Wow, this is super badass. http://fiber.google.com/about/
Google's new Google Fiber network, starting up first in Kansas City. Speeds of 1 Gbps which is 100x faster (or so) than current-gen average broadband speeds. Ridiculous. This is amazing.
We've been desperate for a real jump in Internet Speed for a long time now, I've been rockin' the same basic download and upload speeds for the past 10 years at least. It's exciting to see this on the way, and I'm hoping it gets to San Francisco sooner than later. Only $75 a month? Would really be worth it at that cost, given that it will completely change your TV experience I suspect. With bandwidth like that, high-resolution video and audio would be much more easily streamable than they are today (I do get a fair amount of buffering streaming from Netflix on Comcast here in San Francisco area, and that's not even using 5.1 sound yet).
Anyway this is pretty amazing technology and I like the way they are rolling it out too. Next step... please come to SF!!! We want you, epic Fiber internet!!!!!
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Friday, July 27, 2012
London, Ontario in a Nike Olympic ad!!!!
Couldn't believe this!!!
My glorious hometown of London, Ontario is featured in this ad showing multiple "little Londons" around the world. Talent can come from anywhere. Find Your Greatness :)
My glorious hometown of London, Ontario is featured in this ad showing multiple "little Londons" around the world. Talent can come from anywhere. Find Your Greatness :)
Peru/Brazil/Argentina Day 10: Epic Arequipa restaurant
May 12, 2012
Peru Day 10: Epic Arequipa restaurant
After the crazy adventure back to Cusco yesterday we really lazed around and slept in... till 8am :) Kev and I started packing up our room, cleaned our boots, etc. We had a quick breakfast in the hostel and then packed up the rest of our stuff. Our flight wasn't till mid-afternoon out of Cusco so we ran some minor errands in the morning, like heading to the bank. We also went to Starbucks which was funny, it's always interesting to see how those kinds of large companies "localize" for other countries. It was funny, there was a Mango y Maracuya Frappucino :) hahaha. Amazing. And also, my 2 favourite fruits ever, so I bought one. Fun. They also had some silly stuff like "Alfajores"... at Starbucks? I don't think so. We decided to wait and get a real Alfajore back at the local bakery later.
We met up with Frank and then checked out of the hostel.
Then back to the main square and we found an interesting dessert place where I was able to try Lucuma Ice Cream!!! It was... kinda weird! It sortof tasted like Green Tea Ice Cream. Maggie's Pizza was closed so we went back to Panadería El Buen Pastor, the pastry place run by Nuns near our hostel. Of course, instead of "El Buen Pastor", I was calling it "El Buen Pastry". haha. Anyway it was awesome and I got a cheese empenada and an apple pocket thing which rocked.
After that, off we went to the airport. Goodbye Cusco and your crazy high altitude! It was super fun to be there and we were happy to have relaxed back in Cusco after the crazy last week of trekking fun. But now, off to a little bit of a bigger place... Arequipa!
We headed to the airport and had a reasonably quick checkin. The flight to Arequipa had changed from its original direct flight to a flight via Juliaca. We stopped there to exchange some passengers before continuing on to Arequipa. Juliaca looked very different from the window - most roads unpaved, most houses seemed to be made from a similar colour of red brick. We may have seen Lake Titicaca, but we weren't totally sure though. We stopped for a bit and then continued onwards to Arequipa.
We arrived in Arequipa and got into a cab with a very friendly taxi driver. He told us all about the city and suggested a restaurant called "Chi Cha" - an "awesome place where they serve very good local food, it is excellent", he said. We noted that as a "well, maybe we'll go there", only to return to the idea of going there with full force in a bit (more on that in a sec). We got to our hostel, La Casa De Melgar, and it was a CRAZY place!!! What an amazing and unusual setup!! It had HUGE doors, like 20 ft tall at least. The walls in the rooms were all made of Silar rock, what a strange and interesting hostel. The courtyard was so cool, layered with different steps up to the roof and lots of cool places to hang out. We dropped off our stuff and started to look up on their hostel WiFi (yes!) where to go for dinner.
As we were unpacking and looking at Yelp and TripAdvisor reviews, it dawned on us like 30 min later that "Chi Cha", was the same as the restaurant "Chicha", listed as the Lonely Planet Pick. Also, 4.5 STARS ON TRIPADVISOR. Whaaaaaaaaat!!!!!!! I looked at the menu and got crazy overexcited. It sounded SO amazing and SO interesting and SO awesome, I was freaking out. I was so jazzed up to be in a (slightly) bigger city and so keen to try what looked like an amazing restaurant. It's a restaurant by Cordon Bleu chef Gastón Acurio, known for "elevating" Peruvian food into fancy dining. Also, he is the creator/executive chef of La Mar Cebecheria, an awesome place in San Francisco.
Anyway, we got there and my excitement was TOTALLY warranted. I was freaking out a.la. the one time I got to go to the Singapore Airport Lounge... I was SO excited and it was just bound to be the best dinner ever... and it was. :)
I started with Cebiche Classico as a starter. I sortof think of this as a Peruvian version of the Jewishy food pickled herring, but instead of being pickled it's more citrus-y. It's probably a bit more like Peruvian sashimi, I guess! It's SO good. And here it was incredibly tasty. Soft, large pieces, and probably the best Ceviche evvvvveeeeeeeeeeer. I've only had it a few times but oh man this one was good.
The other folks then ordered "Cuy Pekines"... uh... "Peking style guinea pig". Needless to say I didn't eat it. Not only cause the idea was super gross, but mostly because we had guinea pigs as pets when I was younger and there was zero chance that I was gonna try this. And, thankfully, they're not kosher anyway, so I had a pretty good excuse :) People seemed to like it though, and the style was with wraps and hoisin sauce, like Mu Shu chicken usually comes in a chinese restaurant. They said it was like a crispy, fatty chicken done in a duck style. Like Mu Shu pork/Peking duck. Anyway, I think everyone enjoyed it but I was ok to skip this one :)
The ceviche though was delicious. The "Leche de Tigre" sauce was spicy and sour, the fish was so soft and excellent, and they had those big corn pieces and hard corn on the side too. So awesome.
Dinner came next and Frank got something called "Tres Traditiones", which was an interesting mixed plate of different kinds of Peruvian foods. I got Alpaca in an Indian Curry Style! It came with Banana Fritters on the side which were INSANE. For a drink I had a Maracuya Sour... like a Pisco Sour but made with Maracuya, my favourite thing ever... a Brazillian Passionfruit!!!!!!! OHHHH MANNN. It was strong and so good. My dinner also came with Quinoa/Barley pearls, which were very tasty.
Jess got something called Ocopa - "queen of potatoes" with this cheesy sauce that rocked. Christy got a super fancy burger. Kev got something called Aji de Gallina, which was like a spicy chicken in sauce. Everyone was SUPER happy with their choices and we really got some amazing dishes here. It was so cool to try Peruvian food in this sort of upscale vibe, and with this sort of "world fusion" vibe to it. So amazing.
The Maracuya Sour was so amazing and I was excited off-the-charts by the amazing food so I decided to try another drink. I got something called the "Cholopolitan" - also epic!! It had some complex flavours, so tasty and interesting. I got a funny photo drinking it with Frank and we have our pinkies up :) Fancy.
And now... time for dessert.
We got something called "Degustation"... haha, and of course I said, "This is gonna be desgustation-ally GOOD!" The puns continue, even after a Cholopolitan. I can't contain them. :) Anyway it WAS amazing, and this was sort of the "tasters menu" for the three best desserts. A Chirimoya Mousse (ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!), Arroz con Leche (sortof like rice pudding) and a Queso (cheese) ice cream thing. So epic!! We "washed it all down" with a cool pineapple gummy for dessert.
WOW. WOW. WOW. WOW.
I can quite honestly say I think this was the best restaurant I've ever been to in my entire life. It was such amazingly high quality food, the presentation was beautiful, the vibe was very chill and laid-back, the service was fantastic, the food tasted so good and was both local with a little bit of upscale worldliness to it, the drinks were interesting and unusual and tasty... it was a total knockout. I can't imagine a better dinner ever. I LOVED this place.
We walked back to the hostel, high-fiving at the epic dinner we just ploughed through, reminiscing about the good times on the hike last week and how the good times were just rollin' on forwards. What an amazing place. I am so glad we went. It was so great. It was also an very affordable place given the quality and amazingness of the food. I think our entire dinner with drinks came to $40 a person. If you are ever in Arequipa, Peru... drop everything and go to Chi Cha right NOW! It was life-changingly awesome.
Peru Day 10: Epic Arequipa restaurant
After the crazy adventure back to Cusco yesterday we really lazed around and slept in... till 8am :) Kev and I started packing up our room, cleaned our boots, etc. We had a quick breakfast in the hostel and then packed up the rest of our stuff. Our flight wasn't till mid-afternoon out of Cusco so we ran some minor errands in the morning, like heading to the bank. We also went to Starbucks which was funny, it's always interesting to see how those kinds of large companies "localize" for other countries. It was funny, there was a Mango y Maracuya Frappucino :) hahaha. Amazing. And also, my 2 favourite fruits ever, so I bought one. Fun. They also had some silly stuff like "Alfajores"... at Starbucks? I don't think so. We decided to wait and get a real Alfajore back at the local bakery later.
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| Peruvian blend at Starbucks Cusco?! |
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| Starbucks "Alfajores" |
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| A couple extra shots of the hostel |
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| This hostel was awesome |
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| Tasty looking desserts |
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| A Lumuma-flavoured Ice Cream I got |
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| Kev back at the pastry place for lunch |
We headed to the airport and had a reasonably quick checkin. The flight to Arequipa had changed from its original direct flight to a flight via Juliaca. We stopped there to exchange some passengers before continuing on to Arequipa. Juliaca looked very different from the window - most roads unpaved, most houses seemed to be made from a similar colour of red brick. We may have seen Lake Titicaca, but we weren't totally sure though. We stopped for a bit and then continued onwards to Arequipa.
We arrived in Arequipa and got into a cab with a very friendly taxi driver. He told us all about the city and suggested a restaurant called "Chi Cha" - an "awesome place where they serve very good local food, it is excellent", he said. We noted that as a "well, maybe we'll go there", only to return to the idea of going there with full force in a bit (more on that in a sec). We got to our hostel, La Casa De Melgar, and it was a CRAZY place!!! What an amazing and unusual setup!! It had HUGE doors, like 20 ft tall at least. The walls in the rooms were all made of Silar rock, what a strange and interesting hostel. The courtyard was so cool, layered with different steps up to the roof and lots of cool places to hang out. We dropped off our stuff and started to look up on their hostel WiFi (yes!) where to go for dinner.
As we were unpacking and looking at Yelp and TripAdvisor reviews, it dawned on us like 30 min later that "Chi Cha", was the same as the restaurant "Chicha", listed as the Lonely Planet Pick. Also, 4.5 STARS ON TRIPADVISOR. Whaaaaaaaaat!!!!!!! I looked at the menu and got crazy overexcited. It sounded SO amazing and SO interesting and SO awesome, I was freaking out. I was so jazzed up to be in a (slightly) bigger city and so keen to try what looked like an amazing restaurant. It's a restaurant by Cordon Bleu chef Gastón Acurio, known for "elevating" Peruvian food into fancy dining. Also, he is the creator/executive chef of La Mar Cebecheria, an awesome place in San Francisco.
Anyway, we got there and my excitement was TOTALLY warranted. I was freaking out a.la. the one time I got to go to the Singapore Airport Lounge... I was SO excited and it was just bound to be the best dinner ever... and it was. :)
I started with Cebiche Classico as a starter. I sortof think of this as a Peruvian version of the Jewishy food pickled herring, but instead of being pickled it's more citrus-y. It's probably a bit more like Peruvian sashimi, I guess! It's SO good. And here it was incredibly tasty. Soft, large pieces, and probably the best Ceviche evvvvveeeeeeeeeeer. I've only had it a few times but oh man this one was good.
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| And now in Arequipa! Amazing bread to start at Chi Cha |
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| Some amazing drink |
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| Maracuya Sour drink, this was epic |
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| Cebiche Classico, uggggh so good |
The ceviche though was delicious. The "Leche de Tigre" sauce was spicy and sour, the fish was so soft and excellent, and they had those big corn pieces and hard corn on the side too. So awesome.
Dinner came next and Frank got something called "Tres Traditiones", which was an interesting mixed plate of different kinds of Peruvian foods. I got Alpaca in an Indian Curry Style! It came with Banana Fritters on the side which were INSANE. For a drink I had a Maracuya Sour... like a Pisco Sour but made with Maracuya, my favourite thing ever... a Brazillian Passionfruit!!!!!!! OHHHH MANNN. It was strong and so good. My dinner also came with Quinoa/Barley pearls, which were very tasty.
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| Kev trying the Cuy Pekines |
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| Frank's dinner |
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| My dinner: Alpaca Curry |
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| Amazing quinoa |
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| Everyone excited for dinner |
The Maracuya Sour was so amazing and I was excited off-the-charts by the amazing food so I decided to try another drink. I got something called the "Cholopolitan" - also epic!! It had some complex flavours, so tasty and interesting. I got a funny photo drinking it with Frank and we have our pinkies up :) Fancy.
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| "Cholopolitan", also amazing |
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| Happy customers |
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| "Man, that was good!" |
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| Classy |
We got something called "Degustation"... haha, and of course I said, "This is gonna be desgustation-ally GOOD!" The puns continue, even after a Cholopolitan. I can't contain them. :) Anyway it WAS amazing, and this was sort of the "tasters menu" for the three best desserts. A Chirimoya Mousse (ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!), Arroz con Leche (sortof like rice pudding) and a Queso (cheese) ice cream thing. So epic!! We "washed it all down" with a cool pineapple gummy for dessert.
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| Dessert time!! |
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| OH MAN THIS ROCKED |
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| Cool candied pineapple for dessert |
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| Chi Cha, the best restaurant I've probably ever been to |
I can quite honestly say I think this was the best restaurant I've ever been to in my entire life. It was such amazingly high quality food, the presentation was beautiful, the vibe was very chill and laid-back, the service was fantastic, the food tasted so good and was both local with a little bit of upscale worldliness to it, the drinks were interesting and unusual and tasty... it was a total knockout. I can't imagine a better dinner ever. I LOVED this place.
We walked back to the hostel, high-fiving at the epic dinner we just ploughed through, reminiscing about the good times on the hike last week and how the good times were just rollin' on forwards. What an amazing place. I am so glad we went. It was so great. It was also an very affordable place given the quality and amazingness of the food. I think our entire dinner with drinks came to $40 a person. If you are ever in Arequipa, Peru... drop everything and go to Chi Cha right NOW! It was life-changingly awesome.
Monday, July 23, 2012
5 years at ILM
Today is my 5th Anniversary at ILM.
It's hard to believe how quickly these years have gone by already. You know what they say about how times flies when you're having fun. :)
This sums it up: it's currently a Sunday night and I'm super excited about heading back to work tomorrow. There is lots of work to do, it's gonna be a busy day, lots of exciting and busy meetings, fitting in a workout in there somewhere, planning a bunch of stuff... but oh man, I can't wait for whatever is gonna happen. It seems the adult world generally sighs to itself on a Sunday night, "Oh no, work tomorrow". Not me. And not the amazing, brilliant, energetic, innovative, hard-working people I have had the pleasure to work closely with.
These two old posts from March 2008 and August 2008 are fascinating to re-read now. It's me describing getting into the work atmosphere, thinking about the transition between student (I graduated April 2007) and adult, and sticking hard to my ideals about how I want to live my adult work life by my own rules and not what seems to be the "standard" way. 26-year old Mike, I hope 30-year old Mike has done you proud and lived up to your expectations.
It's been great to have a chance to do so many personal projects along the way too: volunteering at 826, iMenorah, TEDx, etc. And SO much travel too! I've never been to so many places in such a short time: South Africa, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Iceland, France, Italy, Peru, Brazil, and Argentina. Whhhaaaaaaat! This world is a fascinating and interesting place and I'm so pleased that I've been able to pull off a heck of a lot of world travel and really do my best to "work hard, play hard" over the past 5 years.
As always, I find it good to reflect, and I thank you all, dear blog readers, for letting me continue to use this platform to talk through things I'm thinking about in an overly open kind of way. It's great to think about how my work-life balance has been going over the past 5 years, the things that are great (listed above) and some things I think I need to make better. One of those such things is... I should say, WAS, my weight and general fitness... and I'm happy to say that I've really pushed that this year a whole lot and I'm really happy with that progress. I need to keep that going. There are some other things too. As Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living", so here I am again, always examining and trying my best to tweak any issues. The constant pursuit of happiness continues.
It's hard to believe how quickly these years have gone by already. You know what they say about how times flies when you're having fun. :)
This sums it up: it's currently a Sunday night and I'm super excited about heading back to work tomorrow. There is lots of work to do, it's gonna be a busy day, lots of exciting and busy meetings, fitting in a workout in there somewhere, planning a bunch of stuff... but oh man, I can't wait for whatever is gonna happen. It seems the adult world generally sighs to itself on a Sunday night, "Oh no, work tomorrow". Not me. And not the amazing, brilliant, energetic, innovative, hard-working people I have had the pleasure to work closely with.
These two old posts from March 2008 and August 2008 are fascinating to re-read now. It's me describing getting into the work atmosphere, thinking about the transition between student (I graduated April 2007) and adult, and sticking hard to my ideals about how I want to live my adult work life by my own rules and not what seems to be the "standard" way. 26-year old Mike, I hope 30-year old Mike has done you proud and lived up to your expectations.
It's been great to have a chance to do so many personal projects along the way too: volunteering at 826, iMenorah, TEDx, etc. And SO much travel too! I've never been to so many places in such a short time: South Africa, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Iceland, France, Italy, Peru, Brazil, and Argentina. Whhhaaaaaaat! This world is a fascinating and interesting place and I'm so pleased that I've been able to pull off a heck of a lot of world travel and really do my best to "work hard, play hard" over the past 5 years.
As always, I find it good to reflect, and I thank you all, dear blog readers, for letting me continue to use this platform to talk through things I'm thinking about in an overly open kind of way. It's great to think about how my work-life balance has been going over the past 5 years, the things that are great (listed above) and some things I think I need to make better. One of those such things is... I should say, WAS, my weight and general fitness... and I'm happy to say that I've really pushed that this year a whole lot and I'm really happy with that progress. I need to keep that going. There are some other things too. As Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living", so here I am again, always examining and trying my best to tweak any issues. The constant pursuit of happiness continues.
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Peru/Brazil/Argentina Day 9: Huayna Picchu
May 11, 2012
Peru Day 9: Huayna Picchu
More hiking? Sure!
We are insane, but this was also a BRILLIANT idea. We came in yesterday to Machu Picchu, excited but full-on exhausted from the 4 day Inca Trail trek, and so we just casually looked around Machu Picchu yesterday and spent most of the day back in Aguas Calientes, chilling out and returning to some semblance of humanity. Today, we got up at "jerk 'o clock" again, this time "just" 5:15am!! That actually was sleeping in compared to previous days on the trek! Anyhoo we got up to a full free breakfast from our awesome hostel, it was great: eggs, fruit, yoghurt, awesome.
We headed to "downtown" Aguas Calientes and got aboard the 6:15 bus back up to Mach Picchu. We walked in the gate, and walked straight to the Huayna Picchu entrance, arriving there at 7:05am for our 7:00-8:00am ascent up Huayna Picchu... nice. :) Huayna Picchu is that big mountain behind Machu Picchu, and coming to climb this was awesome cause we got a really fantastic view of the mountains around Machu Picchu as well as back to the site itself.
And... up we went!
Huayna had some very steep climbs, and places where you had a rope on the side to help you get up the steepness of the rocks... but it was a damn cinch compared to the Inca Trail :) Not having our 25 lb backpacks and just rollin' up there with cameras and water only... WOW. What a difference. Also the altitude here is lower than Cusco, significantly, so this was pretty "straightforward". Of course it was still an insane hike with very steep steps and insane inclines at 7 in the morning, but compared to what we'd been dealing with over the past few days, this was a walk in the park. And what a glorious park it was!!! "What, only 45 min straight up?! Easy-peas!" You can see how we have actually gone crazy. Crazy with LOVE FOR THE AWESOME NATURE! Or something like that :)
Anyhoo, Christy rightly suggested I bring a 2.5L bottle of water given my epic water intake over the past few days and she was right as usual. I had to hand-carry it in a plastic bag, which broke part way up the hike, but that was fine. Soooooo much better than bringing my backpack. The hike up was steep but very nice, and everyone doing it was pretty fit. I ran out of laundry so I wore my "I survived the Inca Trail" shirt again today, what a show off :) There were some great views of Machu Picchu from above, and we took a whole bunch of photos. It was awesome to see the Sun Gate as well, the place where we came into Machu Picchu yesterday.
After some photos we walked back down the steep trail. We took photos around Machu Picchu and explored the various hikes around the site. It was all super, totally, epically, awesome. It was great to wander after a reasonable sleep and I was so glad that we were there an extra day so we could actually really enjoy it. Yesterday we were so tired and we wouldn't have appreciated this nearly as much. (Great call, Frank!)
We wandered around some more and met up with Kev and Frank, who had done the last little extra bit at the top of Huayna Picchu, and continued to check out some more of the site. Particularly awesome was the aptly-named Temple of the 3 Windows and also the Temple of the Sun. All awesome.
After a few more hours of hiking in the heat of the day, it started to heat up even more and Christy and I decided that we'd seen a good amount and would probably be better off wrapping it up a little earlier than the other folks and getting out of the sun. Arriving so early allows us to wander before the throngs of tourists (not us, we were the "good tourists" - hehe) - but seriously it did start getting quite busy around 11 or 12, so that was a good time to head out. So back we went on the bus down to Aguas Calientes.
Christy and I went on an interesting romp through the city, attempting to successfully take money out of an ATM for Christy, and we finally succeeded on the 3rd and final bank. This was pretty fortuitous as the final bank was right near the train station so we learned that we'd though the train station was totally somewhere else and we had it wrong (good information as we were headed out the same evening). We also ran into the huge craft market and made a note to return with our friends and wallets.
Back we went to the hostel which gracefully let us crash all afternoon in the lounge area even though we'd already checked out. We sent some emails and asked the nice lady where to eat for lunch that wasn't as pushy and touristy as the places on the main square. She suggested a place called "Coricantcha" which was fantastic. Most of us got the "set menu" lunch. I got a stuffed avocado - amazing!!!! Also cream of asparagus soup, Saltado (chicken on french fries, so good!). I also got my new favourite drink, Chicha Morada. What an awesome combo, and it was only S/. 18?! Like $8. Crazy. And a free Pisco Sour!!!!!!!
Back we went to the hostel for a bit and took a photo for our buddy Jake to post on his Facebook wall for his birthday.
Then it was off to the market, were I found some cool lounge pants in funky colours. I also got one of the funny ear-flap winter hats, but it's quite a lot lighter material than a Canadian one. It looks funny and has some cool colours on it too. I also got a Chicana necklace.
After another "drop off stuff at the hostel" moment, we got some chocolate in advance of the train ride and went to this cool lounge place for Happy Hour, for 2-for-1 Pisco Sours. They were pretty mild but it was a nice vibe there and they let us chill out for a while which we really needed.
Then back to the hostel one more time to pack up our stuff and head to the train station. We said bye to the nice lady at the hostel and the funny dog there who was wearing a sweater! We got to the station and hung out there for a little bit before boarding the train. We got on the train, started writing our journals and generally reminiscing about our crazy adventure together. That was great. But the fun was not over!
The Peru Rail was awesome. Nice and comfortable seats, free snacks, crazy funny elderly group of French tourists who were silly and throwing paper airplanes around... but more importantly... THE MUSIC ON THE LOUDSPEAKERS. Oh. MAN.
They had some sort of ethno hip-hop thing going on, and we were so damn tired and underslept that we just started laughing uncontrollably. It was AMAZING. The music was certainly Peruvian sounding, sounds of pan-flute in the mountains... that was all kosher. But then came this club-style breakbeat in the background of the pan-flute and we burst out laughing. For like 20 minutes. It was so funny and awesome and SO LOUD. We were envisioning in our minds the idea of who might be responsible for playing this absurd music... the teenager controlling the station, just rockin' to the beat so hard and keen to teach the foreigners something about new-age funk Andean fusion rock. Oh man. As we listened, they brought us out 2 tasty yet undefinable snacks, which made the uncontrollable laughter continue. "Salty Bean" and "Confited Peanuts". Confited?! Yeah, no idea. They were GREAT though. The tracks kept getting weirder too, and we started to make up stuff to describe this strange combo of music we were listening to.
"Simon and Garfunkel, on pan-flute"
"Loud ethnicy elevator music" - so loud and weird
"Jazz Flute/Acid Jazz pan-flute jams"
"Cross between sheep farmers and Tron 2"
"Kraftwerk meets Coca Tea"
"If Peter Frampton was Peruvian..." (Robot Voice & Andean Highlands music?!)
"8-bit Alpaca Slow Jams"
"Turn this shiz to 11!!!!"
"Andean Beastie Boys" (Sounds like "Flute Loop!")
It was glorious and so awesome. It was like elevator music but someone loved it so much they had cranked it up! It was about 10x too loud!!! I was crying I was laughing so hard.
Then we saw our friend "Train moth", cousin to the "Sauce moth". We had a lot of random moths in the dinner tent and one dive-bombed our sauce one night and we called him "Sauce moth". His cousin, "Train moth" was just a moth that had attached himself to the window and was hopping on for a ride (and, presumably, to rock to the beat). Awesome :)
So that train ride was a glorious silly time and we really enjoyed it. We got off the train at Ollantaytambo and followed the group to a random parking lot. We walked towards our first "Collectivo" - a sort of shared ride van. Well... that was an experience...
The van charged us about 10 soles each or something, super cheap. They packed a bazillion people on there and off we went like a bat outta hell. We were weaving back and both between lanes, driving alongside other cars in the wrong lane to pass... it was insane. Right as we took off there was a POLICE BIKE deemed by our driver to be driving too slowly, so he honked at him and overtook him on the wrong side of the road... taking forever to slowly drift our 20-person bus back into the correct land before one of many potential close calls with traffic coming in the opposite direction.
He pulled that trick many times, pulling alongside other cars in the other lane and drifting VERY slowly back into the correct lane after passing them... sometimes driving directly alongside other cars for several minutes in the wrong lane. It seemed like this was common... in fact most people seemed to be doing this. (Later we saw a sign saying that was legal, we think). The driver was honking his horn very lightly, like all the time. That seems pretty common around here, I think it's instead of paying attention to any traffic laws, the horn is like a "hey, I'm gonna pass you now" sign... or something.
Speed Limits may-as-well have not existed as we passed through the space-time continuum due to our warp speed. There was some blatant ignoring of all posted limits by all drivers on the road, including us. 35 kph?!??! Yeah, right. How about 135??!?! Ugh. This was treacherous-feeling and we were NOT psyched to be in the huge van, hauling some major ass along insane highways with some cliffs on the side at times that we would have preferred to have been a little further away. We were very tired too, so we hoped and prayed (quite literally) for the best and... actually... in reality despite this crazy "experience", it still felt like the driver knew the roads extremely well, as he probably does this drive a couple times a day at least, and probably has been for 10 years or something. So it was nuts, but ultimately we expected we'd (probably) arrive in one piece.
Anyway, that was an ordeal and a half, but you can't argue with success! We got back from Ollantaytambo to Cusco, a supposed 2 hr drive, in... 1 hr 20 minutes. 40 MIN EARLY. Jeez. We got out of the van at the Cusco main square and never looked back. Exhausted, we just went straight back to the hostel. We hit the showers and also I shaved my "hiking beard". Kev, Frank and I had a hiking "beard-off" contest... Kev had won with flying colours as his scruff was the longest. Nice work, Kev!
I unpacked and sorted out all my dirty clothes, and got my duffel bag that the hostel had kindly kept for us while we were on the trek. I put on a hoodie and walked up the stairs to the common area in the hostel. I sat outside for just a little bit, calming down and chilling out after a heck of an epic adventure (the hike and the traveling over the last few hours!). I chilled out in the sitting area for a bit, sending a "I'm safely done the Inca Trail!" email to family and friends. After that, it was straight to bed. Ahhh... comfortable, real beds! So nice.
Here's the email I sent, it's pretty telling about the satisfied and relieved mood I was in that night after truly surviving the Inca Trail trek!
Peru Day 9: Huayna Picchu
More hiking? Sure!
We are insane, but this was also a BRILLIANT idea. We came in yesterday to Machu Picchu, excited but full-on exhausted from the 4 day Inca Trail trek, and so we just casually looked around Machu Picchu yesterday and spent most of the day back in Aguas Calientes, chilling out and returning to some semblance of humanity. Today, we got up at "jerk 'o clock" again, this time "just" 5:15am!! That actually was sleeping in compared to previous days on the trek! Anyhoo we got up to a full free breakfast from our awesome hostel, it was great: eggs, fruit, yoghurt, awesome.
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| Up at 5:30am, again :) But to an awesome breakfast! |
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| Here we go! |
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| "We have to climb WHAT?!" |
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| Let's DO THIS THING!!! |
Huayna had some very steep climbs, and places where you had a rope on the side to help you get up the steepness of the rocks... but it was a damn cinch compared to the Inca Trail :) Not having our 25 lb backpacks and just rollin' up there with cameras and water only... WOW. What a difference. Also the altitude here is lower than Cusco, significantly, so this was pretty "straightforward". Of course it was still an insane hike with very steep steps and insane inclines at 7 in the morning, but compared to what we'd been dealing with over the past few days, this was a walk in the park. And what a glorious park it was!!! "What, only 45 min straight up?! Easy-peas!" You can see how we have actually gone crazy. Crazy with LOVE FOR THE AWESOME NATURE! Or something like that :)
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| Oh goodie, more stairs! |
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| Sweet, merciful, glory... that is beautiful |
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| And her we are! Huayna Picchu, with Machu Picchu behind us |
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| Machu Picchu, from Huayna Picchu. Sun Gate (where we arrived yesterday morning) on the far left |
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| And now back down! |
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| Getting closer |
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| Huayna Picchu mountain, we were up near the top |
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| Awesome views at Machu Picchu |
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| GLORIOUS |
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| The temple of the three windows, with the moon behind it |
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| Temple of the Three Windows |
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| Temple of the Sun |
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| Amazing brickwork |
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| Rounded edges, amazing work |
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| Christy and Me, ready to head back to Aguas Calientes |
Christy and I went on an interesting romp through the city, attempting to successfully take money out of an ATM for Christy, and we finally succeeded on the 3rd and final bank. This was pretty fortuitous as the final bank was right near the train station so we learned that we'd though the train station was totally somewhere else and we had it wrong (good information as we were headed out the same evening). We also ran into the huge craft market and made a note to return with our friends and wallets.
Back we went to the hostel which gracefully let us crash all afternoon in the lounge area even though we'd already checked out. We sent some emails and asked the nice lady where to eat for lunch that wasn't as pushy and touristy as the places on the main square. She suggested a place called "Coricantcha" which was fantastic. Most of us got the "set menu" lunch. I got a stuffed avocado - amazing!!!! Also cream of asparagus soup, Saltado (chicken on french fries, so good!). I also got my new favourite drink, Chicha Morada. What an awesome combo, and it was only S/. 18?! Like $8. Crazy. And a free Pisco Sour!!!!!!!
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| Palta Rellena (stuffed avocado), my new favourite thing!!! |
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| Amazing |
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| Steak and awesome chips |
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| Christy got this epic taco thing |
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| AMAZING soup |
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| "Bromo Saltado" |
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| I don't need much mayonnaise, maybe, say, 10 cm cubed. |
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| A tip of the hat to our buddy Jake Brooks for his birthday |
After another "drop off stuff at the hostel" moment, we got some chocolate in advance of the train ride and went to this cool lounge place for Happy Hour, for 2-for-1 Pisco Sours. They were pretty mild but it was a nice vibe there and they let us chill out for a while which we really needed.
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| Me and Grrrrrrrrrrrits |
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| Classy |
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| Chillin' after the hike for 2-for-1 Pisco Sours |
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| Back to Cusco we go! |
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| Frank and the crazy French tourists behind him |
They had some sort of ethno hip-hop thing going on, and we were so damn tired and underslept that we just started laughing uncontrollably. It was AMAZING. The music was certainly Peruvian sounding, sounds of pan-flute in the mountains... that was all kosher. But then came this club-style breakbeat in the background of the pan-flute and we burst out laughing. For like 20 minutes. It was so funny and awesome and SO LOUD. We were envisioning in our minds the idea of who might be responsible for playing this absurd music... the teenager controlling the station, just rockin' to the beat so hard and keen to teach the foreigners something about new-age funk Andean fusion rock. Oh man. As we listened, they brought us out 2 tasty yet undefinable snacks, which made the uncontrollable laughter continue. "Salty Bean" and "Confited Peanuts". Confited?! Yeah, no idea. They were GREAT though. The tracks kept getting weirder too, and we started to make up stuff to describe this strange combo of music we were listening to.
"Simon and Garfunkel, on pan-flute"
"Loud ethnicy elevator music" - so loud and weird
"Jazz Flute/Acid Jazz pan-flute jams"
"Cross between sheep farmers and Tron 2"
"Kraftwerk meets Coca Tea"
"If Peter Frampton was Peruvian..." (Robot Voice & Andean Highlands music?!)
"8-bit Alpaca Slow Jams"
"Turn this shiz to 11!!!!"
"Andean Beastie Boys" (Sounds like "Flute Loop!")
It was glorious and so awesome. It was like elevator music but someone loved it so much they had cranked it up! It was about 10x too loud!!! I was crying I was laughing so hard.
Then we saw our friend "Train moth", cousin to the "Sauce moth". We had a lot of random moths in the dinner tent and one dive-bombed our sauce one night and we called him "Sauce moth". His cousin, "Train moth" was just a moth that had attached himself to the window and was hopping on for a ride (and, presumably, to rock to the beat). Awesome :)
So that train ride was a glorious silly time and we really enjoyed it. We got off the train at Ollantaytambo and followed the group to a random parking lot. We walked towards our first "Collectivo" - a sort of shared ride van. Well... that was an experience...
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| The worst van ride of our lives |
He pulled that trick many times, pulling alongside other cars in the other lane and drifting VERY slowly back into the correct lane after passing them... sometimes driving directly alongside other cars for several minutes in the wrong lane. It seemed like this was common... in fact most people seemed to be doing this. (Later we saw a sign saying that was legal, we think). The driver was honking his horn very lightly, like all the time. That seems pretty common around here, I think it's instead of paying attention to any traffic laws, the horn is like a "hey, I'm gonna pass you now" sign... or something.
Speed Limits may-as-well have not existed as we passed through the space-time continuum due to our warp speed. There was some blatant ignoring of all posted limits by all drivers on the road, including us. 35 kph?!??! Yeah, right. How about 135??!?! Ugh. This was treacherous-feeling and we were NOT psyched to be in the huge van, hauling some major ass along insane highways with some cliffs on the side at times that we would have preferred to have been a little further away. We were very tired too, so we hoped and prayed (quite literally) for the best and... actually... in reality despite this crazy "experience", it still felt like the driver knew the roads extremely well, as he probably does this drive a couple times a day at least, and probably has been for 10 years or something. So it was nuts, but ultimately we expected we'd (probably) arrive in one piece.
Anyway, that was an ordeal and a half, but you can't argue with success! We got back from Ollantaytambo to Cusco, a supposed 2 hr drive, in... 1 hr 20 minutes. 40 MIN EARLY. Jeez. We got out of the van at the Cusco main square and never looked back. Exhausted, we just went straight back to the hostel. We hit the showers and also I shaved my "hiking beard". Kev, Frank and I had a hiking "beard-off" contest... Kev had won with flying colours as his scruff was the longest. Nice work, Kev!
I unpacked and sorted out all my dirty clothes, and got my duffel bag that the hostel had kindly kept for us while we were on the trek. I put on a hoodie and walked up the stairs to the common area in the hostel. I sat outside for just a little bit, calming down and chilling out after a heck of an epic adventure (the hike and the traveling over the last few hours!). I chilled out in the sitting area for a bit, sending a "I'm safely done the Inca Trail!" email to family and friends. After that, it was straight to bed. Ahhh... comfortable, real beds! So nice.
Here's the email I sent, it's pretty telling about the satisfied and relieved mood I was in that night after truly surviving the Inca Trail trek!
Hi all,
Back in Cusco now after the 5 days of hiking. My quads and thighs in general are epically overworked and tired but good. No issues on the hike but WOW it was hard. Each day we were up at 5am and hiked for 8-9 hours per day. It was beautiful and a crazy truckload of exercise.
If I didn't lose that weight I would have been miserable- it was good that F, J and I all followed through on our health goals well in advance and really respected the complexity and physical requirements of this hike.Managed to measure my pack at one point and I was carrying approx 11kg or 22 lbs including water. This was on the low end- one of our fellow hikers had nearly 50 lbs, that is insane.My equipment worked out perfectly- Dad as always your advice on gear was A-1!!! The boots were rock solid (pun intended) - carrying me through mud, water, wet rocks, insane steps upwards and hours upon hours of descents too. No twisted ankles, no blisters, it's like magic. They even kept me well gripped to the cliff side with sheer drops on one side and of course, no safety or handrails. Thankfully not toooo many of those situations but I was glad to have the right equipment. The backpack was stellar as well- lightweight but strong as an ox. The Nalgene water bladder turned out to be essential- enabling me to stay hydrated much better than most of my fellow hikers due to the ease of consistent sipping of water all day. I averaged about 4 or 5 LITRES of water per day. Insane. The Merino Wool hoodie was perfect, warm and a good insulator in all the conditions we had. The smartwool socks were solid. The REI trek pants with zip offs to shorts proved to be very useful as well and allowed me to minimize the load I had to carry. The dry fit shirts also were a lifesaver, and now I understand why "moisture wicking" is so damn important when you're sweating for 9 hours straight. Truly stellar equipment, it served me very well.The down parts (there were MANY, one they called the gringo killer - 3000 steep downhill steps in 3 hrs) were a cinch compared to the uphill, though some people with bad knees or ankles had problems with downhill- it was fine for me thankfully. Uphill was another story. Breathing method was VERY important as was hydration and sun protection. This was just tiring in general to go uphill, but came to a pretty hard peak at the, well, peak of the hike :) the peak was 4200m, about 14,000 ft and the 1.5 hr or so between 13k and 14k ft was my most challenging part. Others had trouble too but it was by far my hardest challenge, physically and mentally. The air is so thin up there and we had already been hiking for 5 or 6 hrs (carrying 22 lbs) at that point. The steps got harder and harder and my energy was so drained but I had to keep pushing and pushing onwards. It was intense. And a hell of an awesome reward to finallllllly reach the peak and high five the other members of the team. Everyone was so supportive and helpful and our guide was top notch, making sure we got the right words of encouragement and humor at the right times. Amazing.And it wasn't JUST insanely hard and tough!!! It was very beautiful and I took a gazillion photos. The cloud forest was epic as was the sun gate and walk towards Machu picchu. Truly unbelievable. Our guide taught us a bunch of amazing things about the Incas and cultural and spiritual history. We hiked with 15 people total and they were all amazing, I made some great new friends.
Back in Cusco now and friggin exhausted. Need another good sleep tonight. So I'm off. I'll post the blog starting when I get home in June. Oh yes, and so glad we went with Peru Treks- the food was just amazing. The porters were amazing too. What a great experience. Ok I need more sleep now. ;p