Free Henoozle!!

I thought I would show you what my life is like here in Monterey...

That's me and Eileen in our cage!!! Pretty spacious, right???

Pinnacles hike and various wildlife sightings

So, we're tired today - yesterday was our first long hike in a long time. We went out to the Pinnacles and it was a georgeous day. When we arrived the temperature was right around the freezing point, but who cares when the next 1.5 miles is straight up.

We hiked to the High Peaks, which doesn't take all that long. The the top we saw this large family who had gotten up early and were now eating and enjoying the view, all the while listening to music for their little ghettoblaster. We then continued our trek to North Chalone peak. To get there, we went by the reservoir which was completely still. By now the temperature was probably in the 70's (20's Celcius) and Chalone peak, which has a fire-watch tower on top seemed awfully far away..."that peak is far away, man!!" But we pressed on and were rewarded with great views of the sorrounding valleys and mountains.

While hiking up to the peak Doozle ran out of water and got blisters on both of his feet. I had been saving my water pretty good (I hate water that doesn't come in a bottle), so on our way back down to the reservoir I started feeling pretty dehydrated...that all went away, when we saw a condor for the first time. We have been to the Pinnacles many times but never seen one - so this was very exciting (I would show you the picture, but it just looks like a dark blob). We also saw a Prairie Falcon, Bluebirds, a Spotted Towhee. But something caught my eye as we were hiking to Bear Gulch Area to fill up our water "hoozles", this.....

It was the craziest thing I've ever seen. There were ladybugs all over the place, mating, getting squished by hikers walking by totally unaware of this spectacle. We left and started heading back to the car. We had gone 15 miles (18 km) in one day and were quite frankly hungry and tired. A stop at the nearby Chalone winery filled us up with crackers and wine - yum!!

Rainy hike at the Pinnacles

So, I went for a hike the other day - gotta make sure the gear is right. I decided to go to the Pinnacles because I could drop Doozle off at work and then hike the entire day. I knew that it was going to rain at some point during the day, so I thought I could hike and then turn around once the rain got too intense...

As you can probably see, it was already rather misty when I got there... oh, and you can see our new car. Now, you might say that it looks like our old car, and you would be right. We like Subaru and this Impreza Outback Sport just had to come home with us...

...anyway, the parking lot was pretty much empty when I got there. Except for another Subaru (what does that tell you about Subaru owners??). I started hiking and it was absolutely beautiful.

Check this out:

As far as the gear goes, I definately need a good pair of rain pants - this did not work for very long...

But the rain jacket passed with flying colors...

I only hiked 6 miles before I decided to turn around - need to get those rain pants and then go back.

Everything is paid for...

So, today I finally paid for the last part of our trip - the rainforest part. This is probably the part that I look forward to the most. Our travel plan is as follows:

April 1st: Leave SFO really early in the morning. Swing by El Salvador and have fun at the airport for a couple of hours and finally arrive in Lima in the evening.
April 2nd: Lima, dirty and dangerous place (I've heard), so we'll be getting out of there early (5:40AM). With an early arrival in Cuzco, we should be able to soak up some Peruvian ambiance and maybe score ourselves a nice lunch (like guinea pig!?!).
April 3rd: This is the morning we leave for TRC (Tambopata Research Center) located in the rainforest. We'll fly to Puerto Maldonado, where we'll meet up with our guides.
April 4th: At TRC
April 5th: At TRC
April 6th: At TRC
April 7th: Departure from the Tambopata area via Puerto Maldonado and arrival in Cuzco
April 8th: No time to rest, early morning pick up at the hotel. This is the day we start the Inca trail.
April 9th: This is supposedly the worst day of the trail - I hope that I live through it.
April 10th: Third day on the trail and also Doozle and Scoozle's birthday. We'll be celebrating with a drink (I hope) and get the bed early in anticipation of a 4AM wake-up call.
April 11th: This our last day on the trail and today we'll get to see Machu Picchu. Later we'll return to Cuzco.
April 12th: Nothing has been planned - maybe we'll just stroll around in Cuzco and buy souvenirs at the market...who knows.
April 13th: Today we leave Peru behind to go back to our boring little lives...

CAN'T WAIT!!!

Alright, so I might give this whole blogging thing another try. I do think that it would be fun to have a some sort of record of the stupid things that we do. Although we are rather boring, we do some cool things. Like in about 2 months we are heading of to Peru to hike the Inca trail and visit the rain forest - I can't wait to see macaws and toucans and of cause Machu Picchu. I guess this is going to be the place where I try to gather my thoughts on what we need and how we prepare for the trip. I always seem to loose all the random pieces of paper on which I write our lists and my thoughts on this whole trip. This way it will be in one place and maybe of use to someone else planning a trip to Peru. I am a little nervous about the trip - I'm not in terribly good shape and since we will be hiking at altitude with our super sporty friends, I can't help thinking that I need to get in shape for this...