Jan., umm, let's see, I guess the 29th?

Yes, we've lost track of time. Dave's watch says it's Jan. 29th, so we'll believe that. As for the day of the week, that's a mystery.

The summary of our days from the last entry still pretty much represents what we've been up to other than the fact that we've moved down to a beach hut and we are even happier to be down here than we were up on the hill. It's easy to let the days slip by at Thong Nai Pan Noi.

Since there aren't many adventures to relate, we will suffice with some photos. Check the last entry, too, for pictures of life on the hill at Panviman Resort.

Our new home on the beach at Star Huts.

We spend a lot of time reading on our front porch.

When it gets hot, the water is not far from our feet.

Star Hut - This is the same place that Carrie stayed 8 years ago. There are many more huts, and many more restaurants and huts surrounding the area, but the vibe is the same at Thong Nai Pan Noi beach.

Our neighbors.

The beach dogs.

Breakfast at Star Hut.

Main Street.

And, of course, the beach.

January 22nd -??? - Living in Paradise

A big note to everyone, we finally have our blog updated, all the way back through to the Inca Trail! So please, don't get lost up here at the top, take the time to go back and read all about our time on the Inca Trail, por favor!

Additionally, we are doing fine here in Thailand. Sorry for the delay in publishing, but we knew the Inca Trail was gong to take us awhile to write about, and we were simply too busy enjoying the most pleasant part of the honeymoon to date to spend much time in the humid Internet cafe (the nearby beach is much nicer, surprisingly).

Also, the Internet is much more expensive here in Thailand, and the flurry of new posts you see before you is going to cost us over $40, so please enjoy what there is and don't be surprised if we keep our output down for a while until we get someplace cheaper.

So, back to the story. We got off the ferry and made directly for the homespun beach settlement called Thong Nai Pan Noi that Carrie had discovered on her first visit here back in 1998. After a bumpy ride through the jungle, we discovered that the humble beach shacks she remember had multiplied down the length of the 1/3 mile beach, but on the whole the area had retained much of the character she had remembered. There are probably 10 restaurants and bars servicing perhaps 50 or so cabanas, with almost everything within easy reach of the Ocean. We are staying the first 5 nights at the Panviman Resort, easily the nicest place on the beach and the fanciest room we have ever rented on our own. Carrie set this all up ahead of time to be a special treat when we got here, and so far it hasn't disappointed one bit. Since most of our days here feature the same routine, I'll just provide a sample day to give you a taste of of life here:

-wake up around 8:00, pack our day bags up while drinking coffee
-enjoy a breakfast of cheese omelets, fresh fruit plate, and two iced thai coffees ($5 total) within 30 feet of the Ocean
-hop on the Internet to send emails
-go swimming on a perfect beach with warm water
-eat thai food with beers for lunch (always under $10)
-more swimming
-read for several hours on the lawn chairs by the ocean
-retire to our fancy-pants cabana for a nap
-go get a hour long massage on the beach ($8 each)
-eat a delicious dinner with fruity drinks
-go to bed to repeat the following day

Its been taxing, for sure, but hang with us and we'll soon get you some pictures of this remarkable place. Until then, know that we are in good spirits, and that we wish you were all here to enjoy this paradise with us.

Our room at Panviman.

The pool area and pool restaurant.

A HUGE lizard that appeared at our feet while reading at the pool.

Sunrise from the deck.

January 19th-21st - Travel Haze

Very abbreviated entry here, but all that you need to know is that we spent over 24 hours traveling without the benefit of a bed at any point. We had a 14 hour flight to Taipei, a 4 hour layover, a 3 hour flight to Bangkok, and 2 hour layover, and then a 1:30 flight to Surat Thanni. We passed out upon arriving in Surat Thanni, and awoke the next morning in thick humidity to catch the 3 hour ferry ride to Ko Phangan, the magical place where we would final be able to get those fruity drinks by the beach we'd dreamt so much about...

January 16th - 18th - The City of Angels

This entry will be brief, as we mainly want to fill in the gaps while trying to keep the high price of Internets here in Thailand at bay...

L.A. sure is a big city. We decided to rent a car to enable the many, many, errands we had to run over the next couple of days, and it seemed like everything was always 30 minutes away. Most of our time was spent chasing down the errands that had to get done before we left for Thailand (it turns out than many things are easier to accomplish in the State), but some notable highlights included:

* the best pizza we've had west of Chicago (and frankly, it gave those places a run for their money), at Tony's Little Italy. Carrie had spent hours in Portland before we left searching for a Chicago-style pizzeria in L.A., and this was the one place everyone agreed on. Its out by Anaheim, but if any of you pizza lovers are in L.A., we highly recommend it.

*The very comfortable bed in our hotel room at the four points Sheraton.

*Disneyland on our final day. We were there for 5 hours, but it was a Thursday, and there were no lines for any of the rides, so we got to do everything we wanted, including the corny rides Carrie likes such as Mr. Toads Wild Ride, and Peter Plans Flight. All in all a little tame for big kids, but we had fun nonetheless.

We finally got everything done we needed to, and off we went to Thailand, for some much deserved fruity drinks on the beach after the challenge of the Inca Trail and the Futaleufu.

January 14th and 15th - Leaving Peru

Luckily Carrie is feeling better the following morning, so after a quick visit to the hot springs and a massage (we kept telling ourselves that we had earned it), we got on the 4 hour train that would take us back to Cusco. During the ride we were treated to a fashion show and many memorable views of the neighboring mountains and the mighty Urubamba River, which showed us countless Class 5+ rapids for over an hour as we winded our way home.

Upon arriving, we went straight to Jacks for the best meal we'd had in days (Cheeseburger and fries for Dave, and a heaping plate of Nachos for Carrie), and then we went off to meet up with the entire gang at a local Irish pub for our final goodbyes. Carrie got off easy, as she had been sick the night before, but Dave ended up staying there till 2:30 drinking too many beers and "vodka and Oranges", the drinks ordered by our Irish friends the kept arriving at the table, amid much toasts and poundings on the backs as we rehashed the previous 4 days.

As a result, Carrie enjoyed our final day of hurriedly shopping around Cusco before our flight much more than Dave did. Regardless, we made our purchases before boarding our flight to Lima, where we would have a 7 hour layover before departing for L.A. at 1:00 in the morning. We decided that was too much time to spend in any airport, so we headed into the dirty, polluted city of 8 million to grab some sushi at one of the places recommended in our book. The taxi drive there was the most memorable part of Lima, as our driver was perhaps the craziest in a town full of crazies. We both smiled as we grasped onto the door handles for dear life and enjoyed the express ride through town. Dinner was fine, but not memorable, and we made it back to the airport and managed to stay awake long enough to board the flight to L.A. We were finally headed back home, albeit briefly...

Jan. 13 - MA-CHU PIC-CHU!

Remember that rain storm that begin at 11:00 the night before as we were going to bed? Well, it never stopped and continued in full earnest as we were awaken at 4:00 a.m. to begin our big day in pitch black. We got our stuff packed and left our tent with our backpacks on under our ponchos to be greeted by the utter chaos created when pouring rain is compounded by absolute darkness and a lack of sleep.

We entered the dining tent to find several of our party sitting glummly at the table. I asked out loud "what should we do with our packs?", but nobody answered. I then asked our friend Marv the Brit specifically, and he replied "I don't know." It was then we noticed that none of the guides were present. "Oh well", we said, and set our packs down in the mud for now and set down to a very uninspiring breakfast of hours-old pancakes with no butter or syrup. Seems like the porters had other things on their minds that morning than breakfast, such as the thought of packing up 15 soaking wet tents in pouring rain and getting us all on the trail by 5am.

As more and more people showed up under the mess tent, it continued to get more and more crowded, with everyone hunched over and dodging around the sides of the tent to try and fit it. Finally, Ozzie showed up (I'm sure there were a million details that morning that he had to iron out before we seperated from the porters) and told us that we could either wait in the tent for another 30 minutes, or go get in the queue at the checkpoint that opened at 5:30 just down the trail where they would approve you to head on to Machu Picchu. We were torn, but more of us wanted to get out of the tent, so we assumed our position in line and awaited in the rain for the opening of the final section of the trail.

Finally, we showed our tickets and set off for Inti Punku ("the Sun Gate"), the entrance to Machu Picchu, where the sweeping views were supposedly the reason for our being awoke at 4:00 a.m. The hike was not too rough, by the standards of the previous 3 days at least, although it continued to rain on us the entire time.

After several hours flew by, we climbed the steep steps up to the Sun Gate, where we would finally be treated to magnificent vistas of Machu Picchu after 32 miles and countless steps...or not.

The entire valley below us was covered in fog and mist, and we couldn't see more than 20-40 feet ahead of us. There were several groups hanging around the Sun Gate waiting for a glimpse, but it didn't seem imminent. So much for the Sun Gate and the views of the sunrise through the ruins. What would the Incas do at this point of their pilgrimage?

Seeing our resolve falter, Ozzie told everyone "not to worry, the best views still lie ahead, let's keep going, gang."

At least the trail was all downhill from here, and we made our way down to the guardhouse where Ozzie led us to a bluff where the best views reportedly were to be had. We arrived to be greeted by even more mist. Our spirits were even more dampened at this point, but Ozzie, always positive, started leading us in our now familiar chant of "MAC-CHU PIC-CHU! MAC-CHU PI-CHU!" while other groups eyed us warily.

We waited for a couple of minutes, though, and all of a sudden, "Wait, what is that?" Carrie cried. We saw a brief flash of stonework appear before us. Within 5 minutes time, the city slowly revealed itself to us, piece by piece, until the entire mammoth struture lay before us. It was breathtaking, and the experiance was only magified by the manner in which in became apparent to us. Looking around our group, we noticed that everyone's frowns had been turned upside down, as we were all now beaming from ear to ear. Comments like "It was all worth it", and "Man, I'm so glad I came" were quickly replacing all the grumbling on the rainy morning, which now seemed like a distant memory. Other group photo was taken, of course.

After we had snapped all of our trophy photos, Ozzie lead us down into the city proper for a 2 hour tour of the ruins. We don't want to go into too much detail regarding the city for several reasons; namely (A) we had to bust our humps for the right to be here, and (B) we feel the city deserves to retain some of its mystery, or else there would be less incentive for the audience of the blog to one day make the trip themselves (something we highly encourage).

Suffice to say it was extremely amazing, as the ruins combined with the natural beauty of the valley to create one of the most magical places either of us have ever been (if not THE most magical). If you haven't been here yet, come see for yourself some day. There is a two-day trek or a simple train ride to Machu Picchu, so your fitness level does not have to be a factor.

After been shown around the city, our group was down for the count. We all loaded up in the big busses out front, and made our way into Aguas Calientes, the local town that had sprung into existance in the prevous 50 years to service all the visitors to Machu Picchu. We wandered around for a while sweating in the intense heat until we found our hotel. After eating some lunch, we were down for the count. We got up long enough to eat some pizza next door, and then Dave went to play some cards with the few remaining crew members in town before heading home to find Carrie sick in bed. It turns out that 6 of our 15 members got sick within a 36 hour period of leaving the trail. Was it a case of the porters cleaning our veggies in untreated water that final day, or perhaps simply a final parting gift from the Incas? I suppose we will never know...

January 12th – The (supposed) Easy Day

We get to sleep in to 7:00 today, as this day is supposed to be the easy day. In would turn out to be easier than Day Two, certainly, but still featured our 3rd pass to summit followed by a 3000 foot elevation drop within 2 miles to finish our day.

The drop was mostly a series of stone staircases, which makes things easier in some regards (less slipping in mud), but it's awfully tough on the knees and takes a lot of concentration not to tumble head first down the stone.

Regardless, the lure of our first hot shower and cold beer in three days kept us going as we wound our way through the rain forest. The scenery the 3rd day was very beautiful, and it only took us 4 hours to reach the campsite (owning to the fact we had done the extra mileage the day before).

Still, the 3000 feet of elevation loss was a killer, as over 2000 feet of it came almost entirely in consecutive stairs. This is the section of the Machu Picchu Trail that the guide books like to warn people about. Carrie’s knee ached during most of it, but she just gritted her teeth and busted her way down the mountain.

The camp we arrived at was the most civilization we had seen in the past couple of days, as it featured a hotel where the 2-day Inca Trail travelers crash and eat. The hotel also offered the hot showers and cold beer we had been promised as incentive.

We enjoyed both before eating lunch in, and then had the next 4 hours to enjoy ourselves before Ozzie took us on a hike to the nearby Inca Ruins of Winaywayna. Winaywayna was by far the best Inca Ruin we had seen so far, and it featured both many structures and an insane amount of farming terraces covering the entire mountain side.

Ozzie (pictured here) lead us through the city while giving quite a lengthy lecture on the various contemporary theories on Incan Life, their societal organization, and their fall from power (since the Spanish rewrote the history books after their conquest, mostly all that remains of the Incas are theories and ruins at this point).

After viewing the ruins, we returned for a short nap before dinner. After dinner, we joined our new friends for several beers and cards on the outside patio of the hotel before calling it a night. We would be woken at 4:00 a.m. the following morning for our triumphant march into Machu Picchu, and with that thought firmly in our head we lay down to sleep. As soon as our heads hit the pillow, the hardest rain we’ve experienced thus far begins in earnest, thereby setting the stage for the final act of this drama…

January 11th – Dead Woman's Pass (doesn't sound promising, does it?)

We are awakened at 6:00 in the morning by a porter arriving at our tent with a fresh cup of Coca Tea. We quaff it down while packing our stuff up and join everyone in the mess tent for some quinoa porridge and flapjacks. Everyone in our group is somber at breakfast, with the thought of gaining and losing 4500 feet over 10 miles at elevation has our brains thoroughly occupied. For icing on the cake, there was a steady drizzle and we all donned our fashionable plastic ponchos for the uphill slog.


Regardless, we all answer the call to begin after breakfast and find ourselves climbing, climbing, climbing for the first 3 hours to the summit of Dead Woman's pass. I wish I could say it was no problem, but that would be a bold-face lie. We weren't the only ones having a tough time. We passed several folks from a group that had started from the same campsite an hour earlier, and the porters, who had litterally been running past us yesterday with their massive blue tarp covered loads, were taking much more frequent breaks and pouring out as much sweat as we were. Of course they were also carrying about 40 pounds more...


Not much conversation occurred during this slog, as everyone kept their heads down and their feet moving. Every once in a while we would raise our heads to look around and try to catch a view, but it was fairly futile as the clouds had thickly settled in around us. Once we looked up to unexpectedly find some llamas blocking our way, but they seemed not all concerned about us.





Finally, we saw a few folks from our group standing on a ridge with their packs off which promoted Carrie to yell out "please tell me that's the top!' They yelled their agreement, and gave us the energy we needed to bust out the remaining 50 yards, arriving a reasonable 6th and 7th place out of 15 (one of the girls had already been sent back to Kilometer 82 with a porter). This felt nice, as we had been worried about our ability to hang with the group (we were the 2nd and 3rd oldest people in our group).



Finally, we were perched on a narrow ridge with would have afforded us the ability to see for miles in both directions were itnot for the cloud we were standing in. Our guides insisted on another group photo (despite the fact that the group hadn't gotten there yet) of us standing in front of the "view", as you can see in the photo here. The temperature was considerably cooler, so the 10 of us took off after 30 minutes or so without ever seeing the remaining members of our group (not too worry,as our head guide had remained back with them.) We did well on the backside, as we used our trekking poles to good advantage while negotiating the many, many Inca steps that lead usdown 2000 feet to our lunch spot. Carrie's knee did hurt her on the way down, but regardless we were the first two people to arrive at the mess tent, and patted ourselves on the back while warily eyeballing the steep trail leading up out of camp towards the second big pass of the day. We had a nice long lunchwhile waiting for the rest of our party (some members looking extremely pale and haggard upon arrival), and then we set off to summit the 2nd pass.

After a 15 minute walk directly up hundreds of Inca steps, we came to another acheological site, an acient Inca look-out / shelter for Incas traveling the trail to Machu Picchu. Ozzie told us how this would probably have been a first night stop for those traveling from Cusco - a trip that so far had taken us a 3 hour bus ride and two days of walking.

The 2nd pass was the official ending of the highlands section of the trail and the beginning of the Rain Forest section. Surprisingly, Carrie actually got stronger during this 2nd section, and despite the effort required to crest the 2nd pass, and after enjoying a very beautiful mile-long section of flat trail through the jungle, we again were the first two people to walk into camp that late afternoon. We took a short nap before dinner, ate dinner, and then went right back to bed and were asleep by 8:30 once again, but this time with the final thoughts that the worst was now behind us. Day Two had been no picnic, but we had gotten through it better than we had anticipated. Even better, this meant we both now knew that we were going to make it to Macchu Picchu!

Jan. 10th - First day of Inca Trail

As soon as we knew we would be hiking Once we knew that we were going to be traveling in South America, we decided that Machu Picchu and the Inca Trail would have to be part of our itinerary. Most of you have probably seen pictures of Machu Picchu at one time, and you understand why we wanted to see it.

There are only two ways to get to Machu Picchu: the train or the Inca Trail. Wanting the "true" Inca experience, we opted for the trail. Essentially the Inca Trail is a mountainous jungle hike leading to the sacred Inca city of Machu Picchu, past several other important Inca sites. The classic 45km trek is usually covered in 4 days, arriving at Machu Picchu at daybreak on the final day before returning to Cusco by train.

A brief history: Discovered only in 1911 by the American Yale professor Hiram Bingham, Machu Picchu was built by the Incas on the summit of "Machu Picchu" (Old Peak), overlooking the deep canyon of the Urubamba river in a semi-tropical area 120 Km. (75 miles) from the city of Cusco at 7,000 feet above sea level. Machu Picchu is one of the Inca's best kept secrets, since they did not left written records and Spanish chronicles make no mention of the citadel, it remains a mystery. It sits on a mountain site of extraordinary beauty, in the middle of a tropical mountain forest, Machu Picchu was probably the most amazing urban creation of the Inca Empire at its height, with its giant walls, terraces and ramps, which appear as though they have been cut naturally in the continuous rock escarpments.

So, it was off to Machu Picchu for us... the hard way.

We wake up far too early to so that we can meet everyone at the SAS office by 5:45. We show up at 5:40 to discover we are the only ones there out of the 16 guests and 2 guides. Like magic, though, everyone arrives en masse by 5:50 and we set off for the tour bus that will take us to "Kilometer 82", the checkpoint that serves as the beginning of the Inca Trail. As we are conglomerating, a bunch of twenty-something quite-drunk Argentineans spill out of the nearby bars and decide to stumble along with us for our 4 block walk through the city whilst shouting, "Ma-chu Pic-chu! Ma-chu Pic-chu! Ma-chu Pic-chu!" While it was embarrassing at the time, it would end up being our inside joke forthe rest of the trip. We pass out in the the bus to be awakened a couple of hours later by our arrival in a town close to Kilometer 82 that serves as the final shopping-last minute preparation opportunity before the hike begins. After serving us breakfast, we all mill around in the general store purchasing $1 bamboo trekking poles (the MVP of the trip, gear-wise), snickers, bottled water, bug spray, and suntan lotion. Perhaps most importanly we all buy a bag of Coca Leaves at the guides urging. (Turns out that people have been chewing coca leaves on this trail as long as its been around and they are a bit of a cure all, as they combate altitude sickness (a real danger) as well as generally compensating for lost energy. Over the next few days everyone in our party would stick a wad in between their cheek and gum when the going got rough. As a side note for any parents reading, please do not worry. The leaves themselves are not addictive, and without refining in a lab there are as to Cocaine as grapes are to wine). We then say goodbye to "civilization", and within an hour we are beginning our 32 mile hike along the Inca Trail!

SAS, big on group photos, got this shot of us, "the customers", under the first check point.

We look so clean!

We had been briefly briefed the day we checked in to the SAS office inCusco regarding how the 32 miles and 6000 feet of elevation gain wouldbe distributed, but at the official debriefing the night before we learned there had been a change in the plan. The original plan had been thatthe 2nd day (already the toughest day) we had to gain morethan 3000 feet (at elevation) to cross "Dead Women's Pass" which is the highest point of the trail at 13,828 feet. Afterwards, the trail would plunge steeply down a series of steps as we lost 2000 feet ofelevation in 2 miles to arrive at camp. Instead, due to the campsite we were assigned, we now were simply gong to eat lunch after coming down from Dead Woman's Pass before ascending and then descending another 1500 feet to cross a 12,800 foot pass to get to the new campsite. In other words, the toughest day on the trail just tacked on another another 2.5 miles and 3000 feet of combined elevation change. Fun stuff indeed and the advance warning gave us the pleasure of mulling it over the entire first day.

Speaking of, the first day of the trail was to be the 2nd toughest of the four, as
it featured 1000 feet of elevation gain over 7.5 miles. All in all,nothing to major, but much tougher when you've been drinking for amonth straight while vacationing, and the trail begins at 8923 feet. Throw in the heat (The entire area sits only 11 degrees south of theEquator), and it was a tough day.

All in all, our party was about 32 people strong, as seen here in the photo. Several of us had our own indiviual porters to carry personal stuff, then there were also about a dozen porters to carry the sleep tents, eating tents, food, and other various gear. This was not the "pack light" version of trekking.

Carrie and I shared one porter, who carried approximately 20 pounds of our gear. Since the down sleepingbags we rented weighed 5 pounds each, that 20 pounds got eaten up fairly quickly with bedding and Carrie's clothes. Most people rented a porter each, but Dave knew that if he didn't have a backpack on for the trip he would be mocked mercilessly by his buddies back home.

The scenery was lovely as we slowly made our way up into thehighlands. The vegetation was fairly sparse on this side of therange, but the views got better and better as we wound our way up from the Urubamba River.



Within several hours we arrived at a lookout over the Inca Ruins of Llactapata, a very beautiful former city where we were treated to a history lesson on the Incas from our head guide, Ozzie.

After the history lesson, Ozzie told us our lunch spot was only 15 minutes further, but he turned out to underestimate that by 40 minutes or so. Then, that plan was altered by the fact the porters had decided to set up lunch another 2.5 miles up the trail. We were not to thrilled to find this out, but we sucked it up and plodded our way towards our 3:00 lunch. Upon arriving at the mess tent, we sank to the ground and gratefullyaccepted the kool-aid offered to us. Our first trail meal was veryimpressive and set the stage for the rest of the trip, and we were treated to a vegetable soup followed by a family style offering of 4-5 dishes (fried potatoes, curried beef, salad, steamed vegetables, rice,etc.).

Since we had traveled so far before lunch, we only had a relatively quick 2 hour hike to camp, but we were still quite glad to have arrived. The porters had already set up our tents for us, so we merely had to unroll our closed cell sleeping pads and sleeping bags and change out of our (extremely) sweaty clothes. As we set to these tasks, some porters arrived at our tent with two bowls of hot water for us to freshen up with. Hmmm, this porter business is not so bad after all, it would appear. The dinner that evening was similarly impressive in scale, and remarkably we were in bed and asleep by 8:30 that evening, with thoughts of the toughest day on the trek looming in our minds.