Captain Blackfoot On Foot

Here's a quickie on the first peg-leg of my journey in Peru, which was a 5-day high altitude hike to Machu Picchu on the Salkantay Trail.

The night before the big hike, the group met with our guide and soon to be savior Jose for a briefing. All I remembered was that there was delicious hot chocolate. After he started explaining the afternoon of Day 2, I was completely out of it. Who can remember all that stuff when you're so psyched? Afterwards, I had a brief briefing on the Amazon trip I was taking the day after I got back to Cuzco from Machu Picchu and met up with Bardo, Mike, and Dan for some fancy dinner that cost triple my room rent. But there was great entertainment, so what the heck! It's not like I'd be spending any moola on the trail!

Good-bye Luxury: After dinner, we contemplated going out to a club but thought packing was probably more important. I went to see their room - check out the difference! Mine (left) was $9 - Theirs (right) was $90 (split in 3, so $30 per person). I guess I wasn't really saying goodbye to luxury afterall!

I woke up at 5:30am after a night of packing, my last shower, and testing my new cheap alarm clock, not to mention having to get up in the middle of the night for an impromptu toilet fixing – it kept running and it was so damn loud! I got my stuff together, went to the Hotel next to SAS Travel to drop off the things I wouldn’t be taking, and met the bus. Everyone was there except Bardo, Mike, and Dan! They finally came right before we gave up on them, and me and Bardo chatted about how awesome this trip was going to be while Mike and Dan snuggled in front of us. =P

Breakfast and Bumpy: After some driving and picking up extra supplies, we stopped for some breakfast, which was delicious. Little did we know that almost every meal after that would be…delicious! (We tipped our cook well.) Then we loaded onto a truck like a bunch of Mexicans (it’s a joke!) and swerved and bumped our way to the jump-off point to the Salkantay Trail.

Finally on the trail, we start our 5 day hike! Let me explain the group.

The group consisted of 17 people from America, England, Canada, Ireland, and Australia. Some were couples, some friends, one pair were brother and sister. Our front guide was Jose, and our back guide was Angel. We had a cook, 3 porters, and 3 horsemen. All but 5 of us hikers used the porters to help carry their stuff. Of course, yours truly was not into having someone who is already carrying my tent and food carry more of my crap. But for sure, some people can really enjoy the hike a lot more if they aren’t horrible weighted down. Little did I know that the sleeping bag they provided which was good for sub-zero temperatures would be as big as my bag and about as heavy. Well, anyway, I lugged all my stuff the whole way! Yay!

Group Shot Before the Hike: This is our shining faces before we set off. We walked about 6 hours per day. The beginning was flat, then it went straight up and down for days. I don’t think I smiled the whole way…matter of fact, I remember thinking, “I PAID for this??” But in my heart, I was super happy!

Break Time: What a beautiful first day. Although we were exhausted (I don’t think we really understood what “exhausted” meant yet though) we were in good spirits. We camped right below the Salkantay Mountain. It was stunning. And freezing. The altitude was about 4500 meters.

In the Still of the Night: There’s us in our dining tent (so fancy!) trying to stay warm. After awhile, we went outside to proclaim the largest rock around ours, and sat watching the stars. We got a little loopy (maybe from the altitude, maybe just cuz we are who we are) and had a fantastic time looking at the Milky Way and watching the moon rise from above the surrounding mountains.

Bedtime was a bit difficult, since my roomie Rosie from Tasmania (Australia) accidentally slept in the middle of the tent and I couldn’t get my sleeping bag to stay closed around my face. Any draft of air that touched me was freezing! I ended up snuggling a bit on Rosie…hehe…ya gotta do what ya gotta do. When I was actually sleeping and not fussing, I was OUT. I knew what lay ahead. Jose told us the second day was the hardest and we all tried to ignore the fact that from the campsite, the trail went straight up the mountain in switchbacks. Tomorrow would be one hell of a day!

Stay tuned.

Blackfoot "Discovers" Peru

I am back in full effect from my adventures in Peru! I just wanna say to all those 'suckas' who didn't come...I am so sorry! It was a blast and I definitely recommend anyone who is fit and able to get their butt-tucks down there.

NY - Lima - Cuzco: As you may know, I usually have a travelling partner-in-crime on these wild and crazy adventures. This time, no one was able to come so I said "Argh em all!" and went solo. I was a bit worried, what with the Lonely Planet saying that lots of people get robbed in Cuzco, and just forget about being a single lady in Lima, but it turned out alright as soon as I was flying and saw the mountains. Thats what I wanted - to get out of the urban world and into someplace pretty. I didn't have any time to spend in Lima but Cuzco was just charming.

Plaza de Arms and Random Parade: Apparently, folks down there love parades. EVERY Sunday there is at least one. This one was for some university graduation. The whole town is involved and its the sweetest thing.

That giant monk was hysterical. Even though the trombones was making my altitude-sickness headache worse, it was worth it to see that monk, plus (not featured) kids with the sheet music clothes-pinned to their backs so the kid behind them can read the music. How can you expect them to know the music with all them festivals!?

First Friends: My travel agency which was organizing my 5-day high altitude hike to Machu Picchu and my 6 day Amazon excusion was closed when I got there, which was a big bummer considering I then wandered around with no suggestins on hostels, and ended up chosing the sketchiest dank place where men come banging on the doors at night (but it was cheap). When SAS Travel finally opened, I met some cool kats from Cali. I think they said it was their first time backpacking and they were doing the Inca Trail before going to the Galapagos. Anyway, they invited me to dinner and we had some alpaca which was delicious. Ok, so I had some beet ravioli. So sue me!

Sacred Valley: The next day I was feeling genki despite the fact that the hostel people forgot to wake me up and I had to run to meet the bus to the Sacred Valley (my Spanish SUCKS by the way, but it ended up working out). Here I saw with my very own eyeballs some ancient Inca rubble. Finally!

Giant Stones: Those pieces are particularly note-worthy as they are all ginormous and single rocks! Usually the Incan architecture has these intricate and exact rocks fitted together, but these were HUGE. Supposedly these rocks came from way across the valley at the tippy top of a mountain.

Rubble Town: Hey, so their's no toilet, but there are mountains! I loved being out there in the middle of nowhere (to me). There I am with some Afghani guy having my 1st Pisco Sour SOOO good!

The Face of the Mountain: Can you see the 2 faces carved into the mountain? Their eyes light up during 1) Winter Solace, and 2) Summer Solace. I have seen evidence. Them Inca's be smart.

Chillin' in the Inca Stuff: Its nice that we are still able to climb up and touch all these things. Eventually that won't be allowed, and although I think thats a good thing so as to preserve it, I personally wanted to climb and touch, which was why I was making the big 2008 Peru push.

We are High: It doesn't look like it, but that whole area is no-joke HIGH. When I was flying, I saw land meet mountains, mountains continue, top of mountains become the normal land! It was insane. Everyone gets altitude sickness if they are not used to it for at least a few days, which can involve massive headaches that make you want to kill yourself (like I had in Tibet), vomitting, diarhea, etc. Luckily I only had the headache and slept most of the 1st day so I was doing ok.

Guinea Pig, Anyone? Come on, I had to try it! Its what the Andean people eat for fancy stuff! My group and I got back to Cuzco and went to Chez Maggy for some pizza, but there it was, calling our names. We only got one guinea pig per all of us so we all had a nibble. The taste? Its ok! But still, look how creepy it is. Ack.

Bye Bye Friends: The next day the group was going to Lake Titicaca (laugh it up) so I had to say goodbye to my buddies. But it would turn out alright because I was doomed to wake up the next day with a headache again, which cleared up just in time to meet more awesome people.

Captain Blackfoot Finally Blogs

Whoopsie, its been a bit longer than I intended. Is anyone still out there? This is a far friendlier forum than Facebook, so meet me here!

Pirates Unite!: Luke, my former SRW Master (don't ask) came from Oregon to do a little east coast frolic. We had a great time in NYC before going home to play WoW and Guitar Hero II. Yes, you said it, we know how to have a good time.

Gaming: Kevin has had this craving for old school board games, the more pieces and cut-outs the better. We started with Settlers of Cattan, but now he's moved on to bigger and better things. Although, it seems that was a pretty intense game...that beer in my hand helped, I am sure.  =P

Greek Livin'...and Dyin': To celebrate Kevin's friend's b-day / Greek Easter, we rolled up to a festive lamb-on-a-spear party. I'll be honest, it took me about 20 minutes before I was comfortable around that thing, but it grows on you!

Till you eat it!

Fine Dining: So, there are other good things to eat in this wonderful world, thankfully. For instance, this Reeses Peanut Butter Cup cupcake! I believe that was my breakfast, lunch, AND dinner. I was also so lucky to go to Kevin and my favorite Italian restaurant down the street for his birthday!!! He is smiling from the food, but he was smiling bigger when he opened his presents - a diver's watch, a PS3 (mwa ha ha) and Eye of Judgement. Yes, that was a happy nite for all of us.

Party at Train Pirate's!: To top off all this fun I've been having, my train friend Myfa threw a little bash for me and Kevin at his awesome place!!! We had wonderful guests come all the way from NYC and Mass! Chris Andersen was a little cold...so cold that we had to pull him out of the fire to get him home, but it was great fun with great food ala Myfa, with games and riddles and dancing and magic. I don't even remember going home, playing some game, throwing up, and winning said game. Must'a been AWESOME.

Thats it in a nutshell for now. Please check again in about 3 weeks when I will be back from my Peru trip, which includes a 5 day high altitude hike to Machu Pichu, and a jungle excursion!!! Maybe the guinea pig won't look so weird on my plate after all.....as the dwarves say, "See ya soon! Keep yer feet on the ground."

Captain Blackfoot and Piratechan Unite!

Hello, all! I hope I haven't not-blogged so much that everyone forgot about da captain...I blame work, which is very interesting recently, but also ridiculously busy. Literally, I am doing the 3 people's jobs. I need a break.

Oh wait, I just got one! Easter weekend turned out to be a 4 day holiday for me (Good Friday, PLUS random Japanese holiday) so I got my big booty to San Fran to see the pirate sis. I remember the first time I went to San Fran, with momma pirate - we drove from L.A. The last time I went to San Fran, I sailed in under the Golden Gate bridge on the all-mighty Peace Boat. This time, I did the "I'm like a Bird" thing and flew. There was some damn pretty scenery on the way! I could see Lake Taho...and Chang's new spot, Yosimite National Park.

Driving Conrad: Now, I have never ever been in the car with my sister driving. Mind you, neither of us got our licenses until we were super old, so its not terribly strange, but I was anxious. Sis was a great driver - look at that responsible face! She manouvered us through complicated roads, downtown San Fran for shopping, parallel parking not once but Twice, and she got us home safe in San Rafael through the horrendous California traffic (I mean, really, with ALL them lanes, its still at a stand-still? Come on!)

The Pirate Sis's Pad: Piratechan has a pretty nice place up on this ginormous hill in San Rafael. Below is a pic of the biew from her window. It was just gorgeous. Her man, Gabester, can be seen here clinging to Piratechan in devotion. Heheh, well according to him, I was just taking a pic of the flowers. (He is not fond of being in pictures.) Gabe was very  nice and I commend his taste in hot sauce.

What Would Conrad's Do? For all of you non-WoW-ers out there, you can skip this part.  =P  What would hanging out in person with my sis be if we weren't also hanging out virtually? I started a character on my sis's main server and we romped around Auberdine for a good sum. I was all on wacky east coast time, so I caught up to her druid in one go. I am the Village People-esque Night Elf Druid Kampeki, and she is the chicka Night Elf Druid Tomono.

Croquet, Anyone? On Saterday we left Gabe to reclaim his computer and went to do some more shopping (we did quite a bit of shopping) and met up with Piratechan's friends, Brian and Jessa. They have a house (ooooh) and Jessa has a Porsche (OOOOH!). We went out for some delicious sushi, and afterwards took advantage of the great weather by playing a round of Croquet.

Pirates Aren't So Good At Croquet: It was my first time playing, and I lost badly. Even more unfortunately, everyone kept forgetting I was left-handed and would line up with the camera on the wrong side. Yes, thats my booty. Piratechan was having a rough start there, but she made a comeback and ended up in 2nd place.

Croatian Booze: Jessa is Russian and Brian's family is Croatian, so we just had to do some boozing. Brian busted out with this nicely aged Croatian plum whiskey...from his plastic bottle there. I took a glorified shot to make it look more Eastern European but still, a plastic bottle is a plastic bottle. Apparently it was better this time than the time my sis tasted it 3 years ago. Yep. Plastic Bottle.

Chef Piratechan: That evening, my sis cooked up a feast of pork roast with garlic all stabbed through it (some pirate traits you can never let go of) and yummy linguine - it was damn good. I never thought of Piratechan as one to cook such a masterpiece. I mean, when we were little, she would be too lazy to get up and make food, so she'd settle for eating white bread all day. Anyway, again, it was great, and we had some bottles of wine to top it off.

That was, in short, my long weekend with my sis Piratechan. I had a great time - the weather was sooo much nicer than when I came on the Peace Boat, I finally got to see her place, we got to WoW, we shopped till we dropped, and ate till we...passed out and WoW-ed some more. I was also glad to spend some time with Gabe so I know he isn't a crazy who has to be dealt with Blackfoot-style. Generally, I don't trust people who don't drink, but I will work out an acception for this guy. There the two pirate sisters are in an "almost" hug. Pirate sisters, if you didn't know, don't touch. No touchy. Ew.  =P 

In other news, I will be going to Peru for 2 weeks in May, so I will be away in Manu National Park, aka jungle, for my b-day. Feel free to fundraise for me!

Thanks again, Piratechan, for the awesome trip!!! See you in Feathermoon!

Captain Blackfoot Goes to Mongolia

Again?!? No, just kidding. I am actually only in New Jersey visiting Papi.  =P

BUT while here, I found all the pictures from Mongolia here on Papi's desktop! I guess when Kevin first came to visit, he downloaded them here from his iPod - but I never got any! So while Papi and Marlene go shopping at WalMart, I have a little time to share some of the first days of Mongolia with you, despite not having the book we used to give exact names. Anyway, its better than sitting in Papi's car with asbestos. I kid you not - I opened a small gift bag and something wierd was inside. I said, "What's this?" and the reply was, "Asbestos." Why he has asbestos in a gift bag in his car, we don't even want to know.

Ulanbataar - No pics here yet. Maybe in some later photos, but it wasn't my favorite place what with the pickpockets and drunk people pounding on your guesthouse window. If you even have a tissue in your pocket, by the time you return back to your room, it will have been stolen.

Journey to the North: Our first goal of the journey was to go to the north and take a multiple day trip by horse. Kevin (yes, can you believe that's Kevin?) really wanted to do this, although I was a bit more reserved about it since I hadn't ridden a horse since 8th grade, and that was only for a few hours. Anyway, we found a bus that would take us where we needed to go for about 30USD. Now, it may sound like a rip-off since it was just a crap old bus, but keep in mind, it was a 16 hour trip. We were crammed in with about 10 people in the back seats when only 6 or 7 should be able to physically fit. Most of the ride, I was only half sitting on the bench thing, one "cheek," if you will, was totally off the bench and I was smooshed into the window. I believe I broke my headband during those 16 hours when we hit one of the 10 million bumps on the "not a road" road and my head hit the side of the bus-thing. Below is my partner in crime and some of the fellow travellers whom we got real close to, literally and figuratively.

En Route: Nice mattress on top there, huh? We found out that the custom of "going on a trip" in Mongolia means that you wake up ass-early to meet the bus, cram on, and then sit there for at least 4 hours while the driver goes around town picking up more people and items as can fit in the bus so that we are all more and more smashed in. So, 16 hours turned into at least 20 hours. This was our first stop. Blonde and his girl are these other American backpackers we met: Kevin and Erin. They were pretty awesome, to say the least. And then there is that Mongolian lady on her cell phone in the middle of nowhere.

Horse = Mer, Choo!: We had a lot of time to attempt communication during the drive, and with our little Mongolian phrasebook, we attempted to tell them our plans for this horseback trip. Since we had no idea what we were doing, we just knew we had to find a couple of horses and a guide, we looked up "horse." Horse in Mongolian is "Mer," and to make the horse go, "Giddy-up!" is "Choo!" We all had a great laugh. Little did I know I would be saying "Choo!" every minute of the next 11 days.

Anyway, it turned out that cell phone lady had a friend who runs a horseback trip thing. She let us stay at another friend's place's house / cabin thing (so kind and trusting!) on the floor when we got to the town in the north (I will change this to the actually names of the places later) since it was 6am and the next bus to further north was at noon. We slept, hopped on the next bus, and made it to her friend's place. We got some delicious vegetable soup, which we didn't appreciate nearly enough at the time, and spent our first night in a ger.

Ready to Go: We spent the next day negotiating with the other foreigners there on horse trips. Kevin asked me to do at least 4 days. He was hoping for 5. I thought about it and said, "F-it! We are fricken here. Lets do the 10 day trip!" He couldn't have been more happy. Erin and Kevin decided to do a 4 day trip, and one French guy, Sylvin, decided to go all the way with me and Kev. We went to town, bought up some rice and canned fish, and left the next day.

Mofo: Yes, thats what I named my horse and it stands for exactly what you are thinking it does. I got a young black horse, which was a bit more unruly than the rest. He was also a bit accident prone. The first hour on the horse (mind you, there are no lessons or anything, you just get on and figure it out) Mofo was stung by a bee and sent us both flying. I learned pretty darn quick how to ride a horse.

Kevin's horse listened far better. However, for the 1st day of the trip, the horse was acting a bit strange. Every now and then, it would stop. And then it would lie down. With Kevin still on top! He had to keep jumping off, it was so hilarious. He learned to stop doing that, but man oh man.

Camp: Our first part of the journey was all together, following Lake Hovskol (I am not sure the spelling right now). We would later procede to the mountains and Erin & Kevin would turn back. We would ride for about 6 hours a day and set up camp, as the horses had to rest and we needed to do everything in day light. This was our first camp site. The leaves had just turned golden and was spectacular, yet cold.

The Plight between Me and Mofo: FYI - Mongolian horses, although smaller than Western horses, are far more wild. Since there are more horses in Mongolia than people, they leave their horses out alone for long periods of time (weeks). So, although they know their master, they aren't really used to being ridden. Mofo should have been happy to have me, the smallest and lightest of the group, but never did he learn to appreciate. Thus the almost constant "Choo!" I had to give him. Mofo, also, apparently hated stepping on stones. I don't know a single other horse which cared but Mofo did. To get him across river beds was nightmarishly slow. And, sometimes Mofo decided it was time to stop. He'd pick a good tree, walk right up to it, and stand in front of it waiting to be tied up. It was so embarrassing to be sitting on a horse doing that, trust me. I may be smiling in this picture but I was getting frustrated!

The Beginning of 2 months of Yak: At night, we would eat some of whatever we bought, but inevitably, Mooksook, our wonderful guide, would throw in dried pieces of yak into the mix. If you have never had yak, let me tell you a little about it. First of all, these dried yak pieces were not the great parts of the yak. They were more like "bits." So you never really knew what part you were eating, but some were suspiciously inedible. But here's the worst part. It tastes bad. And it took me a long while to figure out what horrible thing it tasted like, since I was sure I hadn't eaten something so bad. One night, while lying in the tent with Kevin after maybe a week of no showering, I smelled something that reminded me of our yuck yak dinner. I leaned over and there it was - Kevin's hair. I got it! Yak tastes like what dirty hair smells like! Hungry, anyone?

And, after a long days riding, what else was there to do in the dark and cold? Drink vodka! This weird Russian vodka was less than 2 dollars and could strip paint off cars. But what the heck, pass it to me!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more. As work takes up most of my life now, I haven't adventured for awhile, but there is still hope for a Peru trip this summer sometime. But I wonder, will anything ever be as epic as Mongolia? We shall see...to be continued...sometime...