There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays

Shawn and I were a little worried about spending the holidays without family this year, but it ended up being one of the best Christmas' ever.  We were in Bogota, about to take another overnight bus ride - on our way to visiting a couple of supposedly awesome places.  

We couldn't have cared less.  WE WERE EXHAUSTED. 

So... when we longingly searched for plane tickets from Bogota to Minneapolis for that same day, and the tickets were reasonable, -- because we were spent, and because it was Christmas -- we decided to actually look into the possibility of going home.  We called about the plane tickets that we had already purchased (Cartegena to Panama and Panama to FL) and when we found out that we could get a refund on one and change the other-- we did it!  For a surprisingly low out-of-pocket amount, that night we headed for the airport instead of the bus station.

It worked out perfectly that my best friend, Tausha, was down in Minneapolis and would be heading up north around the same time we were flying in and could give us a ride home.  Without a hitch (well... besides Shawn being taken away and interrogated at the Houston airport...) we were welcomed back to the States by two of my best friends around 24 hrs after making the decision to come home.

My poor mother...  She hates surprises.  Unfortunately for her, I absolutely LOVE them!!  She thought she was going to get away with not really dealing with Christmas this year.  The only decoration she put up was a Charlie Brown tree with a couple of branches that only had one ornament.

When we got to Park Rapids we found out she was going to be out of the house for a couple of hours - so Shawn had the great idea of sneaking in and putting up the Christmas tree!  The funniest part was that when she came home, it took her about 10 minutes to see the tree.  Shawn even decided to brush his teeth while waiting for her to notice it.  I will never forget her face, though, when we came running out.  Her priceless expression was complete incomprehension.  She thought I was a clone of myself, "because the real Steph was in South America and there was no way she could actually be standing in front of me."  No comprende!!  It was awesome.

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve with my family.  On Christmas Day it was time to drive down to Iowa to surprise Shawn's family!  We even stopped on the way to surprise Shawn's grandparents in Mason City.  Thankfully Grandma kept the secret and we made it to Cedar Rapids to surprise Shawn's parents!  We had a wonderful time in Iowa staying with Shawn's family until January 4th.  It was also great to reunite with our baby girl (dog), Molly!  We then flew down to Miami to meet my parents, keeping the plans we made for when we were originally supposed to come back to the States.

Our last full day in Florida is tomorrow.  We have had a great time!  We spent a couple days in Miami and then headed to Key Largo and Key West.  In Key West we were determined to visit Ernest Hemingway's house, go to the southern most point in the continental U.S., and also go to "The Original Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville". From the Keys we headed up to my parent's rental home in Venice, FL.  On Sunday we'll be flying back to Minnesota and back to reality!  It's definitely been a transition and I've had plenty of culturally shocking moments, but we're glad we're home.  I do have a bit more to tell you about our time in Colombia, though!

After Salento we went to Bogota and met up with Shawn's Aunt Mary's significant other's brother!  We had a fabulous time with Chris and ended up staying with him for a week when we originally only planned on being in Bogota for a couple nights.  We were planning on getting LASIK surgery in Medellin, but when Chris said, "Why not just get it done in Bogota and stay with me?"  It didn't take us long to jump on that offer.

Now, I honestly cannot tell you what I was thinking.  "Eye things" are my biggest fear.  If anyone attempts to get near my eyes I freak out.  I have exasperated eye doctors to the point of them practically kicking me out of their office.  So, when Shawn said, "I'm getting LASIK done in Colombia because it's cheap", why I thought I could join that bandwagon is besides me, other than it was such a great deal ($600 for both eyes!)!

Getting LASIK done in Colombia was definitely the most traumatic experience of my life.  Even Shawn said it was really freaky, and he doesn't easily freak.  There's no medicine involved to calm your nerves, like in the U.S.  They did give us tea, though!  Awesome.  Even though they numb your eye and you can't feel much, I will always  describe it as complete and utter painless torture.

When they walked me in and laid me down I immediately started having a panic attack.  When the doctor started coming at my eye with a sharp looking metal thing, I lost it.  They held me down and just kept repeating, "Tranquila!  Tranquila!"  ("Be calm!").  Ya right.

After several attempts and my panic and hyperventilating worsening, I screamed, "HABLA INGLES!?!?" ("DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH!").  After a dramatic pause, an angel/doctor came from the dark corner of the room and calmly said, "Yes, I speak English.  Don't worry.  You're going to be fine, but you have to stop hyperventilating or you're going to faint.  If you would like, I can tell you step by step what the doctor is doing during the procedure.  You also have to stop squirming around because if you keeping moving, the surgery will go very bad."

I can't even put into words the relief that I felt.  I know, for sure, that I wouldn't have been able to go through with the surgery unless that angel had shown up.  Even though she was there and was telling me step by step what the doctor was doing, I still almost fainted and still had to be held down.  I came out of that room completely drenched in sweat and uncontrollably shaking for quite some time.  I am so glad I got through it, though, and can see with supposedly 20/20 vision.  Other than our surgeries, our time in Bogota was spent going to follow-up appointments, visiting Chris' weekend home (the yacht club!), some hiking, cooking, and really enjoying our time with Chris and hearing all of his amazing stories from (what I refer to as) his 9 lives.  

I really wanted to blog and at least give this update, but there's a lot more we want to share.  Life has been nuts since we stepped foot back in the U.S. and it has been hard to find the time to blog.  If life gets in the way and we don't end up writing another post, we want to say thanks for following along on our journey. We've been so blessed to have had a dream realized and we hope the same for you!  

San Pedro Scare

PREFACE:  You might want to save this post for the john, 'cause it's a loooooooong one.

First off, I'd like to give a shout out to Ecuador.  Not once did any of us get sick!  Thank you for being hygenic.

Also, we have one month left!!!!!!!!!!  That is LOCO!!!  We are trying to enjoy every minute of our trip that we have left and also trying to contain our excitement of going home.

Now- for the rest of the story...

After Vilcabamba we went 6 hours north to the city of Cuenca which is known for it's colonial beauty and charm.  We spent 2 nights there and had a nice relaxed time roaming around town.  After Cuenca we headed towards Salinas.  We should've made it in one day but that didn't happen.  To make a long story short, we got on a bus to Guaranda which is where you catch a bus up to Salinas but we ended up a couple cities past Gauranda and got let off on the side of a highway, at night, and had to walk back to the city to catch a bus back to Gauranda.  By the time we got there we had to stay the night and continue to Salinas the next morning.  It all worked out, though.

Salinas is a cute little mountain village known for its great cheese, salami, and chocolate.  We tried it all and it was yummy!  We needed to leave after one night to make our way to the town of Banos where Shawn was going to drop me off in order to go to Quito to get our friend, Kevin.  When we got to Banos that evening we remembered it was Thanksgiving, so we went to a cute little world cuisine cafe and had a feast of our own.  We ordered nachos for an appetizer, Steph had falafal, hummus, and pita bread and Shawn had pad thai.  We also got milkshakes!  It came out to $18, which is an outrageous amount of money to spend on dinner in Ecuador, but hey- it was Thanksgiving.  

The next day Shawn left for Quito to pick up Kevin.  Because Kevin got in late that evening they stayed the night and came down to Banos the next day.  At the bus station in Quito, Kevin needed to use the restroom.  He wasn't aware that you have to pay to use public restrooms (annoyingly, that has been the case in almost, if not every, country we've been to).  He walked straight past the bathroom attendant and she immediately freaked out and started yelling after him, "Diez centivos!  Diez centivos!!!".  He thought that the lady was just trying to sell him something, so he didn't pay any attention to her.  Instead of Shawn just paying the attendant, he let her anger build in order to see what he knew was coming.  When Kevin walked right past her again, without compensation, she became livid and started screaming this time, "DIEZ CENTIVOS!!!!".  Shawn, laughing his head off, finally went over and paid the poor lady her 10 cents and then explained the situation to his very confused friend.

Back in Banos the first thing Shawn and Kevin did was set up the laptop to watch the Nebraska vs Iowa college football game which was super exciting for them since Kevin is from Nebraska and Shawn is from Iowa.  It was Saturday night, so we decided to try to go out and find some live music.  We were not having much luck roaming around Banos in our search, but we did find another girl doing the same thing as us.  Joining forces, we finally found a place with some guitarists playing and although it wasn't what we were hoping for we ended up having a great time and making a new friend, Cassie.  Cassie is working at a non-profit in Quito for three months.  Since we would be heading back to Quito in the near future, we made plans to meet up with her there.

Day two we hiked around the beautiful surroundings for several hours and then in the evening tried the famous thermal hot baths where the town got its name.  Unfortunately, the hot baths had the opposite effect we were hoping for due to the insane amount of people that were trying to fit into the pools.

Day three we woke up and immediately after breakfast went and booked a waterfall tour and the volcano tour.  The waterfall tour was first and the volcano tour was supposed to start at 9pm that evening.  Besides it raining for most of the tour, we enjoyed getting to see the numerous waterfalls that surround Banos and even getting to ride a cable car across a river valley to get up right next to the falls.  

When we got back to Banos we had some dinner and went back to the hostel to wait for the bus to pick us up for the 9pm volcano tour.  We started to get a little tired, though, and our enthusiasm for our second tour of the day was quickly dwindling but that changed drastically in one second...

At around 8:30pm Kevin came down to our room and said, "You guys.  You will NOT believe the e-mail I just got."  The e-mail was from the U.S. Embassy informing him that the volcano, Tungurahua, the one we were about to go up to, had erupted the day before!  We could not believe that we hadn't even heard a word about it, or that the hostel owners didn't even warn us that we might have to evacuate from the town!!  We were no longer tired, we were PUMPED.  We headed outside to stand in front of our hostel that instant so as to not miss our bus.  

An hour went by.  Nothing.  No bus.  Eventually I went back inside the hostel and convinced the worker (in my very broken Spanish) to call another tour bus to come get us because ours, by that time, was an hour late and obviously wasn't coming.  He called one and said, "Okay.  5 minutes."  A half hour later...nothing.  The hostel employee came up to our room and was trying to explain something in Spanish.  I assumed he was saying that, once again, we were being stood up.  He was saying that...but he was also trying to give us a very good reason why.  Once he took out his lighter and started lighting it and saying, "Ahora!  Ahora!" ("Now!  Now!") I finally got it.  The volcano was erupting this minute!!!!  He said we could get a taxi to take us to a look out point so we could watch.  We sprinted out of the hostel.

From where the taxi dropped us off, we could see lava spewing and hear the earth grumbling.  It was one of the most amazing things we have seen our whole trip, but we weren't completely satisfied.  We wanted to be closer!  From hiking the day before, we knew there was a huge hill with a great view of the volcano that we could make it to in about 20 minutes.  Once we decided to make the late night trek, Shawn started running.  Kevin and I followed behind as quickly as we could.  When we finally made it, the view wasn't much better, but the sound was amazing.  We stood there in awe until the volcano's temper subsided.  Soooo cool.

The next morning we left Banos for the small fishing village of Canoa, on the coast.  This is when Kevin got an essential backpacker experience.  The journey was 14 hrs all together, but we didn't make it all the way to the coast in one day.  We got stuck in a crap city in a SUPER crap hotel after traveling all day and not eating an actual meal for about 30 hrs.  All part of the experience.  Fortunately, for me, I don't remember one minute of this annoying journey or any of the bugs in our hotel room because I was over 2,000 miles away buried deep (and so happily) in the San Pedro prison in La Paz, Bolivia.  Okay, not physically, but 100% mentally.  If you love a good book, read:  Marching Powder, by Rusty Young and Thomas McFadden.  It was a completely fascinating true story about an English drug smuggler, San Pedro prison, cocaine and corruption.  If you don't like to read then Kevin, who brought us the book (thanks, Kev!!!!), said that Brad Pitt is producing the movie.  

Once we made it to Canoa, we enjoyed the beach, the Pacific Ocean, the seafood, relaxing, and catching quiz night at an expats restaurant (We lost by one point!!  Bummer!),.  The day we got into town, though, there was some sort of rodeo going on.  There were cowboys on horses everywhere, pageant girls walking around (Kev was upset that we missed the contest), and that night there was a fair with rides!!!  

At dinner we heard some travelers talking about the fair and especially about this one ride called, "The Double Dragon".  They were really going on and on about it, so right after dinner we decided to go see for ourselves what all the fuss was about.  Getting on the seemingly unassuming ride right after eating was a bad idea.  Shawn and I almost lost our dinners, but we sure had fun and the near loss was equally caused by laughing so hard.  The laughing didn't end there because after "The Double Dragon" Shawn and I hopped on the ferris wheel.  I kid you not, we were on that stupid thing for at least 20 minutes!!  Kevin said he felt like a pedophile standing by himself waiting for us to get off the ride!  Hahahahaha!  Sooo funny.  Every time the wheel went past the teenager running the thing, I would try to get his attention to tell him that we wanted off, but he was on his cell phone.  Maybe he forgot he put people on, but probably more likely he just didn't care.  That was, by far, the longest dollar we've ever spent.

From Canoa we took an overnight bus (another essential backpacker experience) to Quito.  Since I learned very early on in our trip to never set foot on a bus without earplugs, I slept pretty well.  Kevin and Shawn didn't have as much luck.  They BLASTED crazy, upbeat, salsa music the entire night.  We got in at 5 am, thankfully found a 24 hr hostel with beds (which we were also thankful for because it was Fiesta de Quito and the city was full) and crashed.  When we finally got up for the day, we met up with Cassie and explored Old Town, had dinner, and had some super yummy cider which was perfect for the cold and drizzly night that it was.  We headed back to New Town where there was some big concert going on, but instead of enjoying the fiesta we ended the night pretty early because we were still really tired and also because Kevin had to leave for the airport at 3:30 in the morning.  

Shawn and I wanted to head to Colombia right away because we've heard so many great things about the country and want as much time here as possible.  It was 5 hours to the border and then another 2.5 hours to a decent place to get stuck for the night.  About a million people were also trying to get a bus to Pasto so we thought we'd be out of luck, but we ended up getting a bus and arriving in Pasto at around 9:30pm.  We found a hostel and asked the owner if there was an ATM around.  He said, "Yes!  But don't go tonight.  If you need money, I will just lend you some!"  Amazing.  We were really starting to like Colombia.

The next day we wanted to get to the city of Popayan, which was supposed to be cool and only 6 hrs from Pasto.  It was 10am and the next bus was at 10:30am, so we bought tickets.  The bus didn't show until 11:00am.  The bus didn't move until 11:30am.  At 11:32am the bus was stopped by the police.  The police got on and checked I.D.s.  The police took both of our passports and said, "Un momento."  It is a really bad feeling to not have your passport in your possession.  While we waited for what seemed like an eternity, but was only about 30 minutes, the police got back on and gave our passports back.  We found out later that they took two foreigners off the bus and tried to scam them out of  $50 each because they didn't have a vaccination card, which they don't need in Colombia.  The travelers were fluent in Spanish and knew a doctor in town so when they told the police, "No problem, we'll just call Dr. So and So and get this figured out right away."  The police said, "Nevermind." and let the travelers back on the bus.  We finally left town at around noon.  

Six hours later the bus broke down.  Three hours later the bus was still broken down.  I was not about to be stuck on a stuffy broken-down bus all night, so Shawn and I got off the bus and for a half hour, in the rain (Thanks for the umbrella, Rob!), I tried to flag down every vehicle that passed us.  Finally a sweet old man pulled over.  Shawn, I, and an older gentleman from Alaska grabbed our bags, jumped in the car, and said, "Peace!".  

At 11pm we made it to a hostel in Popayan and were so thankful.  The older gentlman/angel got a hefty tip for the rescue, which he was anxiously waiting for when he dropped us off.  The Alaskan got a call from one of the other travelers on the bus a half hour after we got to Popayan saying that the radiator hose was still broken, and they were about to remove the hose from the bus toilet to see if that would work.  So thankful we got a ride!

Okay, I promise I'm almost done.  This morning I was sitting on the back porch of our rustic room in the small village of Salento, drinking unlimited free delicious Colombian coffee from the hostel's own plantation, grateful for my freedom.  This is why....

When we woke up in Popayan, for some reason (probably from exhaustion), our senses were so offended by the noise-level and the busyness of the city.  We were desperate to get somewhere quiet and peaceful.  Even though we didn't give Popayan a chance, we didn't care.  We got on a 7 hr bus to Armenia where we could catch another hour long bus up to the small, quiet, beautiful village of Salento.  

As soon as we got to Armenia we found the shuttle bus to Salento.  One must've just left, because we were the first ones to the shuttle.  A couple minutes after we arrived a sweet, smiley, old man came and stood next to us and tried to have a conversation.  When the bus doors opened, he wouldn't get on until we got on first.  How polite, I thought.  After sitting in the bus for a minute, the sweet, old, smiley man asked us if we would watch his bag.  Of course, no problem.  He got off the bus.  A minute later we saw him running back to the bus.  He got on and in a rush, he held out a 50,000 bill ($25) and was trying to ask us for change.  Shawn really liked this old man, so he took out a wad of bills, but he didn't have the right change for the man.  So, the old, sweet, smiley man just started taking bills out of Shawn's hand.  My defenses immediately went up and I started to say, "No.  No tengo.  No Espanol.  No tengo."  But he said, "Esta bien." ("It's okay.") and took what he had already pulled from Shawn's hand, which was about $5, and then hurriedly ran off the bus.  Now, getting change for large bills is a problem in every South American country that we've been to.  But, I had never experienced someone taking both their bill AND the other person's bills.  I asked Shawn, "What in the world!?"  Shawn said, "Don't worry!  I trust him.  Plus, he's obviously coming back.  He left his bag here."  I said, "Okay, okay."  

Five minutes went by...Ten minutes...no guy and the bus driver started the engine.  15 minutes, no guy, and the bus is pulling out.  I start freaking out.  Do we tell the bus driver to stop and wait?  We don't know how.  So off we go.  The bag is a laptop case, so I open it up to see what's inside and if there's five bucks in there.  Hey- that's our dinner money!  All I find is a plastic bag with a couple pieces of clothing inside.  This is where the scare of the book, Marching Powder, and the scare of San Pedro prison came in.  I thought, "Okay, was this just a mistake or was this a scam?"  I immediately assume it was a scam.  Shawn and I go through the chain of events and he eventually agrees with me.  This was a scam.  THEN, I start thinking outloud, "This laptop case is probably lined with cocaine, and now my fingerprints are all over everything!  This is probably a much bigger scam then we had originally thought!  The police are probably waiting for us in Salento, and as soon as we get off the bus, I'm going to jail for the rest of my life or have to pay off the police with thousands of dollars!  My fingerprints!!!"  I am actually starting to hyperventilate, but trying to laugh this ridiculousness off.  Shawn and I keep looking at each other and nervously laughing, but we're both thinking the same thing:  "This is ridiculous, but what's even more ridiculous is that this is the kind of stuff actually happens!" and also, "What are we going to do with this bag?"  

We made the decision at the last second.  The first stop in Salento Shawn said, "Let's get off the bus."  I whispered, "Should I take the bag or leave it?  TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT!!??"  He said, "TAKE IT!".  I grabbed the laptop case and we immediately stepped off the bus and started walking.  We walked for a couple of blocks and then stopped to take in our surroundings and to see if anyone was watching us or if police were coming after us.  It was dark, so we had to look really carefully for any hidden persons.  Once we kept going, we came across a dark stairwell, and I threw the bag in!  We looked around to see if anyone saw us.  We don't think so.  But our fingerprints are still on the plastic bag inside!  We decide that whoever uses that stairwell next will find the bag and get their fingerprints on it, which will then make it hard to prove that the bag is for sure ours.  We get to the hostel, and find it very hard to relax, but finally we do.  I was just waiting for the police to knock on our door.  That is why, after breakfast this morning and having multiple policemen walk past us without handcuffing us.  I finally calmed down, enjoyed the amazing view & coffee and was grateful for my freedom.  We're sure now that there were no drugs involved and that our minds were still buried in San Pedro Prison.  

Our next step is Bogota where we're excited to meet and stay with Eric Hansen's (Shawn's Aunt Mary's super significant other) brother, Chris.  After Bogota, maybe we'll get lasik surgery in Medellin, and then head to Cartegena, the most romantic city in the country.  Then hopefully more on the Caribbean coast before we somehow get to Panama City for our flight HOME!!!!!!!

Chao!!!

A Vicious Cycle

Buenos tardes!  It's actually Shawn's turn to write, but he's being lazy!  So, maybe if I start writing it'll motivate him to take over.

So...our friend, Rob, met us in Cuzco on Nov. 3rd and on Nov. 4th we had to hit the road towards Machu Picchu!  We took a bus to Ollantaytambu and then took a train to Aguas Calientes which is the closest town to access Machu Picchu.

The next morning we woke up and had a nice breakfast before taking the bus up to Machu Picchu.  It was cool because halfway up we saw MP from the bus and everyone was tripping over each other trying to get pictures while the bus is doing switchbacks up the mountain.  It was daunting because we saw Wayna Picchu soaring above MP, and Shawn and I were minutes away from climbing it.

Oh, it worked!  Here he comes!

Hey everybody!  Steph touched on this, but didn't really paint the whole picture of how convoluted it was to book the trip to MP and how many steps were involved.  Cuzco is thought to be the jumping off point for MP, however you can't actually go directly from Cuzco to MP using one form of transportation.  We had to walk a little more than a mile to a side street in the middle of a Cuzco neighborhood that was not near any of Cuzco's major attractions.  The bus ride was 1.5 hours to Ollantaytambo.  Then we had to take a train for 1.5 hours which took us to MP's closest town, Aguas Calientes (meaning hot water in English because of the hot springs located there).  Are we there yet?  No.  We then had to take a bus another 6 miles to get up to MP.

MP was great (check the pics).  It was understandable that it remained hidden for centuries after it was abandoned because it was located between higher peaks on all sides.  Several other travelers that had previously visited MP had told us that it was raining a lot up there and it made us a little nervous about the weather.  It turned out to be a perfect day and we had a great time wandering around MP and climbing WP.  Our return journey was a repeat from above, however due to train availability we were forced to start at 9:30pm from Aguas Calientes and didn't arrive back in Cuzco until 1am.

After sleeping in and relaxing (I was nursing, yet again, another stomach problem) the next day we were ready for our trip into the jungle.  We took an 11 hour overnight bus ride from Cuzco to Puerto Maldonado.  Groggy from the practically sleepless night, we stepped of the bus and were greeted by Tony our tour guide and blazing hot and humid weather.  PM is close to the amazon region in Peru, but not quite there so we took a 5 hour boat ride upriver to our rustic jungle lodge, El Gato.  El Gato was nicer than I had imagined and boasted running water and decent sleeping lodges.  The electricity was provided by a generator that powered a fridge and a few lights, but only for a couple hours in the evening.  Our jungle activities began later that evening with a freaky late night hike in the dense amazonian jungle.  We heard several noises and I didn't really care to know where they were coming from or what was making them.  I was smart because Tony and Rob were up front and Steph was in back, leaving me comfortably in the middle of the pack.

Our second day was full of activities including a very early morning hike to see hundreds of parakeets and a few macaws gathered at a clay lick.  After breakfast Tony, Steph, and I went piranha fishing while Rob had his turn with a stomach problem.  Our competition ended in a stalemate as all three of us caught one piranha.  The piranhas didn't seem as monstrous as they're made out to be, but they do have some seriously sharp teeth on their lower jaw and a saw like device on their bellies so that they can saw their prey into smaller chunks for easier devouring!  After lunch and some hammock time, we took the boat downriver to tour the organic farm that provided all of our lodge's food along with 10 other lodges within the Baltimore community.  After dark and before dinner, we got back on the boat and headed out on the river in search of caimans which are reptiles in the alligator family that grow up to 8 feet long.  Our crazy guide had the bright idea of trying to catch a caiman with his bare hands.  He almost got one that looked to be about 3 feet long.  He finally gave up after a couple hours with the excuse that the moon was too full for catching them and took us back for dinner.  The next morning we boarded the boat and headed back for PM so that we could catch our flights to Lima.

We hadn't heard many good things about Lima and were happily surprised with the Miraflores neighborhood we ended up staying in.  Our hostel overlooked a nice park area that was lined with restaurants and shops.  We were anxious to get to the beach, so after one night in Lima we took another overnight bus ride up the north coast to the beach town of Mancora.

We searched for about an hour for a nice hotel that would fit our budget and ended up at Costa Blanca which was a treacherous 20-30 minute tuk tuk ride on Vichayito beach south of Mancora.  We were lucky because it was the time of year when humpback whales were passing through the area.  Our top floor rooms/balconies provided us a perfect place to view the spectacular whale shows the first 3 evenings.  They were slapping their fins, jumping out of the water, and smashing their flukes (tails) on the water.  Steph evened up the score on stomach problems at one each when she got sick on the 3rd day at Costa Blanca.  Other than Steph getting sick, we thoroughly enjoyed our 5 days of beach time and our time with Rob.

We parted ways with Rob on November 16th and Steph and I headed for Ecuador.  Three bus rides and 18 hours later we found ourselves in Vilcabamba, Ecuador.  Our hostel in Vilcabamba was more like a resort set on a mountain hillside that had incredible views of the town.  Steph had been waiting for the perfect place to go horseback riding, and that perfect place was Vilcabamba.  We went on a 4 hour horse ride through the mountains and realized the next day that we should have only gone for about half that time.  We could barely move the next day because we were so sore and we just ended up nursing our sore muscles back to movable condition.  I didn't have a problem with that because I got the opportunity to watch Iowa beat Purdue online.  I don't think Steph had too much of a problem with it either because she used the down time to get a facial in the hostel's spa.

We're getting excited for another visit as Kevin Henry will be joining us on the 25th for a 10-day vacation around Ecuador.  Well, I should say a 9-day vacation because if you've been paying attention the chances of Kevin having a stomach problem for a day is about 100%.  Before he arrives Steph and I will be visiting the village of Salinas which is known in Ecuador for producing good chocolate and cheese.  Yum.

Hasta Luego!

Bummin' it in Bolivia

Hola!  I'm gonna warn you right away that this post is going to be a bit boring because we were big lazy bums in Bolivia...

From Calama, Chile we got up at 5am for our 6am bus ride to Uyuni, Bolivia.  When we got to the bus that morning I immediately became nervous.  Every single passenger had big, huge, thick blankets with them.  It was freezing out, but I was hoping the bus would be heated.  Everyone else knew better.  By the time we got to Uyuni I thought I had for sure lost a couple fingers and toes to frost bite.   There was no road from Calama to Uyuni.  We just cruised through the desert, which to the dismay of our respiratory systems meant a lot of dust coming in the bus.  Shawn and I used our eye masks to cover our noses and mouths to try to keep from breathing in all the dust.  When we got off the bus in Bolivia we were covered from head to toe in dirt.

At the border of Chile and Bolivia the Bolivian immigration would not stamp us in because there was, yet again, another reciprocal fee.  This time it was $135 each.  For some reason they wouldn't take our money at the border and told us to get our visas in Uyuni.  Since Bolivians aren't concerned with time and/or business, we were illegal for like 3 days until the office decided to open.

Uyuni is a dead, dirty, and dusty little nothing town that I doubt anyone would visit if it wasn't for Salar de Uyuni- the worlds largest salt flat, which is about 25 km from the town.  We took a day tour of Salar de Uyuni, which was really cool, but after that we were quick to get out of town.

Ok, bear with me, in case someone comes across this post because they're reading about going between Uyuni and La Paz, or in case any of you visit Bolivia, please please do yourself a favor and do not take the bus between Uyuni and La Paz!!!!  It was, by far, the WORST bus ride of our 9 months on the road.  It was a 12 hr overnight bus ride, which we are very much used to, but for the first half of the trip we drove on rocks.  We were shaking in our seats so violently that I thought my brain was going to shake loose and start oozing out of my ears.  Sorry if that's a bit grotesque, but I'm not kidding.  It was so so bad.  Then the second half of the trip was so cold that sleeping was impossible-- and they even provided blankets.  Please, just take the train.  Take the train.  Take the train.

In La Paz we enjoyed a few days of getting winded zigzagging around the very steep cobblestone streets looking at all the cool handicrafts.  We also found this great restaurant that had a really amazing salad bar and so we ate there a couple times.  The 2nd time we were in, the owners (a father and son) were celebrating because their good friend was visiting from France.  They invited us to join them and since they were some of the first people we came across that knew quite a bit of English we were happy to join them and finally feel like we were getting to know some locals.  The whole group was really nice and incredibly generous with us.  The only weird thing is that the father kept going on and on about Shawn and I needing to immediately have kids and he also kept calling me Sacagawea...  But other than that it was a good time.  Just really quick... if you plan on traveling around South America, we would really recommend learning Spanish first.  Without being able to communicate, you can't really connect with the people which is really hard for us (although, so far a lot more people know some English in Peru!).

Anyway, from La Paz we went north a few hours to the small mountain town of Coroico.  We wanted a small, quaint, quiet, and peaceful town and heard Coroico would be the perfect place.  Of course, once we got there it happened to be the 200 year anniversary of the town and there was a non-stop celebration that didn't end until about our 3rd day there.

It was about 3 or 4 in the afternoon when we arrived in Coroico and already the men were passed out on the street and the women weren't far behind.  I don't think we've ever seen so many completely obliterated people.  Needless to say- it was a bit disturbing, so we walked about 20 minutes out of town to an amazing hostel, run by a couple of French expats, with an amazing room that had an amazing balcony with a breath taking view!!  Drunk Bolivians made us feel "on-edge" so we stayed out of town as much as possible until the celebration died down.  It was so nice and peaceful at our hostel that it was just too easy to stay.  There was a great couple from Austria that were staying next to us, and some nice hikes around Coroico, but really- we just spent the majority of our time relaxing and enjoying each other and the view.  I think we spent 6 or 7 nights there, but after that many days we were ready for a hot shower and internet.  Oh my gosh, I almost forgot.  One bad thing, Coroico was swarming with these things called sand flies (that's what the Austrian couple called them).  They completely devoured us and, let me tell you, I have never experienced anything as itchy as their bites.  Shawn had to swat my hands away because I was like a little kid who has no self-control and scratched and scratched until I drew blood.  We were so covered in bites that it looked like we had chicken pox...  Now I have huge gouges on my legs from the scratching...  I pray we don't run into them again, although we were warned that they're in Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia...

From Coroico we took a bus back to La Paz and then immediately boarded another bus to Copacabana which is a town situated on Lake Titicaca and right on the border of Peru.  We thought we had hit the jackpot when we found our hotel.  It was brand-spankin' new with huge rooms that each had a balcony looking over Lake Titicaca.  It also had wifi, hot water, AND breakfast was included!  It is seriously hard to find all these things in one place for a reasonable price.  Jackpot, right?  Wrong.

They neglected to tell us that the hotel was still under construction.  Bolivians are not very hygienic/sanitary so I was just getting over being sick from something I ate, plus I had this horrible headache that, for days, would not go away- and Shawn got sick as a dog right away in Copacabana from something he ate.  Up all night throwing up kind of sick.  SO, we both really needed to rest and get better but construction workers showed up every morning and pounded and pounded every day, all the live long day.  The wifi rarely worked.  The lady at breakfast would yell, "Uno pan!" ("One piece of bread!") and then she would walk over to the dish of cut up fruit and pick up each piece with her fingers and then set it back down in the dish (we ended up never eating the fruit because of this, which is why we wanted two pieces of bread!!)!!  It was just funny how disappointing it was when our first impressions were so good.

By the time we left Copacabana we were so ready to get out of Bolivia and into Peru.  One really cool thing about Bolivia, though, is that out of the countries we have been to- it is the least influenced by Westernization which was really refreshing.  People, especially the women, still dress very traditionally in shiny layered skirts, shawls, braids, and bowler hats.  They also usually carry big loads of stuff in colorful blankets on their backs.  They listen to their own music and live much of the same way as I imagine they lived a hundred years ago.  It was cool to see.  I have to say, though, they didn't really seem that happy.  Almost immediately upon entering Peru we could feel a big difference.  The people were nicer, more friendly, they smiled more, they were more helpful, etc.  Strange.

So....one reason we took our time in Bolivia and spent a lot of time relaxing is because our friend, Rob, is meeting us tomorrow and spending two weeks with us in Peru!!!!!  We are going to be very busy- going to Machu Picchu, into the Amazon for a few days, and traveling around the rest of Peru!  After Rob leaves we'll make our way up to Ecuador where our friend, Kevin, is meeting us!  We are very excited, but we will be busy busy so that is one reason why we took advantage of the opportunity to rest up before our upcoming adventures.  Another reason is because we're just plain TIRED!!!!!!!!

Oh- we bought our plane tickets home!  We're flying from Panama City to Miami on January 5th where we'll meet my parents and enjoy Florida together for about a week.  Then after a couple days in MN we'll head down to Iowa to see Shawn's family for a week and pick up Molly, our dog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Very excited for the rest of our trip, but we will be so ready to go HOME!


 

Back to the Wild, Wild Western Hemisphere

Hello everyone.  I realize it's been a long time since the last blog and I wish I had a good excuse.  I don't.  I'll make up for the lapse by making this ridiculously long and boring.  Here goes...

The last blog was written on our way to Cape Town which was the end of our South African adventure.  The final drive to Cape Town was amazing.  It included a 9km stretch of highway along the Atlantic Coast between Noordhoek and Hout Bay that was absolutely stunning.  The drive has Chapman's Peak (a small mountain south of Cape Town) to the east and the Atlantic Ocean to the west.  It is one of the most beautiful drives I've ever taken.  We arrived in Cape Town later that evening and headed straight for a hostel as it was getting dark.  Being out after dark is a very bad idea in most of South Africa.  You might think that we're just pampered tourists by saying that, but even the South Africans were scared of the dark.  We had multiple warnings throughout our time there, including a radio announcement advising people not to be out after the sun goes down and the criminals roam freely.  In fact, most of the stores close by 7pm and the people are usually in bed by 8-9pm.  We only had one bad experience in the night, and that experience led us to spend several hours in the Cape Town police station.  Luckily, we weren't present for the incident.  Our rental car was broken into and the radio was stolen.  Of course, it happened on the last night we had the car.  We're still waiting to see how much it's going to cost us.

Other than the break-in, our time in Cape Town was enjoyable.  The city sits on the Atlantic Ocean and is surrounded by mountains, making the scenery gorgeous.  We spent a day climbing Table Mountain which was just 2km from where we were staying.  Now I have to brag a little...we did the climb in roughly half the time the guides suggested it would take (and Steph was admittedly slow).  It wasn't that long of a climb, but it was very steep.  The rest of our time in Cape Town was spent wandering around the city, visiting museums, recovering from the climb (I'm 31 now...getting old), and hanging out at our hostel.  Time for continent #5.

Our Malaysia Airlines flight across the Atlantic was really nice (similar to Steph's description of Qatar in the last post).  We managed to get some good sleep on the plane after studying our South America guidebook and were suddenly found ourselves wide awake with the 50-100% inflation and a $140 "reciprocal" fee each upon arrival.  I guess our year old Lonely Planet guidebook is already obsolete.  We flew into Buenos Aires and instantly loved it as we shuttled our way to a hostel.  The old and new architecture (European and other) combined together was really nice and the city just gave off a great vibe.  After dropping our stuff we walked over to the Sunday Antique Market and found ourselves engulfed in people and handicrafts.  The market is a once-a-week deal and it was amazing how many people came out for it.  The main street of the market was at least a mile long and was crammed full of people.  Our walk through concluded with a couple doing a free tango show in the middle of a plaza.  I may have to take some dance lessons soon because Steph was really loving it.  I'd hate to lose her to one of these long haired, fancy-footed Latin American guys.

On a side note, Steph and I both took a couple years of Spanish in high school.  We haven't really had a problem communicating with people in any other places yet and we weren't expecting a problem.  South America has proved the hardest place to communicate yet.  In the other parts of the world we visited there was usually a good amount of people who spoke enough English to get by.  Most of the people we've come across in South America don't speak English at all and they talk so fast that we can't understand any of their Espanol.  Plus, it's a lot different than the Mexican Spanish we attempted to learn.  Wish us luck.

Argentinians and the young backpackers seemed to be on the complete opposite sleeping schedule as we were.  Our jet-lag prevented us from the usual BA schedule of eating dinner anywhere from 10pm-12pm and then dancing the night/morning away until 6am.  So, I guess we didn't get the full BA experience, but we did get our money's worth for the beds we were paying for, unlike everyone else.  We left BA after four nights and took a bus to Puerto Iguazu.

Puerto Iguazu is the town closest to the Argentinian side of Iguazu Falls, which is a group of massive waterfalls that are said (by Argentinians, of course) to dwarf Niagara Falls.  They were as spectacular as advertised, however the weather didn't hold out too long for us.  On our way to the top of the Argentinian side of the falls the temperature dropped severely and a thunderstorm broke out.  We traversed the long walkway over the river and out to the top of the falls anyway.  We stayed just long enough to get a few pics and made our way back to town completely drenched and frozen.

Another overnight bus ride took us to Cordoba, which according to Lonely Planet, is supposed to be the cultural heart of Argentina.  We spent most of a day there (my 31st Birthday) then decided to hop on another overnight bus to Mendoza which is on the western side of the country.

Mendoza is a really nice city and it's in the middle of Argentina wine country.  We decided that a trip to Mendoza wouldn't be complete without a wine tour.  We splurged and booked a gourmet wine tour that taught us all about the wine making process and ended with a 5-course gourmet lunch paired with wine.  The tour was great and the food and wine pairings were even better.  After a few days there, guess what...yep, another bus trip.  This time we crossed the border into Chile and were dropped off in the capital city of Santiago.

The bus took us through the Andes and we enjoyed some beautiful mountain views and even some snow.  Santiago was nice, but we were a little more cautious as there were several universities near the area we were staying and the students have been protesting and going on strike off-and-on for a little while.  I guess the strikes have been met by the government with some brutal treatment, so we decided to just take it easy for a couple days, see a few things, and then make our way to the coastal town of Valparaiso.  Hills jump right out of the coast in Valparaiso and most of the city is built into the hillsides.  One traveler said that it reminded her of San Francisco, but we've never been there to confirm the comparison.  The hills made our long and steep walk to find a hostel from the bus station very interesting.  I was really feeling good about the Table Mountain hike before, but Valparaiso has humbled me again.

We had our first "small world" experience in Valparaiso with the above mentioned traveler.  She happened to have graduated physical therapy school with our good friend, Fuzz (Kristin Johnson), and was traveling South America after working in Peru for a year.  The girl she was traveling with was from Minnesota (who had also lived in Portland, OR which was another connection with Steph) and her college roommate was from Cedar Rapids.  We became instant friends with them and had a great couple of days hanging out before we parted ways.  It's a small world.

I guess you're lucky, this blog wasn't as long as I thought it would be.  It's probably as boring as I thought though.

We're leaving Valparaiso tonight and taking another 20+ hr bus ride to the desert in the north of Chile.  Soon we'll find a way over the Andes again and into Bolivia.

It shouldn't be as long of a gap between blogs next time, but if it is it'll be Steph's fault.  

Don't forget to check out the pics!  I want to get my hair cut because I think it looks ridiculous, but Steph disagrees.  Let's be democratic here...cut it or keep it?

Asia to Africa

Wow.

Asia to Africa was a huge change.  A huge dollar sign change.

Simple meal in Asia? $1. Simple meal in South Africa? $5-$10. A room in Asia? Anywhere from a few dollars for basic to $15 for air conditioning and satellite TV. A room in South Africa? Anywhere from $40 to infinity.

We have been living off of peanut butter sandwiches, oranges, and carrots and sleeping in our rental car. Oh- and the price to sleep in our car? Between $17-$30. No joke. We can't just park anywhere and sleep because it's not safe, so we have to pay a hostel to "camp" on their property.

It was much cheaper for us to rent a car than to buy bus tickets (over $700 for 2 tickets for 2 weeks!!), so it has been nice to have the freedom of going where we want, when we want, and being able to sleep in the car has saved us a lot of money.

Oh, and we haven't been able to blog because internet is about $15 per hour! In Asia it was $1 an hour or 99% of the time it was free at your hostel... We're finally camping at a hostel that has free wifi, which I profusely thanked the owner for.

All this has made us realize how amazing Asia is. So cheap. So wonderful and cheap.

Speaking of Asia, we spent our last couple weeks there just putzing around Northern Thailand, spending most of our time in the hippy mountain village of Pai. A couple of highlights were the night markets in Chiang Mai, our $10 two hour thai massages, eating as much durian (Shawn) and pineapple (Steph) as we could consume, and satisfying my mom's dream for us to ride an elephant : )

We spent 'one night in Bangkok' (that song was in my head for days) where we decided to splurge and stay at a fancy hotel. The room was a whoppin' $60 for the night, which is a little bit less than a week's budget for accommodation, but a great price for a room at a resort. Then we were off to South Africa.

Ok, if anyone ever has the chance to fly with Qatar Airlines- do it!!! It was the most extravagant flight we've ever taken. Before our flight we rushed to grab subs from the Subway in the airport. We brought the sandwiches on board and were wondering why people were giving us strange looks. The looks were because we were served FOUR meals on the two flights from Bangkok to Johannesburg! Also there were wide screen tvs on each seat that had over 200 movies and a ton of games! It was a-maz-ing! We didn't want to get off the airplane. All that and more was included with our coach class tickets. We can't even imagine what first class is like.

When we arrived in Johannesburg we picked up our rental car and started driving. We heard from a fellow backpacker that Blyde River Canyon was nice, so we headed there. After leaving the canyon it was time for us to find a place to stay. This is when we starting freaking out. We checked all the guesthouses in town, and they all quoted us around $70 for the night. The caravan park wanted $30 for us to sleep in our car.  Thankfully, we talked down one of the hotels to give us a room for $50 and then cried ourselves to sleep. Not really, but I wanted to! Since then almost every night has been spent in the car.

 We really wanted to do a safari at Kruger National Park, but that would've cost around $1500 so we didn't. Instead we drove ourselves through a smaller park called Mkuze Game Reserve for $15 : ). We saw a lot of spring bok, water bucks, baboons, zebras, buffalo, and even some hippos chillin' in a lake. No cats : (

Another highlight has been staying at a guesthouse in Durban on Warner Beach where we hit it off with the owners, Nel and Will.  One of the days we were there, they had a big get together and a braai (BBQ) for the South Africa vs Whales Rugby World Cup game which was the funnest day we've had in the country so far.  We came as strangers and left good friends.

We have to get to Cape Town by the 20th to turn in our rental car, so we pretty much have been driving along the coast every day so that we make it there in time. Once we get there, we'll have 5 days before we fly to Buenos Aires. There's quite a bit to do in Cape Town, so it will be nice to be settled somewhere and have time to do some activities.

 One of the best things about South Africa besides the beautiful scenery has been the weather! It is spring time! We've been constantly sweating for months and months, so (besides freezing in the car at night) we are loving the fact that we get to wear jeans, hoodies, jackets, and beanies! 

Laos Adventures

Steph and I were really nervous heading into Laos from Vietnam. We had read horror stories of appalling bus scams and scandalous border crossing problems. It turned out to be HORRIBLE, just kidding it was actually a breeze. So, after our shockingly comfortable 20 hour bus ride we found ourselves in the capital of Laos, Vientiane.

Vientiane has a population of around 750,000 people, but you would never know it. We arrived on a Sunday and the city was like a ghost town. All shops were closed, only a few restaurants were open, and there was hardly any traffic. We thought it might just be because it was Sunday, but Monday wasn't much different. It was less busy than Steph's home town of Park Rapids, MN (population around 4,000). It was an easy decision to leave the city after one night.

On Monday morning, we took a minibus north to Vang Vieng. The trip should've taken 4 hours, however we were delayed by several landslides covering half of the road and at one point there was a recovery attempt in process for a large truck that had driven off the road. The small town of Vang Vieng is situated on the Nam Song river and is famous among backpackers for its tubing adventures. Adventure is the right word for our tubing experience. It is wet season in Laos and we now have a very good understanding of what that means. The weather was looking fine as we were renting our tubes and piling into the truck to head to the starting point. Halfway to the starting point a thunderstorm rolled in. It didn't seem to bother anyone else, so we figured it would be fine. By the time we got to the river it was downpouring and the current of the river was incredibly fast. We waited until we thought the lightning had passed and then took the plunge. There were large hills on one side of the river making the scenery that we were tubing through so beautiful. The companies that rented the tubes weren't organized very well. The only thing they told us was to have the tubes back to them before 6pm. There were no signs for the ending point and it wasn't obvious where to get out of the river. Also, the current was so fast that it was almost impossible to get from one side the river to the other on the tubes. We knew that the town was going to come up on the left side of the river, so we tried our best to stay on that side. We finally decided that we'd gone far enough and we were lucky that there were some young kids on the side of the river to help swim us back to shore on our tubes. It obviously wasn't going to be a free service with the kids, so we gave them some Kip and everyone was happy. Other than tubing , partying (Steph had a good quote about the partying..."You're only young once, and we're not young anymore") and watching reruns of Friends and Family Guy in every restaurant, there wasn't much else to do in Vang Vieng. Next stop Luang Prabang.

Luang Prabang is said to be the most beautiful city in SE Asia and it is definitely beautiful. The city was formed where the Nam Khan and Mekong rivers meet. We enjoyed relaxing there for a few days. We spent some time walking around to see some temples and the palace. The best part of LP for us, besides the night market, was enjoying dinners next to the river as the sun set behind the hills along the opposite river bank.

Another minibus ride took us to another beautiful Laos village, Nong Khiaw. We had an amazing bungalow directly on the Nom Ou river. There wasn't much to do there, so all of the tourists would get together at the main restaurant in town and lounge around talking. The one attraction the town boasted was a cave a couple km's away. We walked there one afternoon with an American couple (we haven't run into many Americans on our journey, so it was a nice treat) and on the way we were stopped by a truck with guards blocking the road. As we were walking up to the truck we heard and felt an enormous explosion that shook the ground and echoed through the entire valley.

We learned that the men were exploding undetonated bombs that were dropped by the Royal Laotian Air Force and the U.S. during the "Secret War." As I understand it, the Vietnamese people occupying northern Laos were stationed near Nong Khiaw and were using the area as a part of a supply chain to the North Vietnamese army during the Vietnam War. Thousands of bombs were dropped in the area and for a couple of years the villagers were forced to relocate into the cave near town for safety. Nowadays, several undetonated bombs are exploded everyday in order to make the land safer for farming and living.

The American couple clued us in on our next adventure which was The Gibbon Experience. The Gibbon Experience office is based in the town of Huay Xai which is on the border of Laos/Thailand. It worked out perfectly because our plan after Laos was to enter northern Thailand. Other than some organizational and administrative problems with the company, the experience was absolutely amazing. The 2 day/1 night trip in the jungle consisted of trekking, zip lining, and sleeping in a treehouse (has always been a dream of Steph's) a couple hundred feet above the Bokeo Nature Reserve. The zip lining was incredible! There were about 25-30 different zip lines and the average length was about 1/3 of a mile long, the longest being just under 1/2 a mile. There were 6 of us on the tour and 2 guides. We would zip line directly in and out of our treehouse and the guides would zip line our meals in. It was an unforgettable experience. In fact, Steph was ready make a permanent move to Laos and become a master zip liner.

Next we entered Thailand again and headed to Chiang Rai, which is where we are currently. We found a really nice hotel (probably the best room we've stayed in on the trip) along the river. Our room/bungalow has a porch that is about 20 feet up from the river bank. We've been relaxing here for a couple of days and are planning on moving south to Chiang Mai tomorrow.

We have just under 2 weeks left in Asia and then we're off to South Africa!