A Week in Peru

After crossing the border from Ecuador into Peru at 3 in the morning I headed to the small surf town of Mancora. I stayed at an amazing "resort hostel" where the balcony if my room overlooked a beautiful beach with a nice left point break. 

After spending two days in Mancora recharging the batteries, I headed down the coast to Lima. The capital city sits on cliffs overlooking the ocean but it is over crowded and always grey this time of year so I old decided to stay for 1 night. 

I then joined a backpacker tour called Peru Hop that takes travelers in a U shape from Lima to Cusco, with stops in Paracas, Huacachina, Nazca and Arequipa. It's a nice change up from taking local buses as everyone speaks english and stays in the same hostels. 

Paracas is a desert national reserve that is home to Islas Ballestas and has great views of desert blending into ocean. 

We then went to Huacachina, an oasis surrounded by mountainous sand dunes in the middle of the desert. On the first day we hiked up the dune behind our hostel for an amazing sunset. On day two we rented dune buggies and snow/sand boards and surfed down the dunes in the middle of nowhere. 

On the way to Arequipa the bus stopped off on the side of the road in Nazca for us to climb the lookout tower to see the Nazca lines, ancient figures and animals carved into the earth. 

The next morning we arrived in Arequipa and spent the day exploring the towns historical sights and the best central market that I have been to in South America. Then at 3 the next morning we took a bus out to the worlds second deepest canyon, Canon del Colca at 3191 meters. The canyons main draw, apart from it size, is the giant Condors that ride the the early morning thermals out of the canyon. It is an amazing sight to see birds that weigh 13 kg and have a wing span of 3 meters flyin out of the huge canyon without even one flap of their wings. In the afternoon we went to some natural hot spring that were literaly coming out of the river. 

Early yesterday morning we took the bus to Cusco and I have been exploring the city for the past day and a half before I leave for Machu Picchu via the Salkantay trek tomorrow morning. 

Central Highlands of Ecuador

After we returned form the Galapagos my parents and I spent another four days together in Quito. Quito is a great jumping off point for many of the adventure cities in northern Ecuador. 

The first day back we went to Mitad del Mundo, or the middle of the world, which is the equator and where the longitude is zero. The second day was spent riding the TeleferiQo up to the top of Quito for a hike and a look out from 4100+ meters. It's amazing to see how big Quito actually is. On the third day we went out to Mindo, which is about 2 hours away and in the cloud forests. Here we did zip lining and hiked to and swam in a few waterfalls. On our last day together we went to the market in Otovalo so Mom and Dad could stock up on some cheep Ecuadorian goods. 

I then took the bus to Latacunga for the night and then woke up early to travel to Laguna Quilotoa, a beautiful crater lake in the middle of the mountains. I hiked around the rim and down to the lake before I caught another two busses to Banos. 

Banos is the adventure capital of Ecuador and I definitely took advantage of all it had to offer during my three days there, going for a 60 km bike ride through the mountains packed with waterfalls, hiking some amazing trails, visiting the thermal baths that the town was named for and white water rafting. 

I am now in the little pacific surf town of Montanita soaking up the sun before I head back into the mountains. 

Southern Colombia

After Medellin I took the bus to coffee country and the town of Salento. There I toured a coffee farm and got to participate in the entire process from plant to cup.

Galapagos Islands

Our trip to the Galapagos islands started with an early flight out of Quito. When we arrived we met our guide, boat, crew and fellow passengers that we would be spending the next eight days with. The boat was a pleasant surprise compaired to the one that I went on from Panama to Colombia. After lunch we navigated to Isla Santa Cruz to walk around and have our first snorkel.