Nuestra Familia

The last stop on our adventure landed us in Quito, Ecuador. We had the best time EVER! We stayed with a lady who was an exchange student with my (jess) moms family 30 years ago. She and her family were amazing. (Above is Maria and I.) They took us into their home, not only treated us like family, but introduced us as family to everyone we met. They panned our whole trip with great tours and cooked us traditional meals whenever there was a chance.

Our first stop was to Banos, a small tourist town on the border of the Amazon, about 4.5hr south of Quito. We traveled, yet again by bus, however it only cost us 7 dollars, for both of us. We rented go carts and bikes there and had a great time.



We spent the remainder of our trip touring Quito. We visited the Equator, the city center, and Otavalo, a small market town up north. The city center is beautiful, A UNESCO world Heritage site. Ecuador is somewhere we would love to return to sometime.

Us at the Basilica

Jessica and Paula standing in 2 hemisheres at the equator

We have returned to the states and our excited to get back to our lives here. We had an unforgettable experience and are so grateful for our time in South America!

Cusco and the Death Hike

We arrived in Cusco by bus around 630am last Friday. Cusco is located at a headspinning altitude of 11,500ft. Fortunately, coming by bus we slowly acclimated to the altitude and didn't have a lot of trouble. However, on day one, Scott and I could literally walk no more than 50ft without being extremely short of breath and feeling like we were going to pass out. Needless to say, we didn't do too much day one because that whole town is made of hills and stairs. Scott snapped this one before he colapsed on a girl selling chiclets...jk but we did take a rest afterwards.

Overall we really liked Cusco. It had windy cobblestone streets, old churches, Inca everything, and great people who speak much cleaner Spanish than our friends down south. We visited many ruins and outdoor markets where we both bought fashionable llama print gloves, beanies, sweaters, ect. We have become quite the bargainers!

The majority of our trip to Cusco consisted of a 40km trek up to the majestic Machu Pichu. It was called the Lares Trek. Absolutely stunning scenery through mountain villages, lakes, rivers and ending in a relaxing hot springs. The aguas termales were slightly disappointing because the water smelled and looked like metalic urine, but whatever, 3 days of hiking 40km and no shower.....it got the job done.

The most extreme part of our hike was day 2, where we crossed a pass with a staggering altitude of 15, 748ft. I, Jess, had horrible nausea and light headedness, and my hubby had a bad headache. So as exhausted as we were after getting to the top, we just wanted to get down, fast. Did I mention it was raining, the whole time? Good times. Below is us at the pass... half alive.


The last day, we arrived early to Machu Pichu, which was all fogged in at first and we couldn't see anything at all, very disappointing. However, as soon as the fog lifted, it was incredible!


Now we are in Ecuador exploring so we will update you soon!

We´re Alive

Hi everybody! We completed our 4 day trek to Machu Pichu, barely, and had a wonderful time in Cusco. We are now in Ecuador and will be heading home shortly. Unfortunately, we have had very limited internet access, today being no exception. We will try to post some pictures and stories at the end of this week from the rest of our travels. We got some good ones! We will probably still be posting when we are home. Hope everyone is doing great! You´ll be hearing from us soon!

Bus Travel

You will all be happy to know we survived our 46hr bus rides, but not with out a few kinks! Day one.....We show up for the bus, packed and excited for our adventure but the bus doesn't show up. What?! The bus that we were supposed to take broke down some place in the never ending Chilean desert and never showed to the bus station. This was the most important leg of our trip from Santiago to Tacna Peru. Of course we weren't contacted about this until one hour prior to leaving, when we arrived (Man we love doing business down here!). We were directed to a different bus company that had an afternoon bus to a different city up north so we jumped on that bus and headed to Arica (the Chilean border city). From there, we feared crossing the Peruvian border at 11pm but you gotta do what you gotta do. It wasn't too shabby. We hopped in a 1968 caddy and sped across the border, after picking up 2 Peruvian policemen. We spent one night in the border town in Tacna, Peru which we painted to be a dangerous craphole, but surprisingly it was pretty nice. We stayed in a quaint hotel for $25 and enjoyed a delicious Italian food dinner for $11. It was smooth sailing from there. We took 2 more buses and woke up Friday morning in Cusco at 6:30am. We believe that we may have come close to dying several times on our last bus trip from Arequipa to Cusco because we came to screeching halts and herd things hitting the bus. We climbed up to some 11,500 ft, perhaps through a dense jungle. I swear half was on dirt roads.

Jess enjoying a Nesquik chocloate pop in the Tacna Bus depot.

Chile's most southern city: Punta Arenas

On our way back to Santiago, we stopped in Punta Arenas for a day. We really like it but unfortunately, the weather was kinda rainy and cold, but a good change. PLUS we got to wear our sexy ponchos. There was a really quaint town square where Jessica bought an awesome ear warmer-headband. You'll see it in future pics I'm sure. We visited this neat cemetery, with a ton of opulent grave sites.This was our escape from the rainy cold day. Creamy hot chocolate, warm gooey brownies and free wi-fi. Doesn't get much better.

The next post, we will fill you in on our bus adventures! We're writing from beautiful Tacna Peru, the border city between Chile/Peru. So far, we really like Peru. We arrived late last night and ate some really good food and met some really nice Peruvians. Next stop, Cusco.

Torres Del Paine

Hey everybody! We finally acquired some wi-fi at this awesome little chocolate bar that serves up chocolate caliente, yummy sweets and rocking 80's music. Its also warm! Because right now outside its about 5 degrees, celsius that is. Brr. We are now in Punta Arenas, the we closest ever care to coming to Antarctica!

So the past week we were in a national park located in Southern Chile in Patagonia called Torres Del Paine (Click here for mapped location). It was incredible! We stayed in the park and did some extreme activities including a day hike through the Valle de Frances, kayaking down glacier water, and a leisurely horseback ride by the Rio Serrano! We have included some of our favorite pictures of our excursions.

View from our room at the Hosteria Tyndall. You're looking at the famous Torres del Paine of the Chilean Patagonia. The house is where we cooked all our meals.
This pic is of the Glacier Frances. Don't touch the water. I, Scott, challenged myself to the '5 second full hand challenge,' and failed. Waaay too cold!

Our last day, we made plans to kayak. Unfortunately, it had rained all night, the river rose 4 feet and the wind was unexplainable. We experienced all types of weather in the 3 hr tour. Below is before we knew what we got ourselves into.

This is Jess on a calm part of the trip. She looks silly but she is using the paddle and the wind as a sail. We were racing our guides. We lost because I couldn't feel my fingers to get the camera back into my pocket.

We return to Santiago tomorrow and catch a bus to Peru on Tuesday. Looking forward to the 3 day drive!

Goodbye Santiago, hello end of the world

We finished classes Friday and are off to start our adventures. To start things, we are heading to the end of the world, Punta Arenas Chile. There, we will spend a week exploring the beautiful and mysterious glacier park, Torres del Paine. Not sure if we will have any kind ability to communicate with the outside world, not sure what to expect. From there, we will be heading to Cusco, Peru.....by bus!! There, we'll be exploring the city and doing a 4 day/ 3 night trek to Machu Pichu. We will end our travels in Quito, Ecuador in a few weeks.

So those are our travel plans. We'll keep you updated with pics and stories about our adventures!