USA! Killeen, Texas

Well folks, i've made it back to the USA! It was a long day of flying, but i'm happy to be back. I'm currently visitng my college friend Anna, who works for the army as an EOD Tech (aka. the army's bomb squad). The weather here in Texas has been great, sunny and warm, but not too hot. I've been doing some laundry and getting organized. Also have been enjoying having a kitchen to cook in! While here i'm hoping to visit as much of texas as i can, Austin, Houston ect.

Yesterday i spent the afternoon cheering on anna and her boyfriend pat at their army softball game. Though i was asked to participate, i feel that i made the right choice not to. I am much better at cheerleading than playing softball!

Pic 1: Anna and Pat
Pic 2: Me and Annie
Pic 3: Me and Pat
Pic 4: Anna up at bat!

Quito, Ecuador

Well, the end is near... i´m here in Quito, Ecuadors capital trying to get organized. As my trip finishes up, i realized i´ve accumulated quite a bit of junk! the city itself is beautiful, broken up in to two main areas. Old town, the historical area, were most of the old buildings are small, and painted white ( a result of trying to erradicate disease by painting all the homes with lime), and the new town, the urban center with its big buildings and busy streets. I´ve some how become allergic to museums. As much as i should try and take in the sights compeletly, as it is my last city here, i´m just fed up with being a toursit, so aside from a little walk around the old city, i´ve been spending my time enjoying what Quito has to offer in a non touristy way, movie theaters, good resturants, ect. Also trying to stay warm in this mountainy area, and missing the beach very much! The pics below are of a few of the buildings in old town, really lovely and colonial. As i have plans to return to ecuador with my sister to go to the Galapagos, you´ll have to wait until my next visit for more exciting pics of quito and around!

Canoa, Ecuador

Ok, so this is offically my last beach town before heading back to the states, and I LOVE IT! Its going to be really hard to leave. It took about 3 buses and many sweaty hours to get here from Monatnita, but it was well worth it. A small blip at our first hostal, it was INFESTED with mosquitos. Very tramatising, i am absolutly covered in bites. But we survived, moved to a nicer hostal, and are now back with the living. We spend our days lounging under colorful tents watching the waves, swimming in the warm ocean, and buying treats from vendors that walk up and down the beaches. The tropical, ocean influence reaches to the resturants as well, we drink coconut smoothies, lap up passion fruit popsicles, and sit down to the worlds best arroz con mariscos (shrimp and rice- to die for!). Theres not much to the acutal town, but hostals. No shopping, no high class dining, no tourist traps. It has been a welcome respite from the usual touristy places we visit. There´s always a hammock open for napping, and a cool beverage to be found easily to refresh. You may have ants crawling on your dinner table, a cockaroach crawling in your room, or bats chirping next to your hammock at night, but your so relaxed from your day at the beach, that it all just seems to not really matter. aaahhh paradise.

Pic 1: Beach tents, we always had a pink one :)

Pic 2: Boogie Boards lined the beach

Pic 3: the long strech of Canoa Beach

Vilcabamba-Ecuador!!

Peace out Peru, Hello Ecuador! Well, Erin and i were able to tear ourselves away from the lovely beaches of peru, and actually make our way to Ecuador. We crossed the boarder by bus, a mostly painless process, and followed the winding road to a small town called Loja, where we immediately jumped on another bus to Vilcabamba, where the fountain of youth is believed to be. Thank goodness, becuase about 15 hours of bus riding did not make me feel very young! We checked in to an awesome hostel on the outskirts of town. A nature retreat really. Good food, pool, spa, hot showers, their own river which they filtered specially for us to drink, lots of nature, and all for $9! Life couldn´t be better. During our stay in Vilcabamba we visited the teeny tiny town, got massages, and did an all day horse ride. The rided consisted of 3 hours of riding into the Cloud Forest surrounding Vilcabamba, then lunch, an hour long hike to some secret waterfalls (maybe the fountain of youth, i´m not allowed to tell for sure) and then 3 hours back. The ride was beautiful and the surroundings amazing, though i must say, not being completely experienced, my butt was seriously damaged after all that riding. Luckily i had a very well behaved horse named Tequila (very fitting, seeing as thats what i had to drink in large quantities after my ride). All in all, Vilcabamba was a treat, very relaxing and refreshing, just what we needed.
Next it was on to Guayaquil, a big costal city that claims to be a huge rival of the capital of Ecuador, Quito. Well, i don´t really have much to say about it really. It was big and dirty, and it took us 3 hours to find a resturant to serve us breakafast. I have no pictures to show of this town, as i was not inspired enough to actually take them... neither was erin, so yeah, we weren´t too impressed.
Now you´ll find me at Montanita, a small small beach town on the coast of ecuador. Still working on my tan! Ecuador is by far the most lush and beautiful of all the places i´ve seen in south america so far, and i really am loving it here. But fear not, I have resigned myself to buy a ticket back to the US as funds are running very low. I¨ll be landing in Killeen, Texas on April 16th to visit my pal Anna. My time on this crazy adventure is running short! so i must be off to enjoy as much of Ecuador as possible! As to when i´ll be hitting the east or west coasts, who knows, i´ll keep you all posted when i make a plan! thats all for now folks!
Ciao Bella,
Cassidy
Pic 1: Vilcabamba
Pic 2: Fountain (Waterfall) of Youth?
Pic 3: Me and Tequila

Huacachina Desert and Wine

Ok so after Nazca, Erin and I and our new british friends Lucy and Rose headed to Hucachina, a small town surrounded by sand dunes, built around a little oasis of trees and a pond. Not a ton to do there but relax by the pool, drink tropical fruit drinks, and go dune buggying, sandboarding, and wine tasting, all of which we did! Sandboarding and dune buggying were a blast, and we got to see a beautiful desert sunset. Wine tours took us to a botique winery where we stomped on grapes (they really still process it that way), and to a bigger winery with the more high tech equiptment! Very fun and relaxing escape from reality!

Nazca Lines, Peru

Ok, where do i start? After leaving Cusco, erin and i took a plesant 14 hour bus ride to a desert town called Nazca. This town is in the middle of a dry, windless, rainless vast desert known for its extremely large weird drawings etched in the desert floor.
These lines were't discovered until the 1920's when someone took a flight over the desert and realized there were these huge (talking the size of football fields here) ancient figures. They are believed to have been made sometime in 600BC by the Nazca people. Different theories exist as to why they were made, anything from mimicking star patterns, commincation with ailens, to religous practices. No definante conclusins hav been made yet. We took a tiny plane up and flew over the lines. We were shown things like simple strait lines and triangles (maybe an ancient landing strip?) to much more complex symbols like spiders, monkey's, whales, flowers, birds, and something that is either an alien or a man waving on the side of a mountain.
Either way, it was pretty weird. There are over 300 of these images throughout the desert. The lines were made by pushing rock and sand apart to make the lines. It has been well perserved because of lack of wind or rain. All in all very cool, and very weird.

Pic 1: alien man
pic 2: called hands, i think it looks like a baby chick.
pic 3: triangles? arrows? directions? who knows!
pic 4: monkey!

The Sacred Valley- Pisac Ruins

Another cultural site we visited was the town of Pisac, also in the sacred valley. Known best for its colorful market (of which i was forced to by many many fun things), it also contains some pretty awesome ruins. Another rainy day in the valley, but that wasn´t stopping us from checking the ruins out. I won´t go into too much detail, as i´m sure you´re getting the picture about the Incas by now...

Pic 1: Pisac Ruins, terraces for agriculture
Pic 2: Inca Graveyard, buried in the small caves
Pic 3: Ruins
Pic 4: Us in the ruins, in the rain...

Sacred Valley- Ruins of Ollantaytambo

Ok, so after the amazing, tiring Machu Picchu, Erin and I made our way through the Sacred Valley. An area filled, to the brim, with Inca Ruins. We stopped in a few small towns for meals, sight seeing and resting. Our first stop was the town of Ollantaytambo (say that 5 times fast!). We dropped our bags, and headed to the ruins. Who do we think we are! We´ve been hiking up stairs for 2 days strait! OUCH! is all i had to say when i looked up at the ruins of Ollantaytambo. But seeing this amazing Inca ruin, and the fact that the sun was shining, and my legs basically felt dead anyways, i had no problem exploring the ruins, which were a smaller outpost for Machu Picchu, and also a military stronghold.

Pic 1: Ruins
Pic 2: Me alive, on the Ruins (shockingly not dead from more stair climbing)
Pic 3: Sad, seeing more stairs to climb
Pic 4: Inca Terraces

Machu Picchu, Part 2

Part 2: Crazy town.

After so much hiking, and no food being allowed in the complex, i was def. going a little bananas! But either way, it was still amazing!

The Inca Bridge, thankfully closed! so scary!!!

Inspired by my favorite south american bus movie, Wild Hogs, crazy twin cassidy2 decides to play slap the llama.... great idea.

Irrigation in Machu

Machu Picchu, Part 1

Machu Picchu, literaly translated to Old Mountain, was a large settlement built by the Inca culture around 1430, only 100 years before the spanish conquerers discovered this area.
The area is believed to be built as an agricultural center which then surrounded an urban center, repleate with ceremonial and religous cites. Also this citadel was created to be a mausoleum for the most powerful inca ruler Pachakutec. Following the usual grandure that can be found in many other cultures (egyptian, indian ect.).
After slowly taking over the cusco region, a large battle left Pachakutec in complete control of the inca empire starting around 1420, which is when the construction of Machu Picchu began.
This amazing place did not have long to prosper before the nervous spanish delcared it a scarificial site, had it dismantled, and passed the land off to various important people.

Waynu Picchu, part 2, down

Ok, so after our unbelievably long climb up Waynu Picchu, we made our way down (accidentally the long way of course) to the Temple of the Moon, believed to be a cermonial burial area. It is believed that the small caves housed the remains of high preists and important figures, though no bodies were found due to looting. The carvings are astounding. How they put all of this together i don't know. Little niches and alters fill the area. truely amazing.

Nothing like a little mountain hanging over the walk way in a country known for its earthquakes... deep, deep breaths.

Temple of the Moon

Probably a cemermonial throne, or sacrificial area, now becomes my nap and snack rock.

gasp! the clouds clear! oh no! i can actually see down the ledge i´m walking on! help help! quick get some clouds back up here! SERIOUSLY!

Waynu Picchu Part 1, UP

Ok, so we made our way to Machu Picchu at 5:00am, the first bus up. Take a few pics before all the tourists arrive, then head to the entrance of Waynu Picchu (new mountain), the mountain next to Macchu Picchu (old mountain), that has recently opened up some amazing trails. The trails open to visitors at 7am, and only allow 400 people on them per day, i am happy to report myself and erin as number 1 and 2 in the visitors entrance log! First we headed up (yay a million stairs) Wayny Picchu to take in the view... on the rainy cloudy day....

mossy, wet, tiny stairs (right side), my butt better look good after this!

mor fun climbing, and views...

finally made it! yay! altitude 2600 meters! you do the math!