Todd Siegel

Machu Picchu
Originally uploaded by ToddSiegel.

We’re back in Cusco after our four-day trek to Machu Picchu via the Inka trail. Our original plan was to take one of the two alternative trails to Machu: Lares or Salkantay. After hearing the description of the Lares it didn’t interest us and we were told by a few people the the Salkantay was too muddy and dangerous during the rainy season (which is now), but that they would take us anyway. It’s tough to tell in Peru when people are telling the truth or giving you a sales pitch. It was pretty obvious that most guides and tour operators wanted us to do the Inka Trail. I imagine that since this is the slow season they’d rather just put everyone on the Inka trail to make life easy. Since we weren’t sure, we decided to do the Inka Trail just in case the Salkantay was too muddy. It didn’t seem worth the risk. Also, the Inka Trail just re-opened after being closed for cleaning and maintenance for all of February and since it’s the slow season so we figured it would be cleaner and less crowded then other times during the year. It was indeed, very commercial, and a little crowded. There were twelve hikers, along with ten porters and 2 guides, making us a small army. Everyone in our group was really nice. It was a fantastic dynamic. We had people from all over the world: Canadian, German, Australian, Belgian, Argentinian, and us gringos.In some ways, this trek was even more taxing physically than the one in Santa Cruz. The second day was a gruelling five hour ascent to a pass 4200 meters up in the mountains, and then another hour and a half down to our campsite over a stone path that made my knees ache. The third day was a nine-hour rainy trek-a-thon, with visits to several different ruins. Our last day we woke up at 4 in the morning to try and catch the sunrise over Machu. We made it to Machu by 7:30 after sunrise, but before most of the tourists arrived. We spent several hours, in relative peace and quiet, exploring the ruins and enjoying the beautiful mountains surrounding the city.Around lunch time we went down to Aguas Calientes for lunch and to tend to our aching muscles in the thermal baths (hence the name of the town).Today we’re taking it easy back in Cusco and leaving to night for Puno on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca.I must confess that ever since I was a kid and first heard the name Lake Titicaca that I’ve wanted to visit. I mean, come on, Titicaca! In a few days we should be in Bolivia.I’ll keep you posted.

Popularity: 35%

Sharon and I are wrapping up the Cordillera Blanca in the Andes tonight and taking a bus back to Lima to catch a plane to Cusco and Machu Picchu. The Cordillera Blanca is the second highest mountain range in the world, next to the Himalayas.

Our mission here was a hike called Santa Cruz, which goes through a 4750-meter (15,583 ft) high pass in the mountains called Punta Union. Because of the extreme altitude we took a couple of days in a city called Huaraz to adjust.

Locals suggest short day hikes on the outskirts of town to help adjust to the altitude. We started up a trail in the east edge of town called Rataquenua, which is supposed to provide a great view of the town. We never got to the top. We turned around part of the way since some mean looking storm clouds were rolling in, but not soon enough. We got caught in a hail storm during our retreat and I caught a huge one right on the bridge of my nose.

The next day, the day before our hike, we went to see some pre-Incan ruins, called Wilcahuain, outside of town. We took a combi (bus) up to the ruins and decided to walk back. Shortly after we left the ruins we passed a funeral party and they invited us to join. The people we met were all campesinos (as the local indigenous people are called) and were very friendly. We stood around drinking beer, chatting with everyone. They all wanted to meet the gringos. They taught us some Quechua, most of which we forgot (remember there was beer involved) and after a little while we were on our way.

We didn’t make it too much farther down the road before we came across a party for carnaval. I am not sure if this party is typical of just this region, all of Peru or South America, but it goes something like this: everyone drinks chichaand beer, dances in a circle around a tree while throwing talc at each other. After a while people start taking turns hacking at the tree with an axe. Once the tree falls over everyone goes and eats cuy. Sounds strange, right? It was. But we had a ton of fun!

Friday morning we set out in a very cramped combi, with our guide Roger, for a town called Vaqueria where the trail head is for the Santa Cruz trek. Actually, we started where most people finish. We found out after that this is the harder way to go.

The Cordillera Blanca is magnificent. All around are jagged, snow-capped peaks and in the valleys are beautiful blue and green lakes and rushing rivers. All throughout the hike the scenery kept changing, there were lush green mountains and valleys, big boulders, views of glaciers, jagged rocky mountains, streams, waterfalls, rapids, forests and rainforests, cacti, roaming animals and more! Every thirty minutes there was something new to see. It also covered every season of the year. We experienced cold, heat, rain, hail, clouds and wind.

Here are some highlights:
Day One - We started out from Vaqueria, a very poor farming village in the mountains. Children from the village were following us, asking for food. It was heartbreaking. They are so poor and sick. We gave what we could, but more children kept coming, and we were only carrying enough food to snack on during the hike. After the first hour we entered the first valley on our way to Punta Union. The first day’s hike was short - we arrived to our first campsite after three hours.

Day Two - This was the toughest day. Four hours up to Punta Union, and then 2.5 hours down to the next campsite. As we got higher in altitude and the air got thinner, it got more tiring and we had to take more frequent breaks. The ascent was very challenging but very beautiful. Once we reached Punta Union, the valley on the other side of the mountain was even more beautiful than the one we just came from. 15,583 feet!!!! We were exhausted from the climb, but the beauty of the vista re-invigorated us for the rest of the day’s hike. And then we got hailed on…

Day Three - Day three was pretty flat and muddy. We hiked through the valley all day and had beautiful mountain views. As we continued, the valley closed in on us, making the mountains seem taller and more imposing. We hiked for about five hours and set our camp right by the river that runs through the valley. Shortly after arriving at our campsite, it started to rain and continued for most of the night.

Day Four - This day was short but challenging. We walked mostly downhill over loose rocks and through slippery streams that were fed by the waterfalls pouring over the mountainside. After two short hours, we arrived in Cachapampa, a beautiful farming village at the end of the valley. The drive through the mountains back to Huaraz equalled the preceding days in beauty. We drove along a dirt road barely cut into a steep mountainside with a view of other mountains and the farms in the valley below.

Tonight we are headed to Cusco and Machu Picchu. To see pictures of our hike go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/toddsiegel.

Popularity: 34%

Last Sunday night I arrived in Lima and met Sharon at the airport. We spent only two days and that was enough. It’s a nice city, but it’s a city, so we took an overnight bus to Huaraz in the Cordillera Blanca in the Andes. Tomorrow morning we are doing a four day trek though the mountains. Hopefully I’ll have more pictures to upload that has been a problem thus far due to various technical difficulties in Internet cafes. I have a ton more from Venezuela to upload, which I will so as soon as I get a decent Internet connection.

Popularity: 53%

I last posted about 11 days ago from Ciudad Bolívar the day before I left for Canaima and Roraima. When I arrived in Ciudad Bolívar I met a guy named Akira from Japan that also wanted to go to Canaima and Roraima. We left the next day for Canaima on a single engine Cessna with two Germans and an Austrian. It was about an hour-and-a-half flight to Canaima National Park and the low altitude flight gave a great view of the tepuis (flat-top mountains) and Canaima Lagoon as we approached the park. On the way there one of the German guys leaned against the door to take a photo and it popped open! The force of the air pushed the door back (mostly) closed, but it certainly made for an interesting flight. I spent three days and two nights in Canaima. Shortly after I arrived we took a boat up river to see Salto Angel, the tallest waterfall in the world. It was a four-hour journey up river to the falls and then a one hour hike through the rainforest up to the base. Ordinarily this journey is only possible during the summer months, which is the rainy season because during the dry season the river is too low and the falls are reduced to a trickle. Now, because of changes in climate, the falls are accessible most of the year. Still the river was not that high. Our boat had to crash through rapids and over rocks while going upstream, soaking everyone onboard. After viewing the falls and swimming underneath it we spent the night at a camp across the river sleeping outside in hammocks with mosquito nets. The next day we went back down river to explore the lagoon and some of the other falls.

After returning from Canaima to Ciudad Bolívar, Akira and I got on the night bus to Santa Elena de Uairén to find a guide for our trek up Roraima. Santa Elena is near the border of Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana. Roraima is flat-top mountain called a tepui by the local Pemón indians. Tepuis are found in Guyana, Brazil and Venezuela and were formed after South America and Africa separated a few billion years ago. They are supposed to be some of the oldest mountains in the world.

On the bus ride we met an American couple, Nico and Lejla, that were interested to doing the trek. After getting into town the four of us found a tour company to give a guide and hire us two porters, to lug our food. Our guide’s name was Tomás. He is a Pemón and really nice guy. He told us a lot about his culture and the tribal history and its legends. The next morning when were about to leave a Preuvian guy named Báulio joined us at the last moment. Báulio lives in Cuiabá, Brail and owns a company that gives bird watching tours in the Amazon and elsewhere. The man is passionate about birds!

The trail-head is about an hour and a half ride from Santa Elena in a Pemón village whose name I cannot recall right now. As we where leaving, a huge group of Brits (30+, I think) were just getting back. Apparently many of them didn’t make it to the top of Roraima, even though they were carrying anything. But what they did do was exhaust most of the porters in town so Tomás told us to start and he’d find porters and meet us later at the first camp site. The first site on the Río Tek and was a pretty easy walk. We got there just before sundown and set up our tents. But while some of the other groups there were eating dinner, Tomás and the porters were nowhere to be found. Another group on the way down was kind enough to give us some leftover food while we waited. After asking some of the other porters, that had walkie-talkies, we got mixed stories that he was either drunk back in town or on his way. He showed up around 10:30, having secured only one full-time porter and another for a couple of days. We finally ate a real dinner around 11:30 after most of the other groups went to bed.

The second day was probably the hardest. It was four and a half hours of nearly non-stop uphill hiking. We had two rivers to cross, which could only be done in socks since the water since the rocks in the river bed were too slippery to do in flip-flops or barefoot. We tried both again Tomás’ advice and nearly fell in river with all our gear on our backs. At one point Nico slipped, soaked his camera and lost one of his shoes, which he had been holding in his had. Lejla chased it downriver and grabbed it just before if went over a small cascade that would have sent it much further down river. By the time we reached Base Camp that afternoon my legs we throbing. We were now in the shadows of Roraima.

Roraima is in the La Gran Sabana and as the name suggests it is mostly a grassy savannah. But the mountain itself is skirted in a lush rainforest because the weather is much diffrent on top of the mountain. Roraima is almost always shrouded in cloud and receive a lot of rain all year round. Base Camp is where the savannah ends of the forest begins.

The next morning when we set out to the top the mountain, it was totally clear. There were no clouds. We all had a fingers crossed the it would last although we were told it was unlikley. All the groups we met on their way back told us that is was cold, cloudy and rained the whole time we were on top.

A few hundred feet outside of Base Camp we crossed a small river fed by one of Roraima many waterfalls. After that we began a steep acsent the required I use hands to help pull me up. That acsent lasted about and hour until we reached the wall of the mountain. After that it was a series of ups and downs until we reached the final steep acsent though a waterfall and over trail and smaller rocks that had fallen of the mountain. Nearly each step I took caused a small rock slide. Akira was behind me and made sure to keep a safe distance.

When we got the top all was still clear. It was a beautiful day. A few clouds blew through occasionally, but it was warm and gave a great opportunity to explore the mountain. Roraima and the Tepuis in general have many species of the endemic wild and plantlife. After a while Tomás took us the one of the “hotels” where we set up our tents. The hotels are like little caves where there is reasonable shelter from the wind and rain.

The next day, day four, we a little overcast but still warm and we spent the day exploring the mountain top. They call it a flat-top mountain, but it is anything but flat. The entire suface consist if rocky outcropings that have been carved out by billions of years of water and wind. Some are more than 100 feet high and they are all pretty much accessible to climbing. That night it rained from around 1AM until sunrise. By morning it cleared up.

Our decent on day five was all the back to the camp by the Río Tek. After four days my legs we pretty tired and the decents was tough because I barely had the leg strength to stop my momentum on the way down. By the time we got back to the village on the last day, my legs were shot.

We all went back to Santa Elena that afternoon, had a nice big dinner and slept. The next day (the 15th) Nico, Lejla and Akira all went to Brazil and I took an overnight bus to Puerto La Cruz where I am now waiting for the ferry to Margarita Island where I plan to spend my last few days in Venezuela in the sun.

See some photos on Flicker. I will try to put some more up soon.

Popularity: 39%

I arrived in Ciudad Bolívar this morning after a 9 hour overnight bus ride. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. It was a rather comfortable sleeper coach with wide seats that reclined a lot and I had plenty of leg room. But there was on thing that everyone else on the bus seemed to know beforehand that the gringo didn’t. These nice coaches are kept as cold as meat lockers. Everyone, except me, had on a jacket, sweater, heavy blanket or a combination of the three. I had on only jeans and a t-shirt. Once I got on the bus, and realized how cold it was, I couldn’t go get my fleece because it was buried at the bottom of my bag and checked under the bus. I was actually ok for the first six hours. After that, I started to get a little cold.

I am staying at a cool posada outside of town called La Casita. It is run by a German guy that also operates a tour company and a few other enterprises in town, so I am told. At the posada they have rooms, bungalows and even hammocks to sleep on. And in back they have a small zoo of sorts. There’s a reindeer, two small monkies, some kind warthog thing and some turtles. The trees were visited this morning some large parrots and a tucan. I was told that tonight the mosquitos will visit.

Tomorrow I leave for three days in Canaima to see Salto Angel and the surrounding area. When I get back I will leave for Santa Elena de Uairen and Roraima! I also hope to squeeze in a day or two at Puerta La Cruz before leaving for Perú. I will be out of phone and e-mail contact until about the 13th or 14th.

If you aren’t familiar with Salto Angel or Roraima google them, although I hope to have some good photos and stories when I get back.

Popularity: 67%

Last weekend I went an area called Morrocoy, a national park, which has a bunch of pretty little islands, called cayos in Spanish. I stayed in a town called Chichiriviche (pronounced: chi-chi-ree-vee-che), in the state of Falcón. Say Chichiriviche a few times fast. It’s fun. Chichiriviche, Chichiriviche, Chichiriviche. See.

To get there I had to take a 2.5 hour and very uncomfortable bus ride west to Valencia, in Estado Carabobo (Carabobo is fun to say too), and then transfer a to bus that goes to Chichiriviche (about 2 more hours). I got in to Valencia too late and missed the last bus to Chichiriviche so I found some others that were going to Chichiriviche and we negotiated a cab ride. I did it all in Spanish too. The trip back on Sunday was smoother.

A little about buses in this country: inter-city buses in Venezuela have a sound system that would be the envy of most American teenagers. Mounted over the driver’s head are a large set of speakers. Both to and from Chichiriviche the drivers had the music blasting: reggaeton, salsa, you name it. At points the passengers were even singing along. Also, they are also designed for Venezuelans, which are of course much smaller then a 6′6″ gringo like me.

Chichiriviche is a not-so-nice little beach town that provides access to the cayos. On Saturday I went out to Cayo Sal. The pictures are up on Flickr. The weather was nice, but not great. It was very windy, which kept a lot of bugs away, but I still got some bites though. The south side of Cayo Sal is where the best beach is, but it was very noisy and crowded so I decided to explore and walk around the island. On the north side was a very nice, secluded cresent-shaped beach, which would have been beautiful, but it seems that all the drift wood and garbage from the Caribbean Sea washed up on it. It was a bit sad. Then around the east side the shoreline was very rocky and equally as dirty as the north. The wind was from the east that day and some surfers catching some waves. See in the pictures.

I made it only three-quarters of the way around the island before it became impassable because of bushes that were growing all the way out into the water. It was also rocky and the waves were too rough otherwise I would have walked though the water as I had done in other calmer spots.

Once I got back to the main beach on the south side I was relaxing in the shade of a palm tree when an old man, with a tough accent to understand, asked me the time. He could obviously tell by my outrageous accent that I was not Venezuelan. He asked me where I was from and I told him. After that he talked for a bit about how I liked Venezuela, how long was I staying, where was I going, etc. There were a lot of no entiendos on my part because my Spanish still needs help and his accent was tough for me.

Once he went back to his family, and told them about the gringo he had been talking with, they got curious and came over to talk to me too. They asked me a lot of the same questions the old man did and then a bunch more about the U.S.: what’s it like, how much do things cost. And of course the obligitory, “what do you think of Bush?” “what do you think of Chávez?” questions. I have no problem speaking about Bush and I’ve gotten quite good about dancing around the Chávez question. You never know who’s a Chavista. After a while they offered me a sandwich and some soda. They were very nice. In general, Venezuelans are extremely nice. I think they were from a city called Barquisimeto (also fun to say, see a pattern), but I don’t remember.

This week in Caracas has been pretty tame, we picked up a Brazilian, named Anderson (huh?), in my Spanish class. He’s a firefighter from Sao Paulo and a very nice guy.

Tomorrow (Friday 2/3) I am going to try to catch an overnight bus from Caracas to Cuidad Bolívar, the capital of Estado Bolívar oddly enough. From there I will try to hook up with some other backpackers and head out to Canaima and Roraima. I hope to have some great pictures when I return.

My pictures can be found on Flickr.com at http://www.flickr.com/photos/toddsiegel/.

Popularity: 12%

Plaza Venezuela

Originally uploaded by ToddSiegel.

I am taking Spanish classes for two weeks while I am here in Caracas. The school is in Plaza Venezuela, a pretty busy commercial area of the city. This is the view from my class on the 19th floor. This is a pretty typical view of the city (facing south), heavy traffic, buildings sprawling up the hillsides and some type of construction going on.

I will try to get a shot facing north, of El Ávila. It’s a gigantic verdant mountain that towers over the city. It’s the signature feature of the city and since it’s a national park there are no building on it. It’s beautiful.

Popularity: 8%

Rainbow

Originally uploaded by ToddSiegel.

As I mentioned in the previous post about two weeks before my arrival in Caracas a bridge on the highway from La Guaira (where the airport is) to Caracas collapsed. Now all arriving passengers have to take the La Carretera Vieja (The Old Highway) into the city. While the main highway vaguely resembles a modern road the old one is a very narrow and twisty mountain road. It is a prettier drive though.

Along the way a brief rain shower left a rainbow over the road. It only lasted a minute or so. Long enough for me to dig my camera out of my bag and get a shot off. It was gone a few seconds later.

Popularity: 37%

I arrived last night and since one of the bridges is out on the highway from the airport my cab had to take la careterra vieja. It took 4 hours.

I am at my friend Wilmer’s place and all is well, but I cannot write much here since his computer es una mierda, but I will try to upload some photos and write more from an internet cafe one day this week.

In case you feel like calling or sending a text message my local cell number is 011 58 412 562 4123 (from the US).

Popularity: 8%

This is my on-line travel journal for my upcoming trip to South America (Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and maybe more) and future trips. I promise to keep everyone posted on my whereabouts, goings-on and contact info (when available). It you want to meet up with me let me know.

Also, if you have any suggestions on where to go, where to avoid or good research tips please tell me.

Popularity: 21%