Otras Perspectivas: Our SA Adventure

2006-07-30T13:15:00.000-07:00

Toda Bom

Guest blog by Nick Coder

Walter Brown (aka Wally, World, Duck, Ducky, and most likely a few others) and I met Jon and Kristen for the final two weeks of their SA excursion. While Jon and Kristen were hoping to gain another perspective through which to view their life and their relationships, as well as each another, Wally and I were hoping to gain a few darker shades on our tan. I'm happy to report Mission Accomplished.

We started in Rio. Wally and I got in early Saturday July 15, with Jon and Kristen expected later that night. Without their guidance, Wally and I ended up eating dinner at the Irish Pub. We noticed a number of Indian and Mexican dishes on the menu. I thought it might be ironic to have Mexican food in the Irish pub in Brazil. So we had steak. Jon and Kristen met up with us and for the next few days, we took in all of the tourist sites in Rio (beaches, Christ the Reedemer, beaches, Sugarloaf, beaches, Maracana - the largest soccer stadium in the world, and beaches) and then headed to Paraty, a great beach town between Rio and Sao Paulo.

We started with a bike ride and hike, which led to this:

The following day, we hired a boat operator, who looked suspiciously like Vin Diesel, shown here:

We spent much of the boat tour on the top of the boat, which had a pillow-top deck shown here. Please note Wally in the background giving the Brazilian(/international?) sign for Life Ain't Bad. Also note Jon and Kristen working to put lunch together, while Wally and I do not:

Also seen on the pier at Paraty were Jimmy Buffett and Mark Gastineau. Apparently, Paraty is a big celebrity hideout.

From Paraty, we took a lovely 16 hour bus ride to Iguacu Falls. They are said to rival Niagara Falls and Victoria Falls. You can make your own judgement:

In addition to the Falls, there was a nice nature walk where wildlife was supposedly on display. We were greeted on the trail by this sign:

Clearly, the sign was referring to this:

From the Falls, we then took a 41 hour, 8 leg trip that ended up in Ilha Grande, an island off the coast of Rio. For those keeping score at home it went like this: Cab from Puerto Igassu, Argentina to Foz do Iguacu, Brazil; Bus from Foz to Curitiba; Train from Curitiba to Morretes (very scenic - we took probably 60 pics. Draw your own conclusions based on the fact that none of the pics made the blog); bus from Morretes back to Curitiba; bus from Curitiba to Sao Paulo; bus from Sao Paulo to Rio; bus from Rio to Mangaratiba; and finally ferry to Ilha Grande. After all of that, all we really wanted to do was this:

But after we arrived at the beach, it was all worth it......

All in all, an excellent trip.

2006-07-19T17:51:00.000-07:00

We´re Engaged!!!!

4 months of travel in South America has taught Jon and I many important lessons. However, 4 months of spending every minute together, and being the only support system and sense of home for each other, has helped us come to the most important decision of all: we want to spend the rest of our lives together!

We are still riding high from our engagement on the beaches of Brazil. Jon proposed on a deserted stretch of beach in a small northern beach town called Praia de Pipa. We had gone up to the famed Northern beaches of Brazil for just a few days to soak in the sunlight. We were staying in a private thatched roof cabin in the sand, which had a hammock on the porch overlooking the ocean....not bad considering the state of our accomodations for the majority of our trip!! I had some idea that the engagement was coming (read on...) so jon had a tough job of surprising me. Our second day in Pipa, after spending the morning paddling kayaks with the dolphins, we decided to explore an immense and rocky stretch of deserted beach past all of the hotels, hostels, and restaurants. We were in our bathing suits and had been in and out of the water all morning, so when jon got down on his knee and proposed in the middle of our walk down the beach, I was VERY surprised to say the least. We celebrated with a bottle of Champaigne on our hammocked porch and then a delicious dinner of fresh fish in an oceanside restaurant.

Jon had begun to think about how to craft a proposal in Brazil a few months back, and had researched a small town in Brazil called Ouro Preto that is famous for its gemstone mines. After racking his brain to try to think about how to get there and buy a ring without me knowing, he gave up and decided he would have to include me in the process. So, together we made the 10 hour busride from Sao Paulo to the little colonial town of Ouro Preto. We spent two days looking at stones and talking to different jewelers about what we wanted our ring to look like. By the second day of our searching, we knew that we wanted an imperial topaz center stone (this is only mined in Ouro Preto) and two diamond side stones. We found an amazing jeweler to design and create the ring--she was very excited to be participating in our engagement and had her daughter drive the diamonds up from a nearby town. I did not get to see the finished product until the proposal, but the ring turned out beautifully, and it will always remind us of our world traveling adventures--the beaches of Australia, where we met, those of Brazil where we were engaged, and the many places in between where we have strengthened and deepened our love.

We are still feeling like every day is a celebration, but are looking forward to catching up in person and sharing our excitement upon our imminent return!!

2006-07-05T06:26:00.000-07:00

Ouro Preto-- Macchu Picchu

This morning Jon and I are doing some catching up on internet etc. before leaving the colonial mining town of Ouro Preto (black gold in Portugese) for Belehorizonte. We enjoyed the slow pace and quaint cobblestoned streets of Ouro Preto, although we did not tour the gold and gem mines, which is the thing to do here. Our struggles with Portugese are still comical. We hadn't realized how effective we had become at communicating in Spanish until we arrived in Brazil, where we can't communicate at all!! We can't even seem to remember the word for Hello! Jon is really good at throwing out spanish in what he thinks sounds like a Portugese accent--it works about 10% of the time to communicate, but is hilarious 100% of the time, so it seems like a good strategy. The most important phrase we've learned: no fala Portugese--I don't speak Portugese!

Here are the rest of MP pics:

There she is at sunrise!! The destination of our journey!
The crew at sunrise overlooking the peach
Just one of the magnificent views we reached along the trail. We are higher than the clouds!!Dan with Llama--no explanation necessary.

The view behind is is the what we saw as we reached the highest point on the trail at 4300 meters. Not bad--we were pretty excited to reach the top on day 2 after hiking uphill for four or five hours!!
The crew at the top of the second peak on day two. After going up to 4300 meters, we went back down to 3600, then back up 600 meters!! Who designed this road?? According to our guide, Speedy, the original Inca trail did not go down into the valley and then back up--of course, they went straight across on a different road. It wasn't until tourists ruined the original trail that it had to be re-routed!! Serves us tourists right, I guess.

2006-06-30T12:14:00.000-07:00

Machu Picchu Pictures--starring Brad Johnson, Christine Brown, Jon Ferris, Kristen Burton, Speedy Gonzoles, and one unidentified Inca Trail Bandit.

The first day everyone arrived in Cuzco, we went horseback riding and spelunking. Although the pics weren´t great, because everyone was on horseback, in the first pic, you can get an idea of who had the piggy horses. Christine and Dan´s horses are already chomping on grass before everyone is even ON!! We also shared the landscape on our ride with various barnyard animals--cows, llamas, sheep, etc.

This is a pic of the sunrise as Jon waited for the rest of the group to arrive from his hiding spot along the trail the first day.

These kids played with us as we ate lunch on the first day.

The first ruins we saw along the trail--there are many ruins before Macchu Picchu Jon´s view on his walk the second morning

Campsite, night one.

Ran out of room for pics!! Will do day 2-4 next time:)

2006-06-30T08:54:00.000-07:00

Departing the Andes (and the comforts of Español)

As we write this entry, Jon and I are awaiting the take-off of our flight from Quito, Ecuador to Sao Paulo, Brazil, where we will begin our exploration of the South American country famous for its beaches, its beach attire, football, dancing and parties, and unfortunately, Portugese!!

Our last ten days in Ecuador have been the perfect end to the past two months we have spent exploring the Andes of Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. After the Ferris family left, we traveled just a few hours north of Quito to Otavalo, the town famous for "the biggest markets in South America." Although we cannot claim to have seen all the markets in SA, these were certainly many times larger than any others that we have visited. We began the morning at the livestock market, where we saw cows, pigs (really, really, really, big ones), sheep, and horses being sold and loaded into trucks or led off on foot to their new homes. As a Delaware native, I am closely familiar with livestock, and my family was visited by the occasional loose pig running through our yard when I was growing up. The pigs in this market were much bigger, uglier, and louder than any other I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. They were black, rather than pink, with course hair, and the weirdest scrunched up noses--they looked like they used to have a long snout, but had run into a few too many walls.

After the livestock market, we moved on to the main part, which consisted of thousands of stalls lining the streets of the town. There was a produce section-- where we bought pineapple rounds on sticks (like a pineapple lolipop)-- a cooked food section-- where you could buy meat cut off a whole pig that had been dropped in a very big deep fat fryer (it still had it's teeth!)-- an artisan section--where we managed to refill all the space in our bags that we had freed by sending things home with Jon's mom and dad--and, of course, the everything else market--where you could buy anything from baby shoes to bras to a VHS player.

The best part about Otavalo, though, was the hostel where we stayed. It was an hour walk from the town, through the local farms and up into the foothills. The views from the hammocks on the porch (yep, that's right) were amazing, as was the fireplace we had in our room (all for the bargain price of 9 dollars a night)!! Both made for great relaxation after doing some of the dayhiking in the area. On Sunday we walked up to three lakes formed by volcanic craters with a Kiwi couple--we had a great time, despite the fact that after 4 hours of walking, we never found the 3rd lake!!

Although we had planned to return to Quito for Spanish school after a long weekend in Otavalo, we enjoyed our return to the Andes so much that we decided to spend our last week in Ecuador at a different Ecolodge in the mountains called the Black Sheep. So, Monday morning we left Otavalo for the long trek (8 hours of car-bus-bus)to the town of Chugchilan, population 100, and home to the Black Sheep Inn. The last bus ride we took to get to Chugchilan was 4+ hours....and 60+ miles. Uhhhhh, nurse? It was very uphill, and very unpaved--road would be a loose term for the surface upon which we were traveling!! But, we found the destination to be well worth the trip--to keep you coming back, I will save the details of our week there for the next entry--I know, the suspense may kill you:)

So, after 10 days in the mountains of Ecuador, we are leaving the spanish speaking mountain nations of South America. Exploring the Andes and the language of Español have been two of our favorite parts of the trip so far, but although we are sad to be leaving, we are looking forward Brazil. Upon landing tomorrow, my Brazilian friend Bruno, who was an exchange student at my high school, is taking us to the beach to watch Brazil play in the Quarter-finals of the World Cup--this should be an explosive start to an amazing trip through the cities and beaches of Brazil.

We will update the blog soon with Black Sheep stories, and stories from the game--we may have to purchase Brazil shirts in the airport so we fit in--although, Brazil fans probably paint their bodies or do something much more extravagant than just wearing a jersey....we'll let you know:)

Gooooo Brazil!!!

Love,
Jon and Kristen

PS Sadly, although we have old pics that we will be posting very soon, new pics will be few and far between due to some technical difficulties experienced on the city streets of Quito (a VERY sneaky theif managed to take our camera from our bag without us even knowing it)!! The day the camera was stolen, we had downloaded over 500 pics saved on its memory card onto a CD--so, although we were upset, we felt like it was the luckiest robbery EVER!

2006-06-21T19:02:00.000-07:00

"The Ferris Family Explores the Equator"
Quito, the Galapagos Islands, the Rain Forrest, and Setback

Just as essential supplies started to run out in the Southern of the Americas, the Ferris family arrived to fortify our toiletries, our bodies, and our hearts with the familiar comforts of home!! On June 10, Jon´s brother Pete, his wife Tammy, and Jon´s parents Anne and Mike arrived in Quito, Ecuador for the family vacation and a much needed visit all rolled into one. Jon, his younger brother Daniel(who had been traveling with us for a month), and I met the rest of the family at the airport--jon and dan were sporting the famous ecuadorian hat called the Panama hat (really, this is no joke, go figure) and island shirts in an attempt to begin the family vacation with a little flash.

Jon, Dan, and I started the trip a day earlier than everyone else by checking into the Marriott in Quito. After three months of Hostals that often were just barely scraping by the line of adequate, we were like kids on Christmas morning checking into a hotel/resort with much missed items like predictable hot showers WITH water pressure, clean pillows and toilets that you can put toilet paper in! The best surprise didn´t come until that night though, when we got turn down service in our rooms with free AMAZING chocolates (every night after we found the turndown cart and helped ourselves to some extra chocolates).

The morning after everyone arrived, we traveled just 40 minutes outside the city of Quito to the official equator line. Interestingly, there are two equator lines within 400 meters of one another in this particular location. The French mistakenly drew the line in the wrong place when they were initially exploring, and it remained there until the advent of GPS, when it was moved to its correct location 400 meters away. We started at the real equator line, where we learned that toilets DO flush the opposite way in the Southern Hemisphere. We also can now say that we experienced winter and summer at the same time, with a foot in each hemisphere. If you look carefully at the pic below, you can see that Mike, Anne, Dan, and Peter are in the middle of summer, while Jon, Kristen, and Tammy are stuck in Winter.

The day after our visit to the middle of the earth, we left the haven of the Marriott early for our flight to the birthplace of the theory of evolution, the Galapagos Islands. Despite the fact that flight schedules seemed to operate on island time, our travels were uneventful. We were tramping through snoozing sea lions to board our boat, Santa Cruz, which was to be our home for the next week, by mid-afternoon. That afternoon, we disembarked via pangas (spanish word for Dingy) to visit an island that was home to the closest thing i´ve ever seen to a dinosaur--pictures below. There were two different kinds of lizards on this island, and many other islands in the galapagos. The first has adapted a very good disguise for his home on the lava rocks. The one in the pic is crawling up from a swim to find a rock to sun on. Their body temp drops as much as 20 degrees during their swims!

Day two in the Galapagos we hiked to a lookout--the view in the pic does not quite capture what we saw. The landscape behind us looked like what you might find if you dropped the Carribean ocean onto the moon--an arid volcanic landscape surrounded by vivid blue waters. All of the islands were formed by volcanoes, but they are so old that the land formed by active volcanoes has actually moved from the geologic hotspot that spurred the initial eruptions. All the species indemic to the islands (there and nowhere else) floated there over a million years ago (on the boats they built...haha) and began to adapt to their new environments, which is what made it such an interesting place for Darwin who arrived to find species like those in Ecuador and South America but not quite the same.... After finishing the morning snorkeling among the creatures of the sea like sea lions, giant parrot fish, skates and...Tammy saw a Shark, we spent the afternoon hiking around on the volcanic rocks on a new island (as you may have noticed, none of us can remember any of the names of the islands!). In addition to more sea lions and lizards, on this island we found Darwin´s toilet--a giant hole in the volcanic rock where cool critter like giant sea tortoises like to hang out---cooool. The evening of day two we began a tradition which changed the future of free moments on our trip--we began an epic tournament of the Ferris family favorite card game, setback.

Day three was a day for the birds.....we visited an island that was home to the guys below. The first is the freakin´ friggit, who is a pirate bird, living by swooping in and stealing the food of other birds as they regurgitate--yummy!! And, the second little guy was the instigator of one of most exciting moments of the trip--Dan was able to finally see his very first booby.....thanks to the red footed one inhabiting the island! In other exciting moments, during lunch of this afternoon, the captain called everyone to the windows of the dining room to look out to see something amazing--he then announced that if you looked at the bottom of the ocean you could see the equator line painted in red, as we were passing over it as he spoke. Of course, none of us fell for it....

Day four we met the namesake of the Galapagos Islands, the Galapagos Tortoise. The hombres of this species weigh up to 500 lbs. and live for 150-200 years!! They are so big and have such a slow metabolism that it takes them a month to move 8 miles (although they really prefer not to move at all). Talk about obesity issues.

After returning from the Galapagos, we traveled 3 very curvy hours by car to a resort in the rain forrest. The highlight of this two day trip was a hike to the waterfall below. On the way we saw cacao trees, coffee trees, banana trees, sugar cane, and all sorts of unique flowers like birds of paradise. After swimming in the waterfall (and in the cave underneath it with bats) we returned to the resort to make sugarcan juice from the sugar cane and lemons we had picked AND chocolate from the cacao beans (which we put over fresh bananas--mmmm). The chocolate was almost as good as the marriott chocolate! Unfortunately for Jon and I, the local rum was all you can drink at the resort where were staying. We have become such bargain hunters on the trip that the last night at the resort we felt incredibly pressured to make the most of our money. This made for an uncomfortable curvy trip back to Quito the next day.

Through the car rides, the boobies, the toilets (the Marriott´s and Darwin´s), the freakin´ friggits, and the card games, we shared a lot of laughs and learned many incredible things about the world in which we live. Although you may not have to go all the way to the middle of the earth for an experience like ours, it certainly wasn´t a bad place to have a family vacation!!

2006-05-30T07:53:00.000-07:00

"Going dark" on the Inca Trail

Just getting off the 4 day hike to Machu Picchu, via the fabled Inca trail. Bradley and Christine, and Danuders came down to join us for this trip. All was perfect, except for the fact that they "forgot" to make Daniel´s reservations onto the trail (booked 4 months prior, and impossible to get once they the realized mistake).

They told us there was one solution to the problem: They could sneak me through the control checkpoints in the cover of darkness. I decided it was better that I go covert and let Daniel use my reservation because if I let anything happen to him, I knew I would have some explaining to do to Mom and Dad

The following adventure ensued...

Monday morning, 1:30 AM:
Two Peruvian men, Rafy and Chino, pick me up and we drive 1.5 hrs to the entrance to the clandestine trail head. Along the way, we talk politics and the upcoming Peruvian election. Both guys are strong supporters of the far-left socialist candidate, and articulate intelligent reasons why they believe Peruvians have the right to profit from the nationalisation of oil production.

When the conversation turns to American politics, it becomes clear that their distaste for Bush and American policy is strong ( this is commonplace across the majority of South America). When asked my opinion, I decide that agreeing with them is in the best interest of my safety, as I am about to venture into the darkness with these strangers in less than one hour. A bad thing to say here would have been "You know, I think American world domination is really in Peru´s best interest." Instead, I went with "Ya, Bush is a loser."

3am: Arrive at rickety footbridge to cross the river. Our driver Rafy announces, "Here is where I turn around. You two are going to walk 1.5 hours until you hit the Control checkpoint. When you get within a 2Kms, turn off your flashlight and walk slowly and quietly. Everyone should be sleeeping. Facil, no problema."

3:05am: Five minutes in, Chino tells me to turn off my flashlight, it is too bright. For reference, my flashlight is about as bright as an indiglo watch. I started to get a bit nervous, as we are walking along a rig line, with a loud river roaring a few stories below. Trail is about 2 feet wide.

3:20am: Following conversation ensues...
me: "So Chino, how many years you been working for the company?"
Chino: "First day, I don´t actually work for them...just tonight¨"

I consider asking him if he has ever walked this trail before, but decide I dont really want to know the answer. (I find out later the next day that he was a friend of our guide. The guide was worried about him showing up for our mission, as he had been out at the bars chasing woman pre-1:30am. If I had known this, I think I would have felt more comfortable holding the lone flashlight)

3:50am: Chino whispers, "From here, we go dark." I immediately start having flashbacks to childhood, when we used to paint our faces with green and black paint, and play Army in Calvin and Ben May´s back yard. Only problem this time, is that instead of Johnny Cance blasting me from behind a bush with a squirt gun, I am worried it is going to be a Peruvian soldier with a sawed off shot gun.

4am: Been dark for 10 minutes. Tripped a couple times, but happy to have not yet fallen into the below river. Chino describes the moment, whispering, "We are like mexicans trying to cross the border to the US." I laugh, nervously

4:15ish: We can see the light from the control tower. We both know that conversation is over for the next 15 minutes. We inch forward until we are only meters away. All we can hear is our breath and our hearts beating...until suddenly, what sounds like a large dog starts barking. We keep walking, Dog sounds like it is getting closer. Suddenly, the whole "mexicans crossing the border" joke isn´t so funny.

4:25: We evade the dog, find a hole in the barbed wire fence, and take our first steps on the controled side of the Inca trail. Once my breathing slows down, I realized I am smelling some fresh poop. Pretty sure I probably stepped in the horse variety, but quietly wondered if I had a little accident in my pants.

4:45: Chino and I arrive at our previously agreed upon spot on the Inca trail to rejoin the group later that morning. We find a grassy spot outside a farmers hut, put down a plastic pancho, and try to sleep despite the near-freezing temperatures. I want to cuddle for warmth, but decide that would be awkward. An hour later, we watched the sun rise over the moutains and valley. Decided it was all worth it.

10am: Meet up with Kristen, Daniel, Christine, and Brad. Machu Picchu, here we come!

Pictures from the trail and and Machu Picchu coming next post...

2006-05-20T19:59:00.000-07:00

From the shores of Lago Titicaca:

Hola all. we have just finished three weeks of language school in Cusco. Tomorrow Daniel, Brad, and Christine land in Cusco for a trip to Manchu Picchu and more days of fun. We are running behind on timeline of pictures, but flashing back to Dateline End-of-April, here are some pictures posted from Lake Titicaca (on the Border between Bolivia and Peru).

We started our Lake Titicaca tour, spending a night on the shores of Isla de Sol, the birthplace of the sun, according to the Inca legends. The above picture is our lunch spot--a traditional meal of lake Trout on the grill. After lunch we were planning on finding this "birthplace of the sun", but after a beer and a full stomach, we decided it was time for a nap. Our hostal could not offer us electricty, heat, or running water, but they did have lots of blankets and cost us about $3 for the night. Given the compassion of the Señora of the house, we were more satisfied.
In the above picture, Kristen is still searching for the birthplace of the sun. Turns out, we never really found it. We saw lots of Donkeys, Llamas, and sheep, but no evidence of UV rays being born. Next time...
Our last stop in Bolivia was a little town on the shores of the lake called Copacabana (above). We ended up staying here a couple more days then planned, due to an inpromptu transportation strike. We were upset for five minutes before realizing there are worse places to be stuck. If you look closely, you can see our hotel!! It is the giant pink one on the waterfront on the far right--we used our stellar spanish here to bargain for a nightly rate of $7.00, including breakfast. See below of for the view from our window.

The man below is one of the inhabitants of the Uros islands, a string of floating islands in Lake Titicaca, made out of lake reeds. There are close to 40 islands that were constructed years and years ago by the ancestors of the current inhabitants who were trying to escape wars on the mainlands. The entire culture of the islands centers around the reed plant--their islands are made of them, their boats are clearly made of them, they make their houses from them, and yes, they even EAT them!! (they kinda tastes like celery). Unfortunately we didnt get any good pictures of the islands themselves. We did, however, meet a Catholic priest on our trip to the islands from Tressie´s home of Effingham, IL and he knew of her family--what a small world.

As the sun set on Lake Titicaca, we realized we are not destined to see water again until the northern beaches of Peru. Dont feel too bad for suffering traveler, beaches are only two weeks away.

Hasta Luego,

Your now fluent spanish amigos

2006-05-05T11:12:00.000-07:00

April 16-20: Salar de Uuyuni, Bolivia

Finally!! We have our pictures! Although this trip was a few weeks ago, we thought it was worth posting the pics because this was one of the most unreal things we have seen yet. We left San Pedro de Atacama, Chile on Sunday, the day of Easter. By 10 AM, we had crossed the Bolivian border (i.e., had showed our passports to a lone man in a one room house at the first point in Bolivia). Katie and I already had to use the bathroom at this point--when we asked where it was, the imigration hombre pointed to a 50 year old American school bus that had been painted by hippies and had no wheels, which was lying on its side 100 meters away from the "office." Apparently, the shield it provided from the open desert was a bathroom!! It was the last one we saw that day! After walking over the border, we jumped in a 4x4 with two other couples, Katie and Jim, and Haley and Tom (We had met haley and tom a few different times along the gringo trail) and set off on the tracks you see behind us--we didn't see a road in the conventional sense for three days. Ten minutes in, we passed the other jeep in our group stopped, with theguide under it, doing repairs...ALREADY!!!! The scenery was similar to what you see in the picture for the entire day--and I thought Delaware was the middle of nowhere!

Our 4x4 trip lasted three days, at the end of which we arrived in Uuyuni, Bolivia. It was the most incredible drive EVER! The first day we saw red lakes, green lakes, lakes so clear they looked like glass, pink flamingos, with the most interesting and colorful mountains as a constant backdrop--they also made an excellent backdrop for Dahli's paintings. (Hint: pay no attention to the people in the photos--we've ruined perfectly good lanscapes)

Day two we began at a naturally occurring rock tree, which was surrounded by all sorts of other weird rock formations--we literally felt like we were on another planet.

Day three was by far the most spectacular. After spending the night in a hotel made entirely of salt bricks (note to contact wearers: do NOT kick salt from the floors into your eyes, this causes severe pain), we left before sunrise to get out onto the salt flats of Uuyuni. The salt flats were created a really, really long time ago when plates shifted and drained a lake(or such is the current hypothesis). Now, all that is left is a 3-4 meter layer of salt as far as the eye can see. The lake was a gigantic one. The salt is mined in one area, but mostly the flats are empty. It rained the night before we went out, and so there was a shallow layer of water, in which the sunrise reflected perfectly. As we drove, the sun came up and the colors of the sky were reflected underneath us....we felt like we were driving through the sky!! Our road.... After a few KMs, we were out of the water, and it was just salt as far as the eye could see...wow.

There are some fun tricks you can do with cameras on the flats. After breakfast, we decided to go out and play. Katie and I didn't like the food too uch on the trip...we had begun to waste away....
The trip and the scenery were both even more amazing than the pics capture--our guide, Alejandro, was also the best, and we had a great time with him and our crew. There are more pics to come of our other stops in Bolivia. We are getting the kinks worked out of our blog methods, but some mysteries remain...how to delete a duplicate pic?????

2006-04-30T16:59:00.000-07:00

Biking down the "Worlds Most Dangerous Road"

Hola Amigos!

Finanlly some pictures! Our Ipod is still giving us fits posting pics, but here are some pictures from our trip down the so-called "Worlds Most Dangerous Road." Why does it deserve that name? Because about 100 people on average die on it every year.

(Picture caption: A swig of local booze, then a "sip" for PachaMama, or Mother Earth, for Good luck. Hey, when in Rome...)

The good news for us, is that most die in buses and trucks, and not on bikes. Before you decide that we have gone loco, we are pretty sure we, statistically speaking took the safest way down.

The road starts in La Paz at 14,000 ft in the bitter cold, and ends 5 hrs later in the rain forest, in the Coca producing region of Boliva at 3000 ft, where we were stripping off layers. The road is the main throughway for the transport of Coca, coffee, and other Bolivian produce to the city. As you can imagine, we were not excited to hear our guide say, "Bikes and cars downhill have to stay on the cliff-side because it safe for climbing vehicles to be further away from the edge." (greaaat...) On the way down, we passed US DEA checkpoints for Cocaine-producing chemicals, herds of cows, llamas, and stray dogs. The ride was exhilarating and the scenery beautiful (note from Kristen, exhilerating is a common euphemism for really scary and it was hard to look at the scenery due to the extreme focus placed on NOT falling off the side of the mountain).(Picture not from our ride, but another day on the trail)

By the end of the ride, Kristen had overcome her fear of the side of the road and we were happy to celebrate our survival with a cold Paceña (the LaPaz beer). We spent the night at the bottom of the mountain in a small town called Coroico, where there was a GREAT hostel with a pool, hammocks, and anything else one could ever desire! We spent the next day hiking through the coca farms terraced on the hillside and napping and reading by the pool and in the hammocks....we think we like this travel thing OK:)

Interestingly, although Coca production is officially illegal in Bolivia, as the leaf contains the Cocaine alkaline, which is extracted mainly through the addition of lime, in some regions its cultivation is allowed. In almost all of the altiplano, which is the Andean region of Bolivia, Peru, etc., you can easily find HUGE bags of dried coca leaves at the markets. The leaves are constantly chewed by the locals, who swear by its ability to mitigate altidude sickness, ward off fatigue, and decrease appetite! The levels of cocaine absorbed into the blood from chewing the leaf are negligible in most cases, but an interesting fact of the day: Despite the anti-coca growing policy of the US government, which has devestated many Bolivian communities who subsist on coca cultivation alone, Coca cola uses the coca leaf to this day in Coca cola to enhance flavor. It buys its leaves from Colombia, not Bolivia!

So, there´s the science lesson for the day on the coca leaf!! We are now in Cuzco, Peru, and begin language school tomorrow. We are living with a Cuzceñian famaily here, who have been very good to us, although dinner table conversation remains a comedy show of body language and spanglish. Last night, the family introduced another exchange student to us who is from Holland (in spanish Ollandia). We proceeded to chat with him for 5 minutes about the weather in ORLANDO, FL (we did most of the chatting)!! It was not until this morning that we understood our mistake, when we heard him speak English with a Dutch accent, not an American one! Hope to add more pics and good stories soon....

Chao,

Kristen and Jon

2006-04-26T18:39:00.000-07:00

4-26 Stuck in Copacabana, Bolivia

Sorry it´s been so long since our last entry, Bolivia has without doubt been the most challenging country for communication. I was telling Jon at dinner tonight that upon returning to the U.S. I plan on being a much better communicator (as some of you may know i sometimes neglect my cell phone messages). It´s so easy to take the ease of communication we enjoy in the US for granted.

Bolivia has been by far the most underdeveloped country we have visited so far. The style of life here is dramatically different from that we are accustomed to. In more places than not, there is not running water, and one flushes the toilet by scooping a bucket of dirty water from a huge barrel and dumping it down the toilet. This is a fairly practical, yet incomplete method for flushing busy hostal toilets. And since there is no soap or running water in sinks, Purel has become our best friend. Unfortunately for us, it seems a little spoken of effect of altitude (We have been between 3,000 and 5,000 meters for the past 10 days)is that is GREATLY speeds digestion, so the frequent combination of twenty-five travelers and two manually flushing toilets has caused several unpleasant experiences for us.

The Bolivian lifestyle is fascinating, and incredibly hard. Most Bolivians still farm for their livlihood, producing just enough for their families, and there is almost no visible income gap, everyone is just getting by. I have not yet understood how the women here take cold showers in buckets or farm all day while wearing their children in slings on their backs. Interestingly, there have been almost no beggars or homeless in Bolivia, even in the cities, the strength of family and community seem to be alive and well here.

Although different, we have loved Bolivia and its pace of life. We have spent the past few days exploring Copacabana, a town on the shores of Lake Titicaca, a huge lake on the border of Bolivia and Peru. We were supposed to leave today, but our bus was mysteriously canceled, due to unknown circumstance, so we will arrive tomorrow evening in Puno, Peru on the Peru side of the lake to spend a day there before taking off for language school in Cuzco. We are both looking forward to being in one place for a while, and can´t wait to catch up on communication!!

Hasta Cuzco.....

P.S. Happy Birthday Dad/Mike! Wish we could be there!

2006-04-14T10:50:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!

Spending Good Friday today in the Atacama Desert, Chile they say the driest desert in the world--my contact lenses tend to agree. We wanted to post our pictures today, but who knew that a little town of population 2K in the middle of nowhere wouldnt have computers that accept external devices. We are just 40KM from the Bolivian border and on Easter Sunday, we are leaving on in 4x4 car to spend 3 days exploring the salt flats of Bolivia. Bolivia is supposed to be amazing and like nothing else in the world. Next wednesday we should make it to La Paz, the capital which sits at 14K feet above sea level. Hopefully more blogging from there.

The last week we have spent in Salta a northern province in Argentina. Spent lots of time eating Tamales and Humitas. We also rented a car for a day and explored little village north of the bigger city. We were sad to leave Argentina, after great food, amazing people and places (and a fantastic exchange rate!) More on this stuff, with some more interesting pictures a bit later when we get a chance to blog in La Paz

Happy Easter everyone. Wish we could be spending it with you all.

2006-04-09T09:30:00.000-07:00

Desde Bodegas a Fincas, Nuestras Viajes en Mendoza y Chilecito
(From Wineries to Farms, our travels through Mendoza and Chilecito)

Since the last post, we have visited both Mendoza, the wine region in Argentina, and Chilecito, a small towm in the Famatina mountains just east of the Andes. Today, we are on our way from Chilecito to Salta, a town in the North of Argentina, but have a 4 hour layover to switch buses--great opportunity to blog!!

Mendoza was a wine extraveganza. We got to meet up with Jon´s second cousin, Kate, who was great to us and helped us get around the city and the surrounding wine regions. She is working for a wine tourism and tasting company, so she set us up on an amazing chauferred tour of one of the four wine regions.

Our experience in Chilecito was the first and prime example of what we had both expected that our trip would be. Up to this point, we had stayed on the well beaten path, where there were lots of travelers and travel was fairly hassle free (with the exception of a few screaming babies and way overheated busses). All we knew about Chilecito came from a 3 sentence blurb in one of our travel books, that ended with "warmly recommended." It specifically referenced a farm called Finca del Paiman, where you could stay, help make jams on the farm (and eat them every morning for breakfast, and book guided hikes in the nearby mountains. I booked a two night stay there and a hike through email in Spanish--not very good Spanish, so we really had no idea what we were going to find!

It was the biggest headache to get to the town, and when we arrived at midnight in a rainstorm after spending three hours on bus that had weird liquids leaking-pouring over my seat, I was beginning to have second thoughts. However, our guide for the next day, Mario, picked us up from the bus, and drove us out to the farm. He told us that it rains about once a year in Chilecito, bad night to arrive! The farm was charming and we stayed in the one bedroom in the main farmhouse as we were the only guests. Jon had a run-in with a fly during the night, who had a "fiesta" on his face, leaving about 14 bug bites (we counted). For now on, he may sleep with a bag over his head.

On Saturday morning, we had homemade bread and fresh jam for breakfast and started our hike, which was gorgeous, although we forgot our camera (whoops). We explored the old cable car stations on the mountain were built in 1904 to bring minerals down the mountain and into the town. We also practiced lots of Spainsh with Mario, who was a great guide. We ate fresh walnuts from wild walnut trees and he showed us naturally growing mint, and several other herbs, the most interesting of which was mañi mañi, a viagra-like stimulant!

We spent siesta time (2:30-6:30pm!!) back on the farm, which grows fruit for jam, olives for olive oil, and lemons, and then explored the town and bought some local products, including a few samples of local wine, and made dinner. The people we met were amazing and friendly, and we learned a ton of cool things about their lives, dailyroutines, etc through talking to them. Overall, we had an amazing time, and are so glad we went--despite the pains of getting there and away! Any town that practices a daily 4hr siesta where everyone sleeps is worth the visit!

More about our day of wine tasting in Mendoza--with lots of good pictures next time we blog (which may be when we arrive in Salta at 3am this morning with nothing to do...)

2006-04-04T18:51:00.000-07:00

Hola from Mendoza, Argentina!

Just left Bariloche, Argentina, a town famous for mountains, skiing, lakes, chocolate, and ridiculously cheap and amazing food. Ever been to Fogo de Chao (or a similar Argentinian steak house)? Well, think that, but for about $10-15 per person with wine. Unbelievable. We ate our way through Bariloche and spent our days hiking to gain an appetite to adequately be able to appreciate the food.

Bariloche is also where we met up with our friends Katie and Jim. It has been great to travel together, makes it feel closer to home. Check out our pictures from our hike to the top of a 2,200M moutaintop, where we splashed cold water on our face out of newly melted snow reservoir. Kristen at times thought she was going to die as we scaled steep rock faces, but decided that she and heights are soon going to be good friends.

On our last day in Bariloche. Kristen and I decided to do a 3hr hike to a moutaintop that had a chairlift, where we hoped to be able to get a ride down, since we were getting a late start. Problem with this hike is that we had just finished a 10K run and were running low on food in the stomach. To add fuel to the fire, Kristen started developing some nasty flu-like symptoms. Hike was not going well. Needed water and had none. Took us everything we had to make it to the top. When we got there, we had about an hour left of sunlight and thought the chair lift would be still be open. Here is where we learned a couple of key lessons about South America:

1) Never assume anything is open on Sundays
2) Reasoning and pleading (begging) with someone, when you don´t speak the language is not usually successful. Apparently the "Are you serious?" face doesn´t translate well to spanish.

So after the man told us that the ticket office was closed and we couldn´t get a ride even though the lift was still running, we turned around with our heads between our legs and started the 7KM walk down. Very fortunately for us, this potentially very bad night turned out alright, when we made it to the road-side and found out that the thumb is very powerful communication tool. An amazingly friendly Bariloche couple picked us up in their little four-door and we got to practice our spanish all the way down the mountain and into town.

Next couple of days: wine tasting and hanging out with my cousin Kate in wine country.

2006-03-29T17:23:00.000-08:00

Vinimos, vimos, y comimos jamon y queso.

The past three days in Pucon have been absolutely amazing. We started off our "week" with a Monday morning 7 AM hike to the top of Volcan Villirica, a 2000 mtr. active volcano outside Pucon. After 4 hours of hiking up a snow/ice covered sheer mountain face, we were well rewarded with a tasty ham and cheese sandwhich, a sweet view of the Andes and Lake Villarica at the top, in addition to an incredibly large and deep volcanic crater--really a once in a lifetime sight. Even better, instead of having to turn around and HIKE down, our guides built a louge through the snow, and we slid down on our butts!! Sooo much fun. (Jon was laughing like a school girl). Not a bad monday at the office.

Tuesday we continued boot camp Chile with a 30 mile bike (round trip) to Lake Caburga. We had nooo idea what we were getting into when we rented bikes at 10 AM for the ride. In fact, Jon almost asked to rent for only a half day-- he was so confident in his speediness he thought we would be at the lake and back by lunch. Instead, we spent the first three hours toiling up and down gravel roads with enormous uphills and not enough downhills. We stopped midday for a ham and cheese sandwhich, at los ojos del Caburga (spanish for the ojos of caburga), which involved a 20 minute hike to waterfalls. After reluctantly remounting our bikes with our very sore butts, we continued to Lake Caburga, which turned out to be 4 more miles straight uphill. Again, it was well worth it, and at lake Caburga, a deserted white sand beach on a crystal clear alpine lake awaited us. We had another ham and cheese to celebrate. The return trip, thankfully, was downhill.

Today, Wednesday, we did a five-6 hour 10 mile hike (again straight uphill). After spending Tuesday night at a byob natural hot springs drinking excellent chilean wine (really good for you, drinking in a hot tub), we were slow to get out of bed Wednesday morning and missed our bus to the National Park Huerquehue. We were lucky enough to find two other late risers at our hostel who wanted to go to the park and we shared a cab and did the hike with them. The views on the hike were great, especially at the lunch spot we picked to enjoy another ham and cheese sandwhich. We liked the hike so much, we decided to go a little too far and almost missed the bus back, but ran the last part and made it. We finished our day with a hamburger the size of a plate, which we both finshed without any problem. (This is OK because boot camp Argentina begins Friday).

We are headed to Bariloche at 6:45 a la manana--a city famous for its chocolate and wine--pretty, pretty good. Katie and Jim are also arriving there tomorrow, so we are looking forward to catching up with them (over some chocolate and wine). Next time, from Bariloche, Argentina.... More pics tomorrow, our computer is loco.

2006-03-26T08:47:00.000-08:00

Hola from Pùcon!

It has been a crazy first three days in Chile. We are in our third city in three days, arriving in Pùcon this morning after a 12 hr overnight bus ride from Valapraiso. The bus ride featured a 5 yr old Chilean girl, who would have been considered adorable, if not for the incessent, ¨Mira mama!¨" screams coming from her all night long. Kristen slept only a few winks, but I zzz'ed all night long

Friday we landed in Santiago--after a good night sleep on the plane--and ready to explore. We first realized we were out of the US when in the Toronto airport, the bartender looked at us like we were aliens when asked if he would put on the Duke basketball game. I guess we should have known it was diehard Toronto Mapleleafs hockey night. (Picture: A view just a few miles outside Santiago)

Santiago is a massive, booming, city. We spent the day walking around and exploring different neighborhoods, even snuck in the Pre-Colombian art museum--but didn't last long. Santiago has lots of western influence, but also lots of SA charm. We stopped midday to enjoy a bottle of Chilean wine at an outdoor almuerzo spot in Bellavista. (Picture: Kristen at the top of the San Cristobal Hill)

Yesterday, we took the bus to Valapraiso to explore the old port town known for the elevators that were built in the 1800s and scale the numerous hills (seen below). Again we explored by foot and ended up at a little cafe with a bottle of wine and a deck of cards. This is becoming tipico for us, not a bad way to pass time. Hightlight of our day in Pucon was lunch at the local Markets. Ceviche and Pescada zupa were amazing and huge and we enjoyed them while listening to a local serenade.

Adventurous activities await us in Púcon. Lots more interesting posts and pictures to come. Today we relax in a rainy day. Rest up for the next couple of days.

Adios!

2006-03-22T04:52:00.000-08:00

Any chance we are going to fit all this stuff in a backpack?

We are smiling now, but just wait until Kristen asks me to carry both bags. Just for the record, the official weigh-in tallied my bag at a slender 26 lbs, and Kristen's Deva (a fitting name, huh?) at 29 lbs.

2006-03-19T19:03:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, Jon and I arrived at 66 Steep Hollow in Glastonbury, CT, after driving through the night from Chicago. For the past few days we have been unpacking and re-packing…and making and re-making various to-do lists. We have been visiting with friends and family, who we will greatly miss during our travels abroad. And, of course, we have been trying to drown ourselves in the comforts of home, amazing food, a comfortable bed, and hot showers, before we embark on our journey.

Four short days from now, Thursday, March 23, we will leave Bradley International Airport in Hartford on a 5 pm flight to Santiago, Chile, connecting through Toronto. We will be armed with only 1 backpack each (mine may be slightly more than 20 lbs) and a spinach pie. We will arrive in Santiago on Friday at 9AM, where we will spend a few days exploring the city before traveling south in Chile to the Lake District. Our plans are only loosely outlined until April 4/5, when we have a date to meet our friends Katie and Jim in Mendoza, Argentina, a famous wine region of South America.

Jon and I are excited to begin this journey, the plans for which we began on a return plane flight from Costa Rica in March of 2005. We feel unbelievably fortunate to have this opportunity before us and we owe a huge thank you to our friends and family for their help and support. Without their blessings, this trip would have been impossible. Thanks to my Aunt Nellie and Uncle Gene, Jon’s Auntie Jane, and our friends who have shared with us suggestions and contacts for our travels. We look forward to providing similar assistance to those that follow us—and we hope there are many!!