MALARIA!

Krista has just been diagnosed with Malaria to add to the thrills so send her lots of sympathy! She's a trooper! xx

Chasing Cate and Krista

*So, since our last comprehensive post...we went to lay by that pool, but it was cold. Apparently fall arrived in South Africa three days after we did! This was definitely another set back in our return-to-the-states-way-tan-to-make-everyone-jealous plan.

*Went to a benefit dinner organized by C's aunt Diana's family friend. It was delicious Italian meal, complete with a grappa tasting that benefited the Starfish Foundation. After the dinner we stayed with C's godmother Karin, who's a little fireball with more energy than the both of us combined, and her lovely husband Loew, as a closer launching off point to explore Cape Town. We woke up early the next morning to tour Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 16 years. We were about to load into the car when due to the early morning combo of malaria pill on empty stomach and eating yogurt K threw up. (The tally is currently C=75 and K= 10, K is gaining on C with much thanks due to doxycyclin!)

*Anyway, K toughed it out, Robben Island happened and it was amazing. Nelson Mandela and many other important political prisoners were imprisoned there (including our guide!) for much of the apartheid era in SA. It's nickname was "the university" because it became such a breeding ground for ideas about how a new South Africa should be run and even an opportunity to implement a more socialist and anti-segregation lifestyle model.

*We spent four days with C's gran in Simonstown braving the bold wind and hitting all of the highlights - Boulders (where the Jackass Penguins were full swing in mating season), Cape Point, Gran's favorite fish and chips restaurant, a picnic at Nordhoek, a visit to Uncle Peter, and interminable amounts of tea!

*We got brave and independent (after being mollycoddled by family for over a week) and hired a car for a week. Krista drove.

*We drove to Rawsonville where C's aunt and uncle have a beautiful vineyard. http://www.eensgevonden.co.za/Farmstead.html. We had some nice dinners and discussions, a long walk up the mountain, and an early(ish) jump into the swimming hole.

*We then drove to Wilderness on the Garden Route for two nights at a backpackers hostel on the beach. Here we picked up an adventurous, good looking, hitch-hiker-picking-up Brit and exemplary third muskateer, Max (or Maxine if you'd prefer!), who came with us canoeing and canyoning (they call it kloofing in SA) and provided us with this fun clip: http://gallery.me.com/yatesmax#100106

*We drove back to Cape Town and convinced Max and Sonya to climb Table Mtn with us which was steep, but well worth the effort and intense organization by all family members! To celebrate, we went for lunch at fancy Camp's Bay and then said sad goodbyes to our new friends and the beautiful city.

*Had a final dinner of Aunt Diana's delicious babootie, packed up, slept one last night in our borrowed house, and grabbed an early morning flight to Joburg.

*Spent the day in Joburg (very last minute, thank you for taking us) with Martin family friends - the Osborne's. Had time for a flick ( the new Hannah Montana, very soul nourishing, a bit homesick making, and completely age appropriate!) and a lovely steak dinner with Richie O and all his very important banking friends.

*Began an epic trip to find Laura Henson, Peace Corps volunteer extraordinaire, in Vilankulos.

*Took an 8 hr. overnight bus from Joburg to Maputo, Mozambique (a pretty sketchy thing to do in Africa apparently), a 11 hr. chapa (or chicken bus) from Maputo to just outside Massinga where the radiator burst. Charmed a NGO worker into giving us a lift into town where the triumverate of super PCV's saved us, fed us avocado sandwiches (much needed), taught us a few new GRE words (we knew most of them coming in) and were our guides to hitching in Moz.

*That said, we hitched the remaining 4 hrs in the back of police truck hitting or swerving to miss potholes approximately every 6 minutes while super Ali tried to convince the interested men in the front that all the girls aboard were married and super Chase and super Pat read difficult books in Portugese.

*Arrived in Vil, elated, and went straight to the beach.

*Spent night grooving with Peace Corps Mozambique volunteers who were preparing for Beach Beer Olympics the next day.

*Missed a majority of the Olympic events the next day due to a pre-arranged and fabulous snorkling trip.

*Joined BBO in the late afternoon, joined in the reveling of the volunteers still standing, and added a few interesting competitions of our own - the shimmy competetion, the pick-up-the wallet-on-from-floor-dance competition, and the midnight-swim-with-the-phosphorescents- who's-in?-competition.

*Played a pretty intense game of beach volleyball, had a delicious dinner at an oceanside resort, shopped the markets for our own kapalanas with Laura as a trusted guide, and left a little sad to say goodbye.

*Another chapa, punctuated by a lovely dinner with super Ali in Maputo, another overnight bus back to Joburg, a rearranging of bags in Joburg and a flight to Zimbabwe where some faulty landing equipment gave Cate a bit of a fright and Krista a reason to open her eyes for a sec and hold Cate's hand, but clearly proved to be ok.

*Arrived in Harare, picked up by C's cousin Christy and daughter Keira. Dinner with the whole Martin brood at Murray Martin's house. An evening pick up of the effervescent and good looking Mr. William Cathcart, Jr. who seems not to be bothered by his 24plus hr trip.

*A day of planning and recovering followed by a long weekend in Mana Pools, a game reserve in Zimbabwe, with a group of good people. Highlights include a hippo in the camp on the first night as Will is stubbornly taking off for an advised-against night walk, an elephant walking through the camp midday strikingly close to Cate alone in her tent, many scary animal-attack stories and delicious dinners by the camp fire, and some good animal spotting. Check out Will's article for the Charleston Mercury. http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&pid=gmail&attid=0.1&thid=12145ed645d300c9&mt=application%2Fpdf&pli=1

*A sad farewell to Will, a day of K shadowing C's uncle, the now infamous Dr. Kevin who delivers babies by torch light and looks up surgeries he's never done online before performing them, and C visiting Aunt Gill's schools.

*A terrifying Air Zim flight (at a very low flying altitude) to Victoria Falls preceded and delayed by an official Zimbabwean welcoming ceremony to some Asian dignitary on the tarmac!

*Two days at a cool backpackers in Vic Falls, a risky canoe trip down the Zambezi on the lookout for lurking crocs and hippos the whole time, almost running out of money and not being able to use any ATM's in Zim as they've just switched to the US dollar and don't have enough currency, a flight to Nairobi where we're safe in the ghetto with a Pentecostal preacher as a house mom and projects that we're thrilled with!

More anon....

Help Wanted!

So the volunteering has started in earnest, and I think someone in Zimbabwe best described the difference between Africa and the rest of the world as:

In Africa you're a free-range chicken, and everywhere else you're in a cage.

Meaning there is more danger, but also more freedom. And in the case of this volunteering placement, there is more chaos, but more opportunity to really make a difference.

In Peru, I was slotted into an already established system. Granted it was a system that needed an overhaul, but that wasn't going to be achieved by me in 2 weeks, so I used the time to learn, observe, and give them another pair of hands.

This placement, however, with the Local Aid Organization (actually their official name) is much more...entrepreneurial. As Cate said, we're living and working in a slum (more on that later), and many years ago two women from this community started reaching out to people in the community with HIV/AIDS. Josephine, a social worker, and Elosy, a teacher, both eventually quit their jobs to do this full time. It's a grass-roots effort on their part and in my opinion the best kind of aid since it comes from people within the community who are familiar with its people and challenges.

Their outreach has come in many forms:

• Counseling women with AIDS
• Home visits to make sure the women are ok, have food, and are taking their medication
• Working on starting a clinic in their office so people can receive treatment without having to pay to get to the hospital
• They started a school for orphans, kids with HIV, and other kids that have fallen through the government's school system since there aren't enough schools and the fees are expensive.
• Started a bead making program where they sell necklaces the women have made to give the women some income and to help pay the rent on their office ($75/month).
• Running workshops on business management and providing care for HIV+ children.

So, I've spent the last few days going on home visits (by 'home' I mean 10x10 tin-roofed shacks that house families of 5), teaching health and hygiene to the kids at the school (hard to tell them to brush their teeth twice a day when they don't have toothpaste!), and talking to Josephine and Elosy about what their priorities are and what they need.

I was planning on emailing my friends who have worked in development and with non-profits, but realized I should send this out to everyone because the more minds we have working on this the better! What the women have already accomplished is amazing, so we're just trying to figure out ways to sustain what they are doing and implement their priority programs. So if you have any ideas, please post them on here or email me at: krista.buckley@gmail.com!

Bead Program:

They'd like to have a way to sell these necklaces. Most of the local places charge a large percentage that makes it impractical to use that avenue. If anyone can think of specific groups that are already selling crafts made by women in Africa please let me know.

Other Income-generating schemes:

Their aim is to make these woman as self-sustaining as possible, so they are always looking for new incoming-generating plans like the bead program, especially since so many other groups are making necklaces also. I know it's hard from there to imagine what enterprises might be possible for this women, but throw your ideas out there! Some other things the women do are knitting sweaters for school uniforms, selling fish or groceries, etc.

Sponsoring a child:

We'd like to set up a website, either an independent one or through an established charity that already links donors up with children so their school fees can be paid. There are only 2 government schools for the well over 100,000 people in this slum, and they charge $63 a term which many people can't afford. So there are many 'informal schools' like the Glad Kids School that have sprung up to fill the gap. Glad Kids, which currently has 70 kids enrolled from ages 3-14, only charges $15/term but many kids can't pay their fees. We'd like to have the fees paid so that the teachers can receive a little stipend because it's hard to retain teachers very long on a volunteer basis. If you know of any website designers that would make a website for free for an NGO/charity let me know! Or of a good established one that might be taking on more students to sponsor!

Porridge Program Donations:

Many of the kids who go home for lunch don't actually get any food, because there isn't any. So they are trying to set up a feeding program so they can give the kids porridge once a day (I tried it last night...frankly I think I'd rather go hungry, but the kids seem to love it!). Someone in the community has donated the corn meal for the first term, another lady has given them an extra pot to cook it in, and I'm planning on buying the coals for cooking it and the bowls to serve it in tomorrow for the first month (it's about $100 to feed 70 kids lunch for a month). If you're at all interested in helping with that you can donate on our website: cateandkrista.com. I know most of you have already supported us a LOT, so no pressure, I just thought it would be a very direct way you could literally help feed a child if you were interested and I'll try to post some pictures when the program starts next week.

Sister School:

Ideally, for a sustainable way to support the school and the porridge program, I'd love to set it up with an elementary school in the US. The school is like an expanded version of the tin-roofed shacks with three classrooms and an office. They don't have running water or a kitchen to cook in (current plan is to cook porridge outside). So those are two improvements they'd like to eventually make happen, but they also struggle with daily issues of some kids not having any shoes, not being able to afford books, etc. Setting them up with sister school could ensure donations of old books, equipment, etc from US schools and also start a cross cultural understanding- so the kids in the slum in Kenya can see that there is another way to live and the kids in America can see how lucky they really are! Lots of schools already have this set up, but I thought I'd throw it out there to see if any of you guys knew of a school that might be interested.

Ok, I'm going to go now because I've somehow found the most expensive internet cafe in Africa, but we'll fill you in our adventures (and misadventures) we haven't posted about yet soon. :)

Much love!

Safe

We're safe in Nairobi, living with a lovely host family in what GVN aptly called an "urban slum". Internet in Africa has been patchy. In fact, electricity has been patchy, but we are alive and safe and happy! We survived two twelve hours chapa rides (some people call them chicken buses) in Mozambique, a rather harrowing flight to Vic Falls on Air Zimbabwe, a four day camping trip in a National Park in Zim, Mana Pools, where elephants came very close and Will tried hard to get himself killed, and canoeing on the Zambezi (avoiding crocs and hippos!). Volunteering starts tomorrow! I'm going to be working at an orphanage and Krista at a local HIV/AIDS clinic, outreach center. We'll try to report back as often as possible. Much love. xx

Catch us if you can.....

So this is what we have been doing since the last post (which we realize is a while ago, sorry!)-

*Eco-village in Bolivia where we were shown around by an ex-model, ex- rock star and his Russian cohort! Bonfire highlight and the architecture was like a dream sequence from a Tim Burton film.

*Blitz trip across Bolivia including back-to-back overnight bus from Cochabamba to Santa Cruz and overnight Death Train from Santa Cruz to Corumba, Brazil.

*Being questioned about the Dengue Fever outbreak in Santa Cruz when we arrived in Corumba of which we were completely oblivious and are luckily Dengue Fever-less.

*An introduction to Brazilian buffets (a very popular phenomenon in Brazil) and an early evening boat trip into the Pantanal where we saw some HUGE herons and a crocodile!

*Bus (another one!) to Campo Grande on which Cate lost her sunglasses, we found a highly recommended pizza restaurant and, much to the waiter's disbelief, polished off a large pizza with lots of strange toppings including boiled egg.

*Had our first American food meltdown and went for chocolate shakes at McDonald's which was more luxurious than any McDonald's in the US and was highlighted on a Campo Grande postcard (clearly there wasn't much to do) although with more time and money Campo Grande and Bonito nearby are both good jumping off points for Pantanal adventures and pink dolphins, etc. Next time!

*One more overnight bus, just for good measure, to Sao Paulo.

*Trek through morning rush hour in a city of 11 million people to a farm outside of the city (area = Mogi das Cruzes) via subway, train, bus, a nice old farmer named Euripeydes who put Cate's pack on his bike (and still thinks we're French), and a car full of bananas and kids that took us the last few miles up a quite steep dirt road, and a hike up a mountain (still with bags) to what looked like an unfinished building with no electricity or plumbing.

*Said unfinished building became our home for two days and we loved it.

*Sitio Sao Francisco is the permaculture farm of friendly Brazillian farmer and civil engineer, Felipe Pinheiro. We found it through WWOOF, a website that sets people up with free room and board on organic farms worldwide in exchange for work.

*Krista, an Egyptian dive instructor named Raheen (I'm not sure if this is how you spell it, but he thought my name was Jane the whole time!), and I jumped in on Felipe's life and helped out where we could, painting beams for an office under construction, consulting on sign placement, meeting his suburban parents, filling in holes in the dirt road, organizing two rooms of the house for a workshop he was having the next week, and our personal favorite, cooking for the group with the weird and wonderful ingredients (mostly grains we'd never heard of).

*Highlights of the farm - eating honey straight out of a hive, Krista (initially afraid of bees, having to move said hive out of living room when bees swarmed it), showering in a freezing stream, Cate using a composting toilet for the first time (discovering that composting toilets are more sanitary than all the toilets we used in Bolivia), surviving a midnight ant march across our bed (Raheem's genius solution of water bowls at the foot of the bed), AND eating fruit that drops straight off the trees!!!!

*Krista's birthday where we were rewarded with a trip to the beach! Felipe's parents had a beautiful house and with the forecast calling for good surf it was easy to convince the boys to leave work behind.

We swam - the water was warm like South Carolina, but the waves were huge.

We ate - We cooked a whole fish on a banana leaf (with the eyes still in) and were pretty proud of how it turned out, (also made a choc cake!), and then Felipe's friend, the Russian fisherman,
showed us to really cook a fish the next day. It was by far the most delicious seafood Krista and I have ever had.

*Headed back to the farm with a dinner stop at the roadside "Corn Palace", serving all things corn: corn on the cob, mashed corn, corn JUICE (gross), etc, etc.

*Sadly left this idyllic farm to brave SAMPA, the bustling metropolis where we, pretty bushwacked, were picked up by dad's lovely friends Claudia and Christian.

*Spoiled rotten by Claudia and Christian for two days. Lived in one of their daughter's lovely rooms with lovely shower(!), ate so well - mostly buffets and to a famous Churrascaria where Krista proved her worth as a carnivore, went to the MASP (Museum of Art Sao Paulo) and the Ibirapuera or SP's Central Park, and hung out with their oldest daughter and boyfriend who showed us where cool kids drink and gave us a brief car-tour of the city!

*Flew to Casablanca via Paris, trained to Marrakesh (had running after train, leaping in moment) and spent four blissful days in Marrakesh at Riad Doha.

*Seduced by the souk (or market) we bargained very hard for Berber carpets, colorful lanterns, leather bags, and some beautiful boots.

*Choosing to spend travel money on stuff, rather than food, we ate in the Jemaa El Fna, the main square, every night where at six pm about 40 food stalls set up and sell traditional Moroccan dishes like tajine, couscous, snails, and sheep's brain (mostly sticking to the first two!)

*We took a day trip to the Atlas Mountains where we visited a traditional Berber house, a women's cooperative producing Argan oil products, and hiked up a waterfall in the Ourika Valley (a popular getaway destination for people from Marrakech because of the cool air and beautiful views).

*Visited the beautiful Majorelle Gardens, made famous by Yves St Laurent and ate a fateful piece of street coconut.

*Packed our bags (which had pretty much doubled in size) and made our way to Casablanca for the night.

*Cate spent night puking up everything eaten after fateful coconut while Krista tried to sleep as the next day was our biggest travel day yet. Such bad timing.

*Tried not to puke in taxi to airport, success. Tried not to puke at check in line at airport, success. Tried not to puke when explaining to airport pharmacist about ailment, failure.

*Got diagnosed with septic stomach (sounds worse than it is) and got pills, I'm mending.

*Made it to Paris, rushed through airport to make last boarding call for flight to Amsterdam.

*Arrived in Amsterdam at exactly 4:20 and giggled.

*Spent the night in a lovely hostel called Flying Pig Downtown.

*Had delicious vegetarian meal by the canal and a nice stroll home.

*Managed to wake up at six (Thanks to lovely Will's wake up call) and get flight direct to Cape Town where Mom met us. Yay - a mom!!

*Just so mom could get a feel of what Krista's been going through, I managed to puke one last time our first night in Cape Town. hehe

*We had a lovely day at Pringle Bay at my godmother's house. Jumped in the freezing cold ocean, had tea with mom's friends from childhood - very enlightening!!

*Had Krista's first proper South African braai thanks to Uncle Trevor!

*Got day-tour of beautiful Cape winelands, lunch at Franschooek, drinks at Buena Vista Social Cafe, and a round of drinks and life advice at Uncle Trevor's bar.

*Brunch at Rhodes Memorial and a topless bus tour of Cape Town (the passengers weren't topless, just the bus), a stroll along the Victoria & Albert Waterfront, tea with Granny Mac, and one last family dinner.

*Said bye to mom this morning, got to sleep in (finally!), and are headed to the pool now that we've updated you people!

Much love and promises to be better. Sorry for the lack of updates. There was a lot of travel, puking, not much internet in Morocco, and really, really confusing Arabic keyboards!

One month and 1 day!

Last minute change to our travel plans, we`ve decided to postpone our death train experience til Friday. We took a bus to Cochabamba yesterday and are headed to a really cool ecovillage called El Poncho just outside of town for the night. You can check it out here.

Salkantay & Machu Picchu: Part 1

Our Machu Picchu adventure started the last Friday of our volunteering. My good friend and super intrepid traveler, Susannah, joined us in Cusco to hike to Machu Picchu. We had a fancy dinner (I had alpaca!) overlooking the Plaza de Armas to welcome Susannah and celebrate our time in Cusco. After dinner we met up with Mariluz and her daughter Gabi who I worked with at the clinic along with a couple other volunteers and went dancing at a local bar.

Saturday saw us (unsuccessfully) trying to track down Susannah´s luggage which was hanging out somewhere in Mexico City, booking our bus to Bolivia for when we got back, and getting things organized for the trip...complete with a brand new Peruvian wardrobe for Susannah...yay llama socks!

And now, go to the bathroom, get a cup of coffee, snuggle up in a comfy chair, because this is gonna be a long one. I give you ¨Survivors of the Salkantay¨.

DAY 1

The trek officially started on Sunday morning at 4:30am when we got picked up outside our house. We hopped in the van, slightly bleary eyed, as the van swerved around the narrow Cusco streets picking up 13 other equally bleary eyed passengers. We had a 2 hour bus ride to our jumping off point, Mollepata, full of nodding off, hairpin turns, and looking at the beautiful sunrise. In Mollepata (2830 meter elevation) we had a half-awake breakfast trying to get to know the other 13 people in our group, plus Eduardo and Mariluz, our guides. We purchased our (much used!) walking sticks, some last minute supplies, and started what we would be doing for the next 4 days...walking! The hike started through a forest with fresh air that felt like an early summer morning in Georgia, and it was good to be free from the choking exhaust of the city. We stopped a couple of times to take off layers, drink water, apply sunscreen, or learn about local plants. We had one temporary mishap of losing our main guide Eduardo for about an hour, but reconnected and stopped for lunch with a pretty stunning vista. We had porters who led the horses that carried our tents, sleeping bags, etc. And cooks that led the horses that carried our food and somehow conjured full meals, complete with soup and tea, out of what was on the horses backs.

After lunch we kept climbing in altitude. We were well above the tree line at this point, working our way through some very Lord of the Rings-esque landscapes. Mountains hid in clouds with glacier-fed rivers running down them all joining together to form a tumultulous Rio Blanco barreling through the valley. Susannah started to struggle a little with the altitude. Cusco is over 11,000 feet and we were headed up to over 15,000 feet at the base of Salkantay, which is higher than any mountain in the continental US. So with only 2 days of acclimatization, it was a super human feat for her to even be walking up a flight of stairs, much less up a mountain. She was a trooper though, and we just kept trekking. About an hour and half before we made it to our camp for the night, it started to rain. Like "it´s rainy season in South America" type rain. The kind that soaks you even though you put on the $2 plastic poncho you bought that morning. We finally made it to our camp in Soraypampa (3700m) and all crammed into the lean-to´s trying to find our bags with dry clothing, hang up the wet clothing to dry, and generally control shivering (did I mention it´s cold at high altitude?).

We got our tents situated for the night during a brief hiatus in rain, then crammed back under the lean-to´s for hot chocolate and popcorn, which we scarfed down like pack of ravenous dogs. Then we waited...and got cold...and waited some more...for dinner. To Cate´s credit she tried her best to buoy the group by getting everyone to tell where they were from, what they did, who their boy/girlfriend was at the age of 15, but we were a pretty miserable, cold, hungry, tired group. A couple gave up on dinner and headed to bed. When food did come 2 hours later, it was devoured in silence and then we all crawled into our tents praying for them to hold against the rain.

DAY 2

I´m not sure how much anyone slept that night. Most people´s sleeping bags got wet and Susannah was fighting the effects of altitude sickness all night (i.e. nausea and vomiting, because someone must always be hurling at all points on our trip :), but the morning was beautiful! It´s something else to wake up and upzip your tent and find yourself face to face with snow capped peaks settled in a valley with a running stream and wandering horses. Plus we got pancakes for breakfast! We packed up and Susannah opted for riding the horse, as today was our toughest hike up to the base of Salkantay. And they weren´t messing around. Our first 30 minutes were straight up hill, but it took us to a plateau where we got our first glimpse of Salkantay. It means ´savage mountain´in Quecha and it looked pretty savage indeed...craggy and imposing and covered in snow about to avalanche. No one has ever successfully summited it.

We kept going with the uphill through some pretty intense switchbacks which when coupled with the altitude meant lots of stops, chewing on cocoa leaves more than a redneck chews tobacco, and just putting one foot in front of the other...slowly. The scenery was amazing though. Eventually we planed out into a grassy meadow strewn with huge boulders and a glassy, serene little pond. We stopped for a while so we could regroup and eat something, then started the final push to the base of the mountain. We finally made it to the last of our uphill walking! The base was a jumble of rocks looking up at the huge, snowy monolith. Our guide hadn´t been able to see the top of the mountain for the last 5 months of leading this trip, but the clouds cleared and we got some stunning views. We took pictures with the elevation sign and left our offerings to the god of the mountain (all praying for no more rain!) and headed down (blissfully).

We descended into something that felt like a sacred valley. Flanked by mountains reminiscent of the Scottish highlands with rivulets of water running down them, it looked as if a group of giants had left in the middle of a game of marbles with the biggest boulders I´ve ever seem lying around the soft green valley in what seemed like casual significance. We (and our knees) worked our way down to the valley floor and walked along a river, by llamas grazing, to the lunch spot. Having already done a good 6 hours of hiking, we all napped in the sunshine as we waited for the rest of the group and I stuck my feet in the icy cold stream.

On the way down we´d noticed that Susannah had fallen behind a little with Marilu, the guide, as she´d decided to walk the downhill section. However, unbeknownst to us, altitude sickness doesn´t care if you´re walking uphill or downhill! And poor Susannah had pretty much passed out at some point and then had to lean on Marilu the rest of the way down the hill. Luckily once we saw them from the lunch spot, the guide sent one of the porters off with the horse to fetch them. Unfortunately, when Susannah was riding back, the horse did not so much want to cross the stream and reired back knocking Susannah off! Somehow, I´m not sure how she did it, she managed to joke about all this during lunch. Recap: altitude sickness, nausea, vomiting, not being able to breath, passing out, bucked off a horse, and still social and making jokes. Like I said, most intrepid traveler I know.

After lunch we had 3 more hours of hiking as we got back below the tree line and into the jungle. At one point the trail was so muddy from the rainy season that for about 400 meters we were jumping from rock to rock in the sludge pit, kind of like that game you would play when you were little where you put pillows on the floor and jump from couches to pillows to chairs but can´t touch the ground or the alligators will get you. It was fun. :) Our assistant guide Mariluz kept assuring us that we were álmost there´and it was ´just around the corner´and the camp finally did appear just before twilight started setting in. We set up our tents on a green plateau that jutted out overlooking the lush jungle and waterfalls falling into the river below. The bathroom at this stop was accessed through the muddy (´that doesn´t smell like mud´) pig-sty, which provided lots of slippery entertainment after dark! As twilight faded into darkness, we realized that Susannah, her ´mighty´ steed, and Eduardo, the guide, still hadn´t made it to camp. Apparently they had to navigate the last part of the narrow path carved into a hillside on a finecky horse with only the help of a headlamp. So Sus can add that to her list! Once they made it though, we had our popcorn and hot chocolate ´happy hour´, waited for dinner, ate, and crawled into our sleeping bags, praising the gods of Salkantay that it wasn´t raining.

DAY 3

I´m not sure if I mentioned this before, but the organizers of this trip had ingeniusly realized that the only way to lure us out of our sleeping bags at 5:30 every morning was to have the cooks come around and knock on our tents (in as much as one can knock on a tent) and offer us piping hot mate de coca. Ingenius. After that we would rustle around, sometimes changing our clothes, mostly just wearing the same dirty things, and pack up for another day of hiking. Then, the only thing that would actually get us to emerge from the tents was the allure of a hot breakfast. They had me pegged I tell you. We all felt a lot better this morning after some sleep in dry tents at a much lower altitude, so Sus bravely opted for walking. The hike planned for the day was 6 hours through the jungle, which was gorgeous...lots of rivers, waterfalls, fruits, plants, butterflies. I´ll try to include a picture of the bridges we crossed. At one point there was a gorgeous new suspension bridge spanning a river, and then underneath was the Incan version we crossed, which was comprised of two big logs filled in with a bunch of sticks. The whole group had to stay together today because apparently with all the rains there had been some rock slides and a group had recently slid down the mountain (dear mom, please ignore that last sentence. love, your totally responsible daughter :) ), but it was actually really nice to have everyone together after we had fragmented the day before due to very different climbing speeds.

It was a relaxed, beautiful hike. The main excitement came when we reached a group of workers rebuilding a bridge that had been washed away by the rains. The river at this point was frothy and fast, so we couldn´t just cross it and the workers had only gotten to the ´put down two logs and about 4 of the sticks´stage of the Incan bridge building. So. We had to cross it. The best part of this whole endeavor was that no one said anything about it! Everyone played it totally cool and walked across the balance beam bridge pearched over the rushing river as if this was something they did every day. For me, it really underscored the whole endeavor of this trip...there was no other way across this river and I was responsible for crossing it, myself. There were no safety nets, no way to negotiate other options...

TO BE CONTINUED....

***We´re about to catch a flight to Morocco(!), but hadn´t posted in so long (largely due to a stint on a farm with no electricity) that we thought we´d leave you something to read. The rest of this epic post will be added as soon as possible! xoxo k+c