Peru to Ecuador Crossing

June 21st - Blah! blah blah blah. Blah blah, blah blah blah blah. blah blah blah blah blah and blah ;) Translation = longest bus ride ever!

We crossed the border and another country stamped in my passport. We are now in Guayaquil waiting for another 8-10 hour bus ride to Quito. My travel companions and I were discussing that as we are nearing the equator, the people we are encountering are a lot taller and most have lighter skin tones. From Quito, we found another trek to visit the Amazon Rainforest and we decided to do the 4days, 3night adventure with Gulliver´s travels.

I called my parents yesterday to wish my dad a happy dad day. My mom reminded me if we had stopped by Lima since one of the Mother Mary statues in Alegria, Cebu (where my mom grew up in the Philippines) was donated from Lima, Peru. Note to self - I will find this statue when I am in Alegria in about three weeks.

Trujillo and Mancora, Peru

On June 18th we took a day trip visiting Trujillo and Huanchaco. We went to the Chan Chan site and it looks to me like a huge sand castle. This site is presumed to have been built in the 9th century by the Chimos civilization. It is on my to do list to read up when I get back home to Seattle since I have not heard of them but there are certainly a lot of stuff in our world history that I don´t know about :) The Chimos were sea loving (if I understood the history correctly) and in time, they would meet with the Incas.

The Chan Chan is estimated to be 400 years older than the Machu Picchu. After visiting the Chan Chan site, we then took the taxi up to Huanchaco and had lunch. The picture depicts a type of a surf board that Huanchaco is famous for but I wasn´t able to witness any of the locals using it.

We then took another overnight bus from Huanchaco all the way to Mancora. We stayed at their newest Loki hostel and the accomodations are worth it. For about 8 bucks a night, we had hot shower and our bed. There is a pool as well and only a few minutes walk to the beach. I am also showing a picture of an eel (?type) that some people thought was a baby dolphin.
 
Almost everyone would stop and examine this eel (maybe even poke it to wake it up?). I wonder if its still going to be there tomorrow on the beach. We are staying another night here before we take another bus to Tumbes, where we will cross the Peru-Ecuador border tomorrow, June 21st.

We are still trying to figure out the best way to visit the Amazon Rainforest in Ecuador. Before I forget, advance Happy Father´s day to all fathers!

Lima, Peru

We took a flight from Cusco to Lima since the bus would have taken us 22 hours and we were not up for that :) Arrived safely in Lima and we stayed at the Loki hostel again. We found this really cool cebicheria right in the small alley beside the hostel. They had really cheap food and Brent loved their salsa! We even came back for dinner the next day. We met up with Kat and her friends. Christie and Jill knew Kat while they were in the Peace Corps in the Domican Republic. It was good for us to hear about their project through their master´s program from Colorado State University. Kat and her friends are in Lima for the next two months to implement their project with some of the local Peruvian families.

The next day, Brent, Jill, Christie and I walked around the city. Our first stop was the Lover´s park - hence the photo of the provocative couple right in the middle of the park. We then took a taxi and visited their Museum de Nacion which is a must see. Lots of old artifacts and great exhibits. Lastly, we took another taxi and had a tour of the San Francisco Church (in Spanish!) . There was also and English version but Brent and I decided to join the spanish one for our language immersion for the day. This was really a cool tour of this historical church. I recommend it for everyone. Too bad we couldn´t take pictures inside since the architecture was amazing. Visiting the catacombs (underneath the church) was very creepy. Our guide said that there were over 120,000 dead bodies there. Mostly composed of the priests and the locals. We then checked out from our hostel and took the 9 hour overnight bus ride to Trujillo and Huanchaco.

Machu Picchu and Wayna Picchu

June 14th - we woke up at 4:20 am to have a little bit of breakfast before we catch the bus to Machu Picchu from Agua Calientes. There was already a long line of tourists lining up for the very first bus at 5:30am. There were some tourists who hiked up the mountain instead but most, if not all, of our group members were already so exhausted from our three day hike in the Andes that riding the bus was a much needed relief. Learning about the Inca culture and the the building of the Machu Picchu about four to five hundred years ago was great and the views were stunning.

I can only imagine what Machu Picchu would have looked like if the Incas were able to finish it. They had to abandoned it when the Spaniards came to colonize Cusco and the surrounding areas. We also decided to climb (rock climb to be exact) Wayna Picchu to see the Machu Picchu from atop.


Wayna Picchu is the triangle looking hill over looking Machu Picchu. There´s a picture of Jill, Christie, and I when we reached the top. Before I left Seattle, my co-workers Britta, Corrie and I trained by walking up the 18 floor stairs at the UWMC twice.

It truly helped with my hike up to Wayna Picchu. The altitude on the other hand is another story ----- so, either come here several days earlier or take meds! In the end, the whole trip 
was worth it.

 It is inspiring to witness the commitment of a civilization to build a structure such as Machu Picchu.

My Family in the Lares Trek

My Lares Trek family bonded for four days as we tested our mental and physical capabilities. We had a couple from Belgium (Vincent and Alexandria), a couple from France (Yannick and Cecillia), our fiesty friend Hayley from Australia, our Dutch comprade (Antoinette), and our Malaysian friends (Ling and Tan). Every segment of our trek was exhausting but Cesar and his team always gave us our perfect shelter and awesome food.

Until now, I am still really amazed on how he baked a cake for our 2nd dinner together. The closest next birthday was Jill´s so we celebrated it as well. Raul, our guide, surprised us with his fluency with the Japanese language and Juan, our head guide, entertained us with ghost stories before we headed to bed. I think we were all too exhausted to be frightened by it and tried to slept as best as we can on top of the chilly mountain. I had my first taste of the ¨Macha Tea¨with rum to help us stay warm throughout the night.

Here are pictures of our amazing team and our campsite. I also have a picture of the coca leaves offering once I reached our highest peak.

Children in the Andes

As mentioned, we were able to visit a couple of homes of a local family living in the Andes. Our guides also recommended we bring treats for the children (candies, pencils, pen, etc). A shout out to my dental friends - we need to give away pediatric toothbrushes as well ;)

The children were very lovely and their families were very accomodating. We were greeted with a lot of smiles and encouragement to continue on our trek. A genuine smile truly is a universal language of love.

I have to admit --- trekking the Andes is pretty physically draining.  I couldn't breathe in most parts.  Well, I didn't really train for it and not sure if its even possible to train at sea-level on breathing tactics on this altitude.

Nevertheless, as I keep walking and walking ... the children living in the Andes are RUNNING towards us .. up the hilly mountains ... SMILING.

As I continue to be amazed of the children's high-altitude breathing capabilities, I stop and ponder if they have Newborn Screening in Peru!  I realized that I didn't do my due diligence to read up on the public health efforts in this country.  These children, however, seem very fit and patiently await their daily gifts of sweets.

Note to self:  Read up on the health statistics of every country I visit from now on .... might as well include an informal meeting with the local health care providers ... when possible ;)

Cusco, Peru

Alrighty, I am leaving Chicago today -June 8th and heading to Peru. The flight to Miami (2 1/2 h), then to Lima (5 hrs), then to Cuzco (50 minutes ) went very smoothly. I kinda was worried that I would miss my connection between Lima and Cuzco since I only had 40 minutes to spare but in the end, it was just perfect walking from one airline to the other. Everyone I´ve met so far in Peru are very friendly. The food is great. The altitude, however, I needed to get used to. I knew we were so high up in the mountains when the plane heading to Cuzco was flying right beside some peaks! Very stunning and humbling at the same time. My cousin, Christie, picked me up at the airport and it was so great to see her :) I was joking around that I couldn´t carry my backpack since I can barely breathe. We took the taxi to our Loki Hostel and I met our other fellow travelers. Only 8 bucks a night and the view from the common room windows is stunning. We can see the city of Cuzco. We also have hot water too and the hostel´s tenants are mostly Europeans and Australians. I have yet to meet another set of American travelers. Lots of English accents everywhere!!!

Anyways, I arrived in Cuzco at around 7:30am and then I started drinking Coca tea (recommended by most for it will help with the altitude issues). I had breakfast and though I was so excited to see the town - I went to bed instead. I slept until 4pm and I woke up with my head so heavy and congested. Dang it, I did get affected with this high altitude stuff. Now I got worried. When I moved to Denver for grad school, I was nauseated for two weeks until I was used to being several miles up from sea level. Bad news is that I don´t have two weeks here in Cuzco! We start hiking to MachuPicchu by thursday and some parts of the hike will take me so much higher up in altitude that our guide, Juan said that one of the evenings will feel like you are in the North Pole! Hmmmmmnnnnn ..... what to do? I can´t even imagine what North Pole will be like since I have not been there but the sound of it (cold and my pounding headache) is not a good mix. Juan´s recommendation is for us to pack a bottle of Rum for the cold :)

That said, I continued to take advice from everyone who is so nice to give me some. Though I still did not get my bottle of Rum (I think another group will bring that instead for there are 12 of us total).

Basically, for two days - I´ve only been drinking Coca Tea, water, and eating lots of food .... not to mention, putting my feet up. I periodically would take some tylenol and these pills that Christie gave me for altitude sickness. Before I left my work in Seattle, Dr. Tom Bird recommended that I should take this medication for altitude sickness because he was just here several months ago. Time passed by so quickly that when I called the UW Travel Medicine clinic, their first appointment was already way after I left Seattle. So totally ¨My Bad¨that I am not prepared. Good news is that my head right now (after 30 hours) is feeling so much lighter and well adjusted. I just hope that it continues to be this way for our hike :)

Overall, the city of Cuzco is amazing. They had a street festival the second day I was here and the locals are so nice. We walked around, had great food, and also had some ice cream. I haven´t had ceviche yet and I will do so when I get back from our hike. There are several fried guinea pigs being sold but I just took pictures of them for now. My travel peeps (Christie, Jill, Brent and I) will be more adventures in our food tasting following Machu Picchu. Its 6pm already on June 10th and we will have a bus pick us up at 5:20am to take us to our hikes´s starting point. Truth be told - I am nervous and excited at the same time!

Chicago

Chicago is a great city. I can feel the beat of the town and witness the artistry (They had an Art Festival right along Michigan Ave!). The 25th Annual Gospel Music celebration was going on too in the Park. I came back to Chicago on June 5th to June 7th since it was one of my Landmark weekend courses. I missed the one in Seattle since my older brother got married on the same weekend (After June 20th, please check out their wedding photos at www.lightphoria.com). It was truly great to meet the participants from Chicago, Wisconsin, New York, and I even met an awesome person, Jo who works for Oxfam in Toronto (www.oxfam.ca) Everyone is up to something on how to better the world we are living in. As an example, Oxfam is an organization that supports the poor people in developing countries and ensures that they are part in making the decisions that affects them.

I also connected with Jocelyn, who is a stand for the greatness, love, and anything is possible for all Filipinas. Jocelyn is in the Introduction to Leaders Program through landmark education. She also started her own business promoting corporate social responsibility (ppsolutionsllc.com) which is totally a conversation my younger sister, Mae (aka Carmel) is highly interested in. Of course I had both of them connect following our conversation so they can start brainstorming ideas and creating an awesome future for all of us.

Savoy and Preoria, Illinois

Woke up early today, June 4rth, to accompany Noah and her mom to Saint Frances´ Children´s Hospital for Noah´s chemo. Lion King was playing as we drove for an hour and a half to the hospital. As Simba´s father said in the movie that ¨being brave doesn´t mean that we have to go looking for trouble¨, well - Noah is a true testament of this statement. At age 2 1/2 years, he is one of the bravest man I know. All the nurses knew him by his name and he knows the protocol in regards to his blood draw and chemo administration. It will be a couple of years until his treatment is completed. They are off to St. Jude next week in Memphis for Noah´s follow-up appointment. Since his chemo will continue to be administered in a weekly basis, I am planning to have my immediate family celebrate thanskgiving this year here in Savoy. I am sharing some of the photos taken during Noah´s chemo treatment, and our visit to the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana campus.

Chicago - Savoy, Illinois First Stop

I left a sunny Seattle on June 1st, 2009 and headed straight to Chicago. I was greeted with cloudy skies and light rain (totally felt like home!). Took the train directly to Joanna's place and I waited for her to come home from Europe. Her place in downtown Chicago is AWESOME! We spent a few hours catching up until it was time for bed. She is again off to a couple of conferences in the upcoming week while I am taking the bus or train to Champagne, Illinois to be with my cousin and his family the next morning. I woke up late -- totally had to catch up from missed sleeping time for having an amazing weekend (My bro got married on May 30th -http://lightphoria.com and check out Amy and Joseph ). If you know of any special events AND of course there's a lot, let me just tell you that Siang is an amazing photographer to capture all those memorable memories in your life. I recommend him without any reservations.

I finally was able to find the Greyhound station and took the bus leaving 3pm and arrived safely at 6pm in Champagne. My cousin, Cocoy and his family picked me up. So great to see all of them for it had been years. His wife Raquel, and their two children Aidan (8) and Noah (almost 3) were in the van waiting. Their smiling faces greeted me as we headed to their immaculate home in Savoy. Noah is the first photo I am posting. This is his first trip to the mall following his diagnosis of leukemia this past December. He is truly a darling. You will never know that he is still undergoing weekly chemo treatment (we are off to the hospital tomorrow) because he bounces all over the place. We watched the movie "Robot" in the van as we headed out to the mall to help me find some hiking pants. The one I brought is too small and I want to eat as much food as I can this week since Noah's mom is such a great cook. She just made me chicken adobo for lunch! The mall adventure was a success, and now I am all ready for the upcoming Peru trek on Monday. We watched the ending of Robot all the way home as Noah drifted off to sleep and for me taking it all in the moral of the story --- " It doesn't matter what we are all made of, we are all going to shine " -this is indeed so true.