The Inca Trail

After a few days of relaxing in Cusco, we started our 4-day trek on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. We would've liked to do the trip on our own, but the government requires you to hire a guide for this trail. The guided trip ended up being quite enjoyable, with great company and luxuries we never have when we camp on our own. We even lucked out with the weather, getting only a few light showers while we were hiking.

Heading down "Dead Woman's Pass":


First the great company: Our ten person group consisted of two other Americans, four South Africans, and two Koreans. Over the handful of days we spent together our group seemed more like a close-knit family than a group of random travellers trying to reach Machu Picchu. Besides great scenery, our 10-mile days were filled with laughter and great conversations. We spent our nights drinking rum to keep warm and playing card games along with creating differnt embarrassing punishments for the losers.

As for the luxury: We had 14 porters to carry all of our gear. (In our defense, we didn't pay the $60 for a "personal" porter and instead carried our sleeping bags, sleeping mats, clothes, etc on our own.) We had two professional cooks to prepare fresh, delicious food for every meal, which was enjoyed in an actual dining tent. Of course, the porters and cooks would run ahead so we'd have a hot meal waiting for us when we arrived at our camp. We even had hot water to wash with in the morning and evening. And just to push it over the top...we'd be awaken each morning with a cup of hot tea sitting outside our tent.

Not a bad camp spot:

As far as Machu Picchu goes, we arrived over the mountain in the morning to find fog so thick we couldn't see more than 50 feet and didn't even get a glimpse of the ruins right under our noses. Somehow our amazing luck with the weather continued though, as the clouds slowly parted throughout the day, reveiling an awe inspiring sight...

Our wonderful group, happy to have made it to Machu Picchu:

Machu Picchu ruins, well worth a four day hike:

Back in the USA (Briefly)

After being gone for almost a year, our arrival back in the US was not nearly as strange or weird as we thought it would be. In fact, besides being very excited to see some of our friends, we both felt pretty indifferent about being in New York City. Granted, it was much easier to get around, to order food (we didn't have to rely on pointing and having no idea what we were going to get), we knew exactly where to stock up on supplies, and we didn't have to worry about miscommunications. Besides Rachel continuing to try to convert prices already in US dollars into US dollars (guess that happens when we've always had to convert prices for the last year), everything was very easy about being in the US.

Anyway, our good friends from college, Colin and Lisa, made the trip up from North Carolina to hang out with us in New York. It was great seeing them again...we spent our time together wandering through Central Park and Rockefeller Center, window shopping, relaxing in cafes, and just getting silly and hanging out in our hotel room. All of us had been to NYC before so it was nice using the time to catch up with each other instead of running around trying to see all the sights.

As an added bonus, one of Rachel's old co-workers from Patagonia, and a New York native, Maggy, happened to be in town so we were able to meet up with her as well.

Surprisingly, in the last year we haven't missed much about the US. One of the only things we have missed, and what's been the hardest part of traveling for this long, is not getting to spend time with our family and friends. That said, being able to see Colin, Lisa, and Maggy was a great Christmas present and helped re-energize us for the last leg of our journey. Thanks guys, for taking the time to meet us on our crazy trip.

(On that note, thanks to Jen, Josephine and Terri for meeting us in Australia; Cody, Mary Lou, and Ashley for meeting us in Africa; Connie and Hannah for meeting us in central Europe; and Frank and Linda for meeting us in Ireland.)

Tomorrow we begin our 4-day trek on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. The weather forecast does not look promising as it is supposed to rain daily for the forseable future. We've had so much luck with the weather on this trip we were well overdue for some rain, plus this will give us another chance to test out our Patagonia gear.

(New blog posts for two days in a row? Consider this our Christmas present to you Ashley!)

Highlights of Europe

As we write this we're sitting on a plane, on our way from London to New York City. Before we get back to the US we wanted to write one last post on Europe, looking back on the last 4+ months we spent here...

Europe by the numbers:
14,033: Miles driven
22: Countries visited
$60: Amount paid to corrupt Moroccan police officers
2: Flat tires
1: Unpaid parking tickets (Germany)
2: Dents added to the van
1: Times ran out of gas

Favorites:
Best Scenery & Hiking: Switzerland
Best Food: Italy
Best Bakeries: France
Most Underrated: Slovenia
Best Beer: Belgium
Best Surf: Morocco
Up-and-Coming: Bosnia-Herzegovina
Best Pubs: Ireland

Our favorite pictures from Europe:

Venice:

The Vatican:

Cinque Terre, Italy:

The Swiss Alps:

Marrakesh, Morocco:

River Surfing Munich, Germany:

The Matterhorn, Switzerland:

Luxembourg:

Lahinch, Ireland:

Croatia:

Paris:

Dubrovnik, Croatia:

Dingle, Ireland:

Bosnia-Herzegovina:

Bosnia-Herzegovina:

Essouira, Morocco:

Bled, Slovenia:

Bavaria, Gemany:

Current update: We're actually a little behind on our posts. Although we wrote this on our London-NY flight, it took us about five days to get around to posting it. We're in Cusco, Peru right now and will begin a 4-day hike on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu on Sunday. We'll try to get a quick post published on NYC before we leave on the trek also.

Speaking English Again!

We have officially closed the loop on our journey through Europe...

After taking the ferry from France back to England we made the drive north to Scotland. We spent a few days in Scotland hiking a section of the West Highland Way, strolling along the streets of charming old villages, and window shopping in the city of Glasgow. Unfortunately, we also endured the worst weather (which wasn't that bad) we've had in our four months of traveling through Europe. Since arriving back to the United Kingdom, we've had nothing but grey skies, rain and bitter cold. Our first night in Scotland we awoke in the morning to find the doors on our van had frozen shut during the night from the combination of rain followed by temps well below freezing.

Deciding it was time to move on (and hopefully warm up) we headed southwest to the Lakes District of England. The weather improved slightly so we were able to do some hiking along the scenic countryside. Our last few days of exploring were spent wandering the scholarly streets of Oxford, periodically ducking into museums and cafes to avoid the rain.

Currently, we are back at our family friends' house in Botley in the south of England, where we've spent the past few days unloading the van, doing laundry, packing, and finalizing plans for South America. Yesterday we did manage to sneak away for the afternoon to get in one last European surf session. The south coast of England isn't known for it's surf so we didn't have high expectations, but when the forecast said they were expecting the "best waves they've had in five years" we had to check it out.

Wearing only our 4/3 wetsuits and reef booties we made the paddle out past the breakers but soon realized we definitely did not have the right gear for the conditions. The water was FREEZING! All of the other surfers were wearing gloves, hoods, and thick booties. We toughed it out as long as we could and caught a handful of nice, head-high beach break waves. We surfed until our hands and feet were frozen and ice cream headaches became unbearable. Even though their best waves in years were no better than an average (at best) day in California, we still had plenty of fun. It was a great way to end our European surfari. (As opposed to ending on the beating we took in the south of France.)

Tomorrow we leave for New York City. This will be our first time back on US soil in nearly a year. We're both anxious to see what we think of the United States after being gone for so long. We've been gone so long, the last time we were in the US Bush was still the president.

Thankfully, we have some great friends (Colin and Lisa) who are meeting us in New York for our time there. They were the same ones who sent us off when we left Minnesota last January so it's only fitting that they join us on our short stint back in the US before we head to South America.

Wine, Beer & Holiday Cheer

Having left the surf behind us before one of us got hurt, we headed inland to Saint Emilion, located in the Bordeaux region of France, to sample some fine French wines. Since it was the off-season we literally had every winery to ourselves. We even got lucky enough to meet the wine makers and sample additional vintages not included in the typical tastings. Our Thanksgiving (which we didn't even realize until the day after) was spent drinking French wine, eating duck, cheese, meat, and bread. It wasn't turkey, but it was just as tasty and a perfect substitute. The only thing missing was football (real football, not soccer) on TV.

The charming, packed-in-the-summer, but empty-in-the-offseason village of St. Emilion:

After departing the Bordeaux region we continued on our trek north. Since we both loved Paris the first time we stopped there, we figured it was worth another visit. Even though it rained off and on all day and the temperature never got above 45 degrees, we walked the streets with as much excitement as we did on our first visit. Since we had done quite a few touristy things our first time there we were able to spend more time seeking out some superb French pastries, visiting the less touristy areas, and just aimlessly wandering the streets. We visited the big Parisian weekend flea market, window shopped the ritzy department stores, and stayed well into the night watching the Eiffel Tower sparkle as the rain poured down on us. (The freezing cold made it not nearly as romantic as that just sounded.)

Enjoying a rainy day in Paris:

With our time in Europe quickly coming to an end we reluctantly left Paris again and continued north to Belgium. We had one lone mission in Belgium: to sample some of the world's finest beers. From the moment we first read about Saint Sixtus Abbey a few years ago, we put it on our "Absolutely Must-See" list for Europe, right up there with Paris, Rome and the Swiss Alps. The monks of Saint Sixtus brew a Trappist-style beer, Westvleteren 12, that is consistently ranked as the best beer in the world. The only two ways to taste the beer are to buy it from the restaurant attached to the monastery or to reserve a case to be picked up in person at the monastary. We tried, without luck, for weeks to reserve a case of their world famous beer via phone. Apparently getting through during their scheduled "reserve times" is harder than winning the lottery. Since the monks brew the beer only to support a few charities and pay their bills, not for profit, the supply doesn't come anywhere close to meeting the demand.

Anyway, we had to settle for trying a few bottles of the Westvleteren 12 beer at the packed restaurant. Needless to say, it was fabulous. We both agreed it was the best beer we'd ever had, even better than the Guinness in Ireland. After enjoying a few tasty bottles (the money does go to charity after all), and still having half a day to kill before we were scheduled to ferry back to England, we headed an hour north to Bruges, Belgium.

Westvleteren 12, the best beer in the world? I concur.

When we arrived Bruges' Christmas market was in full swing. The town square was filled with booths selling all kinds of holiday gifts and plenty of delicious foods...sausages, cheese, meats, along with mulled wine, hot chocolate, and other specialty cold-weather drinks. The streets were a dazzling array of lights creating a very festive holiday experience. It was the first real taste of Christmas we've had this year and definitely made us miss the fact that we'll not be back in Minnesota for Christmas.

Enjoying the holiday cheer in Bruges, Belgium:

But back to our first reason for heading to Bruges, it's home to the "best pub in Belgium". 't Brugs Beertje lived up to it's reputation, being the favorite pub of our entire trip. It was a small, cozy place with a wood fire and traditional beer posters covering the wall. They had over 300 bottled Belgian beers on their beer list. We spent the entire evening, and well into the night, visiting with an Asian couple now living in Europe and sampling as many of the brews as we could...which wasn't many since most of the Trappist beers have a 10-12% alcohol content. (For the beer connoisseurs out there, since you can't buy Westvleteren 12, a very close second is St. Bernardus Abt 12, another Trappist beer brewed by Belgian monks.)

't Brugs Beertje, a great pub serving great beer:

If we hadn't already booked our ferry to England, we would've loved to spend a few more days enjoying the Christmas cheer (and beer) of Belgium.