Countdown to Peru!

Wow! Only 1 more week left until we can depart from our routine city working life to the mysterious South American country of Peru. This trip has definitely been overdue as it has been over a year since we left for Cambodia and Thailand last May. 

I'm actually surprised that I was able to withhold from traveling for so long but with the uncertainty of if I was going to quit my job at the end of August and with my sister's wedding this past weekend, the trip planning was a bit delayed and was up in the air as to what will happen.

Richard and I were committed to go, but Rebecca was uncertain what her plans were with her friend Rana and if they were going to travel to Bolivia while Richard and I go to the Amazon.

Richard and I only booked our flights at the end of July after we loafted around and enough was enough, we had to go to Peru no matter what. Unfortunately, this time it is only for 2 weeks for myself and 10 days for Rebecca as Rana will not be able to join us and Rebecca will not be joining us for the Amazon tour at the end of our trip.

Also, our friend Chris decided to join us on this adventure! WOO! Who would have thought that Chris would do a backpacking adventure or even travel anywhere else besides Las Vegas LOL. Every time he talks about going somewhere, he mentions Vegas and is constantly looking at deals online. I can't wait to take Chris on this adventure and to expose him to the world of backpacking and to explore the world.

Then a few weeks ago, my high-school friend, Kim, decided to join in on our adventure as well! Kim has been traveling the world ever since high school and has even lived in Australia for a few years.

I'm so glad that we got a group of friends to come on this adventure. Its unfortunate that a lot of my other friends who were interested couldn't come. Jane was going to come but she has to take some French courses in Montreal. A year ago, I threw the idea out to Eugene so that we can finally reunite after my Euro trip back in 2011 but with me not confirming when the trip is happening, he just came back from Yacht Week in Greece and Egypt,Jordan, Dubai and HK. There will always be another time to meet up again.

Anyhow, this trip is going to be EPIC! It's going to be an action packed/always on the go trip as we only have 2 weeks to do it with many locations to travel to. It is definitely not enough time as it would be nice to be able to stay in each spot longer than a day or two. There is so much to see in Peru but I think our itinerary hits all of the key spots and has some fun activities to go along with it! I need 2 months!!!

I will share more information about our itinerary and activities soon..

The countdown begins! Time for some last minute shopping this weekend!

Weekend Getaway in Haliburton: Snowshoeing & Dog Sledding

This past weekend, Steven and I stayed up north in Haliburton for a fun weekend escape, dog sledding with Winterdance tours! We had been talking about going dog sledding for a while, but never had the opportunity to get around to booking the tour. Steven, being the wonderful boyfriend that he is, booked a half day dog sledding tour as well as a one night's stay at Sir Sam's Inn (ski resort),  as a birthday present for me.

Our weekend getaway in Haliburton was spectacular. It was exactly what we needed; a break from the busy streets of the city of Toronto. We needed that escape "into the wild" once more...to be in touch with nature and surrounded by wonderful animals! We tried snowshoeing for the first time, relaxed at the WaterSpa, and spent an incredible day with huskies. It was a perfect weekend! 

DAY 1: DRIVE TO HALIBURTON, SNOWSHOEING & WATERSPA

Haliburton is approximately a 3 hour drive north from Toronto. Although it's a bit of a long journey/drive, the nice view makes it worth it -the iced lakes and snowy trees looked beautiful. However, you must watch out for deer! Steven almost hit deer that appeared out of nowhere!! It was in broad daylight when three deer decided to run across the roads, one after another, causing Steven to slam on his brakes. He almost had a heart attack!

When we arrived at Sir Sam's Inn, it was around 1:30pm. We happily ate a red deer sausage and mushroom poutine with a side salad. By the time we finished eating, our chalet was ready.

The chalet was beautiful and had a cottage feel to it. It had two levels, where the top floor was a balcony bedroom overlooking the living room, a second bedroom on the main floor, fireplace living room and a full kitchen. For two people, the chalet was very spacious.

After we unpacked our things, we geared up for snowshoeing! Instead of joining a tour (we missed the last tour, anyway), we decided to take the snowshoes and explore the resort area on our own. It was just before it was starting to get dark, when we walked toward a frozen lake that was by our resort. We knew that the lake was frozen because there were a few snowmobiles that drove over it. Seeing that it was safe, we decided to walk over the lake, toward the center (woo! walking on water!). We just stood there, appreciating the scenery....

After about an hour and a half of exploring, we decided to head back to our chalet and get ready to go to the waterspa. The sauna and waterjets from the pool was so relaxing. It was the perfect way to wind down and be carefree...

DAY 2: DOG SLEDDING WITH WINTERDANCE TOURS

Our dog sledding adventure was scheduled to start at 9am at Winterdance tours (about 30 minutes drive from Sir Sam's Inn). Once we arrived, we spent a few minutes to meet and greet the other people on our tour, as well as watch some of the huskies wake up from their nap. To my surprise, the huskies were sleeping in cages that were in the back of a truck.  Some of the cages fit two huskies in one. I have to say, it looked pretty cozy in there -especially on such a cold day!

Shortly after that, we gathered around our tour guide to listen to the rules and instructions on how to operate the sled. For the most part, there were two important commands that we were instructed to use on the huskies. “Hike” was the term used to instruct them to go/run, while “whoaaa” was used to indicate that they should slow down and prepare to stop! It's important that the sled driver only calls out the command once, at any given time. Too many voices hollering repeatedly, "hike, Hike, HIKE" will confuse and frustrate the dogs. Our instructor used a work analogy to explain the reasoning; it's no different than if your boss repeatedly told you to "work harder, Work Harder, WORK HARDER". It would only frustrate you, and therefore cause you to become less motivated to actually, work harder. So, calling out "hike" once will do the trick just fine! We also learned that huskies have a very acute sense of hearing (their ears can rotate 180 degrees), and therefore we needn't shout or scream out the commands loudly. They can hear perfectly fine if we talk at a regular tone.         

When going downhill, we were instructed to brake at all times to prevent the sled from hitting the huskies back, and to keep the huskies from running too fast as they may sprain their ankle or get injured. When going uphill, we were told to get off the sled and help push the sled up the hill. Huskies are team players and will work hard, but only if you work hard as well! If they catch that you're not helping them push the sled uphill (which they will, because they peak over their shoulders once in a while to make sure!), they will stop pulling and sit down. 

For the driver, it is also their responsibility to make sure the huskies do not get caught or tangled in the rope line. The huskies are attached to a main rope by their collar and back. If the dogs get caught in the main rope, they could be seriously injured if the rest of the dogs are running and pulling the rope tighter. And sometimes, their legs may crossover or get caught over the ropes. If this occurs, the person sitting on the sled will untangle the dog or call for an instructor to help!     
 

In total, there were about 7 teams of two on our tour. Each couple had 5 Siberian Huskies on their dogsled team, one driver, and one person sitting on the sled. The driver and rider can alternate positions after the break! 

Meet our team!

(1) Martini, a beautiful white haired blue eyed husky as our team leader (note he also pees very frequently, about every few minutes or so), 

(2) Demon, alongside with Martini in the front row, is a light and dark brown haired male, 

(3) Garrett, an outgoing blue eyed grey husky who loves attention and likes to howl (note his howls were unlike any of the other huskies, sounding almost like a Native Indian call!), 

(4) Link, a quiet blue eyed light brown and grey haired husky (shown on the left).

(5) Louna, a friendly light brown and grey husky girl with brown eyes (shown on the right). 

Link and Louna were side by side with each other, and excellent teammates! I'm thinking that they must be best friends because they are a great pair. Without a doubt, we had a rockstar team! They were full of energy, very friendly, and very obedient.

For the first half of the tour (before the break), Steven decided to be the driver, while I sat on the sled. We were the fourth team from our group to lead out to the trails. The trails were narrow, with enough room to fit a sled and a team of dogs, but not enough room for another team to drive beside you or cut ahead of you. The scenery was beautiful with the snow covering the tall pine trees, as it almost felt as if you were out West! Watching the dogs run with excitement with your sled was an amazing feeling! They were full of energy and truly happy to be outside, running. I loved their curly and flurry tails, so cute!!

Unfortunately for us, the team ahead of us had a slower set of dogs (I wanted to cut in front of them, badly). This caused a lot of stop-and-go traffic for us which was very frustrating. The dogs were frustrated as well as each time we stopped, they would look back at us as if "Why are we stopping, again!" Our strong team of dogs were running into the team ahead of us. So, Steven had to make sure to brake and avoid collision. Later, we found out that the day before, the team had a bad driver who kept on yelling Hike, so they were not very motivated to pull today.

For the first half of the tour/trail, there were a lot of hills along the way. Unlucky for Steven, he had to endure a lot of uphill running. For every hill along the trail, Steven had to push me and help the dogs each time. If it was the other way around however, there would be no way I would be able to push Steven up the hill for the duration that he pushed me! I'm almost certain that he enjoyed a good workout and enjoyed being part of the team with all the uphill pushing, as he was really into it! :P For me, I enjoyed sitting on the sled and looking at the view of the huskies running.

At break time, the instructors pulled into a path surrounded by a large open field. This was where we parked our sleds to enjoy some hot chocolate and some danishes. Steven and I took the opportunity to pet and take pictures with the huskies on our team, as well as those from the other teams. 

On our journey back, we took the same trail as before. This time, Steven and I switched places and I was driving the sled. Lucky for me, it was all downhill from here! I have to say, driving the sled is MUCH MORE fun than sitting on the sled and having someone else do it. Certainly, there were moments when I wish we could have drove off-track and ran free with the huskies! But, there weren't many chances for the dogs to run during the tour, mainly because the tour organized the sleds by having one after the other (which stopped us from riding at a faster pace). There were moments of absolute fun however, it was the stop-and-go traffic that caused us to lose the thrill (for instance, if one team stops, the other teams must stop and wait until the others catch up). Understandably, that was all part of the group tour experience. 

If only we were allowed to dogsled in an open field with the dogs by the sunset...

Winterdance has a total of 150 purebred huskies in their kennel. Hank and his wife, Tanya are owners of the company who are extremely passionate about dog sledding. Steven and I had the chance to talk to Hank about his dog sledding and racing journeys. In the past, he participated in Alaska’s 1000 miles Iditarod and the 1000 mile Yukon Quest, which was deemed as the “toughest dogsled race on earth”!

At the end of our tour, we watched Hank set up his raceteam of 15 huskies to get ready to head out for a run. He was prepping for the upcoming 2014 Yukon Quest! Unlike the dogs that we took for our tour, Hank's team of dogs were much stronger, faster and full of desire of run! It was a great moment watching Hank run off with the dogsled.