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World trip - Anna & Bertram

October 2017 - April 2018
  • placeswetravelled
A 202-day adventure by placeswetravelled Read more
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  • placeswetravelledTravelerWorld trip - Anna & Bertram

    Relaxing at a coffee farm

    November 25, 2017 in Ecuador ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    We spent yesterday and today at our great little lodge in the Intag district.

    Apart from reading, doing yoga, and hanging about in the hammock, we also hiked around the lodge into the cloud forest, looking at the nearby river, some waterfalls and “hunting” for the bright red cock-of-the-rock bird with Bertram’s binoculars.

    Sandra’s accommodations that we found on Airbnb are really great! We have our own little cabin with a balcony overlooking the valley. The walls are all windows with either glas or mosquito nettings, so we are very much “in the open” while keeping the bugs out :-) And in the cloudless, dark sky we can see various star formations at night.

    The climate here is also an improvement over the cloud forest experience in Colombia: it is much less hot here and - consequently - also less humid. Clouds still gather in the late afternoon, but at least you can walk out the door and not be immediately soaking wet :-)    Read more

  • placeswetravelledTravelerWorld trip - Anna & Bertram

    Otavalo and Quito No. 2

    November 26, 2017 in Ecuador ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    We made our way out of the cloud forest and spent a couple of hours in Otavalo where the locals have a daily handicraft market. We liked the ponchos and blankets - but how to transport them (and will we wear them back home?!). So we opted for a new bag for the slack line, replacing the ugly and half-broken previous one.

    The afternoon in Quito was quiet, Anna checked out a vegan café and then we went bouldering. The main attraction though (and partly due to little performance given the altitude): a slack line mounted above the boulder area :-)

    By the way, Ecuador uses the USD as its currency after some hyperinflation some 20 years ago. They accept US printed notes and minted coins, but also produce their own ones likes the attached three examples of a 1 dollar coin.    Read more

  • placeswetravelledTravelerWorld trip - Anna & Bertram
    2

    "Lazy" surfing days in Ayampe

    December 2, 2017 in Ecuador ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    After our short return to Quito, we sat on a bus pretty much the whole day to get to the coastal town of Manta, then 2 more hours with our surf instructor and hotel owner Keith to get to small and laid-back Ayampe.

    The bus ride was partially quite spectacular as our bus went through mountainous terrain, luckily all the buses have good breaks...

    Ayampe and our stay here so far is very nice. The Buena Vida crowd with whom we stay is treating us with a lot of hospitality, surf is good, the town really not crowded (sometimes we are only ones surfing or at dinner) and so... we will stay for 2 more days until next Wednesday :-) Surf video session is still coming up, so stay tuned :-)

    PS: we also saw our first Santa Claus this season :-)    Read more

  • placeswetravelledTravelerWorld trip - Anna & Bertram

    Working on our 10,000 hours of surfing

    December 4, 2017 in Ecuador ⋅ 🌙 20 °C

    We continue to have a great time in Ayampe. The hotel (La Buena Vida) does its name full justice and we’re very well looked after here. :-)

    Despite slightly hampered by sickness (a local virus is making the rounds) we manage to go surfing for about 1,5 hours every day - small stepping stones of practice on our little surfing careers :-)

    Today our host Keith took us to a little spot south of Ayampe and for both of us it was the best, challenging surf yet. We both managed to catch unbroken waves without falling off our boards and even get some thumbs up from the other guys in the water. (We all live for approval :-)) Wear and tear on body and clothing is beginning to show, though ;-)

    We also (yesterday) made a little trek into the local jungle on the search for tarantulas, birds and maybe monkeys. While we didn’t find any tarantulas, the mosquitoes found us and we returned with a few more bites. But we’re determined to go back in on our search for those tarantulas...    Read more

  • placeswetravelledTravelerWorld trip - Anna & Bertram

    Last surfing days in Ayampe

    December 6, 2017 in Ecuador ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    The last surfing days in Ayampe, Ecuador, are sadly over. Our host/surf instructor Keith and his family and staff at La Buena Vida Hotel (www.surflabuenavida.com) after us amazingly well and we really had a great time :-) We’re looking forward to returning maybe next year or so - hopefully having graduated from the novice surfer class by then ;-)

    We both had a great time on the water. Everyone has their own things to work on and not every day promises 5 great waves in a row, but we’re both happy just to get some hours on the surf board and we’re determined to fit more surfing into the remainder of our travel. 10 days (like now) is barely enough - it rather wet our appetite and left us wanting to stay on longer...

    The next destination is Cuzco, Peru, where we’ll visit the sacred valley and, of course, Machu Picchu :-)    Read more

  • placeswetravelledTravelerWorld trip - Anna & Bertram

    Last evening in Ecuador - and fashion!

    December 6, 2017 in Ecuador ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Tonight’s our last evening in Ecuador. After our surf in the morning, Keith took us to Guayaquil from where we’ll fly to Cuzco in Peru tomorrow (via Bogotá - again :-))

    We spent the evening going to the local mall - apparently one of the biggest ones in South America (if not _the_ biggest one).

    At the mall, we had the great opportunity to see some of Ecuadorian fashion which we’d like to share with you here. Particularly the very popular “balcony” style tops (and one example of what it looks like when they forget the balcony ;-)). And the ending of the day with a festive drink: cinnamon latte!    Read more

  • placeswetravelledTravelerWorld trip - Anna & Bertram
    Trying to make mean faces for a change :-)

    Cusco

    December 8, 2017 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Yesterday, we had a good journey from Guayaquil to Cusco. After the many bus journeys in Ecuador, we were quite happy to do this trip by airplane and arrive relatively relaxed, if tired, in Cusco.

    After escaping the taxi hawkers at the airport we checked into our little guest house and set off to explore the historic center of Cusco. All in very slow pace - the change in altitude from 0 to 3400 meters meant that even casual walking was causing us to breathe heavily.

    Cusco is a very beautiful city. It has an amazingly well-maintained central square with colonial architecture and splendid churches and a cathedral. we walked around a bit and then treated ourselves to some coffee in one of the many very good local coffee houses.

    We will spend some more time here before we make our way to Machu Picchu which we plan to visit on Tuesday :-)    Read more

  • placeswetravelledTravelerWorld trip - Anna & Bertram

    Experiencing Cusco

    December 9, 2017 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    We had a great day today exploring Cusco. Once more we were stunned by the beauty of this city. Its location, embraced by mountains on all sides, mean a lot of walking up and down but also means that beautiful views frequently pop up out of nowhere :-)

    Apart from just wandering about town, we visited the cathedral, which we really enjoyed! (The audio-/videoguide was great and we spent about an hour looking at the building complexes that make up the cathedral.)
    We also hiked up to Sacsayhuamán - Inkan temple ruins located on a hilltop about 150m above the city. It offered us a first taste of the vastness of the Inkan heritage in Peru and - as a bonus - offered us nice views over Cusco during sunset.

    Finally, we went for dinner in a great restaurant (Organika), but stayed clear of local specialities such as Alpaca steak and roasted guinea pig (at least for now ;-))

    Off to Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley tomorrow :-)    Read more

  • placeswetravelledTravelerWorld trip - Anna & Bertram

    In the Sacred Valley - Ollantaytambo

    December 10, 2017 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Very smoothly we got out of Cusco this morning around 8:30. A niceprivate driver actually got helped us to find the collectivo stand and so we took one to Ollantaytambo. Price: 2.50 Euros for ~1.5h ride in the mountainous terrain.

    We met a very friendly and interesting artist on the bus (who transported his paintings ;-)) and told us a lot about the Inca culture, their architectural skills, connections to Egypt and what not. Really an experience and good Spanish practice :-)

    Arriving in Ollantaytambo, we stopped for juice, coffee, and a brownie in the lookout café adequately called “Inka Tower” where we escaped the midday heat and admired the Inca ruins all around the town on the steep mountain slopes. The town itself also appears really nice and relaxed - one can vividly picture how previous civilizations lived here embedded in tall mountains alongside a big river and smaller streams.

    Side note: the Peruvians are very catholic (like most of Latin America) and so in the center of the main square there is a nativity scene like in most European cities. Only here, the sheep are replaced by llamas to make it fit in better :-)

    After depositing our luggage at a hostel we then walked to the main ruins and were awed by so many things:
    - the vast terraces and the steep incline on which the former temple/fortress/recreation spot was built
    - the intricate water works that run within the temple to bring fresh water to many places
    - the corn and grain storage houses constructed on the steep mountain phases to secure them from floods and heat

    Bear in mind that the Inca are still thought of as not having had access to neither wheels nor horses to carry all those stones!

    Interestingly, even without much expertise we could make out 4-5 different styles of construction techniques - and learned later that this is probably due to the Incas’ incorporating and integrating other cultures’ temples and constructions in a peaceful attempt to expand their empire. Really good BBC documentary on the Incas’ (mostly peaceful and collaborative) 100 year reign until the Spanish conquistadors came:
    https://youtu.be/mB8rhD7XdY0

    We then invested some money in the overpriced train tickets but buying us more time for actual hiking in the valley (instead of walking alongside the train tracks for 4 hours ;-)) and had really good, authentic, inexpensive dinner: stuffed avocado, alpaca steak, quinua soup - yum!

    Impressed by Ollantaytambo, we look forward to the supposedly even greater work of Machu Picchu :-)    Read more

  • placeswetravelledTravelerWorld trip - Anna & Bertram

    More ruins and getting to Machu Picchu

    December 11, 2017 in Peru ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Awake in the early morning (you cannot avoid it if the streets are all cobble stones and people roll carriages up and down in front of your window :-)), Anna re-took to doing yoga. We then ate a fast breakfast in order to still hike up the other ruins at Ollantaytambo. Again, very impressive how the Inca made their corn and grain storage houses cling to the cliffs where usually only falcons sit :-)

    We then took a half-full train (hallelujah to off-season travel ;-)) to Aguas Calientes and spent some time hiking along the river to get away from the busy and touristy town and find a place to pitch Natascha’s and Karl’s tent. The camp ground is actually very conveniently located just by the Urubamba river and at the base of the steps that we need to climb tomorrow morning at 5:00 am...

    The on-site restaurant was unfortunately closed (disadvantages of off-season travel ;-)) but we found good dinner in town and will soon be going to bed so as to be ready for Machu Picchu!    Read more

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