Penguins!!!!

After a series of long over night bus rides and some random towns along the way, we have made it up the coast of Argentina. We stopped at Puenta Madryn, as its knowns as a famous breeding spot for whales, dolphins and penguins in the spring. I obviously took a penguin tour to see the Magenellic penguins at a place called Punta Tombo. There were literally thousands of them walking around, building nests, mating and laying eggs, it was incredible. We got soo close to them ( your unfortunatly not allowed to touch them, but for good reasons), and lucky for me my camera died right at the end of the excursion ( i have like 500 penguin photos, ill only post 1 or 2 I promise). Along the way we got on a boat to visit a colony of little black and white dolphins. They are only found in these waters of Argentina! They were super cool to watch aswell! We arrived to Mar Del Plata last night, looks like an awesome beach town, as we are finally back into some warm weather! Off to the capitol tomorrow for a few days.See you all soon! xox J

Santiago and beyond!

I know its only been 10 days since my last post, but we have covered sooo much ground, it feels like forever ago! Last week we spent a day and night in Santiago, Chiles capitol city. To be honest it felt just like an big city, Toronto or Vancouver, but with everything in spanish and a chilean flag on every building! We saw the main sights and partied with the 5 people from the UK we met in Valparaiso, who came with us to this awesome hostel that was an old mansion! Speaking of partying, the wine here is soooo cheap, 3 bucks Canadian for 2L box, and its tastes like a $20 bottle, even better! From there we headed to Pucon, an awesome little country town with a large volcano, which due to timing, we were unable to climb. Unfortunately my dreams of snowboarding in Chile were also shattered, as the ski season ended a few weeks earlier than usual...all well, it gives me an excuse to come back :)
Puerto Montt was our next stop to catch the Navimag. There was not much going on in this town, so we caught a lateshow at the cinema, saw Planet of the Apes, in english with spanish subtitles! We spent Thanksgiving weekend on the Navimag ferry from P. Montt to P. Natales. 4 days on the ship went by so fast! The scenery was amazing, and we had great company, some people we met earlier travelling, the 6 of us had a great time!! We saw tons of birds, and some penguins swimming, iceburgs in the distance, it was a great way to see patagonia!
We just got back from a day trip to see Torres del Paine, the famous Patagonian rock formation. If we had more time, we would have joined our wolfpack in doing the W trek, 4 days through Torres del Paine national park, to see the mountains and glacier. However, this day trip was awesome, they took us to cave where they found remains of an extinct mammal from the iceage. We then visited the famous granite towers, they are beautiful, snow and glacier capped in front of clear blue lakes that show a perfect reflection. There wasnt a cloud in the sky all day, just beautiful. Just when we thought things couldnt get better, we stopped at Grey Lake and got to see the Grey Glacier and its iceburgs- that I can say is the most beautiful landscape scene I have ever seen.Unfortunately this glacier is disappearing at 4 m per year, they think it will be gone in about 10 years:(. This place is unreal, its definitely a highlight for me, and I will definitely be back to southern Chile and Patagonia someday! ( when I win the lottery to head to Anarctica:) ) Off to Argentina tomorrow, we have alot of ground to cover in the next 10 days! Miss you all xox

The West Coast!

Chile is unreal! I know I said Arica had beautiful beaches, but I think Iquique may have topped them! Honestly, instead of Cuba or Dominican, I think Iquique should be everyones next vacation destination! We spent 3 days in Iquique, hanging out on the beach and watching the locals surf ( the waves were wayyy to big for lessons). Our hostal was practically on the beach, with a roof top patio to watch the sunset. We then headed to Copiapo, the town of the mining disaster, but only for the day as we caught an over night bus to La Serena. As of right now there nothign to see at the mine anyways, but I hear there may be an upcoming movie?! Spent another 3 days in La Serena. One day we walked 4 hours down the beach and ended up at the next town Coquimbo- a dog followed us for most the trek, it was quite entertaining. Beautiful scenery all the time. Last night we headed up to this Observatory about an hour from La Sererna. It was awesome- the skies are so clear here you can see soo many more stars than at home. The milky way, 2 other galaxies, and Jupiter were very neat to see through the telescopes ( yes I am aware this just further confirms my science nerd status lol)
Today we arrived in Valparaiso, a very unique town, on the coast, close to Santiago. All the houses are built along the cliffs, and all brightly painted different colours- a very artsy town- I like it. We plan to head to its sister town, Vina Del Mar tomorrow, the beaches and surf are supposed to be great! Another update- we added another adventure to the mix, next Friday we are getting on the Navimag, a ferry boat for 4 days that takes you from Peurto Montt to Peurto Natales. This region Patagonia is supposed to be amazing, something you can´t miss if you down here; glaciers, penguins and whales oh my! :) We heard about it from the New Zealand teachers we met in Arica, turns out we will be joining them again in Peurto Montt next week for the tour!
Happy October everyone! Glad to hear so many of you are enjoying the blog, time well spent! Love ya! xo J

It´s hot in Chile!

Arica, Chile, a place of beautiful beaches and hot weather, finally! Peru was amazing, but very wet and cold while we were there. Our last stop in Peru was to Puno, to visit the floating islands of Lake Titicaca. We took a boat tour to the islands, they are actually floating on the roots of the totora reeds- they harvest them to make boats, houses and the island, its really cool to see! We only spent a day in Puno, then hopped on an over night bus to Tacna and then to Chile. It was amazing to wake up after an 8 hour bus ride and see the dramatic landscape change. The cab ride to Arica was through the desert. This town is located right on the ocean, so we have been hitting the beach everyday so far. The backdrop is a giant sand dune, we definitely want to find some sandboarding around here! Last night we hit the town, we went out with 2 people from New Zealand and a guy from Wales that we met at this hostel- great fun! We bar hopped ( yes its safe to go outside at night, as long as your not alone) and found a place that a local band was playing at. They sure party hard here, the bars are open until 5 in the morning! Today we will be planning out next move south! I have been told by a few people that you cannot make comments on the blog, no worries, if you neeed to contact me you can always shoot me an email. We have been super lucky with internet so far, I hope it continues so I can keep you updated! The blogs great for me aswell to keep track of what we have been up to :) Adios amigos, talk to you soon. xoxo
J

The Inca Trail

After 42 kms, 4 long days, 3 freezing nights, and every possible weather condition thrown at us- we dominated the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu! Dominated might not be the correct word- in reality the Inca Trail kicked our asses! It was one of the hardest things I have ever done-but so worth it! I will give you a quick overview, but I dont think I can put into words the experience- anyone of you that have done this trek know what I'm talking about.
Day 1: we are pumped, ready to tackle the trail and meet our group members; our are leaders Victor and Juan Carlos, 4 porters/cooks to carry tents and food ( these guys are insane, they carry 20 kg each, the backpacks are three times their size, and they practically run up the mountain). Our other group members were Orlando a software guy from Columbia, and Yvonne and Vivianne, both teachers from Brazil. We hike for 8 km to the first camp. The path is decent at this point, not to difficult, a few up and downs but relativly flat; they call this "training day".
Day 2: up at 530, we are warned that day 2 is the worst, and those who warned us were correct. 12 kms, 8 hours of hiking and its all up hill- we climbed over 3000 feet altitude, to the max point of just under 13000 feet above sea level (Whistler in BC is just over 7000 feet asl for perspective) It was soo hard to breath, it was rainy, cold, and the trail is all rocky and uneven- it was literally one step at a time to avoid tripping or falling off the edge. Ryan and I joked that we would cry, but didn't want to waste the energy or water on tears lol. It droppped below zero that night, we froze- however waking up to coca tea and the mountain scenery kinda made up for it.
Day 3:excited that the worst was behind us, its 530 am and puring rain - we start the 16 km trek. The trail was more enjoyable, the elevation was subtropical, so lots to look at, everything covered in moss, mountains all around us. We start to feel the weight of our packs as everythig is soaked. At that moment I was stoaked that I spent the extra money on waterproof hiking boots!
Day 4: its 330 am and still raining, we start the final 6 km leg of the trek, in the dark. The rain brings in the fog, so you can't really see much, we are worried that we wont be able to view Machu Picchu from the famous viewing spot. Just as we step out of the rainforest, at the end of the Inca Trail, it starts to clear, and there she is! Machu Picchu is AMAZING, so much bigger in real life vs. the photos you see- I get chills, we finally made it!!! Looking back, the Inca Trail is going in the books for the hardest/best things I have ever done- so worth it I would reccommened it everyone ( but hop on a stairmaster at the gym for 10 hour days on the hardest setting to prep.) We have some pretty amazing photos from the 4 days- I cannot wait to share them!!
We are heading out tonight to Puno, to Lake Titicaca and hoping to meet up with our Aussie friends for a day or 2.

This definitly has been a trip of a life time, we have done soo much already, and still 4 weeks of adventure ahead!
Bye for now! Love you all! xo
J

Ps. Happy Birthday shout outs to Grandma, Aunt Liz and Cora :)

We made it!

2 days and 3 flights later, we are in Peru! First things first, we are both doing well and loving it and the altitude sickness has been minimal-bonus. We have been on the go since we arrived- we just got back last night from our Amazon excersion in the Manu Rainforest. That place is incredible- pictures do not do it justice( but your all going to see them at some point anyways!). We lucked out and had 3 other students our age with us, from Scotland and England-it was great to swap stories and get a feel for what life is like over there for people our age. We spent 2 days trekking in the rainforest, it was like walking through the movie Jarassic Park, I was waiting for a dinosaur to come tearing through the forest at any minute - dinosaur, snake, same same but different. Speaking of which we only saw 2 snakes the entire trek ( thank goodness). One was a tree viper (we fnd out later that its one of the more dangerous ones)- it just had to quickly slither its way across the footpath between Ryan and I- he accidently kicked it as I screamed and jumped back about 5 feet while everyone else chases it into the forest to get a better look- yea no thanks. There were so many other jungle highlights I'll have to tell you about later, but heres a few: swinging on vines Tarzan style, waterfall swimming, night walks, giant bulfrogs, fireflies, tropical thunderstorms, cloud forest, animals, birds and butterflies EVERYWHERE, boatrides, the bright colours of Peru and the landscape. I could go on and on but I will stop there; I will need some stories to tell at home! Our hostel, called Loki has been awesome- great food, decently clean, bar tab and its full of people from all over the world. Ive met so many cool people with great life and travel stories, some of which I will definitly keep in touch with, especially the ones from New Zealand! Time to relax for a day, we start our 4 day trek to Machu Picchu on the Inca Trail Friday. I hope to post again after that trip befre we start heading south. I hope everyone at home is doing well! Don't worry and don't miss me to much, 1 week gone, the time if flying by! Bye for now, xo J

24

24. The number of hours until we are on the plane!! I already know I won't be able to sleep tonight- it feels like Christmas and I'm 5 again. I hope to use this blog as my main line of communication home - BUT please do not worry if you don't see posts updated frequently, I will try my best to at least point out where we are, and that we are doing well! I'm not travelling this far to spend it at internet cafes :) Thank you all for your best wishes and goodbyes - its not everyday something this exciting comes along. Talk to you all soon. I cannot wait to share some wild stories with you all!
-J