Bees and chocolate

After finding Rocio and Juan and following our heart to Chichubamba - we were arranged to see how to make chocolate from scratch and also tame bees and eat their nutritious and delicious honey.

Michael (my brave man) has also held them in his hands! and loved it! (maybe we should consider a new profession...)

Oh and here we are of course eating the BEST (mejor) chocolate on this planet.

We love it here so much. so we are staying... :-)

Ollantaytambo and more riding horses!

We stayed in this Inca village (the most preserved left!) in the Sacred Valley of the Incas for 2 days before heading to Machu Picchu. It was very quiet, with good lovely peacfull people and a welcome change from the throngs of people trying to sell us stuff in Cusco.

Here we also met our next chapter - Juan and Rocio - the administrators of the hostal where we stayed called "Andean Moon" - highly recommended.

We were welcomed to Ollantaytambo with a drunky grandpa and his little grandkids who loved posing and looking at the pictures of themselves. There is also a video of them saying "hi" :-)

One of the best parts of Ollantaytambo (aside from the great hot chocolate at "KB Tambo" and incredible stone work ruins) is the use of water that flows around the city in an ancient aquaduct.

Also in Ollataytambo is the second most impressive ruins of the Incas. Here is a carved face of the "teacher" who by the legend taught the Incas everything they know...

Here we also first tried Chicha - the beer made of maize. not recommended... but the taste is so different that its worth a try!

and i forgot to mention the 4.5 hours of riding on horses! YES ME! we were riding to PumaMarca and here is a picture to proove it!

The Salinas with Fritz and Angela

With our Galapagos friends, Angela and Fritz (their blog is here linked) we decided to go trekking a little in the sacred valley. We rented a taxi driver for the day, who took us everywhere and waited us while we trekked.

We made the right decision!

Of course the valley is beautiful. At about 2500 meters sits this beautiful valley with lots to see and to do, and many hidden areas and beautiful views and places.

One beautiful Inca built ruins are at Moray. This is suposingly where they experimented in making different types of maize (corn). These circles are really amazing and the sound inside... we were lucky enough to hear someone play the flute at the bottom. What a sound...

Then we set out to see with the couple (pareja) the Salinas. These are Inca built pools that divert the salty river (yes salty river!) into salt. They are still worked with today using the same technique as they did 500 years ago.

Cuzco - the Inti Raymi

We arrived on Sunday on the Inti Raymi festival of the sun when all the touristas come to see it and we walked/ran with the crowd up to the hills where the Inca walls of Sacsayhuaman are and where the parade of the festical went to.
This actually was fun, since we were really not too many gringos, but many many locals who cant afford the redicolus prices of watching the festical closely.
During the show (which was indeed far away and hard to see) the mob decided to ignore the policemen (which had clubs!) and ignore the marked area and just march closer and closer to the event. That was very exciting and funny. They just walked past the policemen! Which just stood there and tryied stopping and wacing their clubs but no use... the mob was stronger!
Came back to have Almuerzos in a local resturant where they completely changed our order... well i guess we need to learn more spanish fast!

Cam back to the hostel and tried taking a nap to the sounds of the nearby fiesta... Then went to meet Angela and Fritz (whom we met on board the Galapagos ship)! You can read their cool blog here http://travelrats.blogspot.com/.
We dont like Cuzco. Or maybe it doesnt like us...

Leaving Huaraz

We will miss you Huaraz. We really will. We still dont even know how much.

We took the ¨Cruz del Sur¨fancy bus to Lima We saw Lima just for a few minutes (from a passing taxi when the driver agreed for extra 10 soles to give us a little tour of the center, it has beautiful monuments) . We then drove to the airport and catched the earliest possible flight to Cuzco.

climbing a mountain - Vallunaraju - GO MICHAEL

so we did it - well, some of us...
we got up early, had breakfast, arranged equpiment inside the muchillas (which was amazingly heavy) and headed out the door of our friends in Andean Kingdom.
Of course, as all in Huaraz, it all starts with a dirt (¨curcar¨) road going up the mountain from the middle of the town. We are climbing and going higher and higher... then after 2 hours or so our new guide Ricard stops the taxi, and he and his brother Samuel leave the car, with us still napping behind them. We put it all on us (dammit heavy) and start climbing. not vertical wall, but yes pretty steep! we keep climbing for 3.5 hours. we reach the base camp when its almost night fall (which makes our guide nervous and he is charging ahead not waiting for us...). we have a quick dinner (soup and pasta) and we try to go to sleep.
we are now at about 4800 meteres hight, wearing silk underware, cotton, fleece and a dawn coat and FREEEZING our asses even inside the -45 degrees sleeping bag we rented.
At 12:30 after midnight, when my clock is not even trying to ring its alarm, we wake up to the sounds of our guide and his ermano cooking breakfast... its pitch dark (beautiful stars) and amazingly cold and I decide I´m not doing this. At this point nothing can change my mind and the 3 of them take all the equipment and start climbing the mountain.

Here I´m leaving room for Michael to describe his experience (11 hours!!!). I stayed on the base camp and slept in coldness and alons, a little scared but mostly for my love. they returned at 11:30 am, and in Michael words ¨this is the hardest thing I ever did in my life, I´m so happy you decided to stay...¨.

He did it! My man climbed a glaciour. I can tell you I´m sooo proud.

Photo Left: The Man

Photo Right: The Mountain (two peaks like the head of a bull)

Huaraz - Ice climbing indeed!

So, to get more acclimated and to reach even better goals, we decided to head out to the Patoruri glaciuor (sp?) and not just go there, but go and climb its big wall of ice!
And we did!
Again with Julio and the Andean Kingdom team (as we are doing all our trekks with them).
Left early in the morning, and reached the icy top around 1-2 pm. It was really great. not too much walking, and it was a little colder today (even snowy) but it was fun. You need to have thos special boots, and special pointy things attached to them. And you also have a helmet, and an ice axe in each hand, and you need to move your butt up! and as close to the ice as possible!
Its lots of fun.

and here´s a picture of Michael climbing! YES! And one of Mor´s so you would believe me we did it!

Did I mention we LOVE Huaraz? its such a small pretty town, with nice people, cheap and great food!

Huaraz - Laguna 69

So, everybody said ¨you have to go see it¨ (and by everybody that matters I mean Hedy and Xoli...) - and we are good children - we went.
We thought we were acclimatized... oh well... we learned how to pant! like dogs really! and to you who know Mor, I have done much more serious treks than this one... but when you have all the air you need and you´re not at 4800 meters high, it should be very easy!

It was totally worth it. The color of this lagune is soo damm blue you just want to go swim in it... its 2-3 degrees c!

Our guide Julio (guia) was great and we would indeed recommend the Andean Kingdom people - Luciana and Andreas. http://www.andeankingdom.com/?idi=eng


p.s. - we are staying in a great Hostal called Montanero and wooden floors, right in the center, really nice people, recommended!!!

Sad news - we love you grandpa Izzy

on the way to Huaraz in Peru from Ecuador we found out the sad news about pop Izzy Weitz passing in peace in his bed in Savannah. We are sad, and wanted to be with the family sitting Shiva at the Weitz house.
Glad we had time to say goodbye to pop who was ill and had a great long life.
Tried saying our farwall from here. Love to the Weitz family.

if you want to sign the guest book online here is the link
http://www.legacy.com/Savannah/GB/GuestbookView.aspx?PersonId=89121142

Laguna Quilotoa

We found it. The place that is worth going to Ecuador for... !!!

Its called the Laguna Quilotoa and its right next to the Quilotoa tiny village just a few hours south of Ecuador. The people there are real village people, little community, everybody knows everybody. There is no shower, no heating in the rooms, and only one stove in the common area.

Food was good, but the children - amazing. so cute and smart and quick and happy to give and get.

Highly recommended!

We also went down to the water and climbed back on horses! Be proud of me Lauren!

GALAPAGOS!!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/coachweitz/

Wow. People of this earth - you all have to go.
Yes its expensive, and yes its far away - but in a few years it will be gone and you can now have seen it with your own eyes!
Theres nothing like these islands. Its snorkling and diving among huge schools of fish, swiming and playing with playful young sea-lions, watching sea-iguanas swim , freezing your butt while watching huge sharks below you. Its cold and then immediately scorching hot, and its a boat that makes you sleepy and awake on the same time. Its stepping your foot in what seems like a land that no-one has gone before. Its also watching the Blu-Foot Bobbie do his love dance (stepping its feet and opening its wings and wisteling like a real israeli "ars") . Next to that bird, there is the Freegate bird - while the females fly above to their easiness, the male creates the nest and then invites them to make out with him by inflating his red chest baloon (looks like a HUGE heart) and opening its wings and clacking his beek - we have videos of these all! And then, the albatros also doing their love game - clacking like a gun machine! Right next to the blow hole that is the primar producer of rainbows in this world... :-)
And the extra amazing thing - these animals are not afraid of us! they are completely fine being 1 meter away and doing their thing.

We were a little sea-sick (thank you Jean and Julian for the patches - they saved us!) and now back in Quito we are a little land-sick... you know, everything seems to move...
Met some great people on the boat, especially Angela and Fritz which we will see again in Cuzco (they are traveling for 14 months!). Had good food on board with some crazy everyday schedule b/c Juan the guide wanted to make sure we get to see everything. Also saw the infamos Lonesome George - the HUGE land turtle that lives in the Darwin center and cannot find the right female for himself.
Diving - we did some, also had a little scary problematic incident (well, Mor did..) and we then realized that snorkling is almost as good or sometimes even better!

All in all we had an amazing time, and very very happy we did it. Very much recommended.

Right now we are trying to upload the pictures so you can see some. Hopefully later on!