Our time in the USA was simply too short. There were too many people we could not see, even though we would have loved to. However, the few we had the chance to see was definitely worth every second. We had many special moments and precious conversations with some of our dearest friends. It was absolutely wonderful to see everyone!
It was a big shock for me to see the grown up faces instead of the chubby baby ones that were so familiar to me throughout my childhood. With every family we saw, there was an instant reconnection between all of the children, even though we had not seen each other for over 5 years.
As soon as we had hopped off the plane into the USA, it felt as if we had entered luxury. It is funny how little things that used to be normal can excite you after not having them. These are now luxuries. We got so spoilt in the USA that the transition back to cheap and cheerful backpacking life has been rather difficult.
A few notes…
Katie, instead of writing this I would much rather want to sit with you in your hammock and chat. I have scouted through the trees near our cottage and have found the perfect two. Looking forward to seeing you in Australia!😋
McCurtis Children, I would trade anything to swim in the sunlight with you guys for endless hours. It was so much fun and I really started missing it now that I’m in the icy cold of Finland, thinking through our fabulous time together. 😄
Shinae, It was wonderful to see you and spend such valuable time with you. It was so strange to have you drive us around. Those cakes still haunt me at night. I run around the house in search of them. 😝
Emma, I had a wonderful time with you! Thank you so much for all the effort and thought you guys went through to enable us to have such a spectacular time. Maybe next time I’ll be able to fly through time on The Bullet, with my hands in the air and return to the normal pace of earth alive. 😜
Pieszchalas, it was so special to see you, even though there wasn’t even time to sit down. Just to see all your beautiful faces and say hallo was such a delight. I am so glad we took the chance to see you guys on the way to the airport. Can’t wait to see you in our living room not too long from now. ❤️
Hope, it was absolutely wonderful to see you! You have grown from a little nine-year old (whom I still remember playing with) to a beautiful young lady who has a heart with endless volume. I am so excited for what lies ahead in your bright and exciting future. Maybe we can meet up somewhere around the world!
Chellie, I’m still waiting for you to arrive as my personal chef and baker. Thank you so much for all the delicious dishes and meals you magicked from the kitchen. Please come cook for us!! 😉
Conrad, drowning out the Red Sox supporters with our loud and enthusiastic Astros cheering was something I will never forget. It was so much fun to be in the stadium with you guys. No wonder my voice was gone the next day. Also, the shooting was something spectacular. Thank you for being brave enough to teach and show me how it is done. Next time I will surprise you! 😝
At 4am we were all standing in the dark beside the kerb, awaiting our tour van to pick us up. We had woken up at 3am to have breakfast and complete the last of our packing. The tour company had provided us each with a small duffle bag that was barely big enough to fit all the things we would need for the 5 day hike in the mountains of Salkantay.
We had a three hour drive to where we would start the trek to our campsite for the night. Compared to the rough overnight bus ride we had survived just two days before, this was nothing. Although, the large van would honk loudly before swerving to the other lane to make the sharp curve. This still made us nervous, for to your left there would be a sharp cliff that ran beside the narrow little mountain road, and there was at any time a chance that another vehicle would come racing round the bend. We have found, however, that this is the way of driving in Peru.
The walk was beautiful! Our team of twelve (our family making up half of the group) immediately got to work getting to know each other, and from the first day we all got on well. Ricardo, our tour guide was wonderful! Always with a ball of dried coca leaves (for energy) in his cheek, he would explain everything, and anything.
After reaching our campsite (around 4100m altitude), we had a delicious lunch. I could honestly not believe how our two chefs could present such amazing dishes, when in the tiny room next door, there wasn’t even a kitchen bench! Never were we able to finish all of the food. Our two horsemen really did lift huge weights off our shoulders. All our luggage (except our small day bags) were hauled along on the backs of mules.
Having a meal in a jungle shelter- away from the rain!
After lunch, with a bag of coca leaves, Ricardo led us up to a beautiful lake, and the Salkantay Peaks, climbing up to around 4250m altitude. There was a ceremony we all had the privilege of taking part in. To me this was fascinating, however, because the Andean Leader, during this ceremony only spoke the native language of Cetchua, it was quite difficult for me to understand.
The scenery was breath taking. Although, for mum and a few other members of the group the altitude literally did take their breath away. Even when returning to the campsites, heads were throbbing, and many were nauseous from the altitude.
In total, though, we had walked around 15km, reaching a hight of 4250m. We were all exhausted and quickly fell into bed, after another delicious meal. What a start to our trek of a lifetime!
Day 2
All of us were quietly, but firmly woken up with a cup of steaming hot coca tea. Our cozy igloos were steamed up by the vapour and the fresh morning air outside. It was still dark when we emerged from our warm sleeping bags. I literally had to make a countdown to force myself to leave our cozy room to head for breakfast. Once again, we were all very pleasantly surprised when platters, plates and dishes were served to us from the tiny, damp room next door. Our chefs really did make it worth it to get up.
Two of our team members who could still feel the altitude, saw the amazing scenery from the backs of mules, who were at times very stubborn and strong willed. They were supposed to all follow a certain mule led by either a young Andean man or young boy. Well, I can’t complain, because they carried my heavy load of luggage all the way up the steep, rocky slopes. I don’t lie when I say ‘steep, rocky slopes’. We climbed up from the altitude of the night’s campsite to the splitting hight of 4630m altitude. This is when I started to feel a little unwell.
At the summit, one of our young chefs, Evan, served us all sandwiches and another steaming cup of coca tea. He had carried the large flask of boiling hot tea, and the bag of sandwiches in his backpack all the way from the night’s accomodation, and arrived before us to ensure that he would be able to serve us. Imagine climbing up more than 530 m with this load on your back. How’s that for service?
We had heard that in the Salkantay area, the weather changes very rapidly and to extremes. And then suddenly, from the hot shining morning, it went to completely overcast and then rain. We all slipped our cheap ponchos on, and tried to make the best of the situation.
Cheap ponchos on and a smile on our faces.
This was hard though, especially if the track is a mess of sloshy mud, water pools and only a few scarce stepping stones to help prevent the mud from seeping through your brand new, sparkling shoes and on into your socks. Finally we arrived at the small mountain shelter where we would have our lunch. Lunch consisted of many delicious dishes and lots and lots of hot chocolate. We now had only 10km left to get to our camp for the night. The last bit, to me, was a stroll in the park compared to the climb through the Salkantay Pass earlier.
As soon as I was able to find my tent, throw my bag down and half organise my things, I hopped through the ice cold shower. When I say ice cold, I mean so cold that when you dunk your head under, you get a big time brain freeze. And for some crazy reason, I decided to wash my hair that night.
Happy Hour is supposed to be a light entrance to dinner time. Us ravenous Inca Warriors, however, hungrily devoured the popcorn, sweet potato chips and the delicious hot chocolate. By the time the extravagant dinner arrived at our table, we had all satisfied our hunger on the Happy Hour. The dinner was almost untouched. I really felt bad, because all the hard work on dinner was left unappreciated by the now satisfied group.
I slept very well that night, huddling in my warm sleeping bag, under the low roof of my tent, knowing that I had walked a total of 22km and climbed 530m.
Day 3
The night before we had ‘agreed’ (with many moans and groans) that we would be at breakfast at 5am. However, it took a little longer than estimated to pack up all our belongings and make our way to the breakfast table. A few times Ricardo came to our group of tents to ‘remind’ us that breakfast was ready. We ended up walking about an hour later than the first group. Our track was along a dirt road with high rising cliffs to your right, and sharp, dropping cliffs to your left. Along the way were farms with large plantations of granadilla and other fruits, scattered across the mountain side. We refreshed ourselves at a small road stall with many tropical fruits, meeting a few local dogs on the way.
We were all pleasantly surprised when a van dropped by to pick us up. I don’t think any of us really understood what was going on, but if this meant lunch earlier, we were in. We had about a 15 minute ride before we arrived at our beautiful little campsite, much earlier than the rest of the groups. It felt like cheating because we had taken the van, but still I could not help but feel pleased. Some of our team members were planning on going to nearby hot springs, but as we had been before, we decided to stay and use the valuable time to do some washing and organising.
Organising our tents and belongings.
Dinner was served later than usual, never the less, it was still one of the best. We ended the feast with a traditional toast, also saying goodbye to our wonderful chefs, as they would be leaving us in the morning. All the adults (the entire group except us four children) got a glass of Maracuya Pisco Sour, and us four non-alcoholics, a small bowl of gelatina. The rest of the evening was concluded with a bonfire. Only a handful of members from each group were amongst the lashing flames. The rest (including me) wend straight to bed and within a short while were fast asleep, exhausted by the third day of crazy adventure.
The van ride had cut our trekking time quite short. I realise now that this is because we were a bit lazy and heavy footed this morning. We have trekked for only 14km, mostly descending. Anyway, that is still enough to make you tired, especially when you find out that wake up time is at 4am tomorrow!
Day 4
Surprisingly, everyone was around the breakfast table on time today. This enabled us to have enough time to have a short rest at one of the nearby coffee makers. We were explained the entire process the bean goes though and then had a chance to taste the freshly brewed coffee.
I really couldn’t help but laugh!
As we started to enter the rainforest area, I was becoming very grateful that I had short sleeves on today. This was by far the hottest and most humid day throughout the tour. It was also quite steep! When rounding every bend, we would all silently hope that it would be going down, but unfortunately, it never did. It just seemed to go up.
After a long time, the rainforest seemed to end and we entered a little village, called Hydro Electrica. We went into a little local restaurant to have our lunch, and then had only another 10km left to walk to get to the town where we would stay the night. We were all very disappointed with the food. This is when we realised that this was normal standards. In the jungle, we had been served the most amazing food by our exceptional chefs. However, we were quickly forced to readjust again, and decide to conclude our meal with some long craved ice cream, something we knew could not possibly be different to what we expect.
For most of the 10km we walked beside train tracks. Little track stalls were quite frequent, selling almost anything imaginable. After a while though, the quite large town of Aguas Calientes (meaning ‘warm water’) came into view. Soon we had all refreshed ourselves at our hostal (with warm showers- what a luxury after 4 nights in the jungle) and headed down for dinner. I decided to try Alpaca for the first time, as it was highly recommended by some of our group members. I must admit, I was a little disappointed. It was very chewy, and very salty. Apparently, though, this was not very well prepared, but still, I’m not really keen to try it again.
Day 5- Machu Picchu
It was so good to sleep in a normal bed! This was the first in 4 whole days, and I slept wonderfully. Well, I had to, because we had to leave to get to the gate to enter Machu Picchu at 4am! There was barely enough time to scoff down a small bowl of oats and a slice of buttered bread. It was still very dark, and quite cold when we were lined up in front of the gate.
As soon as all six of our passports and tickets had been approved, we bounded through the gate, anxious to get to the ancient city. The steps up were extremely steep. Ruzow and I were ahead and determined to get to the top as fast as possible to rest with a view of a lifetime. In total, it took us six 35 minutes to get to the top. Although it hadn’t taken us an hour and a half as predicted, my knees and legs were aching, and I was very short of breath. Other than that, all was fine and I was extremely pumped to glimpse Machu Picchu for the very first time.
Our passports and tickets were checked again and we slowly emerged to the location we had been climbing for.
Machu Picchu! – At long last.
Finally, the ancient archeological site stood before my eyes. Never in a million years did I dream of being here in this place. I couldn’t believe it! After many pictures and a packed breakfast on the grassy lawn, we headed towards the city to have a tour with Ricardo. I don’t know why, but I always pictured Machu Picchu as kind of like a pyramid structure, never an entire city! This was a surprise.
We set out to explore the city and discover all it held. It was all very fascinating to me. I loved the history and the cultures, the Incas and the general sight of the well built walls that had managed to stand for so long. Many people wished to stand here on these rocks and ruins and here I am, at age 13 with my entire family drinking it all in. I am so privileged!
Having a short rest in the shade, on the steep steps of Machu Picchu Mountain.
Later, with one of our team members, Joyce, now adopted into our crazy family, we set off to climb Mach Picchu Mountain. And I tell you, climb we did! The steps were so steep and narrow, that when we came down we had to turn our feet sideways to be able to descend. Our feet couldn’t fit on the narrow steps!
We were out of breath when finally we reached the top. At 3061m altitude, we decided to have lunch, consisting of fruit, crackers, cold meat and cheese. It was lovely! We took some pictures, and being very high above the city of Machu Picchu, we had a spectacular view of it. It was definitely worth the climb!
We got to the bottom with many aching knees and seven exhausted trekkers. A rest on the grassy lawn was in order. Only for five minutes, though, because the six crazy JvR’s, instead of going back with the rest of the group, were going to walk back along the train tracks to Hidro Electrica, where they would meet Daniel in order for more adventure! If that is even possible?!
Having fun along the train tracks.
Well, that’s it for now, but I’d really like to say a really big “Thank you!” to Ricardo our wonderful tour guide and friend, and also to our amazing group, including my five travel buddies. I’ve had so much fun and have made so many unforgettable memories. Thank you so much for sharing this amazing experience with me… the trek, and experience of a lifetime!
Picture perfect is the view from our beach villa in Concon. The stunning blue ocean dotted with sailboats directly in front of us and an impressive number of big yachts in the marina a little to the left. Top this off with clear blue skies, sunshine and a gentle sea breeze and you have our Saturday afternoon captured.
The boys’ fire is almost ready for our barbeque and the bubbles ice cold and ready. Life is wonderful!!
We took a local bus from Valparaiso and travelled about an hour down the coast. First we passed through Vina del Mar, a modern city with many high-rises and shops. Very neat with a lovely boardwalk and park along the shore over a couple of kilometres. Next down the coast is Renaca and then Concon. All these places, from Valparaiso to Concon, are intertwined. It’s impossible to see where one ends and the next starts. From one end of the bay to the other, it looks like one sprawling city from the ocean up the hills and around the bay.
Our arrival in Concon was not exactly uneventful. Not only did we have to walk for miles with our backpacks and food, but we did so in the wrong direction. Not all that difficult to accomplish when your host speaks no English and doesn’t provide you with a proper address. It’s a bit like hit and miss. And a loooooooooooooong walk!! But we got there in the end. Hot and sweaty and tired and hungry (we are always hungry!!). Our host was super nice, though, and drove 2 hours all the way from Santiago to personally welcome us to his holiday villa. His wife joined him and saw to it that we were surprised with a lovely clean place. Finding clean accommodation has not been the rule, but the exception, unfortunately. All very character building, so we can’t complain too much.
Our friendly host took us up to our fourth level villa in the cable car lift. The kids LOVED it! Between our almost non-existent Spanish and Ricardo’s translator on his phone, we manage to connect and have a few laughs. Amazing how language is an important, but only small part of communication.
It’s been three glorious days of soaking up the gorgeous views and we all feel like we could stay here forever. Jarik has even spotted an old dilapidated oceanfront building we could fix and turn into a hostel, bakery and penthouse apartment. We’ve been running along the narrow, winding ocean road every morning. So beautiful and special. And dark!! Especially the second morning. Sunrise is only at 8am, so if you’re running between 6 and 7, you don’t even get to see the light dawning until you’re back on your porch. And it makes for a very interesting run, especially in those areas without street lights. Just ask Kali, who tripped over a rock and left some skin on the pavement.
Yesterday Jarik and I left the kids at home to do some school work, while the two of us explored the Casablanca wine region. We both love cool climate wines, so we were in the right spot for a good experience. No sooner were we getting into our first tasting session or an earthquake shook the place so violently that I thought the wine bottles might end up on top of us. We all had to run outside where we had to decide whether we would move our tasting venue or go back into the cellar. In the meantime, the kids back home experienced the same quake. Two by the time we got in touch with them – they outside on the beach after their evacuation and us back in the cellar. Not much that you can do in a situation like that, other than to stay calm and enjoy the excitement.
The kids finally made their way back into our villa and managed to do a surprising amount of school work. Jarik and I continued our wine tasting, had a beautiful entrée with a delectable, heavy, buttery chardonnay and moved onto the next winery. By the time we got home, we were all laughing about our earth-shattering day and were ready for a night out on our ocean town.
Concon turned out to be a stunning holiday for our family. Love, love love it!!
It was the late afternoon of the 24th of April and we were having a walk, slowly making our way home after a long, satisfyingly run. All the way we ran along the sharp, high cliffs that cut down to the icy blue ocean water. It was beautiful!
As we were rounding a curve on the long and windy sea-view road, I felt a bit of a shake, like when a heavy truck roars across the bridge you are standing on. Only, this time I was on solid ground! I also saw a bunch of rocks and sand falling. Strange…
I asked around if any of the others had felt anything, but surprisingly, they did’t! As a matter of fact, mum did’t even seem to believe me. This left me wondering until…
Suddenly all hell broke loose. All the deafening emergency sirens went off in the city, and a large, black cloud of smoke was rising from somewhere within the city centre. An official was running towards us, yelling a few urgent sentences in Spanish, of which we could not understand a single word. Seeing the confused and bewildered looks on our faces, he stopped to explain some more. Eventually we could make out that there was a tsunami heading towards the coast, and we were to head for the hills in evacuation.
Busses, cars, local trams and any other sort of vehicle rushed up towards the narrow streets heading up the steep hills. Many people were rushing up along the cobble stone sidewalks, chattering excitedly of the happenings. All tv’s in the houses, hostels, and apartments were blaring with the most recent news, and many people were holding out either their cellphones or radios to get an update of the events just down below. It was mayhem!
Many questions followed, considering our belongings, our apartment, where we should be heading, and any further news or updates about the tsunami. Our apartment was in the city centre itself, and around 30m from the shore of the harbour, on the 3rd floor.
It was now getting late, and we were starting to freeze in our short running cloths at this hour of the night, and so decided to head for home. Surprisingly, after no real action, the chaos started to calm down, and we were now able to access our apartment.
As soon as we got home, we found our whole patio wet. The firemen must’ve sprayed it too! We immediately switched on the tv so we could find out what exactly we’ve been through, or not.
Soon we discovered that in the heart of the city, at 6:30pm local time there was an earthquake at a scale of 6.9! This explained the shaking I had felt earlier. We saw footage of the items in a grocery store being thrown off the shelves, the top level of a building burning in flames with fireman doing their duties, and a large rock fall and smash a parked car. Luckily, there was minor destruction, and no people were injured.
But as we were sitting at the table, having dinner, we all felt a small, yet clear tremor, and looked at each other with wide eyes. At least we are all safe, and soon after snuggled under our warm covers after a long day of celebrating
Mum’s birthday, and of course, evacuation and all the drama that had gone with it. What an adventure, and hopefully a once-in-a-lifetime experience! 😉
Until next time,
– Kali –
(The fire and smoke rising from the building in the photograph above was at the centre of the chaos during the tsunami evacuation alert. Our apartment was about two blocks from that building. We took this picture from high up in the hills!)
During our walk on the trails of the Glaziers Park, I lost my wet bag that contained my eating utensils, beanie, headphones and gloves. When I went back to get it, it wasn’t there, neither in the lost property. I was so unhappy. I knew there were some serious consequences waiting for me, not only in my bowl of soup, but on the tip of Mount Fitzroy.
How do you eat soup with a fork? Really, I’ve tried it: it’s hard! And when other guests at the hostel enter the kitchen area and see you scooping up your soup, or porridge with a fork… you can imagine the look on their faces at the sight of all this!
And at the top of Mount Fitzroy, with snow draped across the rocky edges like a veil, you can imagine how cold this is! I was the only insane person without a beanie and gloves. To be honest, I thought my fingers and ears would freeze right off from the cold. Luckily the didn’t.
Anyway, it was my fault for not looking after my stuff, so I’m left with the consequences. At least Esto would lend me his fork, or whatever useless utensil he had left. But you know… that’s consequences… and that’s just life!
It was when we were in Santiago, that I realised, that I was very spoilt when I was back home. Everyday items that I always took for granted, now become luxuries. And also, I had to consider that I was in a third world country…
Our accommodation in Santiago was less than -1 star (according to me…). Dad said it was just different than what we were used to. But really, it needed some serious work, pronto! I was already unhappy for having white buns from the supermarket, with some kind of cold meat and cheese for the how-manyeth time that week, so I decided to have egg on my bun instead. I opened the cupboard to find a dirty, food encrusted pan, with no handle or lid. I was disgusted at this, mumbling how stupid this was, and what sort of place has a dirty pan with no lid or handle?!
I was going through the usual routine of buttering the pan and doing the eggs, when both my eggs broke and stuck to the pan. I was so upset. I called dad for help, but without a handle to the pan, and dad trying to scrape my eggs from the surface of the pan… This turned my fried eggs, into scrambled eggs. I was furious. When I finally had it scraped off the pan, I didn’t even feel hungry anymore, even though I was ‘starving’ before. I was still forced to eat it, though. This is when I realised… things aren’t like they are at home… I am spoilt.
From then on, throughout my journey, I’ve just kept saying to myself ‘this is not home… it’s the experience…’. It has been hard, though. Especially when you walk into a toilet cubicle and toilet paper and other unknown substances carpet the floor, and you don’t know whether it’s worth entering. But then again comes that voice: ‘it is the experience…’
six in transit 