The highlight of my summer was definitely our incredible two week canoe trip down the Teslin and Yukon Rivers.  Unlike last year’s trip, this time Chelsea and I had some company – both our dads (Doug and Jim) came along for the ride, and Chelsea’s brother Shawn & his friend Sarah joined us for the second half.  As much as we enjoy each other’s company, it was a nice change to have some other people around to mix things up (and allow more options for the evening card games!).  One of the best parts for me was being able to share such an awesome trip with my dad, who’s the main reason I’m into all this outdoorsy nature stuff to begin with.  Thanks everyone for helping pack the trip with so many unforgettable moments!  =)

Since it’s taken me such a long time to put together this post (I’ve been busy, get off my back!), I’ll skip the nitty gritty details and stick to some of the more memorable moments.  If you’re interested in the practical details on the trip, I stuck those at the end.  So, with no further doo-doo, I present to you "Stories from the River".  Enjoy!
~ Mandrew

Who needs bear spray when you’ve got Mandrew Musk™?
One morning before we’d all gotten up, Doug was lying awake in his tent when he heard something moving around beside him.  He peeked out and saw a black bear sniffing about.  Not wanting to alarm anyone (or the bear) he quietly watched as it made its way around our camp and over to our tent.  Just as it reached us I happened to rip out a nice loud fart, startling the bear and causing it to flee for its life.  Yup, I've got skills.

We've been in Whitehorse for a month and a half now and we're trying to adjust to being back in North America where everything is logical and things happen on time.  There are many good things about being back such as seeing family and Vladmir (our hilarious toothless cat who's been staying with my mom, thank you!!) and friends, enjoying the northern summer and fall, not living out of our backpacks (or at least not having to move around all the time), thinking about our future plans (buying a car, looking at land to buy) etc.  But it is certainly an adjustment and I am missing South America a lot.  We really got used to the "tranquilo" way of life (meaning things happen on their own time) and became very comfortable with our chaotic and disorganized way of life.  I have so enjoyed learning about completely different cultures, learning Spanish, meeting other travelers and friends, making every minute count, living in the moment, being in the jungle, doing lots of yoga.  This year has really been amazing.  I am happy to look back at so many wonderful memories, and I am excited to start looking ahead to building the life we want.  The vision of this life is starting to take form but still has a long way to go.  

The bus to San Gil was pretty terrible; seats were uncomfortable and didn’t lean back very far, it was a bit too cold (air conditioning!!), the seat belts didn’t work and the road was insane.  For eight hours, overnight.  I looked out the window at one point a few hours in and found myself looking down a steep mountainside and endless switch back roads going down.  We were just getting tossed around all night, but I did manage to get a little sleep somehow.  We got into San Gill pretty early and found a place to stay at Hostel El Dorado after turning down the first two.  Favio, the twenty-something owner, told us about what there is to do in the area (anything you can think of, pretty much) and got us settled in.  

The second Colombia game (against the Ivory Coast) was on that day so we went out to a store down the street near the main square to buy some Colombia jerseys, and joined the hundred and something other people from the area to watch the game on the big screen in the main square.  It was very fun, and loud!  

WOW - about sums it up!  We just spent two weeks in Northern Patagonia (the Arctic of South America) with a rental truck.  It is a weird time of year to do it since it is fall now and too cold for most tourists (but not us Canadianses) but it was great because we had the whole place to ourselves!  

Ideally maybe it would have been nicer to camp with either warmer weather, or proper cold weather camping gear.  We did camp a few nights but were really freezing cold (there was ice involved) so whenever possible we stayed in hostels (which were so expensive, like US$30/night compared to the rest of SA, avg US$10).  The coldniss and rainyniss also made hiking slightly less enjoyable, though for the most part we had pretty good weather, considering.

We started our two week truck rental in Puerto Montt (see travel map, southern Chile) and decided to also return it there since it would cost an extra US$500 to drop it off in another town, jeeeesh.  We got the extra insurance to be able to cross the border into Argentina (about $100 extra) and then headed out!  Our itinerary was a bit screwed up since we didn't have much success researching the best routes to take etc.  So if you are reading this as a travel guide for yourself I have a number of recommendations at the bottom of this so you don't waste time like we did!

After spending over a month in the jungle in Villa Tunari, we decided we were in need of a few days of civilization.  A couple bumpy bus rides later we found ourselves in Sucre, a beautiful, clean and relatively quiet city (such a nice change after nasty La Paz) with a bunch of history we weren’t really interested in.  Our main achievements in Sucre were eating some good food (so nice to have options again!), loitering at a number of cafés to catch up on our blogging, and finding a laundromat with hot water so we could sterilize our mold encrusted jungle clothes.  Sucre treated us nicely, but just the same we were soon ready to get back on the road and make our way down to Uyuni to check out the much-anticipated salt flats.

By far the most visited tourist attraction in Bolivia, the salar de Uyuni is salty, flat and incredibly huge, covering over ten thousand square kilometers.  We caught an overnight bus to Uyuni and sought out a tour – booking ahead is for chumps.  There are a ridiculous number of companies that offer identical tour packages for the salt flats, making it a complete crapshoot when deciding which to go with.  After speaking with a few different agents and hearing the exact same description but with wildly varying prices, we decided to go with the second-cheapest and most racially-appealing option, World White Tours.  The next morning we met our driver Pepe (who we were ensured was not a drunk) and the rest of our group, consisting of Luiz and Renata from Brazil, Casey from the U S of A and Gabriella from Israel (and a bunch of other places) and headed out of town. 

Our first stop just outside of town was the "train graveyard" where a bunch of old trains have been left to rot.  I’m not sure why they’ve been left there, but it’s a cool place to take some pictures with rusty, graffiti-covered trains.  Somewhere in the mix was the very first locomotive in Bolivia… kinda cool, I guess.  The real highlight of the first day was, of course, the giant frickin’ salt flat.  It’s really, really big!  Once we’d driven far enough onto it, it was pretty unreal – nothing but flat, white, salty crust almost as far as you could see.  If you’re lucky enough to visit during the wetter season the salar becomes a massive mirror, causing the sky to blend in with the ground making for an incredibly confusing horizon.  It was in a dry mood for us, with the exposed salty crust forming hexagonal crystals into the distance.  There was the odd spot where the crust had broken and the salty brine was visible underneath.  To me it felt a lot like driving on a huge, frozen Lake Superior – the chilly air was about right, too!  We stopped for lunch at Incahuasi Island, a lump of land covered in thousands of fuzzy cacti, where we made an attempt at some funky perspective photos (all the cool kids were doing it).  Finally, after a long day of salty driving, we left the salt flats and pulled up to our cozy little salt hotel (yes, a hotel made of salt) where we were treated to a salty dinner and then rested our salty heads.

Shamans, medicinal plants, earthquakes, ancient cities, mysterious symbols; Peru really is the most diverse and magical country we have been to so far!  Since this is our first visit to Peru (though likely not our last) we decided to go a bit more mainstream than usual and visit the recommended sites along the well-known "Gringo Trail", taking us through all of the major attractions of the country, starting with Lima.

To start out on our route we headed via airplane from Iquitos to Lima, in order to save a week or more of time (the other option was another multi-day cargo boat from Iquitos since it has no road access, followed by a 24+ hour bus ride).  We didn't spend much time in Lima before departing to Pisco to visit the Ballestas Islands and Paracas National Reserve, and to unexpectedly experience a 5.7 magnitude earthquake while face-timing with Donna and Jim, Andrew's parents.  The next stop on the Gringo Trail was Nazca where we saw for ourselves the infamous Nazca Lines and learned a lot about the ancient cultures that inhabited the area between 100bc and 800ad, and then spent the next few days barfing due to the horrific flight over the lines and/or some bad food or water, who knows what.  After Nazca was Arequipa, the second most populous city in Peru and the hub to get to the beautiful Colca Canyon (but we decided not to go there since it was a bit far and really expensive). Finally, we arrived in Cusco, our base for some intense Shamanism and of course, to visit Machu Picchu.  Next and last on the list (heading out this afternoon via bus) will be the town of Puno where we can visit Lake Titicaca before crossing the border into Bolivia.  We can really see why so many people travel this route: the diverse beauty and culture have taken our breath away almost every day since we have arrived.

Following our insane Rio Napo trip we spent a couple of days exploring the incredibly loud Amazonian city of Iquitos.  There were hardly any cars or trucks in the city, but thousands of moto-taxis (converted motorbikes with carriages on the back), thus the very noisy streets.  We have come to realize, however, that almost everywhere in South and Central America so far the people seem to need noise at all hours of the day.  You can't help but wonder if they purposfully design the bikes to be extra loud!

On one day while our muuuuuuch needed laundry was being done we wandered around the Belen Market, where one may find almost any kind of medicinal plant (or animal for that matter) you can think of.  Of course, as is always wise while wandering in local markets, we only took out our camera a few times and made sure that not many people saw us with it, and we left anything else of any value back at the hostel.  

We spent the last week or so in and around Quito, the highest city in Ecuador (at 2800 metres above sea level).  With a population of about two million it’s a reasonably large city, though the surrounding mountains squeeze it into such a long and narrow shape that it can take hours to travel from one end to another.  Despite our general dislike of large cities, we actually enjoyed a couple afternoons wandering around and taking in the sights: epic churches, interesting museums, huge parks, artisanal markets, and interesting architecture - oh, and there’s also a pub with craft beer which is a much needed change from the usual boring Ecuadorian beer.

One of the main reasons we decided to visit Quito is because a friend of mine, Michael-Anthony (usually just “M.A.”) happened to be here for an IAESTE (International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience... phew!) conference.  M.A. and I have shared some other interesting coincidences in the past – on my first day of work during my IAESTE internship in Vienna in 2007, I walked into the office only to find M.A. (who was also taking Mechanical Engineering at UofT) sitting at the desk beside mine.  For whatever reason, we had to travel halfway around the world to become friends, and had soon drank half the beer in Austria and formed an impromptu band with a couple other interns... some great memories.  It was nice to spend some time catching up and taking in some of the sights.  He also snuck us onto a bus tour and scored us a free lunch, helping us pose as conference attendees.  =)

The center of Quito is located about 25 km south of the actual equator, and one of the more interesting stops on the bus tour was at “la mitad del mundo” – a site marking the location (or close enough) of the actual equator.  Our tour guide eagerly demonstrated some of the phenomena associated with being on the equator, most of which M.A. and I, being rational engineers, tried to debunk.  The one that really irked us was the demonstration of water draining in a sink, with the direction changing due to the Coriolis Effect.  The demonstration showed that the same sink drained differently depending on where it was placed:  directly on the equator (draining straight down), ten feet north of the equator (draining counter-clockwise), and ten feet south of the equator (draining clockwise).  At first we were a bit baffled, but upon looking closer we noticed that the guy leading the show was totally cheating!!  Before draining the sink on the equator, the water was left for a few minutes to make sure it was completely still, but right before the demos off of the equator the water was poured from a bucket in such a way as to already get the water moving in the right direction.  Poppycock, I say!  Once the demo ended, we stepped in and were able to, by pouring from the bucket in the right way, get the water to drain the opposite way it was supposed to.  BAH.  I’m not disputing the Coriolis Effect, I’m just saying there’s no way it can make a difference over such a small scale… anyways, maybe we were taking things too seriously.

The other reason we came to Quito is its proximity to Cotopaxi National Park, about fifty kilometres south of Quito and the home of Cotopaxi, Rumiñahui, and Sincholagua volcanoes, with Cotopaxi being among the highest active volcanoes in the world.  If you’ve been keeping up with our adventures so far, you’d know that we were way overdue for a volcano hike, though the high elevation made this one a much different experience from La Concepción and Telica (Nicaragua) and Arenal (Costa Rica).

"Six days, 228 miles, a close grizzly encounter, way too much sun, an incredible thunderstorm, and a constant feeling of awe - this was a trip we'll both remember for a lifetime."

We spent the last four days hiking and nature watching in Corcovado, the largest of Costa Rica’s National Parks and reportedly one of the most biologically diverse places on the planet.  We saw a ton of cool creatures, took over a thousand photos & over an hour of video footage, ate a ridiculous amount of tuna and peanut butter, worked the hell out of our legs, and returned to civilization the dirtiest and smelliest we’ve ever been.  All in all, a great success in our book.  =)

We spent three nights at Sirena Ranger Station, deep in the heart of the park.  To get there, we took what I’ll now term a “potato bus” (more on this later) from Puerto Jimenez to the end of the road at Carate, then hiked a beautiful 20 km along the Pacific coast, at times working our way up and around large rock outcrops or wading through streams and rivers.  When we had originally gotten our park permits and spoken with the park staff in Jimenez, we were told we’d need to be on the trails by 6am in order to hit the final river crossing (at the Rio Claro) during low tide - crossing at high tide is not recommended, partly due to dangerous currents that could suck you out into the ocean, and partly because the deeper waters allow bull sharks and crocodiles to make their way up the river to feed on fish (or unlucky tourists).  We thought we’d take this fairly seriously, and decided to catch the bus to Carate the night before the hike to allow us to get a nice, early start.

Our original plan was to arrive in Carate and find a nice secluded spot to pitch a tent, probably somewhere along the beach.  As we were boarding the “bus” from Jimenez, however, we bumped into a couple frazzled-looking backpackers first words to us were, “DON’T CAMP ON THE BEACH!” – they had just returned to town after having their bags stolen from them while camping on the beach in Carate the night before.  Yikes – we rode to Carate, and with only a couple hours of daylight to spare and no real idea where we’d end up spending the night, we began our trek down the beach.  We were starting to get a bit worried after about 45 minutes in, until we noticed a quaint little property just off the beach with a perfectly mown lawn, impeccably kept gardens, and a few small huts – where the hell were we??  We wandered in and struck up a conversation with the only guy in sight, an older gentleman named Bob who quickly realized we were in a bit of a pickle and said he had no problem with us pitching our tent on the grass.  It turned out that he and his son Kelly were on vacation from Northern California, spending a week of it on the property which was owned by a friend of a friend of theirs.  In no time, Bob and Kelly were sharing with us their dinner of beans & rice (what else), some great conversation (did you guys know about this Ison comet that’s approaching extremely close to Earth?), and even the last of their special stash (which we smoked from their little seashell pipe).  Chelsea and I felt like we’d stumbled into some fairytale paradise, and were happy to contribute one of our very precious chocolate covered coffee beans and a Snickers bar, which we all shared for dessert.  An unexpected but most excellent evening!

We spent five nights in Leon (including one night camping on an active volcano!) and loved every minute of it!  After spending lots of time in the rainforest and on a beach, we thought it was time to see a little culture.  Leon is pretty small but has a great market and a ton of history.  It isn’t as touristy as other cities either, which made it attractive for us.  We stayed at Sonati, an interesting hostel run by a volunteer organization that gives environmental tours to backpackers and educates the local children in Leon.  

On our first day we split up and explored the city by ourselves.  I was so stinkin' hot I decided to buy a dress that was much much cooler than my yoga pants and t-shirt.  Andrew explored the markets and churches.  It was a nice relaxing day.

The next day we decided to take a tour with the Sonati group.  Johnny, a German dude who just so happened to turn 20 that day, was our tour guide on a daylong kayak trip through the mangrove forest!  Two other volunteers from the hostel joined in the fun for the day, Simon, another Sonati guide, and Emma the awesome receptionist, which made the trip extra fun.  

We left around 7:00am on foot from the hostel and walked a block or so before catching a local... truck-thing…  It was supposed to be a bus but apparently when they are short on busses they use pick-up trucks with canopies on the back and jam a TON of people in.  So we jumped on while it was basically still moving and I nearly fell out when they gunned it, thinking we were all secure (though they do this ALL THE TIME).  From there we switched to a real bus that was a little less crowded (but not by much) and had a bunch of people wandering through the aisle selling food and drinks.  You can buy just about anything from your seat on any bus in Nicaragua, it seems.  At bus stops sometimes people will board the bus from the front with a basket of baked goods or other treats and walk to the back trying to sell, advertising their goods quickly and loudly kind of like an auctioneer.  Then when they get to the back they hang out until the next stop and get off.  It is very interesting!  We’ve seen them sell everything from baked things, ice-cream, corn-on-the-cob, little plastic bags of juice, razors, nail clippers, hammocks, DVD’s, SIM cards, and even pharmaceuticals.

Anyways, I digress, so we get to the kayak place around nine, get in our kayaks and off we go!  It was so gorgeous!  But after an hour or so we started thinking it might be fun to check out some of the little channels that branch off of the main river, something Johnny had never done before, and it turned out to be super awesome!  We dragged ourselves through the narrow mangrove channels by pulling on the roots ahead of ourselves and came out into some neat ponds with birds, bugs, crabs and even a raccoon in one spot.  At lunchtime we made it back to the main channel and stopped off at a beach spot to chillax, eat a bunch, and swim in the ocean.  It was an awesome day!  And to top it off, when we got back to the hostel, everyone that was staying there, and more (probably 20 people or more!) decided to throw Johnny a surprise birthday party!  Emma and I made up a delicious chickpea salad thing, and Andrew did a couple of beer runs to contribute (20 cordobas, about $0.80 for a LITRE of beer!).  The dinner was great, and the company was even greater!  After dinner and a bunch of drinks I decided to call it a night but Andrew stayed out and played Flinky-Ball, a German drinking game that sounds a lot like dodgeball.

The next morning we got up and packed our bags for a two-day trek up Telica, an active volcano in the area.  People were a bit hung over so we got a later start than we had planned, but we picked up a few more hikers, which was great!  We had Johnny and Simon again, our friend Devon who we had hiked La Conception with on Isla de Ometepe a few weeks earlier, and a girl named Anna who arrived at the hostel the night before and after some consideration we had convinced to come along.  

It was a 15min walk to the bus station, then an hour-long bus ride to the starting trail.  The hike was incredible!  We started out at some boiling mud pots that smelled like sulfur then headed up a dried riverbed/ cattle trail and up over some farmland.  It wasn’t until after lunch that we started the climb.  I made a bad decision to eat two peanut butter sandwiches even though I don’t like peanut butter, because I was so hungry by the time we stopped for lunch.  Unfortunately the steep hill with a nasty peanut butter filled stomach was not so pleasant.  I managed to keep it all down but couldn’t stand the sight of peanut butter for the rest of the trip, and that’s almost the only thing we brought… (I traded for other things).  Once we made it to the cone, the view was surreal!  A massive smoking cone sprouting out of the hillside and a frozen lava river spilled over the top.  We quickly set up our tents as we had less than an hour before sundown, and then headed up to check out the cone!  It was loud, like a jet engine but muted.  The cone was about 1km across and maybe that deep.  We stood and crouched on the edge, literally where the ground cuts deep into the engine below.  Yes we did acknowledge how dangerous it was there, but how could you resist!  Deep in the center of the pit was a fiery glowing red hole with smoke spewing out.  After staring at the lava hole for some time, mesmerized, we got up and walked to the other side of the cone to watch the sunset before heading back for dinner (a delicious homemade Dutch veggie mush dish made by Simon and Johnny) and topped it off with some roasted marshmallows at the campfire.  

The next morning was equally awesome, we woke up early to see the sun rise (4:30) then hiked back up to the cone for another look before cruising around to a bat cave that Simon found one time when he was guiding another group up there.  It was neat-o!  And then we headed back down the volcano.  The hike back was fun and quick, but everyone’s legs were happy for the break by the time we got on the bus to go home.

So while our cultural visit to Leon itself was a little short, we got to see some super neat things, meet some new friends, as well as an “old” friend, Devon.

After Leon we hoped back on the Chicken Bus and headed to Jinotega to stay on a finca/ nature retreat called La Biosfera, about two and a half hours north of Leon.  We found La Biosfera on helpx.org while looking for another place to do some volunteering, and chose it partly because there is a bat cave there, and partly because it sounds very unique!  

Hope everyone is well at home!  I would like to congratulate my Dad and Carolyn on a successful hunting and fishing year!  They finally got two moose and 27 Coho salmon!  Of course it isn't all for them as there were others in the group to split with, but the freezer is full this winter which is awesome!  We are also getting excited to spend two weeks with Donna and Jim (Mandrew's parents) who will be heading to Costa Rica on Nov 11th!  Can't wait to see you!!

Love,
Chelsea

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