the modern art museum.


The top of Cuenca's cathedral, which was HUGE and gorgeous.

Aloha from Loja

Loja, Ecuador is a great, smallish city in the south.


This is a statue of Loja's founder in the plaza off the main plaza. Lojanos love their plazas, their colonial architecture, and statues of various heroes. Simon Bolivar must have a hundred statues, busts, and murals all over town.


After my bus in Peru was hijacked and I was threatened and robbed at gunpoint, which I am counting as a near-death experience, the only significant life change I have made is that I am eating more dessert more frequently and sooner. I am visiting a lot of pastelerias like this one in Loja. Ecuador makes a pretty good doughnut.


View of Loja. But it is actually rainier than this right now.

Aloha from Loja

Loja, Ecuador is a great, smallish city in the south.


This is a statue of Loja's founder in the plaza off the main plaza. Lojanos love their plazas, their colonial architecture, and statues of various heroes. Simon Bolivar must have a hundred statues, busts, and murals all over town.


After my bus in Peru was hijacked and I was threatened and robbed at gunpoint, which I am counting as a near-death experience, the only significant life change I have made is that I am eating more dessert more frequently and sooner. I am visiting a lot of pastelerias like this one in Loja. Ecuador makes a pretty good doughnut.


View of Loja. But it is actually rainier than this right now.

More Kuelap

I did a big, long 5-day trek around Chachapoya, this one Zabajaba jungle-style (that is to say, it was hot, confusing, machetes were needed, and there were large birds, butterflies...no baboons with blue butts though), and ended up at this great mountaintop site, which is supposed to be the crown jewel of Amazonas´s archaeology.


Traditional Chachapoya circular houses. Pointy tops.


Overgrown walls. Gruesomely, people are buried inside.


Kuelap entrance.

(These photos aren´t mine, by the way. The digital camera was lost/stolen, so I'm working with a mechanical one now. These are stolen from the internet.)

Chachapoyas

Aerial view of Chachapoyas, a nice Andean town. Right now I'm sitting in a little internet cafe just next to that church steeple there.


Approach to Kuelap. It's a pre-Inkan fortress way, way up on a peak overlooking the Chachapoyan region. Very high. Very beautiful.

La Laguna de los Condores

This is an image of the lake that I tried to find Indiana Jones-style on a three day hike. The muddy trail just kind of peters out as you get close. I climbed a couple of nearby hills to see if I could spot it, but I couldn´t. Oh well, wasn´t meant to be.

There is a Pre-Incan mausoleum site here, built into the side of the cliff over the lake. They found a lot of mummies there about 10 years ago and it was a big deal. Here's an abstract that had me excited about it: http://www.archaeology.org/9803/abstracts/andes.html

Miguel

This pretty much sums up Miguel, who I stayed with in Trujillo the final week. He's wearing my hat.

We made it to the top!

Mountain

We went over the pass in the little notch just to the right of this peak.

Mountain flowers

Camp cook

Happy hiker

Huaraz

Blanket scarf.


Burros.


Beginning of the Santa Cruz Trek.


Huaraz in the early morning.


Hi, Greta!

Cape and Skirt

Last Saturday.

Central plaza in Trujillo.


Que romantico.


Julio.


Futbol a la playa. Apparently, I am good "for a gringo."


Handstands in the crosswalk.

Con los Niños

Probably up to some mischief.


Kaern and Greta.


Me with the group, a house of cards (thanks Jefunira Camp!), and some sort of Michaelangelo "Creation of Man" hand motions going on here.

Chan Chan means "Sun Sun"

Greta and I visited the nearby archaelogical site of Chan Chan the other day. It´s just outside the city limits of Trujillo. We thought it was an old Incan ruin, but apparently it is an old Chimu ruin. Got it. The Incans actually invaded and conquered the Chimu civilization in 1470 AD. Archaelogists believe that Chan Chan represents the largest prehispanic mudb-brick settlement in all the Americas. Take that, Pueblo Indians! Anyways, it was pretty interesting, and here are some pictures:


Remnants of the walls in the administrative center of Chan Chan. Our guide informed us that the mesh pattern was meant to represent fishing nets.


The city had over 160 resevoirs, like this one, which helped the Chimu resist the Incan invasion for 10 years even after the Incas had cut off the water supply from the mountains.


Either a meeting place or a treasurey. Nobody knows for sure...dun dun DUH!


Standing around in front of the storerooms, where tribute and taxes from all over the Chimu empire was hoarded away. There was room for a lot of lima beans and llama fur.

Around home

We miss home, so we´re making Kraft mac and cheese. It's a really small kitchen.


Greta and Miguel playing cards. Miguel´s our new neighborhood friend.


I´m so excited about the Kraft that I can´t even hold the camera still.