We’re back! The trip home was thankfully uneventful. I slept for 11 hours last night and feel terrific. What a trip! I’ve spent some time this afternoon going through my photos and picked out some of the best. Also, while I didn’t have much time (or interest) over the last week to post while in Jordan, I’ve included photos of Petra, Kerak & Jerash in this ‘best of’ collection. These shots are edited and are mostly of the monuments and sights. Very postcardy. But that’s what I like to do.

Jordan was a welcome change from Egypt in many ways. First we were templed-out, overwhelmed by the all the ancient Egyptian monuments despite their magnificence. The Nabatean, Roman and crusader monuments of Jordan were compelling in different ways. Second, the hassle was toned down a notch in Jordan. They’re a little less in-your-face about tourism. We met some nice people and had a chance to slow our pace a bit before heading home.

Petra was amazing. It sits in a desolate place, hidden away in a network of wadis (canyons) that really make it a hidden city. We spent two days at the site and were able to achieve a sense of solitude by going early and late to avoid the horde. We did some hiking and were able to see quite a bit of the expansive site. Note: you’ll have to wade through some familiar shots of the previous two weeks to see Petra. The tombs dot the hillsides and there are some semi-preserved ruins along the main promenade, but the main star of the city is the spectacular setting. The sandstone hills surrounding the site provide a stunning backdrop, with rusty reds, oranges and browns changing color as the sun crosses the sky. Photos just can’t do it justice.

After Petra we headed north on our way to Amman. Karak is a small town about half-way between Petra and the capital. We stopped for the night to break up the trip and to check out the famous crusader castle perched high in the hills overlooking the dead sea and Israel in the distance. We even stopped by the dead sea briefly on our way there just float around for a bit. Kerak’s history goes way back beyond the Nabateans to the bibilical Moabites and the legends of Sodom and Gommorah. In 1100 something it became an important citadel for harassing trade routes. We had the place to ourselves and wandered around the maze of subterranean chambers with flashlights.

Finally, there are some shots at the end of the set of Jerash, the Roman provincial town about 45min north of Amman. We did it as a day trip from Amman with our buddy Brandon. It was a nice full day and the ruins were in a state of preservation on par with Ephesus in Turkey.

Aswan is the southernmost big city in Egypt. We took the train there from Luxor in order to see the remote site of Abu Simbel on the Sudanese border and to cruise down the Nile in a felucca sailboat for a few days.

Abu Simbel was worth the journey, although the 2:45 wake-up call was a bit on the early side. They put all of the tourists together in an armed caravan which has a very limited departure window. The trip takes 3 hours or so each way and goes through some pretty empty stretches of Sahara. On arrival it’s a race to get out of the van and to the monument before the rest of the tourist horde. Somehow we managed just that, and Dad and I had about 10 minutes in the temple just by ourselves before the big groups organized outside. That made all the difference, and what would have been an impressive experience dulled a bit by gridlock ended up being quite magical.

After Abu Simbel we set outselves up for a rather intense few days. We went immediately from the bus to our felucca where we set out on an atmospheric but slow trip down the river. The boat was great, the two Nubian crew (Iman & Tamel) were super and the sights along the river were worth the journey. We stopped in two different Nubian villages, once to re-supply on orange Fanta, and another to visit the locals and hang out in the shade of a traditional Nubian house. My only complaint was that we didn’t cover as much distance as I had hoped. We originally planned the river trip as a more pleasant means of getting back to Luxor, but over two days we only covered 20 miles or so due to the lack of wind. We ended up in a ridiculously packed van with no AC for the 4 hour trip back. Ugh.

But we survived. We made it to the airport and flew to Sharm and then Dahab, where we are now.

I went diving again this morning to a site called islands. The visibility was amazing and the coral formations some of the best I’ve seen. Tomorrow I’ll be sitting by the pool and maybe snorkling. That’s it. We’ll need a little rest before our full-day of travel Sunday to Jordan. We’re still trying to sort out the details but may end up going through Israel since the ferry has a bad reputation.

Wish us luck.

We moved on to Luxor Sunday and spent the first two days exploring Karnak, Luxor temple, and the valley of the kings. That’s where all of the new kingdom dynasty pharoes were buried, King Tut etc.

We weren’t allowed to take photos of the tombs in the valley, so the photos here are of Karnak, Luxor and Nefertari’s funerary temple on the west bank. We were super impressed by all the sights and weren’t even “templed out” yet, anticipating more to come as we headed further south to Aswan.

I’ll post more on Aswan later, but it’ll suffice to say that we survived our river journey and are now confortably installed in fancy seaside hotel in Dahab, right next to the pool with chocolate malts in-hand. We’re planning some serious down-time over the next few days before we head into Jordan.

I did take a diver refresher course today and will be on a two-tank reef dive tomorrow. Fun times.

We’re one week in and have already made it to Luxor and have seen the Theban necropolis (Valley of the Kings) and the temples of Luxor and Karnak. Time is moving fast and we haven’t really had the time to post until now, so here are all my photos from Cairo and Giza up until 2 days ago.

We spent our 5 days in Cairo recovering from jetlag and finding our feet. The streets remind a lot of India. The traffic is intense and crossing the street is an adventure. We spent the 1st day at Giza, Saqqara and Dathor?, the sites that make of the west-bank necropolis of old kingdom Memphis. There are almost 100 pyramids scattered over miles south of Cairo along the Nile, and we got a good sampling.

The pyramids at Giza were amazing of course, but I really enjoyed Seneferu’s(?) red pyramid. There was no crowd and I was able to hike down into the interior to explore. I was the only one there (dad opted out and spared himself some aching legs) and was awed by the scale of the architecture, of how much stone was piled on top of me.

The following day we saw the Egyptian Museum. No photos but a great experience. We decided against hiring a guide and just wandered slowly through the place. The building is ancient and just can’t contain the overwhelming quantity of artifacts crammed into every corner. Think Indiana Jones’s basement.

The following day we hikes a few miles through the old Fatimid Islamic quarter, now one of the cities poorest and most chaotic neighborhoods. We took our time, stopping for tea and visiting mosques when we needed a break. There are a bunch of photos from the hike in the slideshow below as well.

That’s it. The photos are unedited and I doubt I’ll have time to do much until I’m back. We’re off to Aswan and Abu Simbel before returning to Luxor by sail boat.

Jeff

More pics inside…

This is an experiment to see how a Flickr slideshow embeds. I’ll update with the Inca Trail shots later.

Well, we’re finally within sight of the end. We’re flying to San Francisco from Lima in a little more than a week. This will likely be our last post until we’re home (wherever that is) and have some photos from our Machu Pichu trek to share.

Cuzco
We knew ahead of time that we were going to need a good chunk of time for Cuzco and the surrounding area so we dedicated around 2 weeks in all for our time here. A grand finale to our 4 months of travel.

We’ve spent around 10 days in Cuzco altogether, breaking it up a bit with a mini 5-day trip to the sacred valley nearby. Cuzco deserved the time, but was much different than we expected. It’s by far the most touristy place we’ve visited, and we were caught a bit off guard by the annoying touts and crazy tourist-only prices. We’ve adjusted, but I can say that we definitely miss the more tranquil vibe of our earlier travels.

We’ve kept ourselves busy by visiting all the crowded hot-spots in central Cuzco (the cathedral etc) while at the same time preserving our sanity by escaping to the outskirts. That’s the great thing about this area of Peru, there is just so much to see and do, that it’s still possible to escape the crowds. There have been a few points in the last few days where Elyse and I have had an amazing set of Incan ruins all to ourselves.

The photos below are all from Cuzco itself and some of the day-hikes we’ve made outside the city. The hikes have been the highlight for me. Just today we took a taxi about 11km outside the city and then hiked back cross-country. Along the way we stumbled upon several abandoned sites where there were intact Incan walls and ceremonial sites (such as strangely carved rocks and caves).

Pisac

Pisac was awesome. One of the better hikes I’ve done in my life. We made a full day of it, starting pretty early in the morning and hiking till mid-afternoon. The ruins sit on a mountain that looms over the small town of the same name, famous for it’s craft market. While tourists come for the market, most don’t bother scaling the mountain to visit the ruins, so we were surprised to find the place almost deserted.

We were treated to commanding views up and down the sacred valley and spent the day hiking between several sets of ruins that sat on the rocky ridge above the town. The trail connecting the ruins was interesting, it roughly followed the ridge, connecting sentry towers to the main temple complex and then on the back of the hill, to residential areas and farming terraces. On occasion the trail would hug the side of a cliff with scary drop-offs or duck into a pitch-black tunnel.

Ollantaytambo and Pumamarca

Elyse says:
The ruins of Ollantaytambo (which were the site of a major battle between the Spaniards and the Incas) are also perched on a cliff, looming over the city below. The city itself is the best remaining evidence of Inca city planning and contains many Inca buildings and impressive trapezoid shaped doorways. It was amazing to walk through the streets and see the work of the Inca’s in the walls, the irrigation channels and the buildings. We had fun imagining the lives of the people who lived there 100′s of years before. We were just a little envious of some of the town’s residents who have Incan buildings for homes.

We took another long hike outside of Ollantaytambo to see the ruins of Pumamarca. This set of ruins is thought to pre-date the Incas. It was a 5 hour hike round trip with a steep ascent up through the walls of the valley so we had the entire set of ruins to ourselves. We had a picnic in the grass with the walls of Pumamarca around us.

Chinchero

Elyse again:
Chinchero is a sleepy little town with 2 restaurants and 1 hostel. When we arrived on Saturday we were the only gringos around – most tourists only come on Sunday for the crafts market. The towns other attraction is the colonial adobe church built atop… you guessed it … an Incan palace. The interior of the church was covered in paintings from the early colonial time – brightly colored and beautiful from afar if somewhat lacking in artistic merit when viewed close-up. Outside the ruins of the Incan palace, were rocky outcrops, which the Incas carved into benches, tunnels, pumas, snakes, condors, moons and other religious symbols.

Well, Elyse and I have finally made it to Cuzco, our last destination in Peru before our long journey home. We feel like travel weary pilgrims having finally reached our ultimate destination after months of travel. Cuzco is everything we hoped it would be (although compared to Bolivia it feels like Disneyworld with huge crowds of Japanese tourists, touts, overpriced everything…)

But I’m getting ahead of myself. We spent the last few days in Puno and Arequipa as we worked our way here. Puno was less of a *hole than everyone told us, but we quickly moved on anyway, wanting to make the best use of our time and linger in both Arequipa and Cuzco.

My initial impression of Arequipa was mixed. It’s in an incredible location with looming mountains and volcanoes in all directions, but the smog and sprawl diminish the affect a bit. Once we reached the center we discovered what makes the city so special. The historic center is filled with beautiful white colonial buildings (no photos, I’m a bit worn out on colonial buildings and one particular sight of importance: the convent of Santa Catalina. The photos below are from a delightful afternoon spent exploring the ancient convent which fills a city block and feels like a tiny colonial village all by itself.

Colca Canyon

Outside Arequipa about 4 hours is Colca Canyon, one of the deepest canyons in the world and home to condors, tiny indigenous villages, and amazing terracing left over from pre-incan communities that called the canyon home. We did our first package tourist-ish trip in four months by taking a 2 day trip to the canyon because we’ve become lazy and are getting tired of doing things ourselves. I was underwhelmed by the experience, but the canyon itself made up for it. It was truly spectacular.

According to Incan creation myths, Isla Del Sol is where the Sun and Moon were born. It sits in the middle of Lake Titicaca just north of Copacabana, and it´s possible to hike there from Copa. We decided to make a trek out of it, packed our hiking day-packs, and left our big packs in storage at the hotel.

The route took us north out of Copa for about 20km through rolling hills and beautiful coastal scenery. At the north end of the penninsula we walked through a small village where we found a local guy who would take us to the island in his boat. He dropped us off on the southern tip of the island.

The hiking was great, although the elevation and intensity of the sun took it’s toll. We stopped briefly by the ruins of an Incan palace on the south shore before heading to a small ridge-top settlement for our first night. We stayed in a small posada with views over both sides of the island and had a simple dinner of local caught trout and vegetable soup. Delicious.

For the next two days we did a loop of the island, starting with a hike along the ridge to the north side of the island on the second day, and continuing back along the coast on the third. We passed through ruins, small farming villages, and around every corner were treated to fantastic views of the lake and mountains in the distance.

What made the hiking here so special was the unique terrain, the vertical hills made for some incredible scenery, but even more importantly, no cars! Yes, Isla Del Sol is an oasis of pedestrianism, where the only form of transportation is by foot along ancient island paths. The locals use burros and llamas to move stuff around, but for the most part it’s all people power. It was a nice respite from the “get out of my way or die” rules of the road we’ve become accustomed to in Bolivia.

I’ve included some more details from our trek in the photos below. Now we’re waiting for our bus which will cross the border to Puno in Peru. We’re not sure how long we’ll be there, our real destination is Arequipa for a few days (and maybe another hike) before we hit Cuzco.

-Jeff

Copacabana is a beautiful little town that sits on the southern end of Lake Titicaca and right on the border with Peru. Elyse and I spent a week here, enjoying the dramatic change in scenery, and relaxing at the inviting Hotel Cupula (best showers in Bolivia!).

While Copacabana is still at a dizzying elevation, it feels different than La Paz and the other altiplano towns because it sits on Lake Titicaca, an immense, gorgeous blue lake surrounded by snow-capped peaks. From Copa you can see east and west between Peru and Bolivia, but looking north the lake seems to go on forever, slipping over the horizon. For a moment, the dry grassy hills of the area and the lake beyond remind me of Marin.

Copa itself is nestled between some high hills that offer some great short day-hike opportunities. On day one we hiked up a nearby hill to the “Incan observatory”, an area of jagged rock formations that served as an astronomical observatory for the ancient locals. It was actually pretty interesting, we paid a local kid to walk us up there and he pointed out quite a few subtle features of the observatory. The most obvious was a pair of vertical rocks capped with a flat boulder on top. These were use to track star movements aparently. There were also holes carved strategically in the sides of some vertical formations that were used to track sun movements and to time seasonal changes. We hung out there for a while, taking in the view, and Elyse even tried to commune with her dead Incan ancestors by meditating in a seat used by ancient astronomers.

When we returned to town we stumbled upon a religious procession, something Copa is famous for. The beautiful cathedral is home to a revered wooden carving of the Virgin Mary and pilgrims come from afar for her services. It seems that her specialty is the blessing of automobiles, a tradition that dates back to the early colonial times when Christian pilgrims would travel for weeks just to aquire blessings for their Toyotas and Mazdas. We observed a flowery procession of priests and the like around the central square, and after a line-up of all sorts of motorized vehicles for the blessing ceremony.

Other than that, we basically chilled out in Copa and planned for our upcoming trek to nearby Isla Del Sol.

-Jeff

Sorry attempt at a panorama (at least it gives a rough idea of the landscape):

We returned to La Paz after our jungle adventures and got a visit from an unwelcome guest – Jeff got a bad case of food poisoning and was laid up for a few days  (Don’t worry, he’s all better now).   We were lucky enough that our second stay in La Paz overlapped the biggest festival of the year in that city – El Gran Poder.

The festival, like most in Bolivia has religious roots (Catholic that is).  What started out many years ago as a modest procession of the cross within the streets is now a riotous, colorful, costumed extravaganza.  The parade started at 7am and was still going at 11pm.  There were thousands of participants in the parade.  I took a break from nursing Jeff to check out 45 minutes of the parade.  Since alchohol is a key ingredient to any Bolivian celebration (religious or otherwise) the beer was flowing freely, despite the fact that it was not yet 10am.  Even the people in the parade were drinking.

Tiahuanaco

The Tiahuanaco civilization flourished as a power in the Andes for more than two thousand years before the Inca’s came to power.  Their religion, art and architecture influenced Inca culture.  The site of Tiahuanaco was inhabited by 1200 BC, and continued to be an important urban and religious center until around 1,000 AD.  Today the site is a little worse for the wear.  Looting prevailed from after the fall of the culture until after colonial times (see church below built from the stones the Spaniards took from the ancient pyramids).   Also early excavation in the 20th century was aparently uninformed and the quality of the reconstruction in some cases is inferior to the stonework that the ancient culture originally had in their architecture. 

Despite all this, the ruins were impressive, the famous Sun Gate had a complete calendar, displaying an incredible knowledge of astronomy.  The most impressive feature was an 8 meter high intricately carved monolith (not shown here because it was in a museum and we couldn’t take photos).  Even this masterpiece has been abused – it was housed in front of the soccer stadium in La Paz until 6 years ago where it had bottles thrown at it and was even hit with multiple bullets during one of Bolivia’s many political coups.  The damage was surprisingly minimal and the giant statue is one of the most impressive stone carvings I’ve seen.

-Elyse