Shop till you drop and eat till you burst!

LA is treating us really good. It is a nice change to be back to the western culture :) Our hotel has a superb location with Hollywood & Highlands mall, Kodak Theatre, Chinese Theatre and Hollywood walk of fame just around the corner. Our first stop in LA was of course Victoria's Secret followed by other stores. We spent the first day in LA shopping and walking around Hollywood. In the evening before going to the movies we walked by a red carpet movie premiere for Black Swan, starring Natalie Portman and Winona Ryder! Even Heidi Klum attended the premiere! :)

Hollywood walk of fame

Hollywood sign



Starbucks was a must, Lili enjoying her Double Chocolaty Chip frappuccino





The Black Swan movie premiere (Heidi Klum is the one with blonde hair :) )



The second day in LA we decided to visit Universal Studios. We took a tour of the studios and saw Wisteria Lane from Desperate Housewives, they were also shooting the show on the same day but unfortunately we weren't allowed to visit the sets. In the evening we went shopping to the Grove near Farmer's market. The place was filled with Christmas decorations and it was really pretty. The people here are really friendly and not at all as shallow as we thought they would be, we met a guy in the bus who helped us find the shopping mall. We ran into him again in the bus back to Hollywood and chatted with him for a long time. He even invited us to have drinks with him but we were too tired to join him. Many actually thought we were locals, Katja asked a guy in a store if they had passport covers and his response was oh, are you gonna be traveling and she told him we are traveling. The same thing happened when we actually bought our passport covers and the cashier repeated his words. Btw the covers are great! :)



Our new passport covers



Universal Studios

Wisteria Lane, Susan's house



Gabi's house



A real Boeing 747 airplane that was completely destroyed for a movie, the plane only cost them 60 000 USD but the transportation was 200 000 USD :) 

Christmas tree!

 

The third day was our beach day. We rented a car and visited Santa Monica, Venice beach and Malibu. Btw the houses in Malibu are incredible! We spent the day chilling on the beaches and watching dolphins swim in the water. In the evening we went once again to the movies and saw Eat pray love. This time the movies only cost us 3 USD!

Santa Monica pier



Santa Monica beach



A doplhin, it was really hard to capture them on camera

 

Venice beach



Lili's new project is to take group photos as we noticed we didn't have almost any photos of the two of us in South America, Venice beach in the background



Our last day was dedicated to shopping and cruising in Beverly Hills. We once again saw really big houses. The median value of a house in Beverly Hills is 1.8 million dollars. We were walking on Rodeo drive (and of course shopping with our parents' credit cards :)) as this crazy man grabbed us in a bear hug and started talking Finnish and Swedish to us. He is supposedly a major tourist attraction and friends with many celebrities. He embarrased us by yelling to other tourists that we are movie celebrities, the other tourists started staring at us and we just wanted to escape :) We had decided to save money by returning our rental car to the airport (which in the end was more expensive than a taxi). It also ended up being a hassle! We couldn't find the right place and we were driving in circles for about an hour asking four different security guards which was the right way. All of them had their own opinions where we should drop off the car, and finally we managed to find the right place. We now feel kind of sorry for the guy who we returned the car to as we were complaining so much.




The weird guy was forcing Lili to hug him



Katja on Rodeo drive



Beverly Hills

  

As you may have noticed, we have complained a lot about the food in South America. Now we have no more complaints and we have been eating a lot. Our day started with a warm croissant and with a warm huge chocolate muffin which was already cut in half because they are so big and it would be impossible to eat a whole! After two months of no fresh vegetables, we finally were able to eat delicious salads. The second day when we went to the Universal studios, we ate yammy caramelised apples that we always have wanted to taste :) and Lili even got popcorn in the movies that she has been craving for. Our main discussion topic in South America was good food (because of the lack of it) and especially the salad in Olivegarden. This is why we didn't mind driving quite far to get the delicious salad we had been dreaming about for months, and it didn't disappoint us. We really fell in love with Pinkberry! They have the best frozen yoghurt with fresh toppings such as raspberrys, blueberrys, blackberrys, pomegranates, kiwis and over 30 other options.



The really healthy apple




Yammy frozen yoghurts



Summary of our two months in South America

We have now spent eight weeks in South America and we have seen a lot! We have visited six different countries and we have travelled in long distance buses for about 7000 kilometers which has taken us almost 6 days. :) We have only had one alcoholic drink during our time in South America :) and you can count the times we had good food with one hand.




Peruvian woman dyeing yarn


The highlights of South America

- Bolivia; both the Amazonas and the four day tour to the mountains in Lipez
- Foz do Iguacu
- Inca trail
- the hammocks in Mancora
- rafting in Banos
- garlic shrimps in Peru
- avocados and mangos
- thai food in Buenos Aires
- the friendly people in Bolivia and Ecuador (except for Quito)
- organic 72 % Kallari chocolate with chili and wild cinnamon

We won't miss

- The food!
- the hospital in Peru and being afraid of eating
- local people selling just about anything in the buses and giving long speeches about everything from God to healhty nutrition
- the curvy roads in the mountains where 200 kilometers busride took closer to ten hours
- Dimitrios
- traffic in big cities
- locals charging us the gringo price

Just weird things

- people putting popcorn and dried bananas in their soups in Ecuador
- ordering food and getting it with both rice and fries every single time
- a hamburger that had chips as a filling in Brazil
- people using scarfs for about everything, as suitcases, as bags, as clothing instead of jackets, tying babies onto their backs
- people yelling at us in the streets the only words they know in english (i love you, hello, good morning, will you marry me)
- giving our fingerprints before boarding a long distance bus and having bus attendants
- all the restaurants were closed in Florianopolis on a Sunday
- native english speakers having trouble understanding where this argentinian guy was from cos he pronounced the name of the country as they do in Argentina (the kiwi woman just asked "oh Argentina, where is that?" and realised what country it was after the guy told him that three times and pronounciating the name in different ways so that she would understand him)

Horror stories that happened to the people we met

- British couple who stayed in the same dorm as we in Buenos Aires getting their valuables stolen (including their passports) in the dorm
- a guy being kidnapped in Cusco (!)
- a guy being robbed the very first day on his trip
- a guy entering a party in Colombia and the first thing he saw was a dead body in the first floor as the party was still going on on the second floor (with people knowing about the body, according to the Columbians es la vida)
- a girl jogging on the beach during daytime in Mancora and getting robbed by three men with knives
- a whole hostel in Rio getting robbed by men with machine guns




Yammy fruit salad (costs less than 1 euro in Peru)


Next stop LA!

The children of the sun

We spent five days in sunny Mancora which is located at the coast of Peru. Mancora is famous for having year round sunshine and it is popular among surfers. Our hostel was also filled with aussie surfers :) We don't have a lot to write about Mancora as our main occupation there was chilling in the comfy hammocks :) The town itself is really small and cute with tiny cute restaurants.

Relaxing in the hammocks

Our main occupation for five days

Our hostel in Mancora



Mancora beach


After five days of sunbathing and hammocking, we left for Montanita, another surf town by the coast in Ecuador. We only stayed there for two days as the weather was really crappy (which we thought was really weird as Montanita is located really close to the equator). Our plan B was to go to Riobamba and take the "dangerous" (riding on the roof of the train with great views) train ride called Nariz del Diablo but unfortunately there were construction work along the railway so we were not able to do it. We learned this after arriving in Riobamba when we were buying tickets for the trainride. Our plan C was to go to a town called Banos which luckily was only an hour away from Riobamba. In Banos we rented mountain bikes which Lili really enjoyed (not!) and Katja got to learn new sides of Lili :) We ended up cycling steep uphill for an hour before we realised that we had taken the wrong route. We only realised it because Lili was complaining and threatening to turn around and cycle back to Banos. That's when she decided to ask a guy behind us (the uphill was so steep that the guy's motorcycle didn't even manage to drive uphill and he had to walk)  if this was the right way to the waterfalls :) We were supposed to take the ruta de las cascadas, which is 22 km long. Luckily we managed to find the right route eventually and went to see nice waterfalls and even took a ride on a cable car. The right route had  no steep uphills and it ended up being a pleasurable ride that even Lili enjoyed. :) The next day we went white water rafting. We had never done this before and the woman who sold the tour to us said it was good for beginners. We later found out that we were going to do level four rafting. :) According to wikipedia level four is hard: "Grade 4: Whitewater, medium waves, maybe rocks, maybe a considerable drop, sharp maneuvers may be needed. (Skill Level: Whitewater Experience)".
Our guide was totally insane! He joked around with the other guide (we were two groups rafting at the same time) and ended up kidnapping a girl from the other boat after she fell into the water. :) We really enjoyed rafting even though the safety instructions scared the shit out of us at first. We might do it again in Asia (if we find a place that looks safe enough). In the evening we had the best pasta dinner we have had so far here but unfortunately Katja started feeling sick after dinner and ended up spending the night in the bathroom throwing up :( We were both silently hoping that it would just be a one night thing as we really didn't want to visit the hospital again!



One of the waterfalls on the ruta de las cascadas

Lili cycling (we had helmets but this photo is staged, no worries moms)




We couldn't take any photos ourselves so this one is borrowed from wikipedia



We took a bus from Banos to Quito. We visited Mitad del Mundo which apparently is not even located at the real equator (!), it's 240 meters away from the real line. Pululahua crater is located near Mitad del Mundo so we ended up going there as well. The crater is the other one of the two inhabited craters in the world. It looked kind of boring beacuse it was basically just a little village in a valley, but we had a really enthusiastic guide who made us climb up a mountain and taught us about the medicinal plants in the area. We also spent a day strolling around in the different neighbourhoods in Quito and had ice cream made out of tropical fruits, the place was supposed to be a heaven for ice cream lovers (that is for Lili) but we didn't feel it was that special. We also spent one afternoon trying to find brownies (we needed some comfort food after a horrible pasta dinner which didn't taste like anything) which turned out to be mission impossible because the only dessert ecuadorians eat is ice cream or horrible pastries.



Lili standing on both sides of the hemisphere

Mitad del mundo



Our private tour of the crater (our guide was supposed to take a photo of us and the crater but you can see the result:) )

 

Reunited

As Lili was still in the hospital Katja had to leave alone for the five day trip to Incas' Sacred valley and Inca trail. This was our first time spending time apart from each other on this trip (otherwise we have been together 24/7). Our first day was spent in the Incas' Sacred valley visiting three different Inca sites. The day included walking a lot of steep steps both up and down which was good preparation for the Inca trail :) Our guide Fernando was really enthusiastic about the Incas and he told a lot of stories about them. Incas' three rules were don't steal, don't be dishonest and don't be lazy, I guess the last point explains how they managed to build so much in only 100 years. The Incas carved and shaped a lot of stones which must have taken forever in the 16th century. They also preferred to live up in the mountains (and not in valleys near the rivers which would have been thousand times easier for them) to be nearer to their Gods.



Inca site in Ollantaytambo



Mountain carved by the Incas to resemble a man



Floating steps

The next morning we started our 45 km hike to Machu Picchu. The first day of the hike wasn't that hard. We hiked for about 12 km in total and we only had a few really steep uphills. On the first day, our guide asked us if we wanted to take a detour (which was supposed to show us how the Inca trail looked like when it was discovered) and we decided to take it. It almost ended up being a huge mistake as Katja slipped and almost fell down off the mountain.The last bit of the hike before reaching our first camp site was a really steep and long uphill which was a good preview of what we had ahead of us the next day. :) Our first night's campsite was a really nice place with great views apart from the tarantulas that lived near it :(






At the beginnig of the Inca trail

Our dangerous detour



Tarantula

First night's campsite

The next morning we were woken up by our porters (we were 12 people doing the Inca trail and we had 17 porters (!) who carried all our stuff including our personal belongings, the tents, all food etc. We felt really bad for them cos they had to carry almost 30 kilos in their backs and they were really small people!) at 5 am, the wake up call was really nice, the porters brought hot coca tea to us into the tents where we could enjoy it before getting up! :) We had heard a lot of bad stories about the second day of the hike as we would climb up 1200 meters in total in just four hours. Our first night's campsite was located at 3000 meters altitude above sea level and we had to hike to Dead woman's pass which is located at 4215 meters above sea level. That was also the highest point of the trail. The second day's hike had four parts, three parts of just climbing up and one part coming down from 4215 meters to 3600 meters. The first part of the uphill was ok, it was steep and uphill but not that long. The second part was maybe the hardest part, it was a long and very very steep uphill. A lot of the steps that were made out of stones were so big that you had to lift your leg up really high so that you could reach the next step, therefore you could really feel the workout in your muscles when we reached the second resting point. The third part of the uphill was really steep as well with even bigger stonesteps. Our guide told us that it would take us about two hours to reach Dead woman's pass from the second resting point. He also joked about racing Katja up there and said it would only take him 25 minutes to get there. Katja and two Swedish guys reached the top in only 45 minutes being the first ones to arrive there. (Our guide Fernando took another detour which was apparently even steeper than the normal Inca trail and he was the last one to reach the top :)) The fourth part when we had to come down from the Dead woman's pass wasn't that nice. It's much harder to hike downhill due to the steep steps! It's also much easier to fall and hurt yourself when you come down. We were again the first ones to reach the second night's camping site. We arrived there almost two hours ahead of time and decided to take a nap before dinner :) As there wasn't really anything to do after dark, we went to bed at around 7.30 pm every night :)

One of our porters carrying the big backpack

The trail

At the top!



View from our tent on the second night



 On the third day we hiked for about 16 km in total. The day started once again with a really steep uphill, it felt (if even possible) even steeper than on the second day but luckily it wasn't a long uphill. After the first steep uphill we only had a few uphills and the rest of the hike on the third day was really steep downhill. At some points it would have been easier to turn around and "climb down" because the steps were so steep. Two hours before our lunch break it started raining :( we wanted to be in the rain as little time as possible and some of us ran to our lunch spot. Even though we had waterproof gear, Katja's shoes and pants were soaking wet when we reached our lunch spot. Luckily our porters had arrived there earlier and we could sit inside our food tent drinking hot chocolate while waiting for the rain to stop. The sun came out when we were having lunch and everything dried up really quickly. We reached the third night's camping site at around 3 pm and went to see another Inca site before having dinner. Our camping site was a really luxurious place, it had hot showers and a bar serving cold beer! The views were once again amazing, our tents were facing the Machu Picchu mountain.



Cloud forest

Our second night's campsite down in the valley

The rest of our group coming down the really steep steps

Inca siteWinay Wayna (forever young)

On the fourth day we had to wake up at 3.30 am because we wanted to see Machu Picchu in the sunrise from Intipunku (the sungate). We woke up, had a really quick breakfast and walked to the control point to wait for the guards to come and open the gates. We had to wait by the gates for 1,5 hours because the guards start working at 5.30 am (we went there early because we wanted to be one of the first groups to arrive at Intipunku, and it was well worth it because we were the second group to arrive there). When the gates opened, we hiked (or ran because we were worried we might not make it there on time) about 4 km to Intipunku. The sunrise over Machu Picchu was amazing and the early wake up was really worth it. The rest of the day was spent at Machu Picchu. This is where we reunited with Lili as well. We were sure we wouldn't find each other there but luckily we bumped into each other there by accident :)

View near the gates at 5 am

Intipunku, Machu Picchu in the background



Our Inca trail group, Machu Picchu and Wayna Picchu mountain in the background



The temple of the sun

Wayna Picchu in the background



Inca bridge, it is forbidden to cross the bridge as many people have died there

  

Reunited

After spending the day in Machu Picchu we took the train back to Cusco and slept the night in a really fancy hotel which had a hot shower that worked (which is btw really rare here). The next day we took the nightbus to Lima and after realising (and after we almost got ran over by a car) that the city was not for us we spent there only one afternoon and took another nightbus to sunny Mancora! Katja realised that for the past six nights she only slept one nigt in a bed! :)