Kickin' it With Moot

South Africa: 12/12/07

2009-01-15T10:47:00.004-07:00

After one last walk on the beach at Bulungula we got into the old Landcruiser for the rough two and a half hour journey to the paved road junction. Along the way we picked up and dropped off various people who emerged from the shadows of small round huts, or rondovals, that spotted the country side. We would exchange simple formalities as new passengers climbed in the back with us, but most of the them only spoke the local Xhosa dialect, and we would smile as the clicked their tongues while the spoke.

The junction consisted of one makeshift shop which sold warm drinks and a small selection of fruit, but there were probably 50 people standing around. None of them seemed to be doing much; women and children sat in the dirt, groups of men huddled together in conversation, their eyes twitching about as though they were being watched by unseen observers. When we stepped out of the Land Cruiser it felt as though the record skipped, and all eyes turned to the two caucasian westerners being dropped off. We cautiously situated ourselves away from the largest group of 20-something men and we watched our driver, Rufus, pull away.

No more than two minutes had passed before our 'Taxi' arrived. One of the notoriously famous mini-bus transports that would take us to Coffee Bay. The mini-bus itself was more like an old, narrow mini-van that smelled of body odor and upholstery that had never been cleaned. We squeezed into the back seat with our bags, the volume of the stereo went WAY up with Africaans Hip-Hop, and we were off , again, dropping off and picking up passengers who dotted the side of the road.

In such a transport, safety is a non-factor. The driver raced down the windy, two-lane road, swinging the wheel wildly to avoid the potholes. Actually, they were more like small craters than potholes, a few of which could have swallowed the entire front end of the vehicle. The driver couldn't have been more than 18 years old, and he split his time equally in his respective lane, and the lane of oncoming traffic. But he never slowed down. The music was deafening and the smell of fuel and exhaust gave both Shanon and I headaches and made us want to vomit. All the while we clung to each other in fear.

At one point there were eight people on board (including the driver), along with an infant who sat quietly on her mother's lap in the front seat. We must have been moving at about 120-140 kph, or 70-75 mph, and coming around a long, sharp turn, when the driver slammed the brakes hard, narrowly avoiding a renegade cow that had wandered into the road. Minutes later it was a dog. People came and went, one had two large crates full of empty beer bottles which he kept stacked in his lap, another with a club foot who carried an old wooden crutch under with one hand, and an old splintered cane in the other. The exhaust became stifling the further we went, and I strained to keep a small window propped open to try and get fresh air. I could feel brain cells retiring from duty and my head reeled.

We passed large groups of people lining the road. All of them seemed to be waiting for something, but no one seemed to be in a hurry. No one except our driver. We would find out later that it was Pension Day, or pay-day, and that everyone was waiting to collect money. What they did for a living, or who paid them remains a mystery, but people gathered en-masse for their stipend.

What a ride. The green hills carry on in every direction as far as the eye can see, and whizzing by the the Xhosa communities we got a chance to see the heart of a Wild Coast community, home of Nelson Mandela, from the backseat of a hell-spawned mini-bus.

Reflections of the World

2009-01-08T13:24:00.004-07:00

Even though we did our best to provide an overview of our experiences while we were abroad, it wasn't always easy to keep the blog updated. This week I've been thumbing through the journal I kept while we were traveling, and laughing at some of the ins and outs of a daily life in far away places. In the interest of keeping these memories alive, or at least in my own interest of self preservation, I've decided to take some of the entries from my personal journal and recreate the experiences here, in hopes that we might all laugh, cry, feel inspired, whatever.

I don't think I'll keep to a chronological order, at least not for now. I fact, the order will likely be random and intermittent, depending on what I feel is good story to share at the time I choose to share it. Anyway, if anyone still frequents this blog, I hope you find these small insights worth the read.

Cheers-

Jared

India: 1/6/08

2009-01-08T13:22:00.006-07:00

We met a kid from Israel this morning on the streets of Cabal. He had just arrived in Mumbai the night before. His face was tense and he asked us if we knew somewhere safe to eat, and then followed us down the street to an American style coffee shop. He was 19 years old, traveling alone, and seemed terrified of being in India. Shanon and I thought of the Israelis we encountered in South America, all moving around together in tight networks and finding guest houses that catered specifically to their nationality. But here in Mumbai, this young, solo wanderer hadn't located any 'friendly' faces, was certainly on edge and afraid to eat the food, and admitted that he was ready to leave after 14 hours.

Leaving our new friend behind, we caught a taxi and headed an hour north of Mumbai to the train terminal. From the back seat of the car we experienced our first glimpse of the dismal conditions in which people live, in this, the country's most thriving and wealthy metropolis. The small shanty's and lean to's sat directly on the sidewalks so that people's door-steps consisted of the curb and the street. Some were corrugated tin constructions, others were merely old tarps suspended from the concrete wall that backed the roadside neighborhood. People bathed, ate, and did their laundry right there on the asphalt, as small children with no clothes wandered just a few feet from the rushing traffic. We passed thousands of people living like this over the course of just a few miles. Poverty like we've never seen, and the biggest culture shock of the trip so far.

We were definitely a spectacle at the train station, and the only caucasian people in sight as far as we could tell. People passing us stared hard. Blatently. Some directly at Shanon, some directly at me, occasionally at both of us. Some would see us and then say something to the others standing close to them, after which a whole group would be staring at us. Sometimes they would point and laugh as they stared; of course we assumed they were laughing at us. Unsure how to react, and growing wary of the eyes on us, I tried my luck at staring back, but it was like trying to stare down a statue. It was a strange feeling, to say the least, and we tend to get it everywhere we've been so far in India. We are strangers in a strange place. As we waited for the train people flooded past us, and the rats scurried along the filthy tracks. It smelled of urine and human shit, and there is no doubt that we aren't used to getting around in this country yet. We feared the worst as we waited for the train. Miraculously, after about an hour of waiting, our train arrived and we climbed on-board.--safe at last from the gawkers and packs of teenage boys who move around together like packs of wolves. Safe at last from that station.

Now aboard the train, an older couple next to us seem to be complaining to each other about our bags taking up so much space under the blue, vinyl bench, and upset with the fact that we were in the wrong seats when they boarded. We crammed our bags back as far as they would go and offered to move to our respective spots in the tiny berth, and that seemed to satisfy them. We think. Our first encounter with the Indian Railway.

Just When You Thought it was Safe to Forget About Us

2008-10-08T15:52:00.019-06:00

Just in case you were wondering, if you ever leave your home, your friends, your family and most things familiar to you, chances are they will be more or less the same a year later when you return. Now that we've been back in the states for just about four months it seems as though we were never gone at all. Life has a funny way of making it simple to slide back into a regular day routine--especially if you're Shanon and go back to the same job. (Thanks for being the bread-winner.) Anyway, we're alive and well, and back to dealing with the struggles of real life; i.e. bills, jobs (or lack thereof), house tenants, moving, car trouble, dirty dishes, presidential campaigns, etc., etc.

As Shanon works to save the world one cancer patient at a time, Jared serves food in a local Pub, The Pub to be exact, and tries to figure out the inner complexities of his existence. There are rumors that he might start another blog that targets the cockeyed idiosyncrasies of people and the clever, or oafish, things they do. That may not make sense now, but if he gets around to it you'll see what he means. And no, he won't be talking in the third person when the new blog hits the www, but he will post a link on this site.

For now, enjoy the last of the photos from the final days of our time spent in the N.US and Canada. We hope you've enjoyed reading as much as we've enjoyed sharing.

Here's to unexpected surprises and life-changing experiences.

Canada--Several Months Later

2008-09-02T11:02:00.009-06:00

We were amazed at the overwhelming response to the inconclusiveness of our blog. Surely, we thought to ourselves, no one is still following the abrupt and uncalled for abandonment of our documentation project. Surely, no one cares to hear about the difficult return to reality after what Shanon has coined, "The year-long weekend." Alas, our faithful viewers have called for a conclusion. Thank you to all our loyal readers who reminded us that we couldn't just stop reporting until there was nothing more to report. For now, here are some pics from our 4,300 mile journey into Canada and back--and in the next week I will add some colorful documentation, as well as an update on our lives back in the real world.

Oh, Canada!

2008-07-03T10:48:00.004-06:00

Back in North America, things are a little more expensive than they were on the opposite side of the globe. They're also a little bit more like real life--even though we've been doing our best to avoid that. Sorry to have completely slacked on the updates since leaving Asia. We promise to give a conclusion to this blog within weeks when we're back in SLC

We have officially made it to Banff, Canada, and just in time for Canada Day. Our neighbor to the north celebrates in similar fashion to the American 4th of July--fireworks and hot dogs--so I was glad I packed a country-western shirt.

The CPU's up here seem to locked away so people don't spread camera viruses to the machines, so no pictures for now. Again, we promise to update all this soon enough (if anyone is still reading).

Thanks for hanging in there with us--imagery stimulation to come. The Canadian Rockies are a beautiful place, and we saw a Grey Wolf in the wild!

Neat-O, eh!

This is the End...Well, Almost

2008-06-16T18:05:00.005-06:00

So much for us keeping the blog up to date. Although there is not alot of news since the last post let me feel you in on the last few weeks.

After our return to Bangkok we settled into the modern Asian city life --taking the bus downtown for movies and shopping (even though we didn't really have money to buy anything), eating PadThai from the street stalls and selling off the last of our guidebooks. We did manage to squeeze in a couple more beach days a few hours outside of Bangkok. Although this island wasn't as spectacular as the paradise in the South, it was nice to wind down on the white sand one last time.

Realizing that we were actually in the last days of our trip took an emotional toll on us. We reminised about the moments in India when we were so fed up with the hassle that coming home to clean the toilet was sounding like a good prospect. What we wouldn't give to have those days back so we could do it all again. What a ride, and what an experience this has been--hard to believe that this is the end.

It's now Monday the 16th, and we landed in SLC yesterday. Let us just state for the record that the most unfriendly, unorganized and chaotic airport in all of the world is LAX. We never had delayed flights or trouble claiming our bags until we came home. We felt bad for all the foreigners who arrived with stars in their eyes at the same time we did--welcome to Los Angeles suckers.

Life back in SLC has been a bit hectic so far--dealing with a broken stove, gas leaks, and a family of racoons living in the eaves of our house. Welcome back to reality.

The plan is still to go to Canada (if we have any money left after this week), and even though our camera is officially broken at the moment--which is why there are no photos right now--we plan on updating the blog a few more times before we truly concede to real life.

Thanks for hanging in there with us this long. We hope you've enjoyed reading as much as we've loved telling it.

The End of Our Continental Swing

2008-06-03T21:15:00.013-06:00

**More photos on the way...my camera battery died**

We heard horror stories going into Vietnam about the relentless touts, street salesmen and cyclo-drivers that never allowed a moments rest. It's true that there is usually someone on your heels trying to sell something, but we really decided that after India, everything is relative. In fact, we've really enjoyed Vietnam and its friendly people.

We seem to get stuck in capital cities wherever we go, and Hanoi has been no exception. Luckily, the chaotic streets in this very old city make for an interesting vantage point into the lives of so many urban Vietnamese. Days wandering the streets are hot and sticky, the cafes pricey and trendy, and the Old Quarter with it's narrow streets and alleys is a bombardment of sights, smells and (very loud) sounds.

With about a week left in Vietnam we decided to spend the money for a slightly expensive overnight train to the northern town of Sapa--famous in Vietnam for it's tribal minority villages, their colorful textiles and the sprawling rice terraces that climb the green mountain valleys. Aside from the temperate climate it really was a nice place to see, and it was interesting to see the locals mixing their own culture with the very new 21st century version that has been crammed down their throats. As a result, their persistence and agressive tactics are surprising given that fact that most of the sellers are either 50-70 year old women, or 8-12 year old girls. Regardless, they really are adorable and hard to resist--but when you do resist they can turn nasty on you. eally though, we just wanted something to compare our India train experiences to, and that's the real reason we went to Sapa.

After we returned to Hanoi we immediately braved a public bus a few hours south to a place we had missed on the way in called Ninh Binh. The decision to go there was not made lightly as the last thing either of us wanted to do was deal with the crook taxi drivers required to get us to the station, encounter the henchmen who hang around pulic transportation stops, or just get on a bus in general. Yet, we decided to go for it--and after yelling at the taxi driver for unnecessarily driving us all over the city to get more money, then beating off the reaching hands of the people trying to get us on their bus, we headed to Ninh Binh.

The city itself was nothing special, but we rented a motorbike and cruised the beautiful countryside through the karst landscape, visiting a small National Park and a primate rescue center along the way. It also seems that the mosnsoon season has begun, and everywhere we go is starting to get heavy rain. In this motorcycle culture everyone rides their with a massive poncho that covers themselves and the whole bike--and nobody slows down when the rain starts.

So that's that. Vietnam is through--the last country on our tour of South East Asia. Yesterday afternoon we flew back to Thailand where we will spend our final 10 days. Strange to think that it's been three months since we were first here...back then we were saying how weird it would be to back in Bangkok, because that would mean the end of the trip. We'll see if we can get another wrap up post between now and the time we come home though. But don't tune out yet, we really are going to Canada where I'm sure there will be plenty more adventures.

Busy life in the North

2008-05-23T21:22:00.021-06:00

We are still in Vietnam and enjoying our stay very much. The north has a little different feel than the south, a little crazier and hectic with hints of India chaos and pestering, but still great. We spent 5 wonderful days in the very atmospheric town of Hoi An. Wow, I need to go back there with the girls because the shopping (i.e. custom taylors that will make anything and everything for you at a very, very cheap price). It was hard to walk around the place and not buy much. Like many places we've been we keep saying that if we were here on a shorter vacation and had some slush money, oh the amazing things we could buy. So, if anyone needs a fresh new custom suit, winter coat, wedding dress, or anything else go to Hoi An.

Aside from the shopping, the town was old and crumbly and so dang cute. It looked like a modern designer came through and created this old french look, exept that it was authentically old and french and a designer couldn't recreate the buildings to look as great as these. Exploring the streets and buildings was a highlight of Vietnam.

We took a scooter one day and visited China Beach which was a popular spot for the U.S. troops to have a day off while over here during the war. The beach was nice and empty but the currents were too strong to swim. We had and interesting lunch on the beach (no menu's in english) and I think that this is the hardest country so far to be a quazi vegetarian, everything is made of meat, and strange meat at that. We stopped at some interesting temples and mountains made of marble on the way back to Hoi An.

After Jared successfully pried me away from Hoi An (seriously ladies, go there) we went to Hue to see some more historical stuff. We are getting a little board of temples, forts, stupas, palaces, museums, etc... but there is still so much to see while we are here, so we must press on. The town itself wasn't real great, but we did see old cities ruined by the wars and masoleums for the past emporers who ruled in the 1800's.

We left Hue a little early so that we could get a visa extension in Hanoi before ours expired. This required taking an overnight bus (haven't done one of those in a while) to Hanoi, the Capital city of Vietnam. It is interesting to see the difference in the local people of the north v.s. the south. Its more hurried up here and the sellers/taxies/touts are more persistent and in your face but it is buzzing with life. We took a short overnight tour of Halong bay but probably should have done one more day. The tour itself was cheap but wasn't great (setting aside the rats and cockroaches on the boat, I guess its like they say, you get what you pay for), but the bay was absolutely beautiful. We slept on the boat with a great family from Australia who made us feel part of their own since we were the only outsiders. We swam and kayaked for a bit around the bays limestone Karsts and saw a few caves that were all lit up with different colored lights (felt a bit hoaky and disneylandish, but much of the tourists sites are like that here in Vietnam). It would have been nice to have our own boat and guide to explore more of the bay, but we enjoyed the beauty regardless.

North Into the Monsoon

2008-05-11T04:31:00.015-06:00

You may have noticed we aren't as consistent in our blog postings as we once were. Maybe we're lazy now, maybe it's the unpredictable internet connections of SE Asia. Regardless, accept our most humble apologies.

After our stint in Ho Chi Mihn City we veered off the beaten track a bit and visited Dalat--the honeymooners capital of Vietam. Set amid man-made lakes, concrete statues of various animals, and green terraced hills as far as the eye can see, this is the first place we've visited in the past two and a half months where we haven't been dripping sweat around the clock. In fact, at several thousand feet above sea level, we actually got to enjoy putting on our shoes and long sleeve shirts for a few days. Praise Buddah! Unlike it's ill-mannered alter-ego that we visited in India, Mt. Abu, Dalat was a pleasant town with a colorful (yet smelly) market, nice waterfalls nearby, and a generous helping of the strange touch Vietnam puts on areas of interest--such as neon halos around Buddah or the Virgin Mary, swan-shaped pedaloos for the lake, or 15 foot high concrete tigers.

We spent one day cruising the cool hills, checking out the sites, and weaving through traffic, and I'm proud to report I've become quite the master of the Asian motorbike. Luckily, there are only a fraction of the people in Dalat as there are in Saigon, so the ride was reasonably safe. As a funny side-note, people wear very fashionable helmets in Vietnam--they're equipped with attachments that shade from the sun, or add a nice personal touch. In fact, they seem to be so popular that people rarely seem to take them off. Whether at the market, walking down the street or fishing on the lake, a good percentage of the people seem well prepared to step into a construction zone. When all else fails, do as the locals do when visiting your friendly local pagoda.

Regardless of the strange structures around town and the excessive head protection, the cool climate was the relief we needed. If only it could last all the way to Hanoi. We stayed an extra day in Dalat because we didn't want to go back to the heat and humidity, but we've since moved down from the hills to Nha Trang, on the coast of the South China Sea. Needless to say we've back to scorching heat, and countless moto-bike drivers who are all competing to give you a ride somewhere. It seems as thought the further north we go the more frequent the rain is becoming, too. We actually had one night that the rain started about 6:00 pm, and by 7:30 we were crossing the main road in town with the water nearly up to our knees--we've never seen anything quite like it. Further along down the coast we made another quick stop in a less toursted area and enjoyed a day and a half of hard rain while cruising the quiet coast on bikes. With not much to do and not many menu's in English we moved on after just two nights, but Shanon and I did look good in plastic bags.

Up the coast we go...we will try to be more diligent about the blog, in this our final month overseas. We fly back to Bangkok on the 3rd of June, and then should be stateside on the 14th, and in SLC on June 15th. Yikes!
A few minutes of r&r between thunder storms.

Loving Vietnam

2008-05-04T07:13:00.023-06:00

Here we are, alive and well, hangin with the commies in Viet Nam. We sucessfully crossed the boarder into our last planned country on our original agenda.

We came from Cambodia to the border via the Mekong river by slow boat, which was really great. Life on the mekong is slow and muddy. Some of the people live in floating houses right on the river. Very interesting.

We spent our first night in a city called Chau Doc which really didn't have much to it, but was nice to see the daily goings on in the river city. We took off the next day via bus (which was broken down for an hour or so) and boat to the island of Phu Quoc which was absolutely amazing. It was quiet and although there were enough bungalows and resteraunts to eat at, there wasn't hoards of tourists outnumbering the locals. Most of the tourists that were there we from Vietnam anyway. There also was a nice lack of anyone trying to sell you trinkets and junk on the beach. Our bungalow right on the white sand beach looking out over the amazing waters was really, really cheap. It seemed to be what Thailand was (so we hear), 20 years ago before the influx of foreigners. Very nice. We stayed for 4 nights and if Jared would have let me, I think I would have stayed for much, much longer. We lazed the days away in our hammocks and watched the local fishermen working their nets from our porch. It seemed like this place was changing fast with major construction sites throwing up resorts all over. It may just be another gigantic upscale resort island in a couple of years, so we were glad to see it before it changes too much.

Against my pleadings, we left the island and headed for the city of Can Tho which was located right in the heart of the Mekong Delta. We really liked this place and spent a wonderful morning on the river with our wonderful tiny boat guide.

He took us to the biggest floating market in the Delta and we watched the local people go about their grocery shopping, fruit haggling, and meat cooking rituals. We also visited a rice paper factory, snake farm and land market while on our boat tour. The land market was absolutely insane, seriously there were snakes, fish, crabs, frogs and all other random things jumping out of buckets and flopping around our feet. We got some great fruits there including my new favorite fruit-the incredibly sweet and juicy mangosteen.

We also got to participate in the April 30th celebrations- which is for the victory of N. Vietnam over S. Vietnam-pretty much the end of the American (Vietnam) war. So fun, full of random street snacks, motorcycle chaos, and yes a stage with what I assume is Vietnams finest performers. White suite wearing, dance move throwing, high voiced singing stage hounds. Awesome!

We are now in Saigon, which has been full of strange emotions. The city is full of wartime sites and museums. We have been to a few which were heart renching and hard to see. This country seems to have been in war for decades on end and it is amazing that the people have thrived through it all. The museum for the American war (aka Vietnam war) was so sad (the agent orange section was near unbearable) and a bit anti-american but very interesting to see it through the Vietnamese eyes.

Vietnam has been really great so far and has intrigued us in many ways. First of all is the food-I am begining to understand that these people happily eat anything that walks, crawls, swims, hops, slithers, flies or anyother creature that well...lives. We haven't loved the food, but its interesting none the less. Secondly-yes, the locals all wear those conical straw hats... everywhere, and the women all wear some sort of matching brightly patterned pajama suit. Not quite sure what thats about, but they look comfortable. One more thing, they all drive motorcycles, hardly any cars. In a city of 6.5 million people and no traffic laws this makes for interesting walks (yes, they even drive on the sidewalks) and wonderful afternoon moto watching breaks. Priceless. I am sure this country will continue to intrigue us as the weeks roll on.

Whirlwind Cambodia--AKA the Nutshell

2008-04-23T22:50:00.016-06:00

Last time we checked in we were finishing some great, hot days in the southern end of Laos. We've come a long ways since then, and without really thinking about time--only about how to stay cool--we are now ending our stay in Cambodia. Here's a recap of the past few weeks. With as many photos as I could tolerate uploading on these incredibly slow machines.

Like always, border crossings can be interesting experiences, and heading into Cambodia from Laos was no exception. Delays, sizzling hot bus journeys, and a slew of people trying to get our dollars. All in a days work. Our first stop, the trash laden town of Kratie, was primarily for one reason and one reason only. To see the mysterious and near-endangered Irawaddy Dolphin of the Mekong River. After two boiling days and several attempted scams by our guesthouse, we did manage to see the strange mammals--from a distance. In fact, I don't even have a picture worth showing. Hindsight reveals that we could have done without this stop, which was something like a waste of money and and another long, expensive bus journey. (Seems to be the norm in this country.) Live and learn.

Our next destination was the grand prize of any trip to Cambodia, and what I do believe is the last large monumental site (i.e. Macchu Picchu, Taj Mahal) we will see on this trip. The city is Siem Reap and the place is the amazing Angkor Wat. Did I sat amazing? Yeah, I meant really amazing. Some of the structures here date back as far as 800BC, and they were built with incredible precision and have truly withstood the tests of time. Unreal to see, and near impossible to imagine how these cities, temples and complexes were constructed so long ago.

Beacause Siem Reap and the surrounding area was indeed just a few degrees cooler than hell itself, we started our tour days in the back of a tuk-tuk at about 5:30 am. By 9:00 we had each departed with about gallon of sweat, and by Noon we would try and be back in the city and in a cool place before complete meltdown. The bonus of getting up so early, besides beating the sun for a few hours, is that sunrise is a really wonderful time to be at the sites. Also, being up so early ensured we would beat at least some of the tourist buses that transport--what in numbers could have been-- small armies or Thai, Chinese and Japanese tourists.

With the heat, two days of sight seeing was enough. Siem Reap was a nice enough town (with excellent burritos Shanon would like to add), but Angkor is the attraction and there's not much else to see or do, so we hopped another bus and headed onward to the tumultuous capital of Phnom Penh.

The history of this country, and this city are start reminders of the dark past the country has experienced over the last 50 years. Although modern in places, the city itself is still regarded as a frontier town choke full of drugs, guns and prostituion (or so they say). It is also home to the notorious 'Killing Fields' and the S-21 prison camp (former high school) where Cambodia experienced genocide in the late 1970's. A humbling experience to witness the wicked ways of men. Rich and poor, old and new--that would be a good summary of the city itself.

And with that, we're off to Vietnam. Starting in the south and working our way north, this is the last country we had scheduled in our original itinerary so be sure and stay tuned. We're also busy scheming several different ways to end the trip itself....possibly wrapping it all up with something a little closer to home. When we know, you'll know.

Camera Update: Our camera does in fact have a virus and we are trying to fix it, but with minimal success so far. Hence fewer pictures than usual. So sorry, I know you'd rather look at photo than read my ramblings.

Go To Laos!

2008-04-12T06:33:00.022-06:00

Wow, Laos... That is all we can say. We are loving this country and its very happy, friendly, peaceful people. This country moves slow, it's calm and beautiful and full of fun outdoor stuff!

We spent a few days in the city capital and even that place is calm. You feel like you are in a small village but it is the capital, large and full of people (well relatively large and full, this country only has about 6 million people in it and most live in rural, poor places). Man, it is so hot! We splurged (a whopping $10) and got a room with airconditioning and a tv since it is too hot to move. We did manage to make it out to Xieng Khuan, a park full of Buddha stone carvings and sculptures, which was really cool (in a hot sort of way) and we watched a local soccer game afterward with a popcicle in hand (a new addiction of mine, sooo cold and delicious).

After we left the city, we started making our way south on the public bus (oh, fun) with a 2 day stop over in a small town called Na Hin. We were dropped off the bus at the road junction and could only get to Na Hin by waiting for an hour and then cramming in a sawngthaew (large tuk tuk with two rows of seats) with the local village. Yes, I think the whole village was in the truck and Jared counted 25 of us at one time on the ride. With nothing much except for a gigantic cave with an underground river through it (yes this country is full of caves) we didn't stay in the town for too long, except to go to the local New Years party which our hotel host invited us to. New years isn't officially until the 13th, but I think the Laos people start celebrating 2 weeks in advance. It was really interesting, to say the least, and I was offered a many weird and frightening foods, most of which I got down just ok. We rented a motorbike and wound our way through the stunning scenerey and remote, almost archaic villages to the caves entrance. Once at the cave we had to take a motorized fishing boat through which took about 1 hour to make it to the other side of the mountain, about a 7 km one-way journey. Very cool.

We left that mountain town and hopped on another random local bus to make it to Savannaket for one night (nothing to tell except for the wonderful soup dinner on the sidewalk by the mekong with the Laos) and then another really hot bus day to Pakse which is a crossroads town in the south where we have been based for the last few days. There are definately some crazy street foods going on here like dried crickets on sticks, marinated spiders and baby duck eggs. Gross! We rented another motorbike and went onto the Bolaven Plateau for a night which was a little cooler and full of beautiful waterfalls. I had a little misshap with the rocks and ended up with a slight sprained ankle (which seems to be my injury of choice) but don't worry, it's getting better as the days go on. Today we saw an old, old temple called Wat Phu, which was built back between the 7-12th centuries. The ruins were amazing, I think just a little taste for what lays ahead in Agkor, Cambodia.

We spent the last 3 days in Laos on an island in the Mekong river called Don Khon. It was probably the most laid back place I have ever been. There was no phones or internet and we only got power for a few hours in the evening which made the nights very hot! It was a great mix of few tourists, a few good resteraunts and wonderful daily Laos. The main activity for the days were reading in the hammocks or riding cruiser bikes around the island. Not much else. We met so many great locals and it was right in the middle of Laos New Year so there were many water soakings, dancing moments and good cheer. New year is also called the 'water festival' which I think is a better name. No one is safe, and the streets turn to mud after all of the water fights. So fun, this country is the best!

Caves n' Rivers

2008-04-04T04:35:00.012-06:00

We had mixed feelings about visiting the backpacker haven of Vang Vieng. Our guide book warned us of sub-standard eateries who loop old re-runs of the TV show 'Friends' (a sad, sad truth as we found out) and wild parties that thumped loud music until dawn. On the other hand, the scenery was described as amazing and the activities endless. How could we resist.

Although the town itself was a bit of a stretch in its efforts to entertain the young backpacker crowd, we did manage to find one excellent organic food restaurant, and the surrounding landscape was impressive.

The limestone formations that shoot into the sky are filled with massive caves--some of which go into the mountains for miles. There are really too many to see, but we rented a motor-bike and had some cavern fun. All over this country are caves that government and military leaders lived in while in exile during the Second IndoChina War (aka Vietnam War). There's a lot of really interesting history in this country that we had no idea existed--I'll save the lessons of yesteryear for another time. The point is that there are lots of caves and we went to some of them.

Beside walking through several huge grottos, we also took a strange tube ride into a cavern that is still being shaped by an underground river. There were fixed ropes through the first 300 feet, making it possible to pull yourself into pitch dark. Luckily the same guy who rents the tubes also rents a massive battery pack that powers a headlamp...live wires and battery acid while floating in a river in a dark cave--nice, but a bit creepy.

In the interest of floating in daylight, we also rented a tube for an afternoon and floated down the Nam Song. It's a pretty raucous ride in some areas as the locals have learned that it's a profitable business to sell booze to the mobs young 'falangs'. Again, the scenery along the ride was amazing, but the party was a bit over the top for the likes of us. Unlike many others that day, I'm the sober guy who's upside down in the shot below, trying to pull off a back-flip from one of the many (large) rope swings that lined the shore. Good, clean fun.Our stay in Vang Vieng was better than we anticipated, and we decided we liked the river so much that we booked a drive/kayak trip to get to the capital city of Vientiane. It was a small group, and the river pretty mellow, but there was one small set of rapids that got the better of us--of course no photos to prove it since we were upside down in the water. In the end we conquered the white-water and made it to the country's very laid-back capital.

Since the history of Vientiane is relatively new there's not a lot to do/see here, but it doesn't feel like other capital cities. The mellow vibe here is packed with good restaurants, swanky hotels and plenty of foreign financing. Locals and foreigners who know the country will tell you this place is growing up fast, so we're luck to see it now. Those looking into foreign investment might want to take a look--but you didn't hear that from me. Onward!

The Slow Boat and Luang Prabang

2008-03-28T01:54:00.016-06:00

So hot....I'm not sure how hot it is today, but it hurts to be outside. Even the locals are complaining a bit (and even breaking a sweat). Welcome to Laos--(don't pronounce the 's').

We hopped the Thai/Laos border about 5 days ago, which runs neatly down the middle of the Mekong River, and booked a two-day 'slow boat' journey. The flurry of the border crossing put us on a boat crossing to Laos, through customs, on a tuk-tuk ride, and back on the slow boat all in a matter of an hour. Pure chaos. But like most borders we've crossed, it somehow seems to work out...for better or for worse.

Although we were not in the most comfortable river-faring vessel, our trip down this main artery of Asian life was a pretty relaxing and entertaining experience. For a few days we got to see (albeit it from a distance) how the people of this country utilize the murky waters of this massive river for sustainment and entertainment. Naked little boys entertained the 'falangs' with crazy river antics, old men used massive fishing nets from the rock banks or from make-shift boats, and women sifted large pans on the sandy shores (maybe panning for gold). In the end we had pretty sore butts, but the experience had been great.Our end destination was the temple studded city of Luang Prabang. Like many cities in this country it is situated right on the bank of the Mekong, but instead of the rural life we had witnessed the previous two days while on the water, this place is a tourism magnet with plenty to do and see. After being witness to hundreds of Wats over the course of the past few months, we resisted our temptation to not visit any more temples, and we hit the muggy streets. After all, Buddha and the colorful monks who worship him make for great photo-ops.

To beat the heat we also spent an afternoon in the cool waters of a large waterfall near the city--a nice reprieve from the sweltering sun and crippling humidity.

We also ran into our friends Alan and Becky who we had spent time with in Nepal. As always, it was nice to see some familiar faces. Being the brave souls that we are, Alan and I hit the night bazaar and each got a small sample of the insect/reptile stuffed bottles of Lao Lao--the local rice based elixir. (In case the image is hard to see, one bottle is stuffed with a small Cobra and the other with a giant Scorpion.) Through our bravery, I must confess that neither concoction was the least bit tasty--in fact they were horrible, and in the morning I had a hard time keeping my balance. The point is that we are brave. Even Shanon had a small taste of the scorpion--and managed to hold it down. We all vowed, 'never again!'

This is a great country so far, full of lovely people and beautiful scenery. Since we have a lot to do we will head south tomorrow, taking a few days to relax and float the river before arriving in the capital city.

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Note on the Camera: For now our pictures seem to be back (not sure what's going on with the virus), but the internet here is painfully slow. As a result, the photo count on the blog may be kept to a minimum for a while.

Note on the Blog: For our dedicated readers....when you look at the comments, if you ever do, there seems to be several notes from various strangers who provide a link and say something like, "Click Here." Don't ever do it. I do believe it's something bad (i.e. virus).

Beating the Heat, Thai Style

2008-03-22T04:03:00.022-06:00

We said farewell to the beautiful but way too expensive south and headed back up to Bangkok. Bangkok with its longtail boats, ancient wats and major modern mega malls kept us busy and entertained for the 2 days we were there. We found that the air conditioned cinemas were a much needed break from scorching midday heat. We managed to wander through the chaotic and lively china town and stopped in at the weekend outdoor market which is a gigantic maze full of junk, any kind of junk you never knew you needed; but the people watching is priceless if you can manage the heat in the over packed stalls. We also got a chance to meet up with my uncle Randy who frequents this tropical paradise from his own tropical paradise in Hawaii. He treated us to a couple of great dinners and it was fun to do things in style for a couple of days.

As we tend to get stuck in big cities we decided to high-tail it out of there and head for the northern city of Chang Mai. Our first day here, we rented cruiser bikes and wandered through the crazy streets in search of a tribal museum. Our bike day turned out to be a bit rainy, but we did stumble upon the museum after much aimless wandering through streets, puddles and parks.

The next day, we rented a scooter and headed up to Doi Suthep which is a famous wat and surrounding national park. The wat was beautiful and full of Thais, foreigners and monks alike. It supposedly has a great view of the city, but due to the haze in the air which is common this time of year, we didn't get to see it. We continued past the wat and visited a few tribal villages that are located in the national park. It was a long day on the scooter, and despite very sore buns, we had so much fun that we kept the scooter and visited another national park, Doi Inthanon, for 2 more nights. Doi Inthanon claims the highest point in Thailand, a whopping 2,500 meters. Relatively not too high, but the cooler air was very welcome. We saw many great waterfalls and stayed in a little hill tribe village right in the park. Our bungalow was old and made of bamboo, but it had a great lounging spot right out in front where we had campfires under the full moon. It seemed that we had the whole park to ourselves, luckily the high season is winding down. The lush green forest hosted many creepy crawlies including one "choncho", the spider who lived under the ply board steps in our bungalows bathroom and would come out at night to scare the living **** out of me when I would wake up to do business. This thing was gigantic, a monster. Think tarantulas, lurking in the corner with its beady eyes, watching you when your half asleep...not so cool. Luckily I got a little sleep in our bungalow since it had a spider proof net (a.k.a mosquito net), although I think Chancho could've eaten his way through if he was hungry enough. We are now back in Chang Mai and are heading toward the Laos boarder tomorrow for what may be 2-3 days of transit before we settle down in Luang Prabang.

Slow Going in Thailand

2008-03-12T04:38:00.012-06:00

So after months and months of what locals in many countries called, "unusually cold/wet weather", we are working hard to adjust to the stifiling heat of SE Asia. Lucky for us our current locale makes it easy to keep cool as we have been sure to keep the ocean no further than a stones' throw away. Here in the 'Land of Smiles', the sweat flows non-stop, the 'farangs' (or tourists), bake themselves into different hues of pink and red, and Shanon and Jared seem to come to a screeching halt as the combination of these things has made it difficult to function in an effecient manner. A small price to pay for paradise.

Our quick tour of S.Thailand has been a condensed version of our trip from 2004, although this time the prices are inflated and the US dollar is down--bad for a couple of penny-pinchers who know the end is on the horizon and have to make the most of every cent, or bhat, or yen, or whatever. Either that or we need to start looking into work visas so we can extend indefinately...

Hard to imagine all the destruction that occured here from the Tsunami in 2004--unlike it's much smaller and more volatile counterpart of Sri Lanka who was visibly scarred, Thailand really doesn't show the physical effects of the disaster beyond a few memorials and plenty of Tsunami evacuation signs. The island we're on right now, Koh Phi Phi (pronounced pee-pee...you immature kids can go ahead and laugh at the name), was ravaged by the waves, but being here now you would never know anything happened--and it's still as beautiful as it was the last time we saw it.

Lucky for us we got to enjoy some of the beauty with some fellow SLC-ers (Candace and Cody). Shanon worked with Candace at Huntsman before we quit the rat race, so it was nice to spend some time with friends from home.

Now we know that the past few updates haven't been very exciting, so we think it's time to get back on the road before the tropical heat either melts our will to move on, or the monsoon rains begin and ruin our future plans for Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. Within the next week or so we'll likely cross the border into Cambodia to start checking out Wats (temples), relaxing on more beaches, exploring steamy jungles and dodging landmines left behind from the Vietnam War. Hopefully we won't be bringing home any shrapnel as souvenirs.

Burned Noses and Mango Shakes

2008-03-05T20:25:00.009-07:00

So gone are the days of layering everything in our tiny bags to try to stay warm...it's hot here, really hot and we are finally having the weather that we packed for 6 months ago.

Thailand is, as always, paradise and we wish all of you were here with us. We arrived in Bangkok 4 days ago and bummed around the city for a couple of those days. It was nice to be in a modern city for a change, it has been awhile. Then, when the city became too hot to stay, we took an overnight bus south toward the ocean. The bus was heaven compared to the ones in India and Nepal as everyone had a seat and they weren't blasting Hindi music in our ears for the duration of the ride. The bus and a short boat ride later got us to the beaches on the quiet island of Koh Lanta in the south. Here we have been lazing about ever since and eating the most amazing fresh fruit (you miss this kind of stuff). It's so beautiful here and the beaches are absolutely amazing. Our bungalows aren't quite as fancy as they were 4 years ago, but the budget is definately coming to an end as is our time. However, even our smallish thatched hut room still feels like paradise. We opted for this island first as it is a little more laid back and quiet compared to some of the islands to the north.

Yesterday, we had scooter day, which is always a highlight when you have your own means of transportation. We toured all over this island and found private, remote beaches at every turn. There is not much else to report of other than a lot of general beach bumming. Oh, how we wish all of you were here with us. Candace is here, where are you Candace?!

Our plans are open now, actually we have no plans to speak of, but we do know that in the next 3 months we need to get to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam as well as northern Thailand. Wow, it's crazy how things to see, money to see it with and time to do it all in are wrapping up. We still have about 3 months, but we all know how fast that time can go...

Kathmandu and the Himalayan Disappearing Act

2008-02-28T20:35:00.022-07:00

As I think we mentioned before, Nepal has been a nice change of pace. Because of the size of the country we haven't had to do a whole lot of moving around, and with just two major tourist cities in the country, a fairly painless six hour bus ride connected us from Pokhara to Kathmandu.

Our arrival in the capital city came at the same time as a dense, bronze blanket of pollution that covered the valley and blocked the view of the enormous mountains that we knew were just on the horizon. All of our efforts to get around or above the haze were in vain, so we have had to settle for postcard images of the mighty Himalaya that tower over Kathmandu. Lame. I guess it just gives us a reason to come back here some day so that we can say we've seen the highest mountain in the world (which we should have been able to see from a lookout yesterday--instead we got the view below with the sun about right where we should have been able to see Everest in the distance). Locals as well as other travelers have reminded us to be happy for the few weeks of perfect weather we had while we were in Pokhara and on our trek...so, I guess we won't complain too much. But it's hard being us, ya know?

Actually, what's been really hard is getting around the Kathmandu valley to see some of the cultural gems. Since our arrival there have been protests in the southern part of the country, and for a few weeks gasoline tankers have been backed up at the Indian border not allowed to cross. The massive shortage in fuel has created lines to the gas pumps that carry on for miles and clog the narrow roads. Not only has that made it difficult and time consuming to travel even short distances, but it's also made it more expensive for a taxi or bus ride. Like always though, we have no choice but to find ways to get around such challenges and we've been able to get see some great historical sights (minus the Himalayas looming in the background).

The traveler slum of Kathmandu is called Thamel, and like Pokhara, the streets are lined with mountain gear and souvenir shops, western bakeries and hawkers selling Tiger Balm. Not far outside this very western part of the city is another world full of massive Buddist stupas, Hindu temples and midevial looking architecture. The old cities are just that, really old, the stupas are massive, the Hindu temples full of phalic symbolism, the taxi drivers relentless and the food nice and western, with the occasional bean burrito for Shanon.

Tibetean Buddhist influence in Nepal gives it a very different feel from India, and the Buddhist sites we visited were spiritual places alive with energy from the continuous chant, "Om Mani Padmi Om", colorful prayer flags and beads, and a positive energy radiated by people all walking clockwise around the worlds largest stupa spinning prayer wheels. Although we're not ready to exchange our street clothes for Buddhist robes, it was interesting to see these Tibetean exiles perform their spiritual rituals.

The days seem to be falling off the calendar now, and tomorrow we fly to Bangkok--a little sooner than expected, but we think we might be rushing the next three months to beat the relentless SE Asia monsoon rains. Overall, Nepal has been a great experience and it marks the end of country number eight on our voyage. Look for the cold weather clothes to be gone next time there is a blog update...it's officially time to sweat.

Last but not least, one thing that really helped while in Kathmandu (and Nepal in general) was the power of numbers. Since our arrival to the country we have been on the move with a great couple from England, and not only does doing things in a pack of four greatly increase our bartering power, but they were genuinely great people to spend time with. They're off to India again for a week (suckers!), but we hope to catch up with them again some day soon in SE Asia.

Thanks for the good times Becky and Alan!

9 Days of Himalayan Fun

2008-02-18T00:30:00.022-07:00

Let it be confirmed that the Himalayas are really big (Annapurna South on the left). After nearly a week of lazy lounging in the laid back city of Pokhara, we rented a backpack, a couple of sleeping bags, and started out on one of the most famous treks in Nepal, called the Jomsom Trail (or appropriately dubbed the 'Apple Pie Trail' because of the number of westerner trekkers--and the apple orchards).

The original plan was to take a 20 minute flight to the top of the trek, and then make the 9 day journey back down to Pokhara. As it turns out, we spent yet another morning waiting in a small airport for a flight that would never leave--seems to happen a lot here because of the wind in Jomsom. It was slightly reminiscent of our experience in Bolivia so many months ago.

Anyway, we decided to start from the bottom of the trail and hope that we would actually reach the end destination, then be able to fly back....more on that later.

A two hour bus ride took us to our trailhead where we started. To our surprise we were feeling rather good for how out of shape we've become after not getting much exercise since S. Africa. Then the steps began--and they didn't stop for about 3.5 hours. At some point in time the Nepali people decided that the quickest way to travel from point A to point B was a straight line--no matter what was in the way of that line. Not only do the local people of the foothill villages cover ground quickly (up hundreds of thousads of meters at a time), they do it with massive loads of goods and sometimes they're wearing flip-flops. Even the porters who are over 70 years old move at a pace that put us to shame. Really amazing to witness.

The views on the trek are all of the Annapurna Range, and while making the ascent there are soaring peaks of varying heights, some of them up to 15,000 feet or more. Then after hiking for a while and we were on higher ground the REALLY big mountains come into view. In this range of the Himalaya there are several peaks over 8,000 meters (25,000 ft.+).

Along our route we stayed in guest houses that line the trail (which is sadly being converted into a road), some of which were pretty nice. Most days we stared hiking about 8:30 and would finish mid-afternoon in one of the villages that dot the trail--in fact, you can hardly walk 10 minutes without encountering people working their crop terraces, collecting cow dung to use as a fuel source, washing clothes or lazing about in the afternoon sun.
Near Jomsom I came down with something, still not sure what, and had a long night of night terrors and feverish ramblings while poor Shanon devised evacuation plans in her head and tried to figure out how she was going to get me to a good hospital in Bangkok. I survived the night, thankfully, and we made it Jomsom and scheduled our flight back to Pokhara for the next day. As fate would have it no planes were leaving again because of wind, and so instead of hoping for good luck the next day we decided to retrace or steps--some of them by jeep, and get back down the long way. In other words, our 20 minute flight back to Pokhara turned into 2 more days of trekking/transit.

Overall....
The Views: Woweee.

The Villages: About every 10 minutes or so--but fascinating to see how people live up here.

The Food: Decent, but after four days we decided that they might be recycling grease up there, and everything started tasting the same.

The Smells: Ahhhh....Fresh Himalayan air, lots of body odor, and plenty o' mule stench.

The Trekkers: Slightly sore, but happy (and healthy).

In the end...success. The struggles always prove to be some of the best stories when you look back on an adventure, and this trek definitely had a few struggles. But what a beautiful region and what friendly people. Since it's winter here there weren't alot of trekkers, so we were often the only two people in the guesthouses we'd end up in, but one friendly local told us that in October his small village sees more than 250 foreigners roll through in a single day. We love the off-season.

We're now safe and sound back in Pokhara, and planning our next move. Nepal is a small country, so it's been a nice change from having to take 10 hour bus/train rides to get to our next destination. Next up will likely be the noisy capital of Katmandu.

The trekkers cheating a bit and catching a ride on top of a local Himalayan taxi.

N-E-P-A-L, Viva Nepal

2008-02-05T08:13:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah! We sucessfully crossed the boarder (easiest boarder crossing so far) into Nepal after 2 horrific and caustrophobic days of bus rides. I feel much better and we are loving Nepal.

First though, our last stop in India.

Varanasi is a holy city for hindu people as it is the site of the holy Ganges river and religious ghats (stairs/platforms to the river) line the bank. Many Indian people make a pilgramage to this city each year to bathe in the river, it is believed to wash one of all their sins and help them achieve Nirvana. The old city lies right along the river and there is a walkway along all of the ghats. There are hundreds if temples in this city as well.

Each ghat is special for its own religious reason and some date back thousands of years. As you walk along the ghats and river you can see many people bathing, making religious offerings or priests performing religious rites. I tell you the people watching is at its best here.

One especially bizaar ghat was Manikarnika where cremations are performed all day, every day. A worker told us that there are about 350 cremations done each day. As a foreigner, this is really a bizaar sight and strange to be standing there watching these proceedings. For Indians, this is the place to come and die. The most holy place and people come from all over India to spend their last days.

Another ghat has nightly Hindu ceremonies where people buy floating candels and orange marigolds to float down the river and the priests perform some religious songs/actions. The river lights up as hundreds of these candles float buy.

The river itself is said (by western scientists) to be dead, or septic; so polluted and dirty that it is shocking that people (by the hundreds) are bathing in it and drinking it. But the Hindus believe that it is holy and will cure ills, clean them physically, spiritually and emotionally. You can watch the bathers lined along the ghats and flintch as they wash their babies, rinse their mouth and swim across the water. They say that you may also see an occasional dead cow (or body) floating down the water, but luckily we didn't get to see this. People on land will be going the bathroom (not just #1) a few feet from the shore and raw sewage is another big pollution in the river. With my western conception of sanitation, it was hard to watch and we often had to cover our mouths and look away. It's hard not to pass judgement, this is their beliefs and way of living, and they have been making pilgramages here for thousands of years.

After a few mind-blowing days in Varanasai, we finally said farewell to India (good riddance) and headed into Nepal. It took two full days of train rides and horrifying bus rides to get to Pokara, Nepal where we dropped our things and stayed for 4 days. We are so happy to have some fresh air and mountain stuff to do (the trekking, rafting, hiking, yoga, climbing...possibilities are endless). We were feeling quite a bit out of sorts in India where there isn't much activity other than fighting off rickshaw drivers, eating, and coughing. We met a great couple from England on our last train in India and crossed the boarder together. They also had mixed feelings about India and we had many a great moments rehashing our crazy stories together. We really did see some great things, and man the stories to tell.... but it was a test of severe patience every day, and we are happy to be in the slower, friendlier, not so pushy northern neighbor now. Ahhhh (you can see my happiness in one of these pictures).

We have already done a couple of wonderful day hikes; one to a tibetan world peace pagoda which looks out over all of Pokara and the lake. We were escorted by some very good guides who kept us safe and entertained the whole way up.

Another hike was bright and early to a viewpoint at sunrise to watch the amazing, towering, close Annapurna range change from blue to pink to white, beautiful.

We are scheduled to fly to Jomosom tomorrow to start a 10 day trek among small Nepali villages and massive Himalayan peaks. So excited, but it is going to be freezing again. We will be out of internet range for the trek so we will update this blog when we get back to Pokara (not sure how long we will take maybe a little more than a week).

Many Places, One Short Post

2008-01-31T06:44:00.000-07:00

It's hard to feel the love when one is under the weather in a place like India. Just ask Shanon. She's gone from stomach sickness to a pneumonia like cough in a matter of a few days. I'm sure that an abundance of spicy food and the fine Indian air quality was a contributing force. Nonetheless, she perservered and is on the mend.

We spent a few lung burning days in a place called Pushkar (see right)...actually a small mountain'ish' holy town full of temples, rolling hills and a vibrant bizarre. Poor Shanon spent a lot of time in our ice-box hotel room coughing her lights out with a fever, while I ventured to a nearby hilltop temple like a good husband should while his wife is sick. Along the way I met 10-12 loud and very vocal Indian guys who became my best friends along the way. At the top they joked in Hindi (probably making fun of me), drank all my water, practiced their English and then disappeared down the mountain.

Our last stop in Rajasthan was a small city called Bundi. There was not much to do in the town itself, but our hotel sat right at the base of a massive, monkey invaded fort. Feeling better now, Shanon was able to venture out this time and we got a chance to explore some of the ruins. Since this place is off the beaten path a bit the ruins of the palace and fort were mostly open for self-exploration--a refreshing change. We were sure to carry sticks to keep the primates away. "A teardrop on the face of eternity" is how an Indian poet once described the Taj Mahal. Like Macchu Picchu, this place is almost too hard to describe in words, and photos can't really give one an idea of what it is like to see it first-hand. People see pictures of this place all their lives, but when seeing it in person you have no choice but to throw out any preconceived notions you may have had. This place is truly spectacular, and it's no wonder why it is the crown-jewel of India's tourist attractions. We got up at 6:00am and joined the masses at the gate so that we could be there for the sunrise, and although the heavy pollution made the colors less dramatic, just being in the presence of the grand mouseleum was really a special experience. By the way, notice that our attire has reverted back to what it was during the cold days in South America? Yeah, we've been cold in India, and we're heading into Nepal in a few days. Looks like we may be investing in some new Gore-Tex sometime very soon.

Update to my Food Update

2008-01-24T22:45:00.000-07:00

So immediately after I wrote my food update, I proceeded to get sick for the whole following week and therefore haven't touched the stuff since then. Unfortunately, now I am a little wary of the flavors and even resorted to a meal and the golden arches which I haven't patroned since I was in 6th grade. Interesting that their menu had no hamburgers only chicken and veggie burgers (and paneer masala). The good news is that I am on the mend and have had a few meals of Tikki Masala and Naan since then. We'll see how we do in the state of Utter Pradesh where apparently everyone gets sick. Bah.

My birthday was spent on a train full of dust and hard seats so that we could get to Bikaner for the Camel Festival. The night ended good though and we had a nice dinner in a city palace with live music and traditional dancing in the background. Wow, I am old.

I know that Jared wrote a bit on the camel festival, but seriously it was about the coolest thing I have seen in a while. We sat all day laughing at the events that we witnessed. Seriously, camel dancing? Who knew. Also, the rat temple was a sight. I can't think of any other country that has a temple dedicated to the worshiping of holy rats. They run free there, all over. We had to jump around so that they wouldn't scurry acrossed our feet. How bizaar. I don't think animals have it so good and free in any other country. All animals except the dogs, which are everywhere here and are treated like street rats. So sad, I wish I could bring them all home with me. Here are a few more photos of the camel safari, camel festival, rat temple and others. I guess pictures are worth a thousand words, right?

Time is flying by, we are already 5 months into this. Weird. We also ran into a couple from Texas that we had met 2 months ago in South Africa. Small, strange, exciting world.

So Much to Say, Such Bad Internet Connections

2008-01-24T06:46:00.000-07:00

So there are a lot of ups and downs that come with being in India...reliable internet connections being one of the downs. As a result, there is a lot to catch up on since our last update--here's the abridged version. Coincidentally, we have spent most of our time here in one Indian state (which I think I mentioned in an earlier post) called Rahjistan--home of grand cenotaphs, or monuments, built for the Maharajas (kings), towering palaces, massive forts and all the rest of the insanity that comes with the life in India.

The beauty of most Indian cities in Rajhistan is the rooftop restaurant--a brilliant way to get above the day-to-day chaos of the streets. It's a welcome relief after battling our way through the masses, beating away the touts, and playing intense games of "Frogger" trying to get across the streets.

Most cities here seem to be associated with a color. Jodhpur is the 'Blue City', named after the many blue houses (a religious indication and apparently a good color to keep away misquitos)inside the old city walls. Standing like a monolith in the center of the city is a massive sandstone escarpment, holding up one of the most grand palaces in the state. Most of the fort and palace are open to tourists, and we threw away our tacky tourist inhibitions for what turned out to be a really good audio tour which described all the main attractions. Quite nice.

Somehow we were convinced by the guy at our hotel in Jodhpur that we should take the bus to our next destination. I'm not sure how he convinced us, but he did, and luckily it was a better ride than our previous trip. Trains are definately the way the travel here. Our next stop was in a place called Jaisalmer--know as the 'Golden City', because most of the buildings here are made of golden sandstone. This palace (almost every city has one) is occupied by 25% of the cities 90,000 residents. Sadly, the walls are starting to sink into the earth as a result of poor sewage and water drainage systems. It was interesting to wander around the interior of the fort though, with its maze-like narrow streets. We even had dinner on top of the west wall where we watched the sun drop along the Indian-Pakistani border which was about 45 miles away. Strange to think we were so close to such a volitile part of the world.
The landscape in Jaisalmer was a lot like home, and the main draw to the city are the extensive camel safaris that run into the Great Thar Desert. Being that we're already desert rats, thanks to Southern Utah, we decided to skip the long stints under the stars and just do a half day--which consisted mostly of jeep rides and then ending with a few hours on camels with a couple of older Rahjistani guides. Such weird animals (the camels, not the guides), and yet another zoo-like novelty to westerners. In this part of the world the camel is just another beast of burden, and they are a regular part of everyday traffic here.

Speaking of camels, we enjoyed them so much that we jumped on a train and went to a dirty, relatively untouristed city called Bikaner, for the annual Camel Festival. Yeah, that's right, a camel festival. What we witnessed there was a pure camel extravaganza full of events we couldn't have even dreamed up--good fun like camel dancing, camel acrobatics, camel milking competition, camel haircutting, and on and on....the locals even join in and the Rahjistan men compete in the Mr. Bikaner competition, full of colorful turbans, whispy beards and long spears. Wow is all that can really be said. Wow. It was so much that we were on camel overload (and a bit burned out on the city itself) and only opted for one day of the three day long festival. It was hands down the best camel show we have ever been to. We highly recommend.

The only real attraction in Bikaner besides the annual festival is the strange and somewhat revolting 'Rat Temple'. I'm not really sure what to say about this place. In fact, we never got an explanation as to why it really exists. Just look at these few photos, and know that this is no side-show, but a place where people come to worship. Only in India.

At the moment we are spending our last day in the state's capital city of Jaipur, or the 'Pink City' which has a somewhat dainty population for an Indian capital with only 2.5 million residents. The scene here is chaotic, but the shopping was pretty good and we visited a nice temple inhabitated mostly by monkeys--not quite as revolting as the rats.

A great way to knock out many attractions in a few hours is to hire a rickshaw for the day. After bargaining hard to get what may, or may not be a fair price, the drivers will cart you all over the place in a horn-honking, exhaust-sucking frenzy. While we're busy looking at the sights the driver will sit outside and wait. It's a pretty good system--especially when Shanon bargains hard and gets us three or four hours of sightseeing for around $5.

So much to say, so little time. I wish we could tell you more stories and show you more pictures. Every moment is an adventure here. More photos soon to come....

Food Update

2008-01-15T05:32:00.000-07:00

I am in food Nirvana. I know, that is crazy for Shanon to say, especially since I am in a 3rd world country, but it is very, very incredible and tasty. About 80% of the restaurants serve 100% vegetarian food (heaven!) thanks to the vast majority of the population being Hindu. Think of the Bombay House but better (and much cheaper) every day! Yesterday, for lunch we had an all yo can eat "Thalis" meal that they kept slopping different curries on our silver platter for 4 dollars total (including cokes). We ate so much that we skipped dinner and breakfast the next day. We have been eating this stuff for breakfast, lunch and dinner and have not yet gotten sick of it. Delicious, delicious, and the best part is that you eat with your hands. We rarely get silverware and if we do, it is just a spoon. Its messy and goopey and great! We finally learned after several uncomfortable meals that you are only to use your right hand to eat since the left hand is reserved for bathroom duties. I got a gagging, choking face from a young boy after he saw me tearing my bread with both hands. Very funny! But, we like the food so much here that we ended up taking a cooking class to learn how to make it at home. We will definately have to have a dinner party when we get home.

Aside from the food, we have seen some really interesting things. Udiapur was great and relatively calm. We enjoyed our 3 days there as we wandered the streets checking out the many temples that would pop up and ranged from ancient to just really, really, old. We also checked out Ahar, which is a large area of centopaths or monuments of the old Maharajas of the area. It was an area larger than a football field full of domes. We took a tour of the city palace which was great and we had a wonderful night watching some dancers of the region and a band playing some interesting traditional music. There was even a puppeteer as part of the show.

Mount Abu was ok, but the lake that the town surrounds was tiny (pond sized) and full of algae, garbage, sewage and swan shaped paddle boats. The best part of this town was the ancient Jain temples built in 1031-1230 AD which were all marble but so intricately carved it the whole temples looked like lace. The carvings were of their gods, elephants, buddhas, lotus flowers, etc. It was so amazing, but unfortunately cameras were not allowed so we weren't able to take a photo. The history here in India is so old and interesting. Apparently gypsies originated in the area that we are in, the palaces still have the gold plated elephant seats that the kings would ride in and the forts still encompase bustling cities that sell spices, silks and camels. Much more to see in the weeks to come, I am sure.

Arrrghh, My Senses-The Truth About India

2008-01-12T00:18:00.000-07:00

Where to even begin. The sights, smells, tastes and overall feel of India is unlike anything we have encountered, and it's easy to see why people either love or hate traveling in this country (and it's easy to have both feelings in the same day). So far, I think we are leaning toward the love side, but we'll have a final vote when all is said and done. Getting from point A to point B has been at best a nauseating challenge involving the most unsanitary of train stations, tight quarters in a sleeper train (usually with 3-5 Indians invading your personal space), choking pollution while riding in the tuk-tuks, and the death-defying speed and maneuvers of a city taxi. The latest was a 6 hour ride on a "luxury bus", which was more like a public bus spawned from the bowels of hell. To quote our India guide book, "buses are fume-belching, human-stuffed, mechanical rattletraps which travel at break-neckspeed."

After dealing with transportation woes there will be people who will try and take you places you don't want to go, harass you so that you'll buy things you don't want to buy (like this guy). Combine that with the in-your-face poverty, and throw in the occasional elephant or cow; add the ever changing smells that waft through the streets, including nice aromas like saphron, curry or burning incense. Then rip those nice aromas away in dramatic fashion and replace them with the stinging smells or raw sewage, garbage, and animals feces. Such is life on the streets in India. Doesn't it sound magical? Really, it is. Although there are definitely challenges in traveling here, India has amazing things to offer, and the things we have seen and heard so far have truly been worth the effort.

At the moment we are in the state of Rajhastan, and just left a city called Udaipur. For all you Bond fans out there, part of the film "Octopussy", was filmed in the surrounding palaces. The city itself was filled with budget hotels, rooftop restaurants, and overpriced jewelry and craft shops. The tourists come in droves--and with good reason. There is a lot to see here, and it's easy to understand why some stay longer than expected. From there we bused to a place called Mt. Abu, which was a strange stop. It was a little out of the way, and is to Indians as Park City probably is to residents of SLC (minus the snow, etc.). In other words, a nice weekend getaway spot. Interesting to be in a place where Indian people are on holiday...everyone there was a tourist, not just the (foreign) tourists. Although, we seem to be a spectacle wherever we go.

As of today we are in Jodhpur, and recovering from our bus ride I mentioned above. Happy to have arrived and breathing what may pass as fresh Indian air. We'll be here a few days at the foot of a massive sandstone fort, exploring the busy streets, and haggling with the locals before moving on to 'camel country' further North in the desert. There's so much to say about what we see here that I seem to be blabbing about nothing right now. Just enjoy the photos, and I'll try and collect my thoughts if we ever get a moment of peace.

The Streets are Madness

2008-01-10T03:54:00.000-07:00

Dogs and cats living together.... Mass Hysteria.

India is absolutely and completely chaotic and unlike anywhere we have ever been. Flying into Chennai from Sri Lanka for the night was an eye-opener, and the pollution was strangeling. We thought Sri Lanka was crazy, well it is a walk in a spring garden after this.

Chennai was too much and we immediately left the next day and flew to Mumbai (Bombay), home of Bollywood and the largest gettho in India. Mumbai was good, being the most cosmopolitan and westernized city in India, it was a nice warm up for a few days before we started moving north. Our ride from the airport to the hotel was shocking and included a lost taxi driver and a slight fender bender (oh yeah, and him trying to make us pay for the damage). We took a breather in our hotel and then hit the streets that were lined with crazy drivers, beggers and vendors selling everything from the most amazing (cheap!) jewlary to silk scarfs and incense. We saw a few beautiful buildings and ate at some great resteraunts and made a trip to Chowpatty Beach in the heart of the city and full of man propelled carnival rides and other random sights. Most of our time in Bombay however was figuring out the "slightly" confusing train system so that we could get out of the city and head to a quieter place (hahaha). After no help from the train "foreign tourist only" window we managed to get the right ticket (we hope) to the right place.

As we drove to the train station with our luggage, through the dirtiest, forgotten, heatbreaking slums (right in the middle of the city, modern city) it was one of the most surreal experiences we've had. These slums are unlike any we have seen before. The poverty and the serious lack of sanitation was unbelievable. I couldn't look out the window, it was terrible. These people are poor. They have nothing and are cursed to a life of begging, the untouchables.

Wow, walking from the cab (surrounded by small kids begging) to the train platform, was the most terrifying and crazy thing in my life. We were literally stared at by everyone as we were the only non-indians there. It was like the record skipped and the whole place turned to watch... We were (and still are) quite a novelty here. Dinner in Jalgon (crazy buisness town that also doesn't see many tourists but a necessary stop for the Ajanta Caves) was complete with a whole slew of kids (maybe 3 families) stopping by on their way out the door to shake our hands and say "Hello" and "Good Bye" and "What is your name". Bizaar. That is my new word to discribe this country.

Ajanta Caves: Absolutely amazing and definately worth the hard work to get to. We spent the day here admiring the ancient Buddist caves (from around 600 BC to 500 AD) which were lining a horseshoe type canyon. There were 30 caves in total and all had beautiful carvings, paintings and Buddha sculptures. They are very well preserved because they were forgotten when Hinduism took rise and not found again until the early 1800s. I guess this is where the Buddhist monks would come to meditate and pray. So ancient. We wandered through them for hours, along with a lot of locals school children on field trips. We ended up being more of a novelty to the kids than the caves and had many kids ask to take our picture with them. Back in Jalgon, buisness center, we would take 2 hour spurts out into the madness to get things done before we would have to head back to the quietness of our room for a breather. Intense.

This country, like I said, is crazy; but there is never a dull moment. We are constently bartering prices, ignoring the pushy vendors and "tuk tuk" drivers, avoiding the random cows and dogs in the street and trying not to inhale as we walk to the train platform. (Another story). There are temples all over and we could sit on the side of any road and be entertained for ever! We could go on and on with random stories already and we haven't even been here a week... How exciting!

Our Stint in Sri Lanka

2008-01-02T01:46:00.000-07:00

First of all, Happy New Year from Sri Lanka! We had a great time right on the beach where music, discos and fireworks lined the long stretch of sand from hotels to resteraunts to homes; everyone (tourists and locals alike) were out celebrating. It felt bizaar to be cheering and celebrating the new year while back home, it was only about 10 A.M. on New Years Eve. We missed you all terribly, but hope you had a great holiday season!

Well, Sri Lanka has come and gone. We fly to India today, but I will sum up our short stay (much too short) in one blog. 8 days is not nearly enough time to see this country, especially when it takes 4-5 hours to travel 60 miles by bus or train or tuk tuk, none are easier or faster than the other.

We have jumped headfirst into the eastern way of life, so long western comforts! Sri Lanka is beautiful and strange. I think about 80% of the population are buddist, but there is also a strong Hindu, Muslim and Christian culture as well. Getting off the plane in Colombo, the capital, threw us right into the crazy way of life in these 3rd world countries. The streets are alive and chaotic, with random smells and beautiful women in Sari's and anything from bikes to covered wagons to tuk tuks fighting for space on the crowded (slightly scary) streets.

We headed straight to the slower beach towns in the south from the airport but enjoyed the sights of the cities from our stuffy and overcrowded bus. (Think Jared with a pack in his lap, one under his legs, sharing 1/2 seat with a local man in a sarong). Since we only had a week, we decided to stay in the south where the living is easy and relaxed instead of frantically moving to see more. It is pretty hard to get around here with our backpacks, especially since the traffic moves so slow.

The first stop was a beach town called Hikkadua where we spent the first few nights lounging around. We attempted surfing again, although I did more fighting the waves and currents than surfing; Jared had some good waves, though. The beaches are white sand and the water is much, much warmer than in South Africa. It is also a lot cheaper here where a huge meal and a drink only costs around 5 dollars. Very nice change coming from South Africa.

From Hikkadua we went further south to Unawatuna where we spent the New Years Eve and made it our base for the rest of our time. The southern beach towns of Sri Lanka were hit the hardest by the Tsunami 3 years ago and you can still see the vast damage as you drive along the coast. There are head stones and shrines set up randomly around the towns and streets, a really harsh reminder of all the lives that were lost on that day. Very sad. It was bizaar to be here, to ride on the train route that was caught in the tsunami, where life goes on and most of the towns have been rebuilt. Very hopeful.

The Sri Lankan people are very friendly and helpful and outgoing. Many of them will just stop you in the street to chat about nothing as they laze the days away in the hot humid air. Again, a very different feel than in Johannesburg. Our hostel was not great but only 10 dollars a night, so we made it our home for 4 nights. It is funny how 4 nights seems like such a long time when you are used to moving every other night. Monkeys flew from tree to tree outside our balcony and the sounds of monkey/dog/who knows what fights kept us up throughout the hot nights.

We saw a few other towns by tuk tuk, but unfortunatley our time ran out and we c0uldn't get up to the hill country (which we hear is amazing, oh well, next time). We shortened Sri Lanka by a week so that we could have more time in gigantic India, so watch for more on India. We are 4 months into this trip already, boy how the time goes...

Jo'Burg, Kruger, and the End of Another Continent

2007-12-28T00:05:00.000-07:00

After all the horror stories we heard about Johannesburg we were expecting to drive into a city where the sun never was shining, where there were fires burning and the skeletons of buildings towered over abandoned streets where only machine gun toting mercenaries roamed. Funny how preconceived notions can so vividly shape your expectations of a place. As it turns out, Jo'Burg was a pretty metropolitan city, and because tourists are advised to stay out of the city center our stay there was pretty uneventful. We did manage to visit the Apartheid Museum, which is one of the highlights of downtown. This is the real scoop on what has been (and in many ways still is) a very racially oppressed country.

A few days and a bad haircut later we headed north to Kruger National Park. Of all the places to safari in the world, Kruger is known as the head honcho. With the famed 'Big 5' (Lion, Buffalo, Elephant, Leopard, Rhino) all in strong numbers, this is a wildlife watchers paradise. Our excursion consisted of a one night stay in mock-up tribal village (far from authentic, and rather corny) and then two nights camping inside the gates. Every morning we would wake up at 5:00 am (occasionally to a large hyena pacing the outside of the boundary fenceof our camp) and drive through the expanse of this vast park, which is about the same size as Israel. Although we encountered what the guides called a few, "very slow days", it didn't rain, and we were lucky to see all of the Big 5. We tried our best to get photos of everything we saw, but a nice 35mm camera is in order to really capture any great shots. The only animal we missed a photo of was the Leopard, and although he was very close to the road when we saw her, she only stuck around long enough to flash her massive teeth with a growl before disappearing into the bush.

Shanon kept saying we were like little kids in a zoo, and she was right. I don't think we've ever had that much fun looking at a giraffe, an elephant, or even a lizard. Seeing these animals in their true habitat was absolutely spectacular.

After Kruger we spent two more nights in Jo'Burg, including Christmas day. I've got to admit...you get away from all the hype of the holidays and it really doesn't feel like Christmas at all. Pretty weird. Although they do celebrate Christmas here it's not quite as big as it is back home, so we spent the day lounging by the pool at our hostel...and that's about it. Our hostess was kind enough to put some tinsel around the breakfast table, but other than that there was nothing to remind us the day was different than any other.

Happy Holidays to you all and thanks to everyone for being so good to us. Our families and friends mean the world to us, and this holiday season we're thankful for all of you.

Stay tuned for more excitement...after a sleepless night in the Qatar airport we have arrived in a very different (eastern) world. So to you all, Happy New Year from Sri Lanka.

Coffee Bay and the Dragon Mountains

2007-12-20T02:05:00.000-07:00

After you spend 4 days at Bulungula it is hard to compare any other stops to it. We left the shuttle from Bulungula and hopped on a taxi (crammed car with music blasting and apparently no concern for speed limits) which wound through villages and crouded markets until we got to Coffee bay, another surf destination and beach hangout.

The room was interesting and located across a river (via rock jumping when the river is low) from the main hostel building. We weren't that impressed with the place, but coming from paradise I think we were a little jaded. Most other backpackers thought this place was "the Bomb". The main beach was a short hike away from the hostel, and because it was raining (of course) we didn't do a lot of swimming, but I did make a friend who helped me build the best sand castle ever. The kids of the village were so cute and since they are taught to sing and dance instead of beg for change and candy, we got a few amazing songs for a small price. Jared even got a one on one soccer match on the beach.

We took a beautiful hike along the jagged coast to "hole in the wall" where only the crazy ones jump into the hole to be washed out to sea, luckily the surf was to rough to do it when we were there. We were talked into doing the hike with a group (aghh) but it turned out to be quite entertaining as there were two British girls who complained the whole time starting with the first 2 minutes. The scenery was spectacular and the toasties on the beach (flame grilled cheese with onion and tomatoe sauce) were delicious.

Jared and I ended the evening, sitting on the edge of a green cliff, with the ipod playing

and waves crashing all around us as the sun set. So peaceful, so great!

We left the coast and spent a few nights in Durban (big city, not much to say) and then made our way to the Drakkensburg Mountains. The mountains here are amazing, think of a mix between Hawaii's tropical lush green mountains and Zions jagged redrock cliffs and that is what these mountains look like. We took a hike through tropical forest and rivers to a beautiful viewpoint of the second tallest waterfall in the world. It was amazing, and the river had great swimming holes where a few were swimming and I managed to fall in. It was great.

Up next is Johannesburg, apparently one of the scariest cities in the world (or so all of the guide books and locals say). I guess if we manage to escape our hostel, we'll see what all the talk is about.

Upclose and Personal with the Xhosa

2007-12-15T04:30:00.000-07:00

It's always been kind of a funny joke with us and a few of our friends to talk loud gibberish and make the occasional clicking noise. We're usually in the Utah desert, posing as natives and speaking some foreign tongue--and we always laugh, because naturally, we're just funny people. So, you might understand why Shanon and I smiled, even giggled a little, when we actually heard the the Xhosa speak and got to listen to the 'clicking' first hand. In fact, there are about 4 variations of the click (and many theories why it exists) and it is near impossible for someone hearing it for the first time to slip that 'click' into a word. Very cool to hear, still makes me smile.

Part of our experience at Bulungula was a tour with a village Herbalist, who's name was too complicated to remember, and I didn't have my notebook, so lets call him Herb. He did not speak any English, but a translator from the lodge went with us to interpret. Herb carried a rusty old machete in his hand and led us through a steamy forest. He would stop periodically, and speak in a loud voice...the translator would then give us the description we could understand while Herb hacked at a tree root, tree trunk, or bush with his half-sharpened blade. In this forest he knows the secrets for remedies to common problems like headache, broken limbs, and snake bites, but there are also some much more personalized treatments as well. They described concoctions that will make girls love you, help bring you wealth, make your enemies forgive you, help you win in court, and even help with fertility. Most of these 'remedies' had the same process for preparation which involved grinding it up, boiling it in water and then either drinking it or bathing in it. I thought about grabbing some bark from the ''tree of prosperity'' and running for it, but I don't think it has the same influential properties if I were to try and prepare it on my own.

After the tour of the jungle we stopped in a local village and had a drink with some women who were harvesting beans. Shanon even gave them a 'click' of approval and joined in, while cats, dogs and chickens wandered about in the small blue hut. Then we visited Herb's house (all of them are more or less the same) to see his collection of dried goods and prepared remedies. All it would have cost was one cow and we could have bought prosperity on the spot, but alas, I didn't have enough money in my pocket.

Everything about this place, Bulungula, was incredibly enlightening. These people live in such remote locations in the most basic living conditions, and are spread out across miles and miles of wavy green hills that roll right into the Indian Ocean. The Xhosa travel long distances just to pay someone a visit, have a drink, or lend a hand. There were no real roads (only the very serious 4x4 road we arrived on), everyone traveled by foot, and the landscape was near surreal. Its a simple life that hasn't changed in a very, very long time.

Paradise Found at Bulungula

2007-12-15T04:00:00.000-07:00

So we hit a highlight in South Africa. It is called Bulungula and it is literally out in the middle of nowhere (aka the Transkei, aka the Wild Coast). After leaving Cintsa and looking for more Africa, not California Africa, we found our way to a small remote Xhosa village on the edge of the world. It took us a couple different shuttles on terrible dirt roads, with cows and goats and kids randomly chillin' in the middle of the road, but as we were pulling in with the most amazing sunset and the beach waves rolling in, we knew the trip was worth it. We got our own round hut on the first night and the door opened to the most beautiful beach with the sounds filtering in all night. We did wake in the morning however to find a few cows grazing just outside of our door.
These Xhosa villages are spread out along the rolling green hills with a few round huts clustered here and there as far as the eye can see. It is amazing the slow simplicity of the people's lives here. The community where we stayed is very poor and very remote.

The Bulungula hostel that we came to is an amazing free trade hostel that was built and half run by a guy named Dave and the other half is owned by the village. He traveled the world to find the perfect spot for his backpacker and ended up finding it in his own country. The hostel has a great feeling and you can't always tell who is a guest, who is working and who the village people are. The villagers are always there, talking and laughing with the guests. There are also quite a few that have found jobs working at the hostel. All of the tours that the hostel provides are actually community run businessess that were started to provide tours to travelers that come to the lodge. If they have a skill, they can set up a tour for the travelers to try out. The hostel is always trying to improve the life of the villagers and increase their skills and education. It has created jobs for over 33 families and right now they are trying to build a new mud school to replace the one that collapsed for the 200+ kids that would come from around the village to learn. What a great thing.

One of the tours we decided to do was canoeing up the Xhora river. The day was beautifully sunny (weird!) complete with flying fish (at times flying into the canoes), a cold shower under a waterfall and sore, sore arms that didn't function so well toward the end of the river tour (when the wind started blowing hard, in the wrong direction). The local guide didn't speak a whole lot of english, but was a supreme paddeler for the lazy girl in the front. It is amazing how many jobs this hostel has created for this small village and how it makes the visitor and the villager interact. It is wonderful here and will definately be one of our fondest memories of South Africa.

Cintsa, and the Disparity of Young vs.Old

2007-12-15T03:58:00.000-07:00

First and foremost, apologies for our lack of updates. About a week and a half ago we entered a new region of the country where life is not as well connected to the outside world as it was in Cape Town and some of the cities along the Western Cape. In fact, we have been in a very different world--an area called the Transkei (also known as the Wild Coast), home of Nelson Mandela, the Xhosa people, hundreds of miles of completely unspoiled coast line and a very different way of life than what we had seen so far.

Our first stop was at a place called Cintsa, which has a legendary backpackers (hostel) situated up on a hill and minutes from a pristine beach where the surf never stops pounding the coast. It was here that we realized (again) that we are a lot different than the 20-something crowd of backpackers who we often make company with. While they come for the party, we come for the solitude, while they socialize and make friends, we tend to hide out and do our own thing--at this place in particular, we felt like the married old farts. But enough about that.

Mother Nature must be keeping tabs on the blog, and maybe she read my last post about the weather improving, because as soon as we arrived at this backpackers paradise (it really was cool despite us feeling old) it started to pour. Luckily for us the beach is eerily beautiful when it's shrouded in clouds and sea-mist, however, not great for sunbathing and working on our thin Ozone-intensified suntans. The grounds of the hostel had a pool, along with a common area that looked out over the coast--there were also monkeys (baboons? Never found out for sure) loitering about, brilliant pink flowers in bloom that Shanon kept saying, 'smelled like Hawaii,' and a load of free activities--although most required favorable weather. All in all it was a great place to spend a few days, despite the rain. And we even made a few friends....but they are the ones who initiated conversation with us (they were old, too).

Natures Valley and Surf

2007-12-06T03:28:00.000-07:00

We finally got a few days of sunshine, so we have been trying to take full advantage of the soakfree days. We stayed a few days in a very beautiful spot called Natures Valley. The hostel 'Wild tongue" was located far away from any town in the Tsitsakamma National Park. The views from our room were absolutely beautiful and even though it was too chilly to take a dip in their pool, we did get a nice hike to a waterfall with the lovely guide Cinnamon (see picture, reminded us of an old friend). The hostel had quite a bit of water damage from all of the rain, but they were lucky as some of the other hostels in the valley had to shut down for all of December (their high season) due to flooding. The only food around the hostel was a small family farm just a short walk which sold fresh bread, cheese and veggies.

Since I am definately too big of a wuss to do the worlds highest bungy jump off of the bridge in this area, we decided on a 2 hour zip line adventure instead. We zipped across waterfalls and cliffs and although it wasn't the biggest adrenaline rush we were expecting, it was a nice way to spend the day. Natures Valley (although short) was great and a peaceful escape from the busier beach towns that are all geared up for the hight of the Christmas season. After leaving this remote (and slightly snakey) place we made it to the small surfing town of Jeffreys Bay. Very cute place with, I guess, world class surfing. Jared and I commited to a surfing lesson (hey, when in Rome...) and it turns out Jared is quite the surfer (who new). I myself wasn't as graceful on the board but did happen to get up a few times in the hour that we were out there. We had such a blast, I think we may be revisiting this surfing thing again before we leave the coast. That night we watched a school of dolphins playing just off the beach behind our hostel. Amazing!

The clouds are rolling in now, but hopfully as we move up to "the Sunshine Coast" tomorrow, we will get some more sunny days where we can fully enjoy this amazing country. Oh yeah, did I mention that this country has the coolest money ever...

Traveling the Cape, Trying to Stay Dry

2007-12-02T03:01:00.000-07:00

Were you all wondering what has happend to us? We feel like we've been neglecting the blog, but not a lot has been going on. We are moving along the coast now and I think the rain has finally decided to outrace us. We have spent the last few days in a small town called Wilderness. The hostel we stayed at was pretty remote and about 6 km away from the beach. There was a national park right next door with hiking trails, waterfalls, a river to canoe....but, since the heavy rains everything has been flooded. Clean up crews were hard at work trying to remove the evidence of the carnage, the national park was closed, and supposedly the snakes were out in full force (luckily we didn't see any though).

We are kicking ourselves for not renting a car here. Instead we booked a hop-on hop-off bus that picks up and drops off directly at hostels all along the coast. Unfortunately, their schedule is creating havoc with our schedule so it sounds like we'll get a few extra days in Johannesberg. Most unfortunate. We are also prisoners in some of the more remote destinations where it seems a car is the only way its possible to get anywhere interesting. Public transportation here is not reliable, and most people tell us it's not that safe either (taxis included), so we're at the mercy of infrequent bus service. Good livin'.

We did get a nice day in S. Africa wine country at a place called Stellenbosch. It was a good change from Cape Town, but of course the place had the snobbery associated with any fancy wine destination--think Napa Valley. Like the hard core bikers we are, we pedaled about 22 kilometers to get a good taste of the region--and also because we didn't have a car, making it our only option.

We also took a Township tour, which was an interesting experience. It's easy to forget that you're in Africa with so many wealthy white people everywhere, but just beyond the million-dollar homes and fancy streets catering to tourists and businesspeople you can see the way of life that most residents of the country live. The tour itself takes you to the heart of these areas for a first-hand look at the bleak living conditions. Shanon and I were the only two people on the tour (along with the driver/guide of course) and it was slightly intimidating, but we were definately safe. I can tell you more about it another time...but just know that it is a real eye opener to see something like this first-hand. We felt weird taking pictures so we don't really have any visuals for you, but just know it is incredibly bleak for so many people who just eek out enough to survive in the poorest of conditions. It reminded us to be grateful for how good we have it back home.

Hopefully we'll have more adventures to report on soon. Internet (and everything else) is expensive down here so we're trying to be extra frugal. We've spotted Santa a few times so we're hoping we to get a chance to sit on his lap sometime in the next few weeks. Happy Holidays to everyone! We miss you all a little more this month.

This is Africa, Right?

2007-11-25T02:57:00.000-07:00

Well, we didn't think that the meaning behind calling Afica, 'The Dark Continent', had anything to do with rain clouds--although after our first few days here we weren't so sure. After taking a few days to recover from jetlag the storms settled in, and it rained hard for about 24 hours straight...but not a warm tropical rain, it was cold. Hence, the raincoats and layers we'd been wearing everyday for the last two months had to stay on. The storms have been so bad all over the country that sections of the famous N2 highway (aka the Garden Route) that runs along the coast have been completely washed out. This is Africa, right? Ask the locals and they will tell you its global warming, and that storms like this are more rare than the Black Rhino. We'll keep you posted on our progress when we get out of Cape Town and hope that the highway re-opens, since that's the route that most travelers take.

Since those first few dark and stormy days the weather has now cleared and we've been exploring some of the city--sections of which feel like Malibu, California. There are a lot of people here who come and never leave, or who have been here before and are now back looking for work and permanent housing. This place is great, but I think we still like home. Hopefully we'll be moving on this week and should have more interesting things to show you. For the past few days we've been relaxing alot and bumming around town (almost feeling like a normal vacation).

Oh yeah, Happy Thanksgiving to you all. We missed the comforts of home dearly, and although we tried our hardest to find a place in town that would serve us turkey and mashed potatoes, all we would find was Waterbuk or Crocodile. Instead we landed at the closest thing to American food that we could find...the photo below says it all. Not surprised are you?

A Tribute to South America

2007-11-20T02:28:00.000-07:00

We landed in Cape Town, South Africa yesterday (wow), but more on that later.

We decided a tribute to the great 2.5 months in South America was necessary to sum it all up. So here we have it, the top 10 and worst 10 moments of our trip so far (not in any particular order):

Best 10:
1. Second night camping in the W, Torres del Paine, NP. The amazing scenary, breathtaking sunset and great music from the Ipod (Ok so maybe the whole trek should be listed).
2. Car day in Villa Angostura, Argentina.
3. Of course, Macchu Picchu.
4. Bike ride in Valley de la Luna and/or town San Pedro de Atacama in general.
5. First/Second day of the Salkantay Trek on our way to Macchu Picchu.
6. Wandering the open air museum in Valparaso, Chile.
7. Market day in El Bolson, Argentina.
8. Salt Flats (Solar de Uyuni) tour in Bolivia.
9. Second morning on the Navimag Ferry (of couse, with a broken camera).
10. First half of the Bocca Juniors soccer game.

Worst 10:
1. The heartbreaking days stuck in the La Paz airport.
2. Typical Quechuan music (same 4 songs) blasting from the only speaker in the whole bus right above our heads for 8 hours on the bus from Puno (Peru) to Copacabana (Bolivia).
3. Lima.
4. Worst hostel ever in Buenos Aires (3 long nights).
5. Biting flys in Santa Teresa (3rd night of the Salkentay trek).
6. Oregano.
7. Raining spit and other things at the Bocca Juniors soccer game (2nd half).
8. Strange queso smell on all Peruvian and Bolivian buses.
9. Every morning at about 4:00 a.m. on bus street.
10. Every morning at about 4:00 a.m. in all small peruvian & bolivian towns (aka damn roosters).

¡Viva, Viva La Boca!

2007-11-17T08:44:00.000-07:00

To go to South America and not go to a soccer game would be nothing short of foolish. Upon arriving in Buenos Aires we immediately did the foolish thing and booked tickets for a Sunday game through our terrifying, and disgusting budget hostel. Although we had been saying all along that we would not do a tour to a soccer game...that we were completely capable of doing it ouselves...we did in fact end up in the so called tour, which included the general admission tickets (standing room only), transfer to the stadium, and pizza & drinks. In hindsight, we now realize that we could have easily made it to the stadium on our own, had the best dinner the city had to offer and sat right along the sideline for less than we paid for the 'tour'. Classic. Had we done it on our own though we wouldn´t have this interesting experience to talk about.

La Boca is the neighborhood, the Juniors are the team, and as we approached the stadium you could feel the energy. Inside was a madhouse and the stadium was packed. The fans have five or six songs that they all sing together with incredible timing at various times during the game, and the crowd is never still--always moving, jumping and swaying in a sea of navy blue and bright yellow.

The tickets that came with our package were behind one of the goals, and behind a massive fence topped with barbed-wire, and on the other side were several police officers in riot gear...helmets with face shields, vests, clubs in hand. Serious stuff. At the end of the first half it was 2-0 for the home team, and that´s when I felt something wet hit the side of my face. I looked up at the blue sky...hmmm mysterious. Then the strange precipitation got more and more frequent, and when it hit peoples shirt is was white and foamy. No, not snow and not rain, but a more unpleasant kind of precipitation coming from fans of the visiting team in the stands above. Spit....lots of it, too. In fact, it started to come down at halftime and it didn´t end until the game was over. The Boca fans turned towards the visitors, yelling what sounded like horrible things in Spanish while shaking their fists. Then they would turn back to the game, laughing, and continuing to enjoy the action on the field. A guy a row in front of us turned and with a smile said, ´´Souvenirs.´´

Spit, as disgusting as it is coming from another persons mouth, won´t do you any physical harm. That´s when other debris started to hit the stands around us. Where they got this stuff I have no idea, but it started with small rocks. Some of them drawing blood on the heads of spectators. In fear everyone pushesback up under the stands to seek shelter. Then a big rock comes down and hits an area (cleared out because of the spit) with a loud crash. The disgust and partial amusement turns into concern as a piece of the stands makes its way down. This is enough to mae the locals yell at the police officers who are standing there, seemingly unamused with the chaos behind them. Now down by four goals the visitors do the unthinkable and throw over a 30kg bag of what appeared to be concrete mix. Again, it hit the spot that everyone had moved away from, but it sounded like a bomb when it landed on our level.
To the left is Shanon covering herself from the 'rain', in Jared´'s jacket, of course.

There was never any anger from the local fans...it just seemed to be another game, and another victory for the Juniors. Why they put the fans of the visiting team above the home crowd is a mystery--especially if these antics occur at every game.

This is South American futbol, and it was everything I expected, with some terrifying and disgusting additions. I guess all´s well that ends well.

City of Tango

2007-11-17T08:41:00.001-07:00

Beunos Aires has been our home for the last week. This place is huge, modern and feels european with all of its street cafe´s, old architecture and clothing boutiques. As we wander the borro´s or neighborhoods, however, we are constantly reminded that we are in Argentina by the beautiful spanish being sung, the tango music blasting from all of the resturants and music stores and the cow parts hanging in the windows of the typical parrillo (grill) resturant. I guess Argentina is home of the best steaks and I think Jared can now vouge for that ("that was the best steak I have ever had").

This city is devided into distinct areas and we have explored all of them by foot. San Telmo (where we are staying now after three hellish nights in the worst hostel yet) is home of the tango and rustic antique markets. There are people dancing the tango in the streets and the restaurants offer free tango shows when you come in to eat. I love the tango, attempted it once, but the dance and the music is so fun to see here in the heart of Beunos Aires. I have even got Jared to come watch the shows 2 nights in a row, one night was in the basement of Cafe Tortoni, the oldest cafe in the city, very cool. The sunday market in San Telmo is also great. It is really an antique market in the square, but all of the surrounding streets have artists and vendors selling their goods. There are street performers and Tango bands/dancers all over. The antique vendors are all dressed up in ancient vintage wear, wigs and makeup, it is full of constant surprises.

We explored Ricolletta, where there are art museums, great boutiques and a beautiful cemetary. Palermo is the quieter part of the city with huge botanical gardens, parks and a great little mexican food restaurant that we happened upon while visiting the Saturday market (I made Jared take me back there the next Friday but it wasn´t open, how dare they!). The city center is fast and hectic with a lot of historic buildings and a great pedestrian street (Florida street) full of shopping. We stopped in La Bocca for a quick lunch but the only street to see (very vivid and colorful) was a bit overplayed and only sold rack after rack of tourist items (postcards, mate mugs, tee shirts, etc, things we definately don´t have the space or the money to buy). We have even gotten in a few popcorn and movies (in english) which we miss from time to time.

Overall it has been a nice stay but we are definately ready to leave this huge city. The loud traffic is a bit hard on the nerves, especially after our tranquil time in Pategonia. Our hostel is on "bus street" which is a very narrow street (think echos), but somehow manages to have every bus in the city doing loops on it (our room is probably the loudest room we have ever been in). Also, the exhust is getting to us. We are ready for some quite beach time in South Africa (after our stay in big Cape Town of course).

Hanging with the Whales

2007-11-10T15:26:00.000-07:00

After a gruelling 22 hour bus ride (we are getting quite used to these) we arrived in Peurto Madryn (and Penninsula Valdes) home of the worlds best whale watching and penguin viewing. This city was great and warm! We relaxed on the beach, enjoyed meals outside with ocean views and calmly walked the streets all without chattering teeth and frantic sprints to the next warm shelter.

The town has a great ecomuseum dedicated to the marine life found in this region i.e. Sea lions (by the thousands), Penguins (by the millions), Sea Elephants (big fat creatures with creapy noses), Right Whales, Orcas, etc.

After the museum we walked back along the beach with the sun setting (not on the water since we are on the Atlantic ocean coast). There weren´t very many people around and we got a private whale show right there from the beach. It was amazing watching it playing about, blowing spay and flipping its tale.

The next day we actually took a tour of the Penninsula Valdes where we saw sea elephants, penguins and sea lions all along the beaches. The creepy gigantic sea elephants are so funny to watch I could have stayed there all day, laughing. It takes them so much energy and time just to move a few measly inches where they then plop down for a rest before there next attempt. Life would be so hard- move. rest. flip sand. rest. sleep. rest. move. rest...

We took a boat out into the ocean where there were right whales all over the place ( and yes, that is the new, very orange, fashion that the gringo's all over are wearring. It's so cool, I don't know why all the tour guides and the boat drivers haven't caught on!).

The guide said that during this time of year the waters just off the shore has thousands of these right whales swimming about. You could see their spray all over the horizan & their tails sticking out. They are supposedly really playful, curious and therefore they would come right up to our boat to check things out. Can´t say that I wasn´t just a bit nervous about the old "whale under the boat, whale tip the boat, whale eat the tourist" thing but I guess they only eat krill so "don´t worry about it".

Heading North

2007-11-10T15:21:00.000-07:00

Since there wasn´t much more continent to keep heading south on we decided to start making our way back up through Argentina. The first stop (on the long, long road to Buenos Aires) was El Calafate, which sits on southern shore of Lago Argentina, the country´s biggest lake. At the other end of the turqoise waters is the Perito Moreno Glaciar--one of the last advancing glaciers in the world. There´s something about an absolutely massive block of snow and ice that is completely mesmorizing. It might sound like watching paint dry, but believe me, watching a glacier is way better. Gigantic blocks of ice regularly crack off the giant massif and into the water with the roar of an avalanche. Once again, everything in Patagonia is so overwhelmingly huge that its hard to describe seeing something like this. Save the Glaciers! And the Whales! In case you were curious, yes, we stared at it for hours. But, we really had no choice because the bus drops people off at about 10am and doesn´t come back until 3pm. That´s lots of glaciar staring time--and there´s not much else to do there.

El Calafate itself was nothing to write home about--even though I guess that´s what I´m doing. There is one main drag, bustling with travelers coming from every-which direction. We did spend Halloween there, and there were all kinds of little monsters running around--although, here they go to the chocolaterias, restaurants and gift shops and not through the neighborhoods.

Strange not to have to do last minute shopping for costumes for ourselves...we are usuually scrambling for costumes on Halloween day, but not this year. I myself wanted to make sure I didn´t loose the spirit entirely, so I decided to dress up in lots of facial hair. See below:

(NOTE: Anyone that knows me well also knows that I can't really grow facial hair--in fact this is the closest thing I´ve ever had to a mustache. Sorry, I had to throw in the photo just because it´s awesome.)

Anyway, up the famous Austral Highway (Route 40--which is partly paved and partly dirt) we made a quick visit to a small town in the middle of nowhere, called El Chalten. This place was really cool and rediculously overpriced. The main attraction is the giant granite tower Fitz Roy. Since we were still a little ahead of the summer climbing weather the crowds weren´t too bad, but this little place gets packed in the summer--and with good reason. We literally hiked right out the back door of our hostel and into the backcountry. Not bad living.

The roads in town are all dirt, and the day we pulled in the wind was ripping down the main street making it hard to walk and/or see. Big changes are on the way for this little palce though as they are in the middle of paving all the streets in town--as well as the road in from Calafate. I´m sure this remote little mountain village with about 1500 residents will see big changes once there´s a smooth ride in--because the ride in was not smooth.

One of our last views of the Patagonia Steppe and the southern Andes.

the W

2007-10-30T16:01:00.000-06:00

All you Gortex clad, hightech owning backpackers watch out for the plastic poncho wearing fools (or old farts as we now feel)! We just finished hiking "the W" circuit in Torres del Paine National Park. The ciruit is named the W because it makes the shape of a W as you hike up 3 valleys in this beautiful national park. Wow! Fantastic! Stunning! Unbelievable! Freezing! Sorry the words used in this blog are overused and a bit cornball but this is all I have to try to describe this amazing place.

The hike itself is a 76 km (47ish mile) trek. It is absolutely breathtaking and also a bit ####### the old bones. We had been doing a bit too much sitting on buses and boats, but it felt great to be "aching" the way we did. Along the trail, there are hostels that you can stay in but they were really expensive (45 dollars per person per night, in a dorm room and not including sheets or a sleeping bag, those are all extra). So, being the money pinchers that we have to be, we decided to rent all the gear in town before we left and carry it all with us. It made the hike a bit more painful but in the end we saved a whole lot of dinero. Also, being as unprepared as we were for this part of our trip, only having plastic ponchos and cross trainers and some rental gear from our shoddy little pretrek hostel, we definatley got a few sorry glances from the seriously teched out fellow backpackers that we passed on the trail.
The first night was a little disheartening as we climbed up the last boulder field to look out at the famous Torres (towers) only to wait 2 hours in a snow storm (snow blizzard) and to no avail, they were hiding in the clouds. The next moring we ran (literally) up that part of the trail again to try to catch a glimpse of the towers, but again the snow started just as we were about 45 minutes from the top, so we tucked our tails between our legs and started toward the next campsite. They warn you that you can experience the 4 seasons in one day down here.
From that time on, however, the views got better and were so amazing that we forgot that we didn´t get to see one of the lookouts. The campsite on the second night was set right on the bluest lake we have ever seen (turquoise blue) and the sheer cliffs just made us stare in awe throughout the evening (sitting at the table in our sleeping bags of course). The third day involved 11.5 hours of hiking (luckily, only 5 with our packs) to the next campsite, but the top was a cirque surrounded by glaciers and sheer cliffs and in all directions. The colors in this park are brilliant. The last day, we hiked to Grey Glacier, a huge glacier which is not really grey but bright blue. Something that I have never seen before. This park is so beautiful, it is no wonder it is the most visited national park in South America. Patagonia, what a place. This is recommended to anyone who loves to backpack (or day hike) and who needs a trip to the bottom of the globe.

¿Where in the Fjord?

2007-10-30T15:46:00.000-06:00

A lot has happened since our last update, and life is blustery and frigid here at the ends of the earth. When we last checked in we were embarking onto the Navimag ferry from Puerto Montt, Chile, to Purto Natales (it was the first time we had ever ´embarked' so it was pretty exciting). The boat trip itself was about 4 days through the canals, fjords, and the open sea of Chile´s southern stretch.

Although the trip itself was a little pricey it was a welcome change from our regular mode of tranportation. We stayed in a four person cabin, oddly enough our roomates were a great Isreali couple who we had met several weeks earlier in Argentina--small is the path of travellers. The quarers were tight with no privacy to speak of except a curtain that covered the small bunks.

Since the majority of the trip was through the fjords the water was calm, and for the most part the weather was relatively good--not sunny, but not pouring rain with zero visibility. The scenery from the deck of the boat was great, especially when it was navigating the narrow chanels (the smallest being only about 85 feet wide). Of course a good thing can´t go without a mishap, and on the second day as we glided past towering green mountains and an uncountable number of waterfalls, our camera decided to stop working. (We think the culprit may have been a grain of sand that started causing problems a month earlier when I dropped the camera in my pocket--which was full of beach sand. Woops.) Although the scenery on this day was amazing, for us, the beauty turned to tragedy as we were not able to take hundreds of photos like everyone else. After a relentless pity party full of scowling, moping, banging the camera on my hand and telling others of our misfurtune, it started working again. It was now 8:00 at night, but the problem, what ever it was, was now gone. Whew...anyway, back to the boat.

At percisely 2:15 pm on the second day the tour conductor on the boat makes an announcement in English, with her strong Chilean accent, ''Passengers, now is the exact time to take the sea sick pill.'' Which we did. Turns out I am not meant to be a sailor, or a pirate, or an old sea dog, because as soon as we hit the open ocean and the I could see the horizon through the windows of the boat turn from the gray of the sky to the gray of the sea, I had to retire to my small bunk and lay in the fetal position for the rest of the night, struggling to keep down my spaghetti dinner. Shanon, on the other hand, lazily read her book in the lounge and then watched a movie in the cafeteria.

The experience itself was nice overall, and a good change of pace. The food was good (Shanon ate fish), our friends from Isreal were great to hang out with, and like I mentioned, the scenery was great, and it feels REALLY good to go a few days without having to make any decisions about where to go, what to do or where to eat. That's as easy as it gets in South America.

Once again we are just ahead of the summer tourist mahem that's about to begin down here, and in case you were wondering, life is cold and blustery down here at the end of the earth where Antarctica is just a long stone throw away.

Spring in Chile and the Push for Patagonia

2007-10-22T08:02:00.000-06:00

We´re back in Chile again and just made it through another weekend. We always thought it was difficult to find stores or restraunts open in SLC on a Sunday, but in Chile and Argentina life nearly comes to a grinding halt. Almost all the stores are closed, and restraunts keep strange hours that are not consistent with our fickle eating habits. Yet, we perservere. To the left is a pleasant view from our room in the hostal. Brrrr.

And this is the only action we get on another lazy Sunday afternoon.

We´re heading out on a ferry this afternoon from a bustiling city called Puerto Montt. The city itself it nothing spectacular so we stayed about 30 minutes outside of town in a place called Puerto Varas (this port is on a lake though), which is much more quiet and has a great view of three massive volcanoes...or so we hear. It´s been cloudy and raining like mad for the past three days. We did make it out to another small national park one of the days when there was a break in the weather, and saw some waterfalls in a massive river that were formed by a fairly recent lava flow. The water rages with so much force that it actually shakes the small bridge (capacity 10 people) that crosses one narrow section. Since it's still early in the season we had the fals to ourselves for almost 45 minutes before people started to show up--one of the benefits of going places in the off season.

Waterfall Salto de Petrohue

Another pretty place in another pretty National Park.

The downfall, as I mentioned before, is the weather. Eventually the rain started again and we hopped back on the rickety old mini-bus for the voyage back to our hostel. Although the safety if the buses here in South America is occasionally questionable, we had reassurance on this dilapidated old jalopy, and out minds were at ease....

....it´s a dark photo, but that´s an old hammer on the left fastened to the bus. Even if there were an emergeny you wouldn´t be avle to move that sucker. Fewwww....safe at last.

The travelers on yet another mini-bus.

Next up is Patagonia. We´ll probably be off the radar for the better part of the next week or so, but hopefully the weather will be kind to us and we will return with some more tales and stunning visual imagery. Until then, Viva Chile!

Car Rental Day

2007-10-20T17:26:00.000-06:00

Yes, freedom at last. Nothing compares to a road trip; and as much as we have grown to love crowded, swaying, cheese smelling buses, the last 2 days have been blissful in our own rental VW.

We got the sweet ride in Bariloche, traveled to the ski resort above the town of Bariloche (it closed for season the day before) and then around Lake Nahuel Huapi to a small town on the opposite side of the lake called Villa La Angostura. It was so tranquel there, a small ski town, but this is definately where the wealthy settle down. The lake front houses look out across the glacial lakes and amazing Nahuel Huapi National Park.

The views of the Andes from all angles of this town were breathtaking. The pictures will never do justice (I know I´ve said this before).

From this town, we hiked 7-8 miles to the end of a penninsula where the Los Arraynes National Park is. It is a very small park which protects a rare forest of trees (arraynes) that are only found in a few places on earth. They are really beautiful and have no outer bark to protect them. It was nice because the only way to reach the park is by hiking in 7 miles or by boat (really expensive, but we took it back one-way to save time).

It was a nice car trip out here with our music, space and no other people reclining all the way back in the seats in front of us. To bad the budget doesn´t allow a car rental in every place we go, because that is the way to really see the land.

This Place is on the Wrong Continent

2007-10-14T15:23:00.000-06:00

Its the end of ski season here in Southern Argentina. The snow is melting, there are bright pink blossoms on the trees, the grass is starting to turn green--it is mid-October right? The seasons are definately changing down here, but it feels like it should be autumn, not spring. All that aside, if you were to look up the word Beauty in the dictionary you might find that the definition would say: The Lakes District of Argentina (and of course there would also be a photo of Shanon).

Really though, if this weren´t so far from the home we already know and love, this would be an easy place to settle down and cash it all in. The towns here are small and still relatively unpoiled, despite the consistent barrage of tourists and nationals that flock to this region--It´s easy to see why this is the premier vacation spot for Argentinians and others from all over the world. The main hub here is a hip city called Bariloche. The one-way streets are filled with massive groups of teenagers in matching ski uniforms, the upper-crust Argentinian ski society in tight pants and open shirts, and of course the occasional ski/snowboard bum. What really makes it special here though are the surroundings. There are literally dozens of national parks throughout this section of Argentian and Chile, and the snow and glaciar capped Andes shoot directy out of the frigid waters in any direction you look.

To beat the crowds in Bariloche we headed south for a few days and stayed in a small self-proclaimed hippy town called Bariloche. Here the atmosphere was laid back, and on Saturday and Sunday the main plaza is full of the local artists selling everything from home-brewed beer to hand-knitted leggins (which Shanon bought in celebration of 80s fashion having an amazing presence in S. America...and to keep her warm). A nice Sunday ride through sleepy towns took us to another secluded National Park where families lounged in the sun, kicked around a soccer ball on the grass, and seemingly had no cares in the world--sign me up for that lifestyle.

As we walked to the shore of the lake we passed two older ladies who were on the bus with us. Like many of the friendly folks here in Argentina they tried to strike up a small conversation. Since were a little better at communicating now we answered that we were from the US--when they asked where in the US we told them Utah, and expected to have to give our usual spill about the proximity of our state--somewhere between California and Chicago--but these ladies apparently knew all about our home state and instantly replied, ''Ahhhh, Mormons.'' Hilarious.

Here's an idea...everyone start working on your Spanish and we'll all come retire here together (or keep on retiring for those of you who already have done that).

Olive Trees and Vines

2007-10-14T14:55:00.000-06:00

Alright, Mendoza, Argentina was nice and we got a lot of errands done (i.e. Laundry, which is hard when you have to wash everything you own so you don´t have anything to wear to the Laundry mat). Also, we took a nice tour through vineyards, churches and olive orchards in the area. We didn´t stay long here, since we had to once again get on a long bus. It was a nice stop non-the-less.

This is what happens to us after too many long buses--->.

We are now in the lakes district in Argentina. Bariloche to be exact. It is a good size town and it is absolutely beautiful. It is a big ski area in the winter and in the summer it is full of lake, river and mountain fun. And so much treking, I don´t know how you could see it all. The town feels like we are in Canada or Colorado. There is definately a stark difference between the poverty in Peru and Bolivia and what we have seen in Chile and Argentina so far. Jared and I came up with a great trip idea for any of you... Buy a cheap car in Bolivia and drive south through the lake district (both the Chile and Argentina sides). It is amazing, but it is hard to see it all from buses. There is so much to do and such amazing camping. With your own car you could do some great exploring. So some of you come and do that trip for us.

Food update: Burrito Nirvana! We found it after a month and a half of searching in South America. It was amazing and it actually had black beans (not green beans) and mexican rice. And not even a speck of oregano. I was so happy that I forgot to take a picture of it to post.
We will definately be going back there (sorry Jared) before we leave this area.

Buses, Graffiti and more Buses

2007-10-10T09:42:00.000-06:00

Yes, we are still bee-lining south. We are almost to our first big stop (the Lakes District) which boarders both Chile and Argentina where we will make our way back and forth across the boarder. We have one more 17 hour bus ride tomorrow and then we will finally be there. Luckily it is an overnight bus so we can sleep at least 8 of those hours.

Some of the stopovers we have seen over the past week on our way south in Chile are:

La Serana: not that exciting, however we did take a short day trip to a sleepy little beach town called Tongoy. We are still in the spring season so the town was quiet, but supposedly this is quite a summer destination for Chileans. There was

supposed to be the "most amazing seafood" there, but since the menus were only in spanish, and the waiter couldn´t translate for us, we ended up with yet another full meal of deep fried fish, deep fried potatoes and deep fried cheese empanadas. I swear the grease down here will be the death of us.

Valparaiso: an absolutely amazing city just outside of Santiago. I loved it here. It is a huge city of color, graffiti and hills. We wandered the cobbled, narrow streets up and down the hills for 2 days. The houses line the hills and are so old, rusty and stacked, they look like they will topple any day. The city sits right on the ocean and used to be a main port for all of South America. They have small trams scattered around the city, where you can take ride to the top of streets since the hills are so steep. The alley-ways are plastered in amazing art and some of the areas are dedicated open air museums where the huge murals line the buildings and retaining walls of the city. I could have lost myself in the hills of this city for days.

But alas, we had to keep moving south and now we are in Mendoza, Argentina (the Napa Valley of Argentina). The ride here from Valparaiso was amazing as we wound up through the andies and through an amazing mountain pass. More posts on Argentina, coming.

Chile, the Desert and a Dedication

2007-10-07T16:41:00.000-06:00

It´s tought to keep up with this blog buiness when we seem to spend most of our time making a beeline for the bottom of the continent. We are oficially in Chile now, and the contrast of this country compared to the two we are coming from is pretty stark. Better roads, less shanties and of course higher prices. We started in a small town just over the Bolivian border called San Pedro de Atacama--and the scorching desert heat was a welcome reprise after being pretty cold for the last month.

The town itself has a bohemian feel with its dirt streets, bike rental shops, local artisan handcrafts, lots o´ drums and dreadlocks, and outdoor restaurants that circle large bonfires. It was great to soak up the sun, and the dry, desert climate made it feel just like home. So, keeping our adventurous spirits at full throttle we rented bikes (yes, Shanon too--for those of you who know Shanon´s past experiences on a bike) and pedaled about 30 km (round-trip--about 18 miles) to the Valle de la Luna. Shanon rode her heart out, and it proved to be a great time as we were able to dodge the massive tour groups who were rolling in on their buses just in time for sunset.

Away from the masses we watched the sun drop over the desert landscape, and it felt like we were home...and we thought of you all...so I played a little song on the flute we bought in Peru and dedicated it to all our working class friends and family back in the US of A. Unfortunately, our fute only plays one, sometimes two notes, so the song was more symbolic than it was impressive--but it was for you.

Like I mentioned before, we´re making a beeline for the Southern end of the continent, heading to Patagonia via a series of overnight bus rides (almost like an airplane but with lots of layovers, lots of bouncing, and nauseating toilets). We´re going to try the Argentinian side of the Andes to see if we can cut some cost and make better time. More to come...

Flamingo´s and Salt

2007-10-01T16:11:00.000-06:00

Goodbye La Paz, hello Salar de Uyuni.

We finally made it out of that crazy city (actually a pretty cool city when all said and done), and headed for Uyuni (a small town in Southern Bolivia) for the frequently recommended 3 day jeep tour of the Salar de Uyuni.

We stopped at an old train graveyard just before the tour started which had some really cool old rusty trains. Jeff, you would love it.

The tour starts by cramming 6 tourists into a "jeep" which is really an old land cruiser. Our group consisted of a a guy from Montreal and a couple from New York (funny, the same couple that we had the pleasure of spending those heart wrenching, never ending minutes in the airport trying to leave La Paz). They bought an extra "jeep seat" so our car only had five, which still seemed a bit crammed but much better than having 6 (or seven like some tour companies try to pull off).

The first part of the tour was amazing as we drove along a blinding and vast Salt Flat. It was beautifully white as far and the eye could see. (Jared and I thought it was funny that we flew all the way to Bolivia to see this when we have one in our back yard that we have never seen.) There were random islands on the salt flats that had huge Cacti sticking up all over the whole island. The color was amazing against the white sea around the island. There are also a few hotels and restaraunts scattered on the salt flat that are made completely out of salt (this includes beds and tables).

We stayed the night in a very small village called San Juan just outside of the salt flat. The next morning we headed up (and up) to a moon scape. Actually, it was a Doctor Suess scape. It consisted of mountain peaks, red sand dunes and lakes that were bright red or green or black. They were erie and beautiful and full of Flamigos. Thats right, flamigos but apparently not the species native to Boca Raton. For these Flamigos were in lakes at 4995 meters (16,387 feet!) and not tropical, but desertish (aka dry and baren but freezing).

The last morning we woke up at 5:00 to catch the sunrise over a geyser field. It was amazing but really, really cold. After, we soaked in some hot springs. Very nice. The last part of the trip consisted of "Salvador Dali" rocks and more colorful lagoons.

If anyone is planning on coming to Bolivia, this is a definate must. It was absolutely breathtaking. Or a better word might be surreal. Or Bizzar. And of course "pictures never do a place justice"...

Bolivia is an amazing country and super cheap!
The tour ended in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. It is a great little town, but there is more to come on this place.

A Long and Sad Two Days

2007-10-01T15:36:00.000-06:00

Well, a lot can happen in a week--or not happen. After sliding down into La Paz we had high hopes of a nice, cheap stint in Bolivia. After a day of cruising around the city we decided to take a quick flight up to the northern part of the country and visit an ecolodge just outside of Madidi National Park. After much deliberation regarding the associated costs, i.e. flight, tours and lodging, we decided that we absolutely had to go. We made all the arrangements and were happy about the decision...spiders the size of frisbees, snakes large enough to swallow us whole--it was a must. (Now, go to Google and search Madidi to see photos of how amazing it looks there, because we never made it.)

The next morning found us at the airport at 5:45 am so that we could make the flight at 6:50. We were advised to expect delays because of the grass airstrip in Rurrenabaque where we would land, and the occasional overbooking of passengers. So, when we tried to check our bags we were not entirely surprised to hear that the flight was delayed. From here it´s all downhill...we started to hear people murmering about yet another delay, talking under their breath about the same runaround from the airline the day before, etc. We asked a couple from New York if they knew what was going on and they filled us in on a secret--90% of the people there waiting to get on the plane, the plane that we were supposed to board at 6:50 that would take us to the most incredible rainforest in the world, those people had all tried to get on the same flight to Rurrenabaque the day before. Not only was our flight delayed, there was an entire flight in front of us that still hadn´t left from the previous day. Not good. The plane only holds 20 people or so, and our understanding was that the entire fleet was only made up of a few of them.

An hour of waiting turned into two, then three, then four. ¨Check back in an hour,¨ the clerk would tell us again and again as the time on the departure board kept getting pushed back. At 3:30 pm the flight ahead of us had still not left and no one really knew what was going on. At 4:30 they said there would be no flights that day and to come back in the morning. Smoke they told us finally--the pilot would not be able to land because he would not be able to see the runway. Apparently there are intentional ground fires in the Amazon every September, but no one had ever mentioned that small detail. Funny that they would even sell the plane tickets if they knew no one would be going anywhere.For those of you who have had long delays I don´t need to describe the bizarre and exhausting sensation that comes with being in an airport for 11 hours.

The next morning we showed up again, hopeful, but still uncertain. Less people this time but the same story. After the same guy from Amazonias kept telling us to coma back in an hour for updates people were beyond loosing their patience, and after a description from the actual pilot of the situation in ´Rurri´, we knew we weren´t going anywhere. In fact, he made it sound like no one would be going up there all week. The second option was a 17-20 hour bus ride to the park, but it would have added another three or four days of travel time, and we decided not to sacrifice the days (not an easy decision) since we have a long ways to go in the next month and a half. Disheartened, we asked to cancel our flight and made our way back down to La Paz--back to the traffic, honking, yelling, steep streets, odd smells, llama fetuses for sale....

The runaround we got trying to get our money back from the airline was the icing on the cake, and another story of its own that is too long for the likes of this already long post (but it did involve several taxi rides to the offices in the city, a bout of diarreah and a fierce rainstorm while we were on the streets). Why, oh why, do we have such a hard time getting out of the capital cities of South American countries? I think we will skip Santiago (Chile) all together.

All the way to S. America and no rain forest...it just doesn´t seem right. Argentina will be our last chance, but we are already southbound, so the chances of seeing frightening jungle creatures aren´t that great anymore. Sigh.......La Paz was neat (for a city), but not as neat as a monkey or a two-toed sloth.

A Bit on Sleeping in South America

2007-09-23T17:18:00.000-06:00

Breathing at 12,000 feet is one thing, trying to breath with 800 pounds of llama blankets crushing your chest throughout the night is another.

It is cold here in Copacabana, Bolivia. It was cold in Cusco, Peru. It was really cold in Lima. But what is it with these hostels in South America and the 7 layers of thick llama byproducts that are inhabiting every bed that we sleep in? I am not kidding, we frequently wake up, fantically trying to move, but unable to free even one limb under the crushing weight (which is quite comparable to a small herd of llamas). Moving is not an option unless we make it a team effort. I guess the fear of not being able to breath throughout the night is a small price you pay to stay warm in the unheated, bone-chilling hostels.

A word on Copacabana, Laid back.

It is really beautiful here on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicacca. We like it much better than the Peruvian side. It is much cheaper living as well. We splurged and got a room on the beach with a sitting nook for 12$ a night. Yeah! It is a little warmer here in the days (but the food is aweful!). We are touring one more island in Copacabana and then heading to La Paz to firgure out our next plan.

The Last Stop in Peru

2007-09-22T09:23:00.000-06:00

We have a long way to go on buses...a long way, and they can be brutal. More on that some other time though.

After a 7 hour ride from Cusco we made it to our final destination in Peru--a small, grey bustling city called Puno, on the shore of Lake Titicaca. Like most cities/towns in Peru this one consisted of many shanties and small run down earth-colored mud brick houses, as well as one main strip designated to tourism commerce (i.e. travel agencies, restraunts etc.).

The reason for this stopover though is Lake Titicaca, the birthplace of the Incas and home of the Uros floating islands. After reading in our trusty Lonely Planet book that the tourism industry had slightly jaded the visits to these islands, we decided to go against our adventurous spirits and book a tour through the hostal we were staying in. It proved to be somewhat of a fallacy as all the things the book said were completely true. At 6:45am we were picked up by the bus, which then collected about 30 more people of all shapes and sizes from all kinds of different places. We knew right away that we had not chosen our preferred method of sightseeing--besides being the youngest people in the tour (except for a young girl with her parents) we just felt strangely out of place, away from the backpacker crowd we had been surrounded by for the previous few weeks. I hope that doesn´t sound snobbish...it was just weird, that´s all. Anyway, after everyone was loaded onto the boat and introduced to the ´guide´, Bruno from Puno, we made the slow, slow journey towards the Uros islands.

The islands themselves are amazing and made the entire day worth it. There are a series of them, 45 or more, that are all made of reeds growing in the lake, and are then anchored to the bottom so they don´t float away. Entire communities of the Uros people still live on the islands today. Their houses, their crafts, and their livelihoods all come from the reeds...pretty incredible. This is where the toursits start to get exploited...just like the book had warned. After a small demonstration on the island we stopped at, the native people circle around everyone, obviously staged, and sew, knit, husk reeds--busy doing their day to day tasks....then the ´guide´tells us to support the people by purchasing some of their handmade crafts...some of which are ceramic bowls, clearly not made on an island made of reeds. After haggling with a Uros woman, Shanon and I bought a flute. Awesome. One of us will need to learn how to play it.

Afterwards they load all the people on the tour onto a big reed boat and paddle you to another island across the channel. Pretty amazing, but again, they want 5 Soles from every person on the boat for the short 10 minute ride. Besides the feelings of exploitation, they islands are impressive without a doubt. It´s amazing that for centuries people have sustained a great deal of their culture while floating just off the shores of an ancient lake--and also adapted thier lifestyles just enough that tourism is a critical part or their livelihood. Next up...life in Bolivia.

Accomplishing a Life Goal

2007-09-17T16:40:00.000-06:00

For years and years I´ve wanted to come to Peru and see the most famous of the Inca ruins, Machu Picchu. As we approached the gateway town of Aguas Calientes after a 4 day trek through the Andes we heard stories of the way Machu Picchu was a mere 7 years ago. Back then the crowds were minimal, the tour buses didn´t drive up and down the mountain all day, and people were actually allowed to camp in the ruins. Much has changed since then...at 5:30 am we got in a long line that had formed on the main street in town and waited for the buses to arrive. The procession of tourists continues all day long, and I have to admit I felt a little disheartened to see the eager mobs.

After a 30 minute bus ride that carved its way up the mountainside and a quick 10 minute hike to the first lookout, all those feelings of dought and animosity had disappeared. This is a place that photographs really cannot do justice for (even though we probably took 50+ photos while we were there). In fact, I won´t even try and describe how it felt to stand there as the sun came up because it will probably bore you, and it it might make me cry--kidding of course. All that needs to be said is that it was an amazing experience in a remarkable setting, and one we will never forget.

After a tour of the main complex we hiked the famous mountain, Wayna Picchu, that is in the background of the photos. The hike itself was 35 minutes of the steepest trail/staircases I think I´ve ever entountered. Perched at the top were ruins clinging to the edge of the cliffs that I didn´t know even existed. How this place was ever concieved and constructed is hard to imagine...the Inca people were scientists, engineers and mathmaticians who were decades ahead of their time. (Analogy...Inca is to civilization as Pink Floyd is to rock and roll.) Anyway, I could ramble all day about the overwhelming beauty, but everyone should see it first hand...and soon, before the human impact (which is thousands of people every day) is too great for the ruins to endure.

High Peaks and Low Forests

2007-09-17T16:33:00.001-06:00

Wow, we made it! I think we figured it out to be about 45 miles, and it was beautiful! We hiked through the high Andes mountains, rainforests and everything in between. The highest pass we did was at 4600 meters (or for you fellow Americans who, like me, don´t know what this means it was about 15, 091 feet). This is the highest point I have been so far... The altitude was a little breath taking but fortunately we had horses to carry most of our stuff, fantastic!

Our favorite part of the trip was the first 2 days which were in the high alpine regions and absolutely beautiful. The nights were freezing cold and the mornings were brutally crisp. The rainforests were hot, humid and amazing as well. We got eaten alive by the sand flies (those buggers take skin chunks with every bite and they itch like mad; our legs now look like some sort of diseased, chicken pocked mess). We soaked in some hot springs on the 3rd day, also fantastic! Oh yeah, we ended up in Augas Calientes (aka, town below Machu Picchu).

Our group was "a little roudy" but great none the less. It consisted of two guys from England, a couple from Ireland (living in Bermuda), one lady from Wisconsin and Ray from SLC (crazy eh?) and us. Our guide was great, Jason. He grew up in a small (tiny) Peruvian village in the Amazon. He studied tourism in college and wants to open his own tour company in a few years. Oh ya, he also speaks English, Spanish, Quechuan, and Italian.

A food update: I am officially sick of oregano (or whatever spice the Peruvians put in every stinking dish here). I did good though, on the trek. I ate strickly peruvian food for 5 days (minus the Gatorade or snickers that we had packed ourselves). This included among other things, trout lasagna, yucca, coca tea, and soup at every meal (which all tasted like oregano) and some sort of chicken pattie. The food, surprisingly, was pretty good the whole time but toward the end, I was ready for some pasta.

Fresh Air in the Andes

2007-09-10T12:36:00.000-06:00

Happier! That is good descriptive word for us at the moment. Away from dreary Lima and up at 10K feet in Cusco, we feel rejuvinated. More English, more sunshine, and of course more gringos. In the middle of the city is the Plaza de Armas which was built by the Spanish after they overthrew the Incan empire. The church itself is actually built on perfectly symmetrical stones that remained from the Inca structures that were not completely destroyed by the tyrant Spaniard invaders. In other words, the arcitecture here is amazing and there is a constant buzz of activity that never ends.

Cusco itself is a much bigger place than we had imagined, so yesterday we escaped on a local bus to a small town called Pisac about an hour north. The Sunday market goes on for blocks, and they sell everything from jewelry and alpaca (llama) clothing, to fruits, vegtables and mysterious meats. After an hour in the market we hiked a steeeeep hillside to a series of Inca ruins (only to find out later that we could have taken a taxi up the backside and gone from the top down). It´s hard to describe the feeling one gets in a place like this (the words mind-blowing might describe it). The ruins, agricultural fields and irrigation systems were built with amazing precision and perched high on the mountain ridge lines. Wow!

The bus ride back to Cusco was a good indication of how public transportation works here in Peru. The bus sat maybe 50 people, but they don´t stop when the seats are full. Instead, they load the center of the bus with as many more people as they can pack in. Luckily we got on in time to get a place to sit, but something about the belly or butt of a nice Andean woman in my face for an hour was less than appealing.

Lastly for this edition, we met our group this morning who will be on our trek to Macchu Pichu starting tomorrow. It includes two British chaps, an Irish couple, an older woman who was by herself (not sure where from), and....another solo traveler from SLC, Utah. Small world, eh?

Today we´re running around getting final preparations for the trek, which ends on Saturday evening--snacks, sexy long-johns for Shanon, etc. I´m sure we´ll have great photos and a few good stories when we get to a computer again. Pray to the Sun Gods that it doesn´t snow on us at 14,000 feet. ¡Salud!

A Hike and Small Women

2007-09-09T09:26:00.000-06:00

Now that we have finally made it out of Lima, just let me say the the first 6 days of our journey were slightly chaotic! Lima is very fast, crowded and full of pollution. The taxi rides along are enough to raise the blood pressure. We spent more time in Lima than we wanted due to the bus schedules. We took a bus to Huaraz from Lima and the drive was about 7.5 hours. The sites were amazing as we drove out of Lima (never ending) through the slums and into the high Andes regions (beautiful!). The above pictures are from our bus ride through Lima and along the small villages in Peru.

We didn´t have much time in Huaraz since we had to be back to Lima (aghhhh) for one more night before our flight to Cusco. Huaraz is an outdoor adventure meca with all sorts of trekking, climbing and biking but unfortunately we didn´t have enough time to do any trekking or climbing.

We did manage to take a day hike just outside of the city to some ancient ruins. The hike wound through many small Andean villages and it was amazing. Most of the gringo´s take a bus to the ruins but we found a ¨map¨ of the trail. Ah, the map. The source of many moments of wonder and curiosity that left us hoping that we were headng in the right direction and not down some deadend village road. We did make it to the ruins and back with not much help from the ¨map¨, and not much excitment for the ruins; but the highlights were the small villages and people that we passed along the way.

The people are amazing. The women are still found in their traditional clothing which consists of a short, colorful, layered skirt, nylons and loafers, and a large felt hat perched a top of their head. Their hair is always long and in a braid or ponytail and they are always carrying vegtibles, or goods in a wrap swung around there shoulders. One more thing, the women are short. Very short. For me to say this must mean something, but they short. and beutiful. and hapy.

We got a few glimpses of the towering Andean peaks (the highest mountain range outside of the Himalayas) while in Huaraz, but a lot of the time they were covered in clouds. The best views were on the bus in and out of the city. Cusco is up next.

Say What?

2007-09-09T09:14:00.000-06:00

With America being the melting pot of all cultures, most of us have encountered someone who doesn´t speak English, and the often frustrating conversations tht ensue while expaining the most simple things to a non-english speaker. ¨How much cost?¨, they might ask. ¨Where I find taxi?¨.

Although I was not always amused in trying to figure out what people were talking about, I was always amazed that somehow the communication seemed to work. However, since being in Peru I have concluded that what I thought was clear communication on my part to people who didn´t speak English was probably jibberish, and after smiling and walking away they were no better off than when I started talking to them.

Indeed, in Peru we have become that broken language visitor who communicates more with single words, broken and perhaps incoherent phrases, and lots of hand motions and body language. Even when we know or learn a phrase in an effort to communicate more clearly, generally the response from the friendly local draws the same responses again and again from Shanon and I...

¨Como?(huh?)¨ ¨Que?(huh?)¨ ¨No entiendo(huh?).¨

Occasionaly we understand enough that we´re able to get a general idea of what someone is saying, other times the brief conversation ends with a grimace and a nod, a polite ¨gracias¨, and us walking away no better off than when the conversation began.

The first week in Peru proved to be especially difficult to get anything done because of the language barrier--but, this is the life we chose. It really is strange being the person on the unknowing end of a conversation. We decided to work diligently and learn the language better so we are not the ultimate tourismo gringos. Perhaps Spanish classes next week after Macchu Pichu??? What else do we have to do?

Food update

2007-09-09T09:05:00.001-06:00

So I am typing this entry on a spanish keyboard and everything on the screen is in spanish so we will see how I do (I keep typing characters like ç,ñ, and ¿ so just disregard if they show up periodically).

First, I will mention that after 6 days, I have managed to find some sort of bread (or at least that is what they call it here) and cheese to keep me sustained. This has been my main staple so far but I have been increadibally brave at times when Jared orders the Peruvian special, I may try a bite (nibble) depending on how it looks. I fear that I will have to be alittle more bold when we go into smaller towns and the choices are not as good. Lima, Huaraz and now Cusco being larger cities actually have quite a large variety (can´t seem to get away from ¨pizza and pasta¨ which lures the gringos in from far and wide). Again though, this is still some form of cheese and bread. They eat a lot of chicken (whole chickens) and papas fritas (aka potatoe fries) which are good sustainence as well. Already missing the salads. I am on a constant hunt for ¨the burrito¨ but there has been so success so far. I´ll keep you posted.

Another thing I need to mention is this: Inca Cola- What is this stuff. It is everywhere. The locals drink it more than water and you see it at every meal on every table. It glows freakishly yellow, neon yellow, a bit like mountain dew but it tastes like bubble gum. I haven´t quite gotten a taste for it yet, but give me some time.

The Adventure Starts Here

2007-09-04T14:00:00.000-06:00

Hola! After a full travel day we are safe (and sound as our nerves will let us be)today in Lima. It could be the most grey and polluted city I've seen in a while. We landed at about 11:00 pm local time last night and took a taxi to the slightly nicer end of town called Miraflores. The hostile we're staying at was voted #2 in Latin America in 1995 so we're feeling pretty high society at the moment--although, our room does carry a mysterious, musty odor that stings the nostrils. There's no question though that we'll be in much dirtier places elsewhere on this journey.

Tomorrow morning we hop on a 7 hour bus ride to a small mountain town called Huaraz, in the Cordillera Mountains (part of the largest mountain range in the world aside from the Himilayas). If it's cold here in Lima we're definately going to freeze high up in the Andes. After a few frigid days up north we'll catch a bus back to Lima for our flight to Cusco on Saturday, and then a 5 day trek to Machu Picchu via a 14,000 ft pass. Brrrrrrrrr! Our hot Utah desert summer is already some 4,000 plus miles behind us.

The first day in a big, strange, non-English speaking city is always intense, and today was definately no exception. However, like good cheese, we will definately get better as time goes by.

Adios Amigos

2007-09-03T00:01:00.000-06:00

Wow, here we are with everthing packed and waiting by the door. T-minus 10 hours and counting... Tomorrow holds an early wake up, quick breakfast and then we are off to the airport. Pretty crazy, since neither of us really believed we could pull this off (or did we?). As we have been saying goodbye (or see you in a year) to everyone, we have realized that our people are the greatest! We will miss all of you and wish we could pack you all along, but as I mentioned before, my pack is not exactly large. Luckily, this email/blog stuff makes keeping in touch a cinch!

Love you all. Stay tuned, Peru is up next...

Adios USA!!

Trying to fit a small pile into smaller pack

2007-08-26T22:23:00.000-06:00

Um, Ok. I keep reading what those "wisened" ones who have gone before say, and I quote: "Pack what you actually need and then take out half."

To this I say, Bah! How in the world and that hot place below am I supposed to take out half of what I have packed so far. Meaning, do I cut the only pair of shorts in two and just take one leg? Do I only take half of my malaria pills and hope for the best?!

Warning, the next statment may have a bit of a stereotype involved. For a woman, I can pack small. Amazingly small and I am all the more happy when I can leave behind the blowdryer, the lipstick and the patent leather heels. I am in my happiest state when I am out in the middle of nowhere with no fashion police in site. With that said, I really don't think that the small ant hill of a pile that now sits on my mothers guest bed is a lot to pack for a whole year of travel. Nothing in my measly pile is of the sort that would be considered frivolus. No jeans, heaven forbid cotton, and absolutely no belts, bags or anything else that may add an element of style to this wardrobe that consists mainly of a polyester and nylon mix.

So, I catch myself staring at my pile. Hoping that if I win this staring contest, my pile will magically shrink or my pack will manage to grow just enough to allow that 4th pair of socks that could be so warm on our Pategonia trek. Still staring, I guess this is all part of the adventure; to leave it all behind while seeking a quieter more simple life (at least for the time being). So tomorrow I will re-arrange the pile yet again to see what half stays and what half is packed into my small, 3700 cubic inch mobile home. The home that will be carried on my back day after day, town after town. Tomorrow, I will attempt, once again, to remove the half that I need but don't get to take. Oh, parting is such sweet sorrow.

Down to the Wire

2007-08-24T18:05:00.000-06:00

We are officially homeless and jobless with about a week and a half before departure. We have successfully (we think) consolidated our lives to a few boxes of personal belongings that should sustain our existence for the next 11 months. The question that has no answer is: how do you pack for a year-long hiatus? If you're Shanon, you buy things, see how those things look with other things, take some things back, and start all over--a smart approach to try and pack right. If you're Jared, you procrastinate, like usual, buy a few mismatched items and hope for the best.

We've also been immunized to most known forms of disease that exist in a 3rd world country. After multiple visits to the health department for vaccinations, inoculations, prescriptions, and a half dozen or more painful pricks to the upper arm, we realized that besides packing personal belongings we would probably have to set aside 1/4 of our backpack space just for meds. Us westerners and our modern medicine.

The overall experience has been anything BUT pleasant with the people at the SL Valley Health Department. Besides acting extremely put out by the size of our itinirary, the nurse who we met with was 1) Not at all friendly and 2) Not at all helpful. In fact, we almost felt more confused, and definitely more angry after we left--thanks in part to the hefty price tag. Our recommendation for those with global travel ambitions is to take your business elsewhere. The uneducated, unhelpful and unfriendly staff at the SLVHD does not deserve your business. Grrrrr....

Anyway, as the 3rd of September quickly approaches the magnitude of this trip is starting to feel very real, and a tad bit overwhelming. What have we done? Where will we end up? Only time will tell.

It seems like only yesterday this was all a pipe dream. T-minus 9 days to the biggest reality check of our lives (and more interesting things to talk about than my discontent with the health department).

Escape 29 Part 1

2007-07-24T16:44:00.000-06:00

Oh yeah, Jared turned 30. He's an old man and still keepin' it real!

Thanks to all the friends and family for the birthday cheer and warm wishes as he entered a new decade. You're the best, we'll miss our people more than anything. (Come find us out there-Do it... do it!)

The Timer is Set.

2007-07-24T11:01:00.000-06:00

This is the look of commitment. About $6,000 worth to be exact.
$3,000 each for a whole year of travel.

Props to STA, they got us this super great deal.

Departure: September 3rd 2007
Destination: Lima, Peru

STA rules!

How to pick from what the world has to offer-

2007-06-28T22:55:00.000-06:00

Although we didn't want to be locked into a set itinerary, unfortunately we are quickly finding out that open ended flights are no longer an option (Thanks for nothing Osama). Therefore, we have come up with a rough draft so that we could move forward and purchase our plane tickets for the year. With that said, this is our plan (or lack thereof) and I guess we'll see how much this changes as our adventure marches on...

1. Start south of the border in a wonderful country called Peru. What we do there is unknown except, of course, to trek among the llama's and awe-inspiring Inca ruins of Macchu Pichu. From Peru, we head to Bolivia, Chile and Argentina, land of the Tango.

2. Leave Argentina for South Africa, a unexpected but exciting layover none the less. Lions and tigers and waterbucks oh my (yes, those really exist).

3. A stint in Sri Lanka and then on to India the enormous land of chaos and color and culture. Don't know where to start here so what the hell, we'll wing it. Stay tuned for more on India.

4. Moving on to Nepal. Here we will hopefully trek among the best of them (k-maybe not to the summit of Everest) but at least to a couple of tea houses in the Annapurna circuit. Yes, we may even get a few photos of the furry, yet elusive Yetti.

5. Finally, Southeast Asia where we will wander from Bangkok to Laos, China, Vietnam, Cambodia and to our final stop, Thailand, where we will end this crazy madness to sit on the beach, drinking mango shakes, contemplating the crazy things we've seen as the sun sets and possible wonder if we truly do want to leave it all behind to dive headfirst back into the "real world".
Stay tuned...

Enough of the Sentimental Stuff

2007-06-25T22:10:00.001-06:00

OK. Now that it has been explained what it is that we're doing, lets shift to the nitty-gritty state of affairs that have consumed our lives since we actually decidedto try and pull this off. As proud home owners of a 106 year old house in SLC, and since the equity from our fine abode is financing this trip(see photo of the cash cow on the right), let it be known that we've been slaving away like a madmen for the past month and a half to get things in order so that we can rent the place while we're gone.

During this time we've installed a new hot water cooler (thank you brother), replaced some plumbing in the dungeon (compliments of Wayne the unreliable plumber), hoisted a swamp cooler to the top of our two story house (by ourselves) and installed it, and trenched the back yard and installed sprinklers. The fun doesn't stop there, especially since we're t-minus two months and counting until departure, and far, far, far from being ready. I won't continue with the boring details of chores and slave labor in the yard--but there is a long list of stuff that still needs to happen. I think we've done more improvements on the house in the past 4 weeks than we did the entire summer of '06. Funny how we're making the place nicer and more reliable, just so we can leave. If any of you are looking for something fun to do on the weekends--well, you know where we live.

To Our Peeps

2007-06-25T21:29:00.000-06:00

If your reading this blog, at least at the time of these early entries, you probably know the story behind Shanon and Jared. Depending on how you know us you might say that we're crazy, lucky, adventurous, maybe a tad bit irresponsible (since we're both quitting our jobs)--or maybe you envy/despise the fact that we're actually pulling this off. Whatever your opinion is of our decision to ditch the throes of reality, you should know that we truly think we would be haunted with regret for the rest of our days on this earth if we didn't take this leap. Therefore, with all the good intentions of self preservation in mind we're off to see the people and places of the world before they're gone forever...

Don't worry though, we're pretty sure we'll come back.

The Beginning of Our Grand Scheme

2007-06-05T20:40:00.000-06:00

As ambitious world travelers with hardly any global travel under our belts, next to no money in the bank and the grandiose idea of pulling off something miraculous in our lives before strolling out of our 20's, the origins of this blog, and more importantly the basis of its contents, were created with you the viewer in mind.

Since traveling to Thailand in 2003, our ongoing conversations about traveling the world were typically grounded, as usual, by the realization that we lacked a substantial savings account and had a stark inability to tuck away any cash after payday. So instead, we continued to scrape by, make our mortgage payment, curse our low paying jobs, and continue to do what we did best--talk about big trips.

That all changed in January of this year, on a day that was seemingly like any other. As the contents of this humbe blog will describe, our lives are already undergoing drastic changes as we move closer to our anticipated departure in early September. If you think this sounds slightly interesting, make sure to tune in from time to time, and we'll do our best to keep the entertainment pumping.