Dan and Carrie's Western Hemisphere Adventures

Bolivia and Peru Advice

2008-03-05T03:52:00.002-05:00

Our friend, Elena, is planning a big trip to Bolivia and Peru. Dan and I have been emailing her advice, but I thought our advice might be useful to other travelers out there, so why not post it online? As a warning, this probably won't be very interesting to people who aren't planning a trip to Bolivia or Peru, so read at your own will.

Hotel in La Paz
We stayed at Hotel Gloria ( Potosí 909) in La Paz. This was after a 4 day Salt flat jeep tour where we had extremely rustic conditions, so we were looking to "splurge" in La Paz, and hence we stayed there for about $60 per night, which is a lot for Bolivia. It has hot water, and even heat in the room during the evening. It was fine, but it was definitely a hotel, rather than a hostel type environment.

From La Paz

Bus from La Paz to Copacabana
We took a "local" bus to Copacabana, which was much cheaper than a tourist bus. I think a tourism package would actually pick you up at the hotel and take you there, making it really easy, but a local bus is cheap and an experience if you are interested in that. We had a taxi take us to the bus station for buses headed for Copacabana (it is somewhere different from the main bus station, but people at hotels / hostels would know). Immediately, someone was rushing us onto their bus that was leaving soon. The key thing to know for the ride is that they make you get off the bus and take a boat across some water, and you leave your bags on the bus while the bus floats across the water on a separate vessel (shown below). We were scared of doing this, but it worked out fine. Make sure you have your passport though. Another plus with the local instead of tourist bus is that all the tourist buses leave extremely early in the morning and I'm pretty sure the local buses leave throughout the day. The local bus isn't exactly comfortable, but since it's such a short ride, it's worth it for the adventure. Plus, the price difference is something like $2 vs $20.

From Lake Titicaca

Isla del Sol
If you're not totally comfortable with Spanish, I'd recommend hiring an English guide for touring Isla del Sol. Once again, the price difference is something like $2 for Spanish and $20 for English, but our guide had a lot of neat stories about the island that made it much more interesting. We did Isla del Sol all in one day, which is a lot of hiking but good practice for the Inca Trail. I also remember that the early morning boat ride to Isla del Sol was really cold and I was glad to have all my removable layers (hat, gloves, fleece, windbreaker, and pants). You can buy nice and warm llama wool stuff most anywhere in the Andes, but I think we saw some of the best prices in La Paz.

From Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca, Peru
For the Peru side of Lake Titicaca, we did a one day tour of the floating islands and one other island. We did not stay overnight with locals, which some people said they loved but others said was too touristy or was awkward staying with people they didn't know. Although pretty touristy, I thought the floating islands were really neat. I could have skipped going to the second island because it was a really long boat ride to get there and I thought Isla del Sol was similar but better.

From Lake Titicaca

Pisac, Peru
While in Cusco, I highly recommend going to Pisac, which is a nearby town. There is a market there that had some of the best shopping of our entire trip, but it might not be every day of the week. It also had the 2nd best ruins I saw on the trip (Machu Picchu was #1, of course). The ruins are on on the top of a mountain next to town. Even if you hire a taxi to take you to the top, be sure to wear proper hiking clothes and bring water because it's no easy stroll. Also, be sure to bring enough money for everything because there are no ATMs in Pisac. To get to Pisac from Cusco we took a taxi to a tiny little bus station on the edge of town. Then a local bus to Pisac, which costs less than a dollar, but be sure to have small change with you. In fact, always try to have tons of small change with you because people in Bolivia and Peru really dislike making change. For food, there is a really good empanada place in one of the corners of the market. From where the bus and taxis drop off, you have to walk about a block up a street/alley to get to the market (shown below). The first section of the market you'll encounter is the produce area. If you are walking up the street towards the market, take a left as soon as you get to the produce area. Tucked away in the corner is a little courtyard with an outdoor brick oven. It's right near a hiking gear store. They also sell roasted Guinea pig there, but I'm not into that.

From Cusco, Peru

Cusco Sights
If you're going to see more than one of the ruins in and around Cusco, you should get a multiple day pass, which I think you can buy at any of the sites. They're a little expensive by Peru standards, so make sure you have enough cash with you for the first ruins you go to.

From Cusco, Peru

Security
Try to avoid having much cash on you (or at least disperse it) when you pass from Bolivia to Peru because I've heard of a scam where they claim your money is counterfeit. Also, always have your passport in a money belt or in a safe deposit box, never in a bag. Try to get a receipt for what you put in your safe deposit box and avoid putting cash in safe deposit boxes. Also, while on non-tourist buses, never let your carry-on bags out of touch. You may even want to safety pin some of the zippers shut because I've heard a few stories of people reaching under seats (I think someone tried to do this to me in Ecuador, but my safety pins stopped them). I've never heard of problems with large bags stowed under the bus, except for them getting dirty. When we flew from the US, United gave us giant plastic bags for our hiking backpacks which we continued using whenever we checked our bags (I think most big airlines have these, but you sometimes have to ask for them). Not only did the plastic keep our bags clean, but I also thought they provided an extra layer of security just because it made it more of a pain to steal anything.

From Argentina Part 1

Closing the book

2008-01-23T00:08:00.001-05:00

Hello everybody! I am writing this from our new apartment in Oakland, California. I don't have many photos yet, but I do have one picture of us with our new car, the Honda Fit!

Before we get to engrossed in our new lives in California, I wanted to do a final recap of South America. For one, the trip lasted a long time -- 3.5 months of traveling. It was long enough that I really got used to the lifestyle. Speaking Spanish became second nature. I became used to meeting Europeans, Australians, and Canadians on a regular basis, and rarely met Americans traveling. Dissecting menus became a daily ritual, as did evaluating rooms at hostels, hosterias, posadas, and hotels. Our most important possessions were our passports, ATM cards, cameras, and photo backup CDs.

Do I miss South America? Let me count the ways:
- I miss the excitement of entering a town or city for the first time, and taking everything in as I step off of the bus.
- I miss the family owned bed and breakfast lodging, where the owners would go out of their way to make sure we were comfortable and enjoying ourselves.
- I miss sipping Caipirinhas while listening to a mix of ocean waves and live samba played by street musicians.
- I miss the landscapes of Bolivia.
- I miss Argentine steakhouses.
- I miss the awe-inspiring history of Peru.
- I miss the diversity and friendliness of Ecuador.
- I miss the music and energy of Brazil.
- I miss the wildlife of the Galapagos.

What am I glad to have back? There's a list for that too:
- I'm glad to have friends and family in the same country again.
- I'm glad to have American music back. Especially jazz.
- I'm glad to have English be the primary language again.
- I'm glad to have a phone.
- I'm glad to have the internet be reliable and helpful again.
- I'm glad to be able to turn on sports television and not have soccer be the only option.
- I'm glad to know where I'll be sleeping each night.
- I'm glad to be able to eat home cooked meals.

What were my favorite countries?

Brazil -- The people are incredibly friendly and laid back, the weather is warm, the beaches are beautiful, the music is fantastic, and the food is delicious!
Ecuador -- There is just so much to see and do in Ecuador, and it's incredibly easy to do it all because the country is so small! The people are friendly, the fresh fruits are great, and everything is cheap to boot!
Argentina -- You can view glaciers, beautiful lakes and snow-capped mountains, tour wine country, ride horseback through ranches, and explore one of the largest and most sophisticated cities in the world. Oh yeah, and I love the steak!
Bolivia -- If you don't mind roughing it a bit, you'll be handsomely rewarded by landscapes that are literally out of this world. It's also the cheapest country we visited. Now, if they could only get heat and hot water figured out.
Peru -- Machu Picchu is incredible, as is much of the scenery here. For seafood, you can't do much better than ceviche in Lima. I just had a hard time with the "touristy" feel here, and the constant harassment from people hoping to sell me something.

What are the specific destinations that I would recommend most?

Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia. I truly felt like I was on another planet during this 4 day jeep tour. The landscapes were absolutely incredible, and like nothing I have seen before or after. I also loved the feeling of being completely isolated in the absolute middle of nowhere. If you can put up with very basic accommodations and long days sitting in a jeep riding on bumpy unpaved roads, this is one of the most incredible things you can do in South America.
Machu Picchu. Maybe skip the 4 day hike beforehand, but do not skip Machu Picchu. The ruins are truly awe-inspiring, and it deserves its status as one of the wonders of the world.
Galapagos Islands. If you love wildlife, this is one of the greatest destinations you can visit. Unfortunately, the costs to visit are high and will only get higher.
El Calafate, Argentina. The glaciers are phenomenal, it stays light out until 11pm during the summer, the town is cute, and it's Argentina, so you'll eat well.
Iguazu Falls. If you love waterfalls (or even if you don't), you'll be amazed by what you see and hear.
Ilha Grande, Brazil. The beaches are fantastic, there are no cars, and it's Brazil, so you'll definitely eat well and have incredibly friendly hospitality.
Banos, Ecaudor. You can do tons of different adventure activities during the day, then come back and relax in one of the many hot baths in town. The whole town is beautiful, and its Ecuador, so you won't be spending much.

All in all, I'm really glad we took the trip. Before we left, people told us it would be an experience of a lifetime, and it didn't disappoint. I'm also glad we did things on our own, and didn't just go on a long tour. Even though we suffered through some of the logistical planning, we got to become immersed in the countries and had the freedom to do whatever we wanted. It would have been nice to have a travel agent helping us out, but the Lonely Planet goes a long way. Now that we're done, I'll always be able to look back at our photos and this journal, and know that we did it. Thanks to everyone who wrote to us during the trip, offering words of encouragement or feedback on this blog.

In the future, I hope to write one last post about the logistics of traveling, in hopes that fellow tourists who stumble upon this blog will be able to use our experiences to better their own travels. I want to thank everyone again for reading!

Argentine Mixed Grill

2008-01-21T15:16:00.003-05:00

It took me awhile to get around to labeling the below picture, but I took it while at a restaurant in Buenos Aires with Dan and Joe. My personal favorite was the chinchulin.

From Buenos Aires ...

Brazilian Dining

2008-01-14T02:05:00.001-05:00

Ecuador's abundant and diverse fruits made for amazing breakfasts, while Argentina's fertile pampas and love for meat made for amazing dinners. Unfortunately, Ecuador's dinners weren't much to write home about and Argentines tend to be satisfied with only a cup of coffee and a small pastry for breakfast. However, Brazil, being known for their tropical fruits, hearty churrascarias, and ample snacking options, could possibly be the superfecta of South American dining.

Unlike Brazil, we were always amazed by how trim Argentines were, despite their enormous meat portions. We suspected it had something to do with less driving and more walking, or possibly all that red wine. However, probably because of their amazing and abundant food, Brazil tended to have the heaviest people of all of the countries we visited in South America. That said, Brazil was also one of the friendliest countries we visited.

Brazil definitely has a wide variety of fruit, many of which I had never previously heard of. Cashew nuts are pretty common, but I learned that cashew trees also produce a fruit, referred to as caju in Portuguese. I never saw fresh caju fruit but the juice is very common in Brazil. The first time I had it I thought I was drinking watered down lemonade made from a powder. After learning what it was, I tasted it more closely and noticed a very subtle nutty flavor, but although not bad, I wouldn't say it's one of my favorite juices.

Guaraná is a very popular soda in Brazil. It is named after the guaraná berries it is flavored with, and is very sweet and carbonated. In addition, it is often cheaper than bottled water!

One of my favorite things to drink while in Brazil was coconut milk straight from the coconut! They would simply cut a hole in the top and stick a straw in. The milk has a gently sweet and coconutty flavor. I think it tastes more watery than milky and it is extremely refreshing. One of the best parts is that after you finish drinking, you can break it open and have a little snack. However, I tried to break one open using only a rock and it took forever (I guess I'm no survivor-lady). The second time around I went to a juice bar and they cracked it open for me.

From Ilha Grande, ...

There are always ample opportunities for snacking while in Brazil. Almost every commercial corner in Brazil had at least one snack or juice bar. In addition, all along the sidewalks lining Ipanema and Copacabana beaches are snack stands. As if that wasn't enough, on the actual beaches there are dozens of vendors walking around selling beverages, açai smoothies, and even skewers of unshelled shrimp (these vendors sell much more than just food including sunglasses, purses, lime crushers, and even bikinis)! Even Praia Lopez Mendes, the remote beach on Ilha Grande that we had to hike to, had people selling sodas and sandwiches! Also on Ilha Grande, there were guys biking around enormous dessert carts. Below is a picture of one of those dessert carts:

From Ilha Grande, ...

Through our travels, we noticed that every country has a totally different type of empanada. Argentina's empanadas were the most similar to what I've had in the US. In Brazil, the empanadas looked like tiny little chicken pot pies, about the diameter of a can of soda. The crust is also similar to a flaky pie crust, and they are usually filled with chicken or cheese.

In addition to empanadas, Brazil has a wide variety of fried goodies to snack on. One of my favorites was like a fried, breaded hamburger. They kind of reminded me of my Mom's piroshkis (of course my Mom's were better). Dan's favorite was a teardrop shaped fried thing filled with chicken and cream cheese. Below is a picture of Dan eating on of those. However, according to our guide book, Brazilians never pick up their food with their bare hands, and often eat sandwiches with a knife and fork. Please excuse Dan's faux pas in the below shot:

From Ilha Grande, ...

A very common dining option in Brazil are pay by weight buffets. As opposed to the all you can eat buffets in the US, I liked how these buffets don't encourage gorging. However, pay-by-weight buffets require a totally different eating strategy than all-you-can-eat buffets. I consider myself somewhat of an expert all-you-can-eat diner. While on the Argentine side of the Iguazu Falls, we splurged and went to the Sheraton's lunch buffet. It cost about $30 per person, which at the time was our most expensive meal of the trip (Brazil's stronger currency resulted in much more expensive meals). Below is a picture of each plate of food I had at the Sheraton buffet:

1st course: Appetizers

From Iguazu Falls

2nd course: Main dishes

From Iguazu Falls

3rd course: Best of appetizers and main dishes

From Iguazu Falls

4th course: Gazpacho

From Iguazu Falls

5th course: Dessert

From Iguazu Falls

However, at pay-by-weight buffets, it's all about the quality of food, not the quantity. Rice, pasta, and beans tend to be heavy yet less expensive, so they should be avoided. Meat is a much better alternative. Many pay-by-weight buffets had sushi and shell fish, but I skipped that at some of the less fancy buffets. Another thing to avoid at pay-by-weight buffets is leaving any food behind. However, Dan and I were new to Brazilian cuisine, and we weren't always sure what we were going to like. At our first pay-by-weight buffet we first got little portions of everything we wanted to try. Later we went back and got larger portions of the things we liked. However, I don't think this is standard practice in Brazil because the woman who weighed our plates seemed to find us very amusing.

Brazil is also known for their all you can eat steak houses, called churrascarias. The first churrascaria we went to, called Porcão, was almost exactly like Fogo de Chão. In addition to an amazing buffet, they also have gaúchos walking around with big skewers of meat. Each person is given a little circular card that is green on one side and red on the other, and turning the card to the green side indicates to the gaúchos that you want more meat. Each gaúcho specially prepares the meat that they are serving, and it all looks so good that it is difficult to turn them down. I call the green/red card the meat faucet, because if you leave it on too long you will inevitably end up with a plate piled high with meat. The biggest difference I noticed between Brazilian and US churrascarias is that Brazilian churrascarias serve corazóns, or chicken hearts. Each one is about the size of a large kidney bean and the gaúchos carry enormous skewers of them. Unless you stop them, they'll give you a plate full! Personally, I really like corazóns, but only in moderation.

Our last night in Rio we tried to go to a seafood churrascaria, called Marius. Half of the restaurant is a regular meat serving churrascaria and the other half serves seafood, including lobster tails! However, we were shocked to learn that the seafood side cost about $80 per person not including drinks, so we decided to settle for the regular meat side. However, apparently everyone else thought the seafood was too expensive as well because the meat side was totally packed and the seafood side was fairly empty. The Maitre 'D told us it would be a 10 minute wait. The restaurant is covered in cutesy nautical themed decorations, which is a little annoying when you're really hungry. 40 minutes later they finally seated us, but they put us in the upstairs area of the seafood side. They assured us that we would still get good service, but I had my doubts since we were so far from the meat kitchen. We decided to leave, hopped in a cab, and asked him to take us to a good churrascaria. He took us to this little place just around the corner from the Copacabana Palace. It had a live pianist who was playing pretty cheesy music, but the food was delicious and it was a perfect end to our trip.

Brasil!

2008-01-05T14:20:00.001-05:00

Top 10 things I learned while in Brazil:

10. You haven't truly been to Brazil unless you've heard "The Girl from Ipanema" played by at least five different groups

From Rio de Janier...

9. Açai is a type of berry, and açai smoothies (tastes like a blackberry icee with banana and granola on top) are supposedly energizing, but definitely filling

From Ilha Grande, ...

8. Brazilians are serious about their desert carts

From Ilha Grande, ...

7. Skol beer tastes better than Skol vodka, but passion fruit caipirinhas are divine

From Ilha Grande, ...

6. Instead of having people on their money, Brazil uses animals.

From Rio de Janier...

5. Portuguese looks pretty similar to Spanish, but sounds more like Dutch.

From Rio de Janier...

4. Instead of using a bidet, Brazilians only need a hose.

From Rio de Janier...

3. Don't believe locals when they claim there aren't any mosquitoes

From Iguazu Falls

2. Jesus loves Brazil

From Rio de Janier...

1. We love Brazil

From Rio de Janier...

Brazil -- The End of the Trip

2008-01-02T04:21:00.000-05:00

Hello and Happy New Year!

Shortly, I'll be joining Carrie out in California, as we prepare to head back to reality. Until then, I might as well write about what we did to finish our epic South American journey. At Iguazu Falls, we crossed the border from Argentina to Brazil. Our original plans for Brazil included locations up in the Northern Coast, but due to fatigue and lack of time, we decided to simplify things.

After our time at the Brazilian Falls and Itapu Dam, we boarded a plane to Rio de Janiero. Our plan was to first investigate the island of Ilha Grande, then finish the trip in the city of Rio. With that in mind, we rode a 3 hour bus from Rio to the town of Angra dos Reis, where we found a place to stay for the night. The next morning, we investigated boats to Ilha Grande. We discovered that the "official" ferry left town at 1:30pm, but there appeared to be some "unofficial" looking guys willing to take us at 10:30am. Since we were eager to get to the island, we decided to take our chances with the unofficial boat. While it seemed a bit shady at times, it turned out fine, and 1.5 hours later, we were at the island.

From Ilha Grande, ...

The Island consists of one main town of about 3000 people, and has no cars besides one emergency vehicle. We quickly discovered that people freely walk down the main streets barefoot and in swimsuits (which don't consist of much in Brazil). We stayed at the Pousada Beira Mar, owned by a friendly German named Lutz, who thankfully spoke perfect English. Lutz enjoyed telling us his many travel stories and was very helpful in helping us decide what to do while on the island.

Ilha Grande is supposedly home to over 100 beaches, so needless to say, the primary activity on the island is going to the beach. The most famous beach on the island (and possibly in all of Brazil), was Praia Lopez Mendes. To get there from the main town, we could either hike 3 hours each way, or ride a 45 minute boat followed by a 30 minute hike. For the first day, we hiked to the beach, stopping along the way for a pleasant lunch along the water. We also stumbled upon some monkeys along the hike, but since we were scared of theft, we didn't have our camera with us to take pictures.

The next day, we went on a boat ride / tour, where we got to see other parts of the island. At one stop, we hiked into a cave, which got quite claustrophobic as crawling was necessary at times. Once we got further into the cave, there was a pool of water where we could wade and observe fish swimming in the distance. Outside the cave, we also made a boat stop at a lagoon where we did more swimming and snorkeling, before stopping for lunch and heading back.

On our third day on the island, we decided to take the easy boat ride back to Lopez Mendes beach, and bring our camera. Here are some photos:

One of the boat drivers:

From Ilha Grande, ...

The beach:

From Ilha Grande, ...

Drinking out of a coconut while waiting for our boat ride back:

From Ilha Grande, ...

As we waited for our 5pm boat ride back, we noticed ominous clouds moving in. Around 4:45, rain started falling. Since we were in our bathing suits, we weren't too bothered by this at first. However, after boarding the boat, the rain started coming down harder, and the roof of our boat was not shielding us all that well. Midway through the boat ride, the rain was pouring down in sheets, with high winds blowing the rain horizontally into the boat, where it pelted us with a hail-like strength and intensity. Our boat driver struggled to steer the boat due to the blinding rain blowing directly into his eyes. Huddled together with the fellow travelers, we couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of the situation. Thankfully, we made it back safely to the town and dried off.

It rained for the remainder of our time on the island, so we spent most of the time relaxing after attempting to hike in the rain and realizing it was not a good idea. After that, we left the island and headed to Rio de Janiero!

Our first hotel in Rio was the Hotel Vermont, in Ipanema. Due to repeated warnings from travelers, family, and Ilha Grande residents, we were extremely cautious with our belongings in Rio, and therefore didn't bring out the camera much. Ipanema was a nice area, with the town having decent (but expensive) shopping, and the immense beach two blocks from our hotel. The beach itself was quite the scene, with all sorts of different types of people crowding together enjoying the sun and very intense surf. We ventured in to test the waters, and quickly realized that we were no match for the immense waves and strong current. Instead, we enjoyed the sun and witnessed the interesting sport of futvoli (volleyball without hands). The video below is from youtube -- we didn't take it:

We also took in some Bossa Nova, and I was thrilled to watch some great music after so much Andean Flute and Tango, which hadn't excited me as much. One night, we went to a smaller club, and the next, we went to a 3 floor club where they had a 10 piece band! The music was great at the clubs, and I also bought numerous CDs from the local bossa nova music store.

After a few days in Ipanema, we switched hotels and moved to Copacabana to finish the trip. Since this was the end, we decided to splurge, and we got to enjoy this view from our hotel room:

From Rio de Janier...

One day, we decided to visit Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer). This immense statue is located atop a mountain, and the view overlooks nearly the entire city. Here are some photos:

From Rio de Janier...

Another day, we decided to try hang gliding. Here, we were driven to the top of a mountain, where we got strapped into some wings with a guide, then ran off of a platform and hoped that our wings would fly!

For our last night, we sipped caipirinhas along the beach, before heading to a churrascaria for some all you can eat meat!

From Rio de Janier...

All in all, I really enjoyed Brazil. Over time, little things kept happening that made us really appreciate the people and culture of Brazil. From the fresh fruit juice stands and snack bars at every block, to people politely asking at restaurants if their smoking is bothering neighboring tables (and doing something about it if it was), to the music, to the beaches, to the laid back personalities (despite our lack of Portuguese), I really felt at home here. I think Carrie and I both felt like if we hadn't been so tired and short on time, we could have spent a long time exploring Brazil. Perhaps someday we can head back to Brazil to explore some more!

Coming soon -- A final wrap up of the trip!

Iguazu vs Niagra (and other ramblings)

2007-12-30T19:31:00.001-05:00

From Iguazu Falls

Please note that all the pictures/movies in this posting are from the Iguazu falls. If you would like to see pictures/movies of the Niagara falls, please see our Niagara Falls posting by clicking HERE.

Last summer we went to Niagara Falls and the next summer (which, thanks to changing hemispheres, was only four months later) we went to Iguazu Falls. The entire time I toured Iguazu falls, I couldn't help but compare them with Niagara. Niagara Falls are hands down the best falls in North America and Iguazu Falls are hands down the best falls in South America. However, the similarities don't stop there.

Niagara Falls are on the border between the USA and Canada, while Iguazu Falls are between Argentina and Brazil. The USA and Argentina are on the southern side of the falls, and both countries provide a much more intimate viewing of the their falls. At USA Niagara you can ride a boat called "Maid of the Mist" where they provide you with a rain jacket and you ride right up next to the falls. At Argentina Iguazu the boat ride is called the Nautic Adventure. There they don't even bother to give you a jacket because they ride up so close you literally can't see anything but water. Most people stripped down to their underwear or swimsuits for the ride. I wore my rain jacket, but the water poured down my neck and up my sleeves, so only the middle of my back stayed dry. Dan didn't wear the hood of his jacket so he got completely soaked. Below is a picture of us on the Nautic Adventure:

From Iguazu Falls

The USA and Argentina falls both also have catwalks where you can walk right next to the falls. The US catwalks are called "Cave of the Winds". Although you have to wait in a pretty long line, they give you a rain jacket and silly little slippers to wear. Then you get to walk so close to the falls that at times it is difficult to move forward because the wind/water is so strong. In Argentina they have the "Passeios Inferiores", which is 1.5 km of walkways that weave around the lower part of the falls. Although these are much more extensive than their US counterpart and you can get equally wet if you so desire, they aren't quite as intense as their US counterpart.

From Iguazu Falls

In both the USA and Argentina you can also walk around the top of the falls. However, with the Argentine version you can get much closer to the falls. It is actually broken into two sections called Garganta do Diablo (for the biggest waterfall) and Passeios Superiores (for most other falls). Garganta do Diablo translates to devil's throat, and seeing all those tons of frothy water come erupting out of the river is quite hypnotizing:

From Iguazu Falls

The Passeios Superiores is especially great on sunny days because in addition to the falls, you can see tons of rainbows. The first day we went to the falls it was pouring rain by the time we got to the Passeios Superiores, but the next day was sunny so we went back, and it was well worth the repeat trip. Below is a movie taken from the Passeios Superiores, but if you can't see it, try clicking here.

However, crossing the international borders was definitely easier in North America, which simply involved paying a small fee and walking across a bridge right next to the parks. In South America we had to take a bus between the Argentine and Brazilian towns in addition to taking separate buses from the towns to their respective falls. This would have been very difficult to do in one day. We ended up spending two days on the Argentine side and one day on the Brazilian side.

We also had to get a Brazilian visa because we were planning to travel around Brazil after seeing the falls (you can avoid getting a visa if you only go to Brazil for the day). For every other South American country we just showed up at the border and paid nothing. However, for Brazil they require that you apply for a visa in advance and pay them $100 US (however, I can't be too mad about the $100 because Brazil charges everyone however much their country charges Brazilians to enter, and the US charges them $100 for visas). We couldn't get our Brazilian visas before leaving for our trip because they are only good for 3 months and we were going to Brazil at the end of our 3.5 month trip. We tried to get them in Buenos Aires, Argentina a few weeks before heading up to Iguazu. However, after first finding our way to the Brazilian embassy, being told we were at the wrong place, and then making it to the Brazilian consulate, we found that they were only open in the morning. Fortunately, the security guard was able to give us the huge list of things we needed to obtain the visa, including exit tickets for how we would leave Brazil, entry tickets for how we would enter Brazil, address and phone number of where we would be staying in Brazil, credit card photo copies, and two months worth of bank statements.

The next morning we woke up early and headed down to the Brazilian consulate with as much of the info as we could muster. There were about five groups ahead of us in line, and one by one we saw each one of them get rejected. As each one of them left, I asked what they were missing. One girl said she hadn't yet booked her hotel in Brazil so she didn't have a Brazilian address. We were in the same predicament, so the people ahead of us in line let us copy their address. I felt like I was cheating on a test, but seriously, why do they need that, especially if we planned on staying in three or four different hotel while in Brazil. However, we still got rejected because we didn't have entry tickets. We were planning to hop on a bus to take us across the Iguazu border, which is literally as formal as hopping on a CTA (local Chicago) bus, so there was no way to purchase advance tickets. We explained the situation to the lady behind the counter, so she suggested that we should just wait and get our visas in Iguazu. I worried about waiting until the last minute to get our visas, but it turned out to be MUCH easier there. All we had to do was fill out a form and pay them the $100 and we had our visas in less than an hour. They didn't even ask to see tickets, bank statements, or even yellow cards (proof of immunizations)! We learned that getting visas in BsAs in nearly impossible, but then again, we found that any sort of administrative task, such as buying plane tickets, calling home, or booking hotels, is a huge pain there.

So any way, back to Iguazu versus Niagara. Brazil and Canada are both on the northern side of their falls. However, Canada is the much more touristy side for Niagara, but Argentina is actually the more the touristy side for Iguazu. Foz do Iguaçu, the Brazilian town, is big enough that it has more going on than just the falls. I suspect that it is closer aligned with Buffalo, NY. On the other hand, both the Canadian and Brazilian sides focus much more on the panoramic views of the falls rather than getting right up in there like you do in the US and Argentina. However, unlike Canada, Brazil provides a little bit more than just the panoramic view. You also get to ride a cute little double decker bus from the park's edge to the falls, and there is one catwalk that will get you a little wet (although not near as wet as you can get in Argentina or the USA).

From Iguazu Falls

One thing that Iguazu has that Niagara definitely lacks is the jungle and all of the fun jungle animals. In Argentina we saw the following:

Giant lizard animal (its body was about a foot long):

From Iguazu Falls

Several packs of raccoon-like animals called coatis:

From Iguazu Falls

Some sort of rodent that looked like a cross between a guinea pig and a rat:

From Iguazu Falls

In Brazil we saw hundreds of millipedes all over that path that were anywhere from 2-8 inches long:

From Iguazu Falls

On both sides we saw tons of pretty butterflies:

From Iguazu Falls

Since there was not quite as much to do on the Brazilian side of the falls, we also went to see the light show at the Itaipu Dam. The Itaipu Dam provides 94% of Paraguay's electricity and 20% of Brazil's electricity, but it also caused a lot of debt for Brazil and destroyed a lot of rain forest in its making. It was obvious that the light show was an attempt to get people to accept the dam. We had to arrive an hour early for the show, and many of the ladies were wearing nice cocktail dresses. Fortunately, I had on my nicest jeans, sparkle butt and all. When it was time for the show to start we piled into buses. There were so many people at the show it took five buses to fit us all! The buses let us out on a hill overlooking the dam. The lights dimmed and two Vegas-style announcers came out and welcomed us. Then we watched a short video on the making of the dam, which, judging by the soundtrack, was created sometime in the mid-70's. Finally, the video screens lifted and it was time for the show! We heard music, and with each phrase of the song, another portion of the dam would light up. As the music got more intense, the dam got brighter and brighter. After about five minutes, the song was over and the dam was completely lit up. Then the music stopped and everyone got up to leave. We piled back into the buses, did a quick drive down closer to the damn, and then headed back to the entrance gates. It was neat seeing the dam, but the show could use a little work.

From Iguazu Falls

Overall, I'd say that both Niagara and Iguazu falls are amazing. However, if you're tight on time, the southern side of the falls (USA or Argentina) tend to be a little more thrilling. Avoid getting a Brazilian visa in Buenos Aires at all costs, and unless you're really excited about dams, I'd skip the Itaipu light show.

From Iguazu Falls

More Argentina!

2007-12-24T17:05:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Carrie and I are back in the US, enjoying the winter wonderland that is Massachusetts. We are in good health and arrived home safely, and enjoying things such as home cooked meals, speaking English, and having friends and family around. Now that we are back home, we can write more about what we did over the last month and a half.

Back in early November, after Uruguay, Carrie and I settled back in Buenos Aires. For a few days, we would work on logistical trip planning during the day, and doing fun activities at night. One night, we stumbled upon tickets to a dinner and tango show. The dinner, of course, consisted of a giant steak with potatoes, salad, and red wine. As an added bonus, we got to see a fun tango show:

From Buenos Aires ...

The show was a lot of fun, and we made friends with some Columbian ladies who were sharing our ride to and from the show.

The next night, we went to a soccer match at River Plate Stadium, between River Plate and Arsenal (the Argentine team). Of course, the game ended in a 0-0 tie before going to penalty kicks (reinforcing my idea that soccer is not a very exciting game). The crowd certainly was into it, singing throughout the game.

From Buenos Aires ...

I was amused when we decided to grab some food before halftime, and there was NOBODY at the concession stand, because everyone was too busy watching the game. The most amazing / interesting moment for me came at the end of the game, when Arsenal managed to win the game in penalty kicks. After they made the winning kick, the incredibly noisy crowd became dead quiet. The only sound I could hear was that of the players themselves celebrating, and the faint sound of the visiting fans celebrating in their own blocked off balcony section. For the home fans, to add to their pain, they actually had to wait in the stadium for the visiting fans to finish celebrating and leave the stadium before they could leave, because apparently in soccer the opposing fans cannot ever be in the same vicinity. Aside from the unfortunate outcome of the game, we had a good time and enjoyed seeing the soccer experience.

After that, our friend Joe arrived, and we saw more sights of Buenos Aires, witnessed the Gay Pride Parade, and traveled to Mendoza to enjoy the best of Argentine wines from their sources. Since Joe may be providing a guest post to the blog, I'll refrain from going into detail until after he's written his post.

After Joe left, it was Thanksgiving, and one of the toughest stretches of our trip. Missing Thanksgiving in the US was hard, especially hearing about how much fun our families were having and knowing we were by ourselves in a country that didn't care much about Thanksgiving. In addition, we had some difficulties making some of the travel arrangements, which were starting to wear us down. Luckily, we were able to find a restaurant in Buenos Aires that served us a traditional Thanksgiving dinner!

From Buenos Aires ...

The day after Thanksgiving, we packed up for our overnight bus trip that evening. During the day, we tried to view some downtown sights in Buenos Aires, but it seemed that every place we tried to visit was closed for renovations. Finally, we gave up and decided to have a steak lunch, which made things better for the time being (Argentine steak meals tend to do that). After that though, we went to the bus station, and had our bag stolen while waiting for our bus company's computers to come back online so they could print our tickets. After realizing that what they stole was not so bad, we began to feel better and boarded our bus.

Our bus was 19 hours, from Buenos Aires to Bariloche, in the Lake District of southern Argentina. We boarded a fancy "cama suite" bus with seats that reclined 180 degrees. It was extremely comfortable, and they even served hot meals, wine with dinner, and dessert with champagne and whisky! The only downsides were our seat location (in the back by the loud engine noise) and our window (covered by the bus exterior advertisements).

Barilcohe was incredibly beautiful. We stayed in a lovely hosteria called La Pastorella, owned by a friendly husband and wife. Our excursions consisted of white water rafting and bus rides providing beautiful views of lakes and mountains. The bus rides themselves became a bit boring due to the tour guide's rapid Spanish, but the scenery was nice. Here are some photos:

From Bariloche, Ar...

After Bariloche, we headed even farther south (50 degrees south latitude) to El Calafate, in Patagonia. It was here that we got to view some incredible Glaciers. We stayed at an incredibly charming place called "Las Cabanitas", and had our own A-Frame cabin:

From El Calafate, ...

From there we visited the Perito Moreno Glacier. I'll just show some pictures and a video here:

From El Calafate, ...

The most exciting part of the day might have been actually getting to hike on the glacier itself, using crampons on our boots, followed by a surprise whisky and candy snack at the end:

From El Calafate, ...

The next day, we visited an "Estancia", also known as a sheep ranch. We got to watch a sheep herding demonstration, a sheep shearing, and then eat a giant barbecue dinner:

From El Calafate, ...

For our last day in El Calafate, we took a boat cruise through Lago Argentina, visiting multiple glaciers in the area. This was very cold, but incredibly scenic!

From El Calafate, ...

El Calafate was one of my favorite places we visited on the trip. It was sunny until 10:45, not too cold away from the glaciers, and incredibly scenic. It was also very laid back and relaxing. On our flight back to Buenos Aires, the plane made a stop at Ushuaia, the very bottom of South America by Antartica. We had decided not to visit the town, and when we saw the view from the plane, we were happy with our decision:

From El Calafate, ...

After that, we headed north to Iguazu Falls and Brazil, which we will write about in future posts... Feel free to browse our pictures, as they are now all uploaded! Happy Holidays!

¡Argentina!

2007-12-23T10:18:00.000-05:00

Top 10 things I learned while in Argentina:

10. Sheep are REALLY dumb

9. The buses in BsAs (Buenos Aires) make noises just like male blue footed boobies

From Buenos Aires ...

8. In BsAs, book your hotel in advance

From Joe Photos 10/21/2007

7. Why portion off a section of your bathroom for the shower stall when the entire bathroom can be your shower? You can wash your hair, brush your teeth, and do your business all at the same time!

From Joe Photos 10/17/2007

6. Mate is an acquired taste

From Buenos Aires ...

5. Fútbol games are a great place to increase your Spanish vocabulary

4. The BsAs gay pride parade shows much more skin than the Chicago version.

From Buenos Aires ...

3. Global warming? Global shwarming! The Perito Moreno glacier in El Calafate, Argentina is stable (it is constantly growing and receding, but over time it grows about the same amount that it recedes).

From El Calafate, ...

2. 18 hours really fly by when you're riding in a cama suite (tutto leto) bus

From Bariloche, Ar...

1. While at Retiro (the BsAs bus terminal), if you have a carry-on size bag, never let go of it for even a second.

Quick thoughts at the end of the trip

2007-12-17T18:47:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone!

Carrie and I are now in our last hotel, in our last city, Rio de Janiero, Brazil. It´s finally setting in that a trip that began with trips through the frigid Andes is now concluding with beautiful Copacabana Beach and 90 degree sun. For the last week or so, Carrie and I have decided to stop being "tourists" and just enjoy being on vacation. Therefore, we probably won´t be doing anymore extended blog posts or photo uploads, etc, until we arrive back in the USA. I promise though, when we get back, we´ll tell you all about what we´ve done in Argentina and Brazil over the last month and a half, and give a final recap and summary of the trip as a whole. There´s lots to write, but after seeing all the snow in New England and Chicago, beaches and bossa nova are taking priority!

Happy holidays to all, and we´ll write more when we get back!

Oh, Argentina

2007-12-03T19:14:00.000-05:00

My last post was fairly rushed (we were waiting to board our flight), so I wanted to write more about what it's been like traveling in Argentina and Uruguay, especially after spending so much time previously in Ecuador.

Argentines are certainly unique people, to say the least. I hate generalizing, but to give you a flavor, I'm going to do just that. The people here are sophisticated, smart, passionate, proud, and arrogant. They definitely love to talk and socialize!

Breakfasts consist of coffee and maybe some croissants, and could take place at one of the many cafes around town. Lunch could be just about anything, but ham and cheese sandwiches appear to be a staple, as well as steak sandwiches that include such toppings as ham, egg, and veggies. People can be seen in cafes eating lunch basically up until 5pm!

Dinner occurs anywhere from 9pm to midnight and beyond, with many restaurants not even opening until at least 8pm. Man oh man, do they do dinner here. The steaks are absolutely phenomenal, and the service you receive is truly top notch. At the older parillas (steak houses), the waiters are often older men who give the impression that they've served a lot of steak in their day. They are genuinely charming, not sticking to a corporate script or trying to "upsell" you anything, simply asking you what meat and wine you want (these are a given), if you want a salad and/or potatoes, and if you want your water with our without gas. Carrie and I are amused that most restaurants (especially in Buenos Aires) do not have tables for 2, because Argentines love to talk so much that they almost always dine in groups.

You can watch tango dancers in the streets, couples unabashedly kissing in parks, or kids playing soccer just about anywhere. There is an ice cream store every couple blocks, and they are all amazing. Outside of the city, the country has incredibly beautiful scenery in the Lake District, Patagonia, Mendoza, and Iguazu Falls, and thats just what Carrie and I saw. In Mendoza, you can ride bikes between wineries, tasting wine all along the way. Buses have seats that recline 180 degrees, serve hot meals, and even give you champagne or whiskey before bed, making long distance travel exceedingly comfortable.

So, what's not to love about Argentina? For one, Buenos Aires is a very busy and crowded city, bringing New York to my mind in terms of an American comparison. People do not really respect personal space all that much, frequently bumping you on the street or in lines. Very few places have small change, making buying things like subway tickets a nuisance at times. It seems like every museum or tourist attraction we try to attend is under construction. And since people love to travel here, all of the hotels get booked in advance, making reservations a necessity. However, most hotels don't take reservations over the internet, public phone calls are somewhat pricey, and travel agents aren't particularly helpful. The national airline, Aerolineas Argentinas, doesn't process payments on its website, making it necessary to call them (not free), or go to one of their offices, where you could wait up to an hour to speak to a person. And, it was the only country where we had something stolen from us (not once, but twice!)

Needless to say, Carrie and I have had a love / hate relationship with this country. What's hard is that we've lost the laid back feel we had in Ecuador, where we could make decisions spur of the moment and have things still work out. And the people's behavior and attitudes can get a bit frustrating after a while. But all in all, I think I'll walk away from Argentina with fond memories.

As for Uruguay, we basically found it to be like a bunch of suburbs of Buenos Aires. Colonia was a cute town, but nothing really happens there, so our 1 day was probably enough time. Montevideo is a pretty enough city with lots of tree lined streets, but again it seems that not much happens there (especially compared to other cities we have seen on this trip). Punta del Este would be a great beach town if the weather were nice. Lastly, everything was more expensive than Argentina, so it doesn´t have that going for it either. All in all, I would recommend staying in Argentina if you are in the area.

That´s all for now... Hopefully we can follow up with a more narrative post in the near future, as we have done a lot since the last post. We are spending the rest of our time in Brazil, soaking up as much warmth as possible before heading back to frigid New England in time for the holidays. Best wishes!

Change of Scenery

2007-11-29T12:26:00.000-05:00

Hey Everyone -- I write this post from the airport in Bariloche, Argentina, as we prepare to fly to El Calafate. Let's just say that it's a whole new world here in Argentina. The culture shock after arriving here from Ecuador was quite incredible! Basically, in Ecuador, we were used to casually showing up at bus stations and taking short rides to our next destinations, then walking around and finding a hotel on the fly. Upon arriving in Buenos Aires after an overnight flight from Ecuador, we discovered that our 3 different options for hostels we had picked out were all completely full!! We ended up walking into a random hotel off the street, which had space but was really a pretty lousy room. This was our view -- which was sort of exciting, but really incredibly noisy!

From Buenos Aires ...

After realizing that we didn't want to stay in that hotel any longer than necessary, Carrie and I decided to accelerate our plan to leave Buenos Aires and head for the beach! After talking to some traveling friends in Ecuador, we decided that Uruguay would be a neat beach option, specifically the town of Punta del Este. They said that Mar del Plata in Argentina was really crowded and built up, and not as good a spot. With that decided, Carrie and I boarded a ferryboat and headed to Uruguay!

Our arrival at the dock was in the tiny town of Colonia. We spent 1 night here, and it was very pleasant. The town has lots of tree lined cobblestone streets, and is very calm and relaxing. We stayed in a lovely little hotel, and had our first "parillada (mixed grill)" experience! Here are some photos:

Carrie sitting on a bench by the water in Colonia:

From Uruguay

Carrie and I on our rented motor scooter!

From Uruguay

Our mixed grill platter!

From Uruguay

That restaurant experience was pretty special... Carrie and I had headed to dinner a bit later than planned, and we ended up walking around at about 10:45 or 11pm looking for a restaurant. While this would be fine in Buenos Aires, things in Colonia seemed to be geared a little earlier. We walked by one meat restaurant where the waiter saw us and invited us in. We sat outside, and ate the large mixed grill, which basically included all parts of the cow besides the parts used for typical steak. Afterwards, the waiter and cook came and said hello, and even though it was quite late and we were the only ones there, the cook / owner insisted that we have coffee. It was quite touching, really!

After the night in Colonia, we headed to Punta del Este. Unfortunately, it was very cold, and so the beach was definitely not an option. Also unfortunately, this cold and sometimes rainy weather persisted for 3 straight days! Since the beach is the main attraction in Punta del Este, we quickly got to know all of the non-beach options for activities. One option was riding a boat to an island containing a large sea lion colony. Unfortunately, the seas were too rough, and the boats never ran. However, when we went to the dock, we got a good look at an enormous sea lion eating fish from a fisherman:

From Uruguay

Another activity we did was rent a car and drive! One neat spot was the "Ruta Panoramica", which was basically a road that dead ended at the water. Right near there was also the Casapueblo museum, which as a neat art museum with crazy architecture right by the water:

From Uruguay

This was all pretty neat stuff, and we have a bunch more pictures on our photo sight. Unfortunately, when we returned the rental car, the gas gauge floated just under full, and we had to fill the tank. At the gas station, the men "filled up" the car, and since it was the morning and we weren't really alert, we were charged $10 for about 1 or 2 liters of gas, which is too much money. We were pretty angry about getting ripped off, but by the time we figured it out, it was too late. At that point, we headed back to Argentina, where we set up shop in Buenos Aires and waited for the arrival of Joe!

Feel free to check out photos (even the recent ones are uploaded now to the photo sight), and we'll update again soon!

Fing BsAs

2007-11-28T09:47:00.001-05:00

They finally did it. They tried to do it while we were walking down the streets of La Paz, Bolivia, and again while riding a bus from Quito, Ecuador, but they finally succeeded while at the bus terminal in Buenos Aires. I always keep the important pockets of my backpack safety pinned shut. This proved especially essential on the bus from Quito because even though I was sitting with the bag on the floor between my legs, the guy behind me still managed to reach under the seat and open my bag as far as the safety pin would let him. He was gone before I knew what had happened, but got nothing.

Unfortunately, safety pins don´t do much good when they steal the whole bag. We make a point to always keep our passports and most money in our pants. The guy who stole our backpack didn´t get anything of value, or at least of much value to him. When you´re traveling for 3.5 months and each carrying only about 35 lbs of stuff, everything is valuable. The stolen backpack had the following:

- Dan´s jacket
- Bottle of nice wine from Mendoza
- Half of our toiletries (toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss, shampoo, soap, shaving cream, Dan´s deodorant, Dan´s razor, sunscreen, and laundry soap)
- All of our travel books

The other small backpack, that was fortunately not stolen, contained much more, including the better of our two cameras, backup photo CDs, and my medicine. Basically, stuff that is much harder, if even possible, to replace. But it still sucks.

When I realized what happened my hands got all tingly and I thought I might faint, but I ended up just screaming a bunch. Dan remained fairly rational and ran around looking for the bag. We seriously considered finding a way to fly home right then, but that would almost definitely have resulted in staying at least one more night in Buenos Aires. Being in BsAs without a hotel reservation can be very stressful even under good circumstances, so instead we decided to continue with the original plan and take a 20 hour bus ride to Bariloche.

The ride would have been great if our windows weren´t painted over and our speakers actually worked so we could hear the movies (2 of the 3 were English w/ Spanish subtitles, the other Spanish w/ English subtitles), but at least we had the super fancy seats that reclined to be totally flat and we slept fairly well for at least 6 of the 20 hours (it would have been more if I wasn´t so stressed from the robbery). I wouldn´t mind taking another one of those fancy buses for another 20 hours, as long as I didn´t have to go anywhere near the BsAs bus terminal. Maybe from Iguazu to Rio.

We´ll probably survive with just having to buy a new travel guide for Brazil, probably something to keep Dan warm in El Calafate, and of course, the essential toiletries. Definitely Dan´s deodorant, but I doubt he´ll replace the razor.

¡Uruguay!

2007-11-13T15:38:00.000-05:00

Top 10 things I learned while in Uruguay:

10. Uruguay is pronounced "oor-ooh-GWHY".

9. Uruguayan sea lions are at least four times fatter than their Galapagos cousins.

From Uruguay

8. Uruguayans love meat so much, they even have meat flavored potato chips (which are actually pretty good)

From Uruguay

7. Uruguay is a lot like Argentina with the steak, Gauchos, mate, funny accent, etc.

From Uruguay

6. Peak season in Uruguay is December through February.

From Uruguay

5. Uruguayan hotels and restaurants are very expensive by South American standards. Hotels are less espensive in the offseason.

From Uruguay

4. The offseason in Uruguay is terribly cold, the harbors are often closed, and the nightlife is dead (even in November, which is only one month away from peak season!).

From Uruguay

3. Do NOT rent a car in Uruguay. Gas cost us $10 for less than a litre.

From Uruguay

2. Uruguayans are usually nice, but watch out for their lies.

From Uruguay

1. Uruguay has a surprisingly large amount of mosquitoes. Despite the frigid temperatures, they manage to thrive and I got multiple bites in every city we stayed in. Even when I was totally bundled up, they still bit my hands, face, and scalp.

Guayaquil (the second time around)

2007-11-09T17:07:00.000-05:00

After Cuenca, we headed for Guayaquil on a bus. There are two bus routes, and we took the one through Parque Nacional Cajas, because it is only 3.5 hours instead of 4.5 hours. Fortunately for us, it also had amazing scenery along the way. Unfortunately for us, the road was extremely curvy, and the girl behind us apparently could not stomach it. She spent most of the trip emptying her stomach into a plastic bag and periodically tossing the plastic bag onto the roadside(including while we were in the national park!).

From Guayaquil, Ec...

Once we were in Guayaquil, we began searching for a hotel. It is usually really hard for Dan and I to make up our minds about hotels, but this time we had a clearly defined goal: find an inexpensive hotel that was showing the Patriots vs Colts game (personally, I´m not a big Patriots fan, but both teams were undefeated, and the Colts are probably my least favorite team). In South America it is normal to ask to see the room before taking it, so this time while we would see the room, we would turn on the TV and look for the game (we got into Guayaquil just as the game was starting). After three hotels, we finally found the game, and it was well worth the search because it turned out to be a very close game with the Patriots finally pulling through at the end. Below is a picture of just before the Patriots made their comeback:

From Guayaquil, Ec...

The next day in Guayaquil we walked around the Malecon, which is the area along the river that Guayaquil had recently restored for the new millenium. We had gone to the Malecon the last time we were in Guayaquil several weeks earlier, but it was at night and we were not very impressed. However, this time around we were there for a lovely sunny day and it was great.

From Guayaquil, Ec...

Near the end of the Malecon is a recently built up neighborhood called Cerro Santa Ana. It is basically a 465 step, outdoor stairwell with shops along the way. By that point in the day it was way to hot to climb to the top of the hill, so instead we decided to cool down at an internet cafe that was supposedly 1/3 of the way up the hill. However, we somehow missed it, because we found the top of the hill before we found the internet cafe. Fortunately, it was still worth the climb because the top of the hill had a very nice view of the city. (On the way back down we found the internet cafe, but it was closed)

From Guayaquil, Ec...

That night we took a red-eye flight to Buenos Aires. We had ended up spending so much time in Ecuador and still had so much we wanted to do in Argentina and Brazil, we decided to skip Chile. However, fortunately for us, the cheapest way to fly to Buenos Aires was to have a two hour layover in Santiago, Chile! Unfortunately, Chile charges Americans $100 to enter their country (Chile and Brazil do this because the US charges everyone entering our country $100), so we decided against leaving the airport. However, that time we spent in Chile between 5-7 AM was really swell! Here are some of the highlights of our trip to Chile:

Dan at the airport giftstore:

From Santiago, Chile

View from the airport window:

From Santiago, Chile

Close-up of the mountains:

From Santiago, Chile

Cuenca, Ecuador

2007-11-09T15:53:00.001-05:00

From Cuenca, Ecuador

After Baños, we headed for Cuenca, Ecuador. The Cuenca Independence Day celebration is November third, so we decided to go for October 31 through November 4 (Wed night -Sun morning). There was no direct bus, so we first had to take a 45 minute bus to Ambato. Like most Ecuadorian buses, this process was very easy. As soon as we got to the Baños bus station, a guy approached us saying "Quito, Quito, Quito", which is the most common destination for travelers from Baños. We said "No, Ambato" and he led us to a bus. We put our bags underneath and within a few minutes we were off. When we got on, the bus was about one third full, but we picked up more people on our way out of town and soon the bus was full. We like to joke that it´s not a real South American bus experience without an armpit in the face.

When we got to Ambato, we told the money collector guy on the bus that we were going to Cuenca, so he dropped us off on the side of the road a ways before the main station (the guy at our hotel had told us this was the way to go). Across the street were a few buses waiting. A guy came up to us saying "Cuenca, Cuenca, Cuenca". We put our bags under the bus and boarded. The bus was packed, but fortunately the very last two seats were open, and they even had room to fully recline! Sitting in front of us was a family with two screaming babies (about 3 and 6), but we were happy to have seats.

The bus to Cuenca was about seven hours, but we didn´t worry about lunch because of the "bus buffet". In Ecuador, people periodically hop on and off the bus, regardless of designated stops. In addition to regular passengers, many of the people are asking for money, performing for money, or (most commonly) selling food or drinks. It´s great because you get to see whatever food they have as they walk down the aisle, then you can think about it, and on their way back up the aisle you can buy it if you want. Different parts of Ecuador tend to have different types of food, but it usually only costs about 50¢ so it´s okay to experiment. After the vendors make their rounds, they hop off the bus wherever they end up. I suspect they then catch a bus in the opposite direction to get back to where they started. Each bus has a money collector who periodically makes sure all of the riders have paid (he must have a great memory because they rarely issue tickets), but they don´t make the people selling stuff/asking for money pay.

After the little girl in front of us had a nap, she was pretty cute. For some reason she found Dan really funny. I´m not sure if it was because of his Panama hat or maybe his big blonde beard, but she kept tugging at her Mom´s shoulder to get her attention and then pointing to Dan and laughing hysterically. This was pretty funny until all of a sudden she threw up all over the floor (maybe she was turned backwards for too long?). Fortunately, at that point we were only about an hour from Cuenca and the money collector guy came back and put some newspaper over it.

Dan´s beard:

From Cuenca, Ecuador

Because of the holiday weekend, we made hotel reservations in advance at the Hotel Milan. It was a little strange because they didn´t accept credit cards so they gave us their bank account number and we had to go to a branch in Quito and deposit $60 in their account (all 4 nights cost $80). However, it was good that we did this because when we got there, the hotel was totally booked. Plus, it turned out to be a great hotel with friendly staff, decent hot water, cable TV, great location, and a free water cooler! Even better, we had a balcony overlooking the San Francisco Market with live music from about 10 am to 10 pm (this was especially lucky because some of Cuenca´s celebrations went late into the night). From our balcony we could just barely see the performers on the stage. Unfortunately, most of the performers were Karaoke style (singing over prerecorded tracks). A few of the groups were apparently inspired by the Backstreet Boys or Pussycat Dolls and had matching costumes and choreographed dances. However, dancing skills were generally disproportional to singing skills.

Dan from our balcony at Hotel Milan:

From Cuenca, Ecuador

Our first night in Cuenca we went to a restaurant highly recommended by Fodors, called Villarosa Restaurant. It was listed in the lowest price range, but we were surprised to see all the tables laid out with quite elaborate table settings. We were also surprised to see that we were the only ones in the restaurant. We went ahead and ordered two shrimp bisques for appetizers. For the main course, Dan got lamb and I got black conch ceviche. One of my favorite meals of the trip was the ceviche I had ordered in Lima, so I was eager to try it again. Soon after we ordered, a large tour group of old English people filled the restaurant. We´ve found that Fodors recommendations are sometimes excellent, but sometimes overrun with old people tour groups.

Although my ceviche in Lima was served as a little pile of seafood pieces, in Ecuador they tend to serve it more like a cold soup, which is not quite as good, but still tasty. However, I was very surprised to see a bowl of thick, black, cold liquid brought out for my meal. Floating in it were totally black pieces of raw shellfish and on the side was a bowl of popcorn and corn kernels. Apparently, black conch refers to the color of the meat, not just the shell. Halfway through the meal the chef came out to see how I liked the black conch. I told her it had a very unusual flavor, so she suggested I put some of the popcorn into the "soup". It helped a little. In the below picture I´m holding a piece of conch on my spoon and floating in the bowl are pieces of popcorn and corn kernels:

From Cuenca, Ecuador

A little known fact is that Panama hats actually originated in Ecuador. While in Cuenca, we went to a Panama hat factory. The hats are hand woven outside of the factory, but we got to see them press the hat into the correct shape and apply the finishing touches.

From Cuenca, Ecuador

We had left for South America on September 1, and from that day until November 3 Dan stopped shaving. By that point he was looking pretty scruffy, so he decided to go to the barber shop. He told them something like "Quiero tener la barba, pero quiero cortarla un poco" and this is what he ended up with (I think they did a very good job):

From Cuenca, Ecuador

One of my favorite things about or visit to Cuenca was the seemingly randomness of all of the Independence day celebrations. We were unable to find any sort of event schedule, but instead, as we wondered around town, we would stumble across various celebrations. Twice we stumbled into parades. The first parade consisted almost entirely of queens of different things (maybe neighborhoods?). Most of the "floats" were decorated trucks with 1-5 young ladies with sashes sitting in the back.

From Cuenca, Ecuador

On Friday night we were walking around looking for celebrations when we came across a group of people standing along the edge of a wide stairwell leading down to the river. We were wondering what all the commotion was about when suddenly a bike went racing past us down the stairs. Apparently it was a bike race! Near the bottom of the stairwell was a park with a large bandstand and a huge crowd. The group on stage was performing traditional Ecuadorian music and was very good. Everyone was dancing so Dan and I danced around too, but I think we must have looked pretty out of place because a guy motioned us over and showed us some dance moves. He also introduced us to his entire family, including Grandma. Everyone was very eager to say hello to and dance with the gringos. It was pretty hectic but a lot of fun.

I don´t think Cuenca gets as many tourists as some of the other cities we´ve visited. Many of the locals were clearly amused by telling us¨"hello" as we walked by. At one point an inebriated guy came up to us and in broken English told us that if we ever wanted to speak English with someone, we should talk with him. However, every time we tried to respond, he would just tell us again that we should talk with him because he speaks English. I think that might have been the only phrase he could remember.

Here is some delicous pork we ate:

From Cuenca, Ecuador

On Saturday night we came across a comedian performing in a blocked off street. She got lots of laughs, but our Spanish wasn´t good enough to understand her jokes, so we headed back to the bandstand from the previous night. The bandstand was no longer there, but we walked a little further and soon found a small band playing. There was also a bunch of artwork for sale and people doing caricatures. They were packing up their things to leave, but I asked a guy and he said he would do a caricature of us. People kept coming over to watch him draw, and the next thing we knew, we had a larger audience than the band! It is a little funny having someone intently look at you and draw you. To make it funnier, we couldn´t see the drawing, but we could watch the whole crowd of people (maybe 20?) keep looking back and forth from us to the picture and smiling. I couldn´t help but smile the entire time. Here is the resulting picture:

From Cuenca, Ecuador

Note that Dan had his beard trimmed before this drawing was done. I think it is very good, but Dan´s eyes are a little too small. If you cover up his eyes, I think it looks even more accurate. While we were having the caricature done, another artist decided to draw me as well (I must have inspired him!):

From Cuenca, Ecuador

More Quito, and Baños

2007-11-08T23:38:00.000-05:00

Hello!

Carrie and I are actually in Punta del Este, Uruguay right now! We had stopped over in Buenos Aires (and will be back), but we wanted to try out the beach here. Unfortunately, mother nature is once again interfering, but hopefully things will warm up soon. Ecuador was truly a wonderful place -- out of Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador, we would be most likely to return to Ecuador for another vacation someday. My last post ended with the Galapagos... After that, we were back in Quito for a more extended stay.

Our main goal after arriving back in Quito was to arrange a flight out of Ecuador to Argentina. We were quickly getting worried when one-way fares were exceeding $600 and $700! However, we got lucky when we ran into another one of our mysterious contacts. In Quito, we frequently ran into a friendly older guy named Diego, who was originally from the US. He seemed well versed in all things Ecuador, and had given us advice on other things before. He told us to go to a specific travel agency (Galasam) to look into airfares. Low and behold, this travel agency hooked us up with flights to Buenos Aires for less than $400. Thank you Diego!

One day in Quito, we headed into "Old Town", or the historic center of the city. We were disappointed by many museums and sites being either closed or under construction, but still enjoyed ourselves walking around and seeing various buildings and plazas. Even walking the streets is scenic. I love how you can look down a street and see mountains looming in the background:

From Quito, Ecuador

Another neat place we found in Quito was Parque Carolina (recommended by our friend Diego). This was basically a very large park with lots of activities, and we found a little museum containing lots of snakes! One of the feature activities was actually holding a snake. In this photo, the snake is actually licking Carrie's back!

From Quito, Ecuador

Since we always stayed at the same hotel in Quito, we got quite used to our neighborhood. Our hotel didn't include breakfast, so we quickly found favorite places for breakfast. One of them was called "Friends", and they really hooked it up for only about $3!

From Quito, Ecuador

All in all, we felt like Quito was one of the first cities we felt that we could live in. It had an easy to navigate transit system, lots of good restaurants, fun bars, and friendly people. I found bars where I could watch the World Series, and was amused by how the Ecuadorians cheered at every exciting play, regardless of who was making it. When we were finished with Quito, we followed some other traveler's recommendations and headed to the small town of Baños, about 3 hours south of Quito.

We quickly realized that Baños was a great town! It is nestled in a valley between tall, beautiful, and green mountains. There is a volcano nearby that we occasionally got glimpses of, but it was frequently covered over by clouds. Since we were missing the wedding of our good friends Jessica and Anthony at this time, we decided we would do a scenic bike ride in their honor. From Baños, you can rent bikes for $5 and follow the road to Puyo, a town about 60km away. The ride is advertised as being all downhill and full of scenic waterfall views. Other than some occasional bike chain problems, the ride did not disappoint! Here are some photos:

From Baños, Ecuador

This picture is from a cable car we took across the valley towards a waterfall:

From Baños, Ecuador

"The Devil" Waterfall:

From Baños, Ecuador

After lunch, we found out that the ride wasn't entirely downhill, and faced some rough uphill stretches. For this reason, and because we spent so much time exploring waterfalls, we didn't go all the way to Puyo. We waited by the side of the road, and after about 10 minutes, a yellow minivan taxi pulled up, offering to take us (with our bikes) back to Baños for $3!

Another highlight of Baños was the abundance of thermal springs to bathe in. After an outdoor activity during the day, we would go to one of the bathing areas to relax. Most places had pools of different temperatures, and since we were there during the week, the crowds weren't too bad. We don't have bathing pictures, but here is me at one of the places before we got in:

From Baños, Ecuador

On the day after the bike ride, we decided to go white water rafting. There are a couple popular rivers for rafting there, and we opted for the more challenging (and more fun) Rio Pastaza with its class 4 rapids. Our company (Geotours) was great, and the guide would often intentionally lead the boat into situations that resulted in everyone getting brutally splashed, without tipping over the boat. I don't have photos from the actual rafting, but we did take a break midway through where we got to jump into the river from the surrounding rocks:

From Baños, Ecuador

The other major event in Baños was the Red Sox being in the World Series! Suddenly, having cable tv available became a high priority, as the games were all on ESPN Deportes (the spanish language ESPN). After having some room switching issues with our hotel, I was able to watch the deciding game 4. Here are some photos of me celebrating with all of Red Sox nation in Baños:

From Baños, Ecuador

After the final out, I went into the streets to celebrate with everyone!

From Baños, Ecuador

All in all, Baños was a great time. It was mostly relaxing (other than our hotel situation), and it had beautiful scenery. I loved how you could do fun athletic activities during the day and then relax in soothing baths while gazing at a waterfall at night. How can you beat that?

To any potential Baños travelers reading this post: A note on our hotels... The Hosteria Monte Selva seems like a great place. It has some nice cabins up on the hill, as well as its own jacuzzis and thermal baths. However, their staff is very deceptive and sometimes tells you outright lies. For instance, if your cable isn't working and they say someone will come up to help you, that is not true. Also, despite the cards in the room that say the jacuzzis and thermal baths are open every day, they are in fact only open on the weekends! So, if you're like us and arrive on a Sunday, you will be disappointed the next day when you discover everything you had paid extra for is closed. If you're coming during the week, I'd highly recommend the Hostel Isla de Baños, literally right across the street, with nice rooms for half the price!

After Baños, we headed to the beautiful town of Cuenca, before heading out of Ecuador. Look for a post from Carrie soon!

¡Ecuador!

2007-11-08T19:58:00.000-05:00

Top 13 things I learned while in Ecuador (since we were there over a month, I had to do more than the usual 10):

13. The middle of the world monument, near Quito, Ecuador, is not actually on the equator. The French originally determined it incorrectly, but with the invention of GPS, the Canadians realized the real equator is actually a few hundred meters north of the monument.

From Quito, Ecuador

12. At the equator, and only at the equator, you can balance an egg on a nail head because there are no sideways gravitational forces.

From Quito, Ecuador

11. Some Ecuadorian cultures buried their dead in the fetal position so they could be born into the next world. They often put the bodies in large ceramic jars. In addition, if it was a high ranking man, they would sacrifice his wife and children so they could all be buried together.

From Quito, Ecuador

10. According to a travel guide we picked up in Quito: "In Cuenca, if you are stained with any type of liquid (mustard) do not allow strangers to clean you."

9. Ecological toilets (a pit where you throw on some sawdust after each use) are actually quite nice and not too smelly

From Coastal Ecuador

8. Bamboo logs make excellent bowls (as do coconut shells and pumpkins)

From Coastal Ecuador

7. Female blue footed boobies have much larger pupils and a much deeper voice than the males. In addition, both genders have no fear of humans and love to put their nests in the middle of hiking paths.

From Coastal Ecuador

6. Frigate birds live near the ocean, but their feathers are not water-proof so they cannot hunt for fish. Instead, while in mid-air, groups of them will literally bully other birds into coughing up their food, which the frigate birds then eat.

From Coastal Ecuador

5. You can tell the male sea lions apart from the females by their large foreheads. They also love to swim up and down the beach barking as much as physically possible.

From Galapagos Isl...

4. In the jungle we came across a female spider that was about the size of my hand, but her mate was about the size of my pinky fingernail. Apparently, the males are really small to avoid being eaten after reproduction.

From Cuyabeno

3. There is a parasite in the jungle that is attracted to warm water, so if you pee while swimming, it may swim up your hoo-ha.

From Quito, Ecuador

2. Mineral baths are almost as murky as jungle water, but instead of giving you parasites and infections, they supposidley help with acne, muscle aches, stomach problems, stress, and weight loss.

From Baños, Ecuador

1. There are actually seasons in Ecuador. In the jungle, the rainy season is around January and the wet season is around June. Along the coast, the warmest months are December through February. When we were there in early October it was often cloudy and a bit chilly.

From Coastal Ecuador

Isla de la Plata, Quito, and Galapagos

2007-11-01T14:07:00.000-04:00

Hey everybody -- Carrie and I are now in Cuenca, Ecuador, preparing for their independence celebrations coming up this weekend. Unfortunately, our stay in Ecuador will be coming to an end soon, and we will be moving on to Argentina. We've decided to skip Chile, because we really want to make sure we have enough time to do Argentina and Brazil some justice. In any case, my last post left off on the coast of Ecuador...

One day trip we did from coastal Ecuador was Isla de la Plata. Our hostel set us up with a tour, and we headed to the nearby town of Puerto Lopez to board a boat. We were told that we might get so see whales on our way to the island, but that the mating season was coming to an end, so we might not. Let's just say we got lucky!

From Coastal Ecuador

We also got a glimpse of some dolphins, but were unable to get them on camera. When we finally got to the island, we hiked for a couple hours and got our first look at the blue footed boobies.

From Coastal Ecuador

We found it especially amusing when the birds would set up their nests in the middle of the tourist path!

From Coastal Ecuador

We also got a look at the masked booby (one of my favorites):

From Coastal Ecuador

The last bird we saw was the frigate bird (the male is puffing out):

From Coastal Ecuador

After the hike, we went back to the boat and did about 30 minutes of snorkeling. This photo is from the boat before we jumped in and went swimming with the fishes...

From Coastal Ecuador

Overall, we enjoyed the Isla de la Plata experience! If Galapagos is too expensive or time-consuming, this is a great alternative. It is especially great if you can go during whale mating season (I know September is included, but I don't know how much earlier it goes).

After our stay on the coast, we boarded an overnight bus to Quito. As usual, we didn't sleep much, but we eventually made it. Here we found our staple Quito hotel, Hotel Pickett. We settled in a bit here, and then headed for the jungle, which Carrie detailed in her most recent post.

After the jungle, we had a couple days in Quito before we headed for the Galapagos. We decided to head to Mitad del Mundo, or the "Middle of the World", where the true equator is located. First, there was the large monument, which actually isn't at the true equator:

From Quito, Ecuador

After that, we headed to the Museo del Solar, which had the true equator:

From Quito, Ecuador

At this museum, they had a demonstration of water draining in different hemispheres. Carrie and I of course decided to take videos:

At the equator:

In the southern hemisphere (only a couple meters away):

In the northern hemisphere (also a couple meters away):

At the equator, Carrie succeeded at balancing an egg on a nail (due to the fact that there are no sideways gravitational forces):

From Quito, Ecuador

After the Mitad del Mundo, we got incredibly lost on our bus ride back to Quito, so after trying 4 different local buses, we eventually gave up and took a cab. Remarkably, it turned out we had gotten to only a few blocks from our hotel! After that, we got ready to head to the GALAPAGOS!!

A quick note on Galapagos planning: We booked our trip before we headed to the jungle, or about 1 week in advance, in Quito. We paid our travel agent IN CASH, which resulted in many trips to the ATM! With Galapagos, if you have the luxury of time, I do recommend booking your tour "last minute," since that's when the prices drop more, even for nice boats. For truly last minute bookings, you can actually fly to the town of Puerto Ayora in the Galapagos, and book right then! We had booked our tour on a "tourist superior" boat, which basically had small bedrooms with private bathrooms, decent food, transit to the islands, and not much else. When we got back from the jungle, we found out that our original boat had been canceled, and we were re-booked on a nicer, first class boat for the same price!

Our travel agent told us that the boats reserve seats on airplanes so that all of the tourists can fly together. We were given stickers with our boat's name, so we could easily find our guide and group when we landed. However, in the airport, we didn't notice other people wearing our stickers. Our plane was then delayed, and we ended up boarding a plane with a different flight number, which took us to Guayaquil. From there, we switched planes to a Galapagos bound plane, although everything was extremely confusing. Carrie and I suspected that they canceled our original flight, but just wouldn't admit that they did.

When we finally got off our plane, we didn't see anyone from our boat. Suddenly, this older man came up to us and told us that he was the one to take us to the boat, but that we were very late and the entire group was waiting! We told him that we needed to get our bags, and then we'd be all set. While we waited for our bags, he came back up to us and said he was leaving with the rest of the group! We were left behind, and told to join this other group to go to the port, where he would meet us and take us to our boat. Of course, the guide of the group we joined didn't have money to pay for our bus / boat transfers, so we had to pay them ourselves, which was unexpected.

Once we got to the port, the old man rejoined us, and introduced us to our actual tour guide. The guide proceeded to tell us that this was supposed to be his afternoon off, and joined us on a water taxi to our boat. On the boat, the rest of our group had just finished lunch, and Carrie and I ate our meal while they finished off dessert. Luckily, the rest of our group was extremely friendly and understanding, and things got better fast.

What we ended up learning was that in the Galapagos, the logistics can be completely messed up, but nothing can screw up the islands themselves... the rest of the trip was pretty fantastic! After lunch on the first day, we went to the Charles Darwin Center, where they are breeding endangered Galapagos tortoises:

From Galapagos Isl...

After the Darwin Center, we headed back to the boat for dinner and sleeping. The next day, we went back to the same island we had started in and viewed some lava tubes and did a short hike. After lunch, the boat left for the first time and we went to the Island of Santa Fe for snorkeling and a hike. I don't have photos of snorkelling, but we saw some colorful fish, and Carrie had a sea lion swim directly underneath her! When we got to the beach, we were introduced to the Galapagos sea lions for the first time:

From Galapagos Isl...

Needless to say, we enjoyed ourselves quite a bit! The incredible thing was that the animals were mostly unafraid of humans! This is likely due to the fact that the islands have been protected for so long, so humans haven't bothered the animals much here... only taken lots of photos!

For the third day, we went to Española island, where we saw more amazing things. Here are some highlights:

Marine Iguanas and Lava Lizards:

From Galapagos Isl...

I join a beautiful moment between mother and child:

From Galapagos Isl...

Carrie and I at the edge of the island:

From Galapagos Isl...

Masked boobies up close:

From Galapagos Isl...

A sea lion joins Carrie on the beach:

From Galapagos Isl...

For Day 4, we headed to Floreana Island, which featured some good snorkelling that proved to be difficult due to the strong current. We also got our first look at Galapagos flamingos (supposedly the most pink in the world), a beach full of stingrays, and more sea lions!

From Galapagos Isl...

Notice the flamingo's path visible in the water:

From Galapagos Isl...

Luckily the rays didn't give anyone the Steve Irwin treatment:

From Galapagos Isl...

We liked this pose:

From Galapagos Isl...

On Day 5 in the early morning, we got our first look (in the Galapagos) at the male frigatebird showing off for the females:

From Galapagos Isl...

We also got a look at a newborn sea lion with its mother, and a bird attempting to eat the placenta. The mother had to keep growling to keep the bird at bay:

From Galapagos Isl...

Unfortunately, during day 5, the boat spent a long time at Baltra, the airport island. This is because some tourists opt for 4 or 5 day Galapagos tours, and those tourists are mixed in with the 8 day people (like us). For the 8 day people, we basically had to kill 6 hours of a beautiful afternoon doing nothing, because they were dropping off and picking up tourists, as well as cleaning the boat. After some coaxing, at least they let us hang out on an army beach for a couple hours, which wasn't particularly exciting, so Carrie built this fortress around a sleeping sea lion:

From Galapagos Isl...

For Day 6, we headed to Genovesa Island. It was here that we got our first look at the red-footed booby:

From Galapagos Isl...

The very beautiful red footed booby with white feathers:

From Galapagos Isl...

The swallow-tailed gull (one standing on top of the other):

From Galapagos Isl...

This day also featured some great snorkeling, where we saw SHARKS and giant turtles. Unfortunately, I do not have photos.

For Day 7, we spent time in Bartolome, as well as Santa Cruz's Black Turtle Cove. Here we saw the Galapagos Penguin:

From Galapagos Isl...

We also had some nice views (you can see our boat in the background):

From Galapagos Isl...

Bartolome also featured one of our unforgettable moments, when we snorkeled with sea lions! We had snorkeled before and had sea lions swim by, but this time the sea lions actually swam WITH us and really seemed to be playing with us. They would do barrel rolls and jump out of the water, and even pose underwater. While we don't have any photos of this, I doubt I will ever forget it.

In the afternoon of day 7, we moved to a different area of Santa Cruz. While in transit, two frigate birds followed us for the entire time! Notice how happy I look at this moment:

From Galapagos Isl...

I was lounging on the boat's top deck, when suddenly one of the frigate birds that had been following us decided to relieve itself:

From Galapagos Isl...

I cleaned up, and for our afternoon excursion we went in small boats through some mangroves, reminiscent of the jungle. We saw some pretty neat stuff.

Mating turtles:

From Galapagos Isl...

SHARKS!

From Galapagos Isl...

Turtle underwater:

From Galapagos Isl...

On Day 8, we did a brief (and fairly uneventful) hike before heading back to the airport. In summary, I would HIGHLY recommend the Galapagos to anyone who loves wildlife. If you have the luxury of time, I would certainly recommend the 8 day tour, booked in Ecuador. Just make sure you have something to do midway through the trip when the 4/5 day passengers switch. Also, get the nicest boat you can afford, since you'll be spending a lot of time on it! We took a lot more pictures than were posted on this blog, so please feel free to look at the full photo albums if you like what you see.

The Cuyabeno Jungle

2007-10-26T13:09:00.000-04:00

Our first day in Quito, Ecuador, we arranged for a five day trip exploring the jungle in the Cuyabeno National Reserve. Due to a relatively recent war with Peru, Ecuador no longer has any of the actual Amazon river, but the Cuyabeno river feeds into the Amazon and the surrounding area is part of the Amazon rainforest. Cuyabeno is considered primary rainforest because it has never been cut down and regrown like many other areas. This means that there is much more wildlife to see!

To start our trip, we first had to take an eight hour, over-night bus ride to Lago Agrio. The roads were very windy and mostly dirt, so we didn´t get much sleep that night. We arrived at 6 am in pouring rain, but we weren´t supposed to meet our group until 9:30-10, so I had a short nap in the lobby of the hotel where we were supposed to meet. I´m not sure the hotel was too happy about me napping in their lobby, but fortunately they didn´t say anything.

Our travel agent had given us stickers to wear so we could locate our group. There appeared to be a couple of other groups meeting at this hotel as well, but no one else from our lodge, Samona. As 9:30 turned into 10 we started to worry because not only was nobody there to meet us, but no one else was wearing the stickers (the travel agent had told us there would be seven people in our group). Then, at 10:00 a man introduced himself as Naicer, our guide, and told us to get in his unmarked jeep. There was another dude driving, who we later learned was Naicer´s brother. We asked where the rest of our group was, and he said we had to pick them up from the airport. A little strange, but we went along with it.

First, we drove to Naicer´s parents house where we switched to a Volkswagon van. Then, on the way to the airport, Naicer got a call informing him that two of the people in our group had cancelled and the other three people were actually scheduled to come next month. We weren´t sure if us being the only two in the group was a good or bad thing, but it was definitely strange. We drove to the airport anyway where we picked up some papers. Then we drove to a gas station where Naicer appeared to have an argument with the attendant. Strange again! We later learned that the gas prices are much cheaper in Ecuador, so people often smuggle gasoline across the nearby Columbian border. The papers we had picked up from the airport were authorizing us to fill up several tanks of gasoline to use for the jungle boats.

After getting a little lost in downtown Lago Agrio due to construction, we next drove to a restaurant and picked up a few take-out boxes. Finally, we were ready to start the three hour drive to the Cuyabeno reserve. We stopped halfway through the drive at a tiny restaurant in a tiny town. There, we ate the take-out food, which turned out to be really yummy fried chicken with white rice. The restaurant owners didn´t seem to mind that we had brought our own food and weren´t buying any of theirs. Strange!

From Cuyabeno (The...

The rest of the ride was bumpy, although very scenic. At the entrance to the park, they transferred all of our supplies to a dug out canoe. Since it was just Dan and I, we also picked up two hitchhikers, a woman and her young son. It had been raining all morning, so they gave us heavy ponchos to wear. Fortunately, the rain dwindled to a stop within the first half hour of our two hour ride. On the ride we saw many animals including macaws, yellow handed titi monkeys, stinky turkeys, and a river otter. We were very lucky to see the river otter because they were almost extinct. We knew this was special because Naicer got really excited when he saw the otter, quickly scrambled to get out his camera AND video camera from his luggage, and took photos/movies the entire time the otter was in site. Naicer was a really great guide because he would get really excited about the wildlife and you could tell he loved being in the jungle. In the below picture, Naicer is at the front of the boat and you can see the otter´s head to the left of the boat:

From Cuyabeno (The...

The Simona lodge actually consisted of a bunch of separate huts all connected by a wooden walkway a few feet above ground. We were there during the dry season, but apparently during the wet season the entire campsite is filled with water and you can actually fish for piranha right off the walkway! Our hut was the largest, with two floors and a total of six rooms. Each room had a private bath with shower. However, the toilet, sink, and shower water were all from the river so the water was a little brown. There was no electricity in the rooms, but there were two candles that were sufficient for everything but reading.

From Cuyabeno (The...

There was also a large hut that contained the kitchen and a large room for dining/lounging. On the first night we were instructed to not keep any food in our room because of the insects, so I put my bag of snacks in the communal refrigerator in the kitchen (I still had some Cliff bars I´d been hoarding for emergency snacks). However, despite our precautions, our room was swarmed with giant cockroaches every night. Most of them were about the size of my big toe! Below is a picture of two crawling through some clothing I had put on a shelf (after taking this picture I quickly shook out all my clothes and started keeping everything in plastic bags).

From Cuyabeno (The...

When we got to the lodge, it was filled with tourists. However, it turned out that all but three of them were leaving the next morning, so we ended up with a nice group of five. There was a brother and sister who were about our age and another older woman, coincidentally all from Switzerland. Our first morning at the lodge we went for a hike. However, before we left, we were equipped with water-proof, knee-high boots, which turned out to be essential for jungle hiking. I was constantly amazed by all the different plants and animals we saw, but the two highlights were when a GIANT grasshopper landed on one of the guy´s backpacks and hiking through this big mud pit:

From Cuyabeno (The...

In addition, on our way back to the lodge we saw a pink river dolphin, which is somewhat uncommon during the dry season. Unfortunately, river dolphins are a little shyer than their oceanic cousins, so this was our only picture:

From Cuyabeno (The...

After getting back to the lodge, we had lunch and relaxed until mid-afternoon. Then we went piranha fishing! Our poles were sticks with fishing line and hooks, and our bait was STEAK. Piranhas usually hang out around tree roots and the technique is to first thrash your pole around in the water like an animal in distress, and then wait for the fish to bite. Right away Naicer caught a little Piranha (about six inches), but the crazy part was that it had a parasite living in it´s throat! Naicer pulled out the parasite and let the fish live. The parasite was very light yellow and looked more like a bug than a worm. Unfortunately, Dan and I were unable to catch anything.

From Cuyabeno (The...

After piranha fishing, we moved the boat to slightly deeper water and went swimming. The water was so murky you could only see about two inches into it, so Dan and I opted out of this activity. It was dark by the time we headed back to the lodge, and Naicer spotted a baby boa constrictor hanging off a branch. He coaxed it onto a fishing pole so we could get a closer look. I tried to pet it, but it kept trying to bite me, so I decided against petting.

From Cuyabeno (The...

That night, after dinner, we went for a night hike! There we learned the trick of putting your flashlight in front of your nose to make all of the animal´s eyes shine back at you. This even worked for fish in a stream, and I was amazed by how many eyes appeared out of nowhere. We came across a very photogenic tree frog, but the highlight of the trip were the fisherman spiders. These spiders can be as big as my hand and actually catch fish out of streams! Below is a picture of the fisherman spider with its dinner (but I must admit that Naicer killed the fish himself and fed it to the spider for pictures):

From Cuyabeno (The...

The next day we took a boat ride up the river to see the medicine man. He showed us a bunch of different plants and explained how he uses them. While on the tour, we came across a giant fluffy caterpillar. I really had to restrain myself from petting it, because apparently they are covered in poison and are terribly painful.

From Cuyabeno (The...

After the tour the medicine man performed a short cleansing ceremony on me. I didn´t notice much of a change.

Later that afternoon, while everyone else was taking a siesta, I decided to try my luck at piranha fishing again. After an hour of the fish stealing my bait, I finally caught a tiny little piranha. However, despite his small size, his teeth still looked a little menacing and I was afraid to take him off the hook. I threw the fish, still with the hook in its mouth, back in the water and put the pole on the dock. Then I ran and found someone to help get the hook out. However, by the time we got back, the little guy had either managed to free himself, or a bigger fish had come along and eaten him, because he was gone. I still had half a cup of steak pieces left, so I decided to keep going, and half an hour later I caught a really big one. At this point there was a girl there to help me unhook and release him, but in retrospect, I wish I had saved him for eating. Supposedly, piranhas are bit boney but make great stew.

From Cuyabeno (The...

Even later that afternoon we paddled a canoe down the river to the nearby lake. On our way, we came across a caimen. It´s head was over a foot long and Naicer steered us to within a few feet of him. He didn´t move the entire time, but was definitely watching us.

From Cuyabeno (The...

We also came across a group of about 30 squirrel monkeys. There was a break in the trees that they were jumping across. A few of them missed the branch they were aiming for, but they managed to catch the next branch before falling to the ground.

At the lake we saw a beautiful sunset. However, we started seeing lightening in the distance so we hitched a ride with a motorized canoe boat back to the lodge.

From Cuyabeno (The...

That night, back at the lodge, we found a GIANT walking stick insect in the dining area that I let it crawl on me. I think he liked me because he didn´t want to let go of my shirt.

From Cuyabeno (The...

The next morning we went for another hike where we saw bats, toucans, turtles, stinky turkeys, and thousands of mosquitoes. Both of the below pictures where taken through Naicer´s telescope:

Toucan:

From Cuyabeno (The...

Stinky Turkey (named because the meat is too smelly to eat):

From Cuyabeno (The...

The last afternoon turned out to be pretty frustrating because we were basically abandoned by our guide. The three Swiss had left and Naicer had to go pick up another group of tourists. Naicer said that we could join another group that were going on a boat ride to look for anaconda. Our travel agent had said our group would be no bigger than eight people, because larger groups tend to scare away the wildlife, but from the boat we didn´t think it would be too big a deal. However, it turned out that they were actually going piranha fishing and then hiking back to the lodge on the same route we had taken that morning. By that point we were pretty tired of hiking through hot, mosquito-filled jungle, so we asked if we could just go for the boat ride and not hike back, but the other guide said that was not possible. We were pretty frustrated because we had just hiked that same route that morning, and hiking with such a big group would not be very fun, so we decided to stay at the lodge.

When Naicer got back just after sunset we explained what happened. He was very sorry and said he could take us out to look for anaconda. Apparently, the anaconda like to hang out around a section of the lake filled with giant tree stumps. Navigating the boat past all the dead trees was pretty challenging, and a few times Naicer had to get out of the boat, and standing on a branch a few feet under the water, push the boat by. We were undable to find any big snakes, but the boat ride itself was fun and I appreciated Naicer trying to show us a good time.

The next morning we had to wake up at 4 AM to start our journey back to civilization. However, all the new tourists that Naicer had picked up that day were still on city time and kept us up until midnight with all their noise. The next day we had took the two hour boat ride back to the road and the three hour van ride to Lago Agrio. Fortunately, instead of then taking an eight hour bus ride back to Quito, we instead took a one hour plane flight.

When we finally got back to Quito at around midday, we headed straight for our hotel, showered, and took a much needed nap. Strangely, all of our clothes we had brought to the jungle felt wet because it was so humid there, so we also had to have everything washed. In addition, a GIANT cockroach crawled out of our bag.

The entire time we were in Quito we stayed in a great hotel called Hotel Pickett. It had friendly staff, cable TV, and somewhat reliable hot water for $20 a night. We stayed there before the jungle, after the jungle and before Galapagos, and after Galapagos, always in the same room. However, it wasn´t until getting back from Galapagos that we started noticing cockroaches in the hotel. They were much smaller than the jungle version, but we had to wonder if we had something to do with their sudden appearance...

Every day we were in the jungle got a little hotter, and every day we got more mosquito bites. I applied 98% deet at least 3 times a day and slept under a mosquito net, but by the end of the trip I had about 30 bites on my legs. However, overall I loved our jungle adventure! I had always heard so many stories about the jungle, and it was really neat seeing it for real. If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend a 5 day trip to the Amazon jungle!

From Cuyabeno (The...

Ecuador -- We managed to spend a month here!

2007-10-26T13:00:00.000-04:00

Hello!

Carrie and I are in Quito, having finished our jungle and Galapagos tours. We've been watching the World Series here... let's just say that Red Sox Nation doesn't exactly extend into Ecuador, but the atmosphere is still fun. Many Ecuadorians cheer at any exciting play, regardless of which team is executing it. Needless to say, I'm quite happy with the results so far. As for our journeys, the last long blog post left off in Peru in Machu Picchu...

Upon arriving back in Cusco, we found that our hotel had evidently forgotten that we were due back, despite us telling 3 different people before we left. They only had a room with tiny single beds left, which we regrettably took because it was late and we were tired. The following morning, the hot water didn't work, which made us quite angry because we hadn't taken a good shower in many days. We decided to switch hotels, and from there things were better.

After taking a much needed hot shower, we tried to figure out the best way to get to Ecuador. We quickly found out that flights to Ecuador are very expensive. With that, we decided to arrange a flight from Cusco to Lima, followed by 2 days in Lima, followed by a flight to the Peru / Ecuador border. Once that was arranged, we decided to relax and enjoy our last few days in Cusco. Here are some photo highlights:

The Irish Pub in Cusco:

From Cusco, Peru

A random parade going through the Plaza de Armas:

From Cusco, Peru

The view of Cusco from the hills of Sacsayhuaman:

From Cusco, Peru

Gradually, I became a bit worn down by Cusco, mostly because of the relentlessness of the people on the streets trying to sell things to tourists. Initially, Carrie and I enjoyed getting begged to dine at restaurants, but eventually I got sick of having someone follow me around when I was just trying to walk down the street. In the end, I felt that many people in tourst areas of Peru saw us more as walking dollar signs than as people. Unfortunately, this gave me a rather negative final impression of Cusco, which is really a decent city.

After Cusco, we took a 1 hour flight to Lima, the capital of Peru. It was warmer there, given the coastal location, but it was still not hot, and it was extremely cloudy, as apparently the sun doesn't shine there until December. We stayed in the Miraflores neighborhood, which was actually quite nice. Our hotel showed lots of promise to be one of our favorites, until we realized that there was loud construction taking place from 7am to 6pm every day. Here are some photo highlights from Lima:

Parque del Amor ("Lovers Park"):

From Lima, Peru

The Plaza del Armas:

From Lima, Peru

Guards marching in front of the palace:

From Lima, Peru

One of the highlights of Lima was a seafood dinner we had. Here are some highlights from what we ate:

Carrie got Ceviche, which is raw fish that gets cured by the vinegar:

From Lima, Peru

I ordered flounder, which apparently is the fish to get in Lima:

From Lima, Peru

We then got 2 fancy desserts:

From Lima, Peru

All this, plus a bottle of domestic white wine, $58!

After Lima, we boarded a flight to Tumbes, which is a town at the northern edge of Peru, near Ecuador. Unfortunately, Carrie had the privelage of sitting next to Peru's fattest man on the plane. Once we got to Tumbes, as expected, a travel agent type came and talked to us, and offered us a ride across the border. We took the offer, especially once a local said he wanted to do the same thing. The border crossing was very confusing, and we eventually ended up ditching our travel agent, but we eventually made it into Ecuador and boarded a bus to take us to Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city and gateway to the coast.

Guayaquil was very hot and sunny, which Carrie and I were thrilled to experience again. We didn't spend much time there (we wanted to get to a beach town), but the highlight was the Iguana Park, in the middle of downtown! Iguanas were basically walking freely throughout the park, and people could get close to them and even touch them! Here is one picture of me attempting to bond with an iguana:

From Coastal Ecuador

After Guayaquil, we boarded a bus for Montañita, a coastal town known for its great waves, surfers, and nightlife. The town itself is very small, with only a couple main streets. On the main streets are a bunch of businesses that are all about the same: On the ground level is an open air restaurant that blares mp3s all day, and becomes a bar / nightclub at night. Above the ground level is usually some sort of hostel, with most rooms or common areas containing many hammocks to lounge out on and relax. Carrie and I settled on a $20 per night room that contained ocean views and a private balcony.

While in Montañita, we spent time seeing the ocean again, and began to shift our diet to shrimp, squid, and whitefish. Here is one of my favorite dishes that I had there:

From Coastal Ecuador

Here is a surfing shot:

From Coastal Ecuador

Unfortunately, our Montañita experience did have some minor downsides. Like much of the Ecuador coast, it was very cloudy and not especially warm at the time of year we were there. Also, there was an election in Ecuador the weekend that we were there, and so by law, the bars were not supposed to serve alcohol. Most places did not follow this rule for us, but the town seemed to have a much calmer and quieter vibe than normal. Finally, our delicious culinary experiences were interrupted by an ant infested breakfast that Carrie received. When we told the waitress about the ants, she simply wiped off the top section which had the most visible ants, and gave the plate back to us, still containing insects! So after the weekend, we decided to head out of Montañita.

Our next stop was a beautiful ecological hotel called Hosteria Alandaluz. This came highly recommended to us, and it did not disappoint. Carrie and I had a choice of places to sleep, and we settled on a private cabin for $32 per night!

From Coastal Ecuador

It even featured an "ecological" bathroom where you poured sawdust instead of flush!

From Coastal Ecuador

From Alandaluz, we did multiple day trips. One was a canopy / zip line type place that wasn't expecially exciting, but the others were very memorable. We spent a day at the Playa Los Frailes, which was a beach located in a National Park. It's location was somehow set up such that it was actually sunny part of the time, and we could comfortably go swimming!

From Coastal Ecuador

The other day trip was to Isla de la Plata, which is known in some guide books as "the poor man's Galapagos". Since it was very similar to Galapagos, I'm going to postpone writing about it until I write about Galapagos (hopefully soon). You can view pictures from it in the Coastal Ecuador album on the photo site.

The Alandaluz experience wouldn't be complete without food... They specialized in seafoods accompanied by vegetables from their gardens. It was delicious. Here is one photo:

From Coastal Ecuador

After Alandaluz, we got ready to head to Quito. From there, we did the jungle and the Galapagos. Carrie and I will have more posts to come about those. The photos and some videos are now uploaded, so you can go to the full photo site and full video site (links in upper right corner of blog page) to get sneak previews! Until then, I wish everyone the best!

Very quick update

2007-10-14T22:35:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone!

Carrie and I just returned from our jungle adventure in Ecuador's Cuyabeno nature reserve. Tomorrow, we head to the Galapagos Islands! Unfortunately, we haven't had a chance to upload pictures yet, so we won't have a full update until we get back from the Galapagos. In the meantime, I hope all is well with everyone, and GO RED SOX!!

Peru, Machu Picchu, and the Inka Trail

2007-10-07T14:55:00.000-04:00

Hello!

This post comes to you from Quito, Ecuador. Carrie and I got here on Saturday, and we've been resting up for our upcoming trip to the jungle. While we haven't done much exploring here in Quito yet, we've had a good time just going to nearby restaurants and bars... Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately), we were able to catch the Cubs game at Wrigley Field, and watched them get swept away by the Diamondbacks. On a happier note for me, I was able to find a bar with NFL Sunday Ticket, and watched the Patriots game, followed by switching bars to watch the Red Sox dominate the Angels. Hopefully, the Yankees will fall soon, but we'll see... Anyways, the last narrative post I did went up to Lake Titicaca on the Bolivian side. From there, we entered Peru...

We took a "tourist" bus from Copacabana, Bolivia to Puno, Peru, on the other side of Lake Titicaca. While on that bus, we spoke with one of the employees who decided to befriend us and help us find a hotel. As always, we were initially skeptical of people who tried to arbitrarily sell us things. However, this man (whose name was Palermo) offered a free taxi ride and a good rate, and showed us the hotel's location, which appeared to be decent. We took Palermo up on his offer, and we ended up in a reasonable hotel for only 50 soles (about 16 dollars) per night, which appeared to be a substantial discount off of their posted rates.

From there, Palermo was ready to offer us tours of the Peruvian islands of Lake Titicaca, and book us on a special guided tourist bus to Cusco that made stops to tour several locations along the way. While we managed to find a better deal for the island tours, we did take Palermo up on his bus offer. He even insisted that he call one of his friends in Cusco who would help us find a good price for a hotel. More on that later...

After spending some time in Puno, we realized that Peru was a much more touristy country than Bolivia. There were districts of Puno filled with tourists walking the streets, and English speaking Peruvians hassling you to enter their restaurant or buy their products. On our Peruvian islands of Lake Titicaca tour, we had a boat full of 25 tourists, which was quite different from our private tour on the Bolivian side!

The first stop on our island tour was to the Uros floating islands, which were quite amazing, although it was clearly very touristy. The islands were apparently constructed using reeds, and we watched a demonstration explaining how the islands were secured to the lake. A woman showed us her home, which featured solar powered electricity! There was some doubt amongst our tour group if the locals actually lived on this island, or if they actually lived on the mainland and came to the islands to put on a show for the tourists. My guess was that they actually lived there, but their way of life consisted mostly of tourism shows, and not the fishing and craft-making lifestyle that they talked about. Here are some pictures:

One of the floating islands (viewed from our boat):

From Lake Titicaca

The ground on the island, consisting of reeds.

From Lake Titicaca

Locals demonstrate construction techniques for the islands:

From Lake Titicaca

Carrie, dressed in traditional clothing with one of the island's residents:

From Lake Titicaca

An "authentic" reed boat, that Carrie and I rode on. While riding the boat, we noticed that underneath the initial reed layer was wood...

From Lake Titicaca

After the floating islands, our boat headed for the Taquile island. Here, we hiked for a few hours, but honestly didn't see too much stuff worth remembering, in my opinion. The boat ride took a couple hours to get to this island from the floating islands, and it took another 3 hours to get back to the mainland. My recommendation for future Peruvian travelers would be to focus on the Uros islands and skip the Taquile.

After our island tour, we got ready to head to Cusco. The bus ride was fairly uneventful -- we observed some sights on the way, but the "touristy" feel was a little overwhelming. There were clearly people waiting for us at each sight, ready to sell us anything and everything. Our favorite sight along the way was an Incan temple... the stonework was pretty incredible. Here are a couple pictures:

From Cusco, Peru

Once the bus arrived in Cusco, we were immediately mobbed by people telling us we should have them find us a hotel. One person gave a name that sounded familiar... I think it was the name Palermo gave us back in Puno. We decided to see what this guy had to offer. He ended up finding us a nice hotel where we enjoyed a comfortable 2 story room in a good location for only $25 per night!

Cusco was a nice town -- a good mix of tourists and locals, with lots of restaurants, bars, and sights. With our time in Cusco before our Inca trail tour, we visited the town of Pisac and their incredible market (Carrie has a post about that), as well as various museums around town that came with the Cusco "tourist pass", a fairly expensive (and possibly overpriced) ticket that got you into most sights around Cusco. As expected, Carrie became an expert at bargaining for free drinks and appetizers at restaurants.

One good story from Cusco involves me and my dirty shoes. As Carrie and I walked through the Plaza de Armas, a fairly young boy offerred to shine my shoes. Looking at my shoes, it looked like I actually needed it. We asked him for his price, and he said "whatever you want, maybe 3 soles ($1)". I told him I'd give him 2 soles. He began shining my shoes, and after abount 1 minute, a police officer approached, scolding the kid and telling him he couldn't do that where we were. So we moved to a different street away from the plaza. The kid them resumed, and actually was doing a nice job (see this picture at the halfway point):

From Cusco, Peru

This was when things got interesting... The kid began telling me that one cleaner he was using was "very special", and cost extra. Since he was doing a good job, I had planned on paying him a little extra anyways, so I didn't really object. Then, ANOTHER police officer came, yelled at the kid, and told us we should only pay him 1 sole (abour $0.30). After the police officer left, the kid told us that since he was using the "special cleaner", we needed to pay him TEN SOLES ($3.33), to which we laughed and told him we'd give him 5 (what we had been planning to give him). He shook his head, saying that was no good, but he finished the job, and we gave him 5 soles, and left. He appeared unhappy, but we felt he was going to look unhappy unless he successfully rippped us off, so we felt fine about the whole thing.

OK -- let's get to the big stuff... The Inka Trail and Machu Picchu:

Last spring, we reserved our trek with Peru Treks, an organization that appeared to be highly recommended by some books and websites. Generally speaking, they did not disappoint. Our group consisted of 15 hikers, 2 cooks, 2 guides, and 20 porters to carry all of the equipment. There were 4 days of hiking, 3 nights spent in tents along the way. On the last day, we arrived at Machu Picchu, where we explored for most of the day before heading back to Cusco on the train.

Our tour group consisted of 8 friends (all about 24 years old and aspiring accountants) from Ireland, 3 friends from Scotland, 2 friends from England, and Carrie and I. Our group was very friendly, and it was nice for Carrie and I that everyone spoke English, so we didn't feel left out of any conversations. Unfortunately, by the end of the trek, our group was in rough shape, as everyone but 2 of the trekkers got sick during the trip, and one trekker through his back out and had to be carried to Machu Picchu on a stretcher!

From Inka Trail - ...

As for the crew from Peru Treks, they were exceptional. Our guides, Victor and Puma, were both knowledgeable about the area, and were also good at managing the different speeds of the hikers. Carrie and I felt that they allowed us enough freedom to hike on our own, while still being fully in control and aware of what was going on. Our two cooks made surprisingly gourmet meals throughout the trip. Each day, we got a full breakfast, a snack for the hike, a 3-4 course lunch, another 3-4 course dinner, and tea after every meal! There are some decent food pictures in the photo album, which you can get to by clicking here.

I need to dedicate a separate paragraph for the porters. Some porters carried food and cooking equipment, others carried tents and camping gear, and others carried luggage for the trekkers. Trekkers had the option to rent a duffel bag, which they could fill with 6kg worth of gear to be carried by a porter. Once you filled the bag, a porter carried your bag, and the bags of 2 OTHER PEOPLE. All porters carried up to 20kg worth of gear at one time. Here's the incredible part... On a typical day, we'd be woken up, and breakfast would be ready in 30 minutes. After breakfast, the guides and trekkers would start out on the trail. Midway through the trek, we'd here running behind us, and porters would RACE PAST US with 20kg worth of gear!

From Inka Trail - ...

Once we got to our location for lunch, the dining and cooking areas were already completely set up, food was being prepared, and the porters were CLAPPING FOR US for bravely hiking the trail with our tiny day packs! After lunch, we would start hiking, the porters could clean up, then race past us, and by the time we got to our campsite, the tents, dining areas, and cooking areas were already set up, and the porters were clapping again! It was really incredible.

As for the trek itself, it was HARD. Day 1 was the "easy day", where we hiked in fairly flat elevations. Carrie and I, trying to keep ourselves in the best shape as possible, took it easy on the first night. We quickly realized we had a fun group of trekkers when the rest of our group immediately started drinking beers upon arriving at the campsite! They managed to completely clean out the supply held by the woman living at the campsite! Here is a video of Carrie at our first campsite:

Day 2 was when things started getting really tough. Most of the day was uphill, and very steep. In addition, some of our fellow trekkers began falling ill with some sort of nasty stomach flu. The uphill sections were extremely tough -- Carrie and I would take 20 steps, rest, take 20 more steps, rest, and repeat. Finally, we reached the highest point on the Inka Trail:

From Inka Trail - ...

After the summit, we headed downhill for another couple hours. While we welcomed not having to climb anymore, the downhill was hard because of its steepness. I tweaked my ankle a bit after landing on some steps badly, and my knees began to ache from the constant downhill. Finally, we arrived at our campsite, where we rested up.

Day 3 was not much easier, unfortunately. It was the longest distance hiking day, featuring both uphills and downhills. In addition, new group memebers were becoming sick. Probably the only good things about this day were the tropical scenery and the fact that there were shower facilities at the 3rd campsite.

From Inka Trail - ...

Unfortunately, I became the newest victim of the stomach bug during the 3rd night. I won't get into details, but I'll say that it was a long and unpleasant night. To make matters worse, we needed to wake up at 3:45 am!

For day 4, we had the rude awakening in darkness. I was unable to really eat much breakfast, and we started out on the hike to Machu Picchu. I moved slowly, step by step, gradually built up an appetite, and was eventually able to eat some snacks. I was not alone in my difficulties -- another girl got sick as well, and our trekker with the bad back was now unable to walk. Miraculously, we eventually made it to the Sun Gate, where we got our first glimpse of Machu Picchu. In this photo, Carrie and I are with our assistant guide, Puma. You can see Machu Picchu in the distant background:

From Inka Trail - ...

After the Sun Gate, we headed downhill to Machu Picchu itself. It truly is a remarkable place, having been constructed many hundreds of years ago! What was hard was that so many people (myself included) were really exhausted by the time we actually got there. While our head tour guide gave us the Machu Picchu tour, I found myself walking to each point, listening to the first minute of his talk, and then involuntarily dosing off. Luckily, Carrie had a bit more energy and was able to absorb more of the information. Below are a couple of my favorite pictures, but I'd highly encourage everyone to view the full photo album... we put captions in for many of the pictures.

From Inka Trail - ...

Generally speaking, while I thought the tour company was great, I'm not sure I'd recommend the full 4 day trek. It is very grueling, unless you are a seasoned trekker in great shape who really loves this kind of thing. By the time we got to the best part, we were exhausted. Instead, I'd recommend just taking the train from Cusco to the Machu Picchu city of Aguas Calientes, where you can then take a short bus to the ruins.

OK!! Enough for now... Look for a new post maybe in about a week regarding our Ecuadorian adventures!

Working out in Pisac

2007-10-07T14:40:00.001-04:00

Our first day in Cusco was a Sunday so we decided to go to a nearby town called Pisac for their big market. We asked the people at our hotel how to get there, and they said a taxi should cost about 3 soles ($1). We thought that that sounded too cheap, and it was. I guess something had gotten lost in the translation because the cab driver actually took us to a bus station in Cusco where we then had to take a bus to Pisac. Somehow we managed to snag the last two seats on the bus and a few minutes later we were off. The bus only cost about 2 soles per person.

From Cusco, Peru

The market at Pisac was huge and we had a lot of fun bargaining for souvenirs. My favorite purchase was a backgammon set where the pieces were sheep versus llama! After we bought a ton of stuff we found a little restaurant tucked away in the corner that sold guinea pigs and empanadas. After bonding with my Aunt´s pet guinea pigs just before leaving for South America, I didn´t have the heart to eat them so we had a bunch of empanadas which were delicious and only 1 sole each.

From Cusco, Peru

After lunch we decided to check out the Inca ruins in the mountains just above Pisac. We had our big bag of souvenirs so we decided to take a taxi to the top of the mountain and hike back down. It cost 15 soles to get halfway up and 20 to get to the very top, so we decided to go to the very top. However, halfway up the mountain we stopped at the park entrance where we were surprised to learn that a park pass costs 70 soles per person! At that price we wouldn´t even have enough to pay our cab driver, let alone get back to Cusco! We explained the situation to our cab driver and said we could only go halfway up and he very nicely took us to the top for only 15 soles! This left us with only a few US dollars that we would have to somehow change to get back to Cusco.

From Cusco, Peru

Hiking down through the ruins was really neat and well worth the adventure getting there. There were multiple ruins along the way to explore. Some were pretty overgrown and most of the time we were wandering around by ourselves. A few times we lost the trail and hide to climb up/down some pretty steep hills. I felt like a real explorer!

From Cusco, Peru

It took several hours, but we finally made it back to town. There we ran in to a couple from Miami that we had met on the bus to Cusco. They asked if we would like to share a taxi all the way back to Cusco, but we explained that we had spent all our money and couldn´t afford our share. We then headed to the currency exchange to beg them to change our money (they usually won´t except $1 bills). After getting a pretty bad exchange rate, we managed to have just enough for the bus and taxi back to our hotel. However, we again ran into the Miami couple and they insisted that we share the taxi with them and just pay as much as we could afford.

One thing I am noticing about South America is that things have a way of working out. Although our Spanish is improving, we often go along not really sure what we are getting into. Fortunately, for the most part, everyone is extremely friendly and willing to help out silly Americans like us.

¡Peru!

2007-10-06T22:28:00.000-04:00

Top 10 things I learned while in Peru:

10. You can comfortably seat 15 adults in a converted Volkswagen van. Five rows of three, with the middle three rows consisting of a two-seater with an additional seat that can be folded out in the aisle.

9. If someone is standing on the sidewalk trying to get you to come in to their restaurant, you can usually get them to give you free drinks with your meal.

From Cusco, Peru

8. It is okay to take travel suggestions from random people waiting at bus stations.

From Cusco, Peru

7. It´s good luck to put two little bull statues on the roof of your house.

From Cusco, Peru

6. During the Spanish Inquisition in Lima, Peru, torturers were not allowed to cause prisoners to bleed, break bones, or die.

5. Corn kernals in Peru are at least 5 times larger than the US version.

From Cusco, Peru

4. The fruit part of passion fruit is a bunch of green slimey seeds, but it´s delicious!

From Cusco, Peru

3. The Incas created their perfect square stones by inserting sticks into the natural cracks and wetting the sticks so they would expand.

From Inka Trail - ...

2. For his last supper, Jesus dined on Guinea Pig.

1. Ceviche is delicious!

From Lima, Peru

Quick thoughts

2007-10-03T16:17:00.000-04:00

Hey Everyone -- Carrie and I are currently cruising the coast of Ecuador, and are enjoying our stay at the Alandaluz Hosteria. Since our internet access (and time) is limited right now, I'm going to postpone the Peru post until later, but I wanted to get out some quick thoughts...

- Here's to the Cubs and the Red Sox advancing far into the playoffs! It feels a bit like 2003 again, doesn't it? Except both teams have almost entirely new rosters...

- I've usually been able to watch Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football here, and I must say, the Patriots look pretty solid. Since we didn't have TV last Monday, I couldn't see the latest win, but that San Diego game was phenomenal.

- To those who voted in the "which country will we get sick in first" poll... I got sick in Peru, while hiking the Inka Trail. It was not pleasant... more on that later in a future post. Our health right now is generally good, although my stomach is definitely working a little harder than normal to keep things together.

- To those getting email subscriptions -- I think the blog looks better if you actually click on the title link in the email, rather than reading the post out of email. Some pictures / movies may not show up if you just read the email.

We will likely be headed towards Quito this weekend -- at that point we can hopefully do a more thorough post covering Peru and Machu Picchu... Stay in touch!

Update from Cusco, Peru

2007-09-23T19:04:00.000-04:00

Hello!

Carrie and I are in Cusco, Peru, having just gotten back from our 4 day Inka Trail trek to Machu Picchu. That was quite the experience -- something that will require a separate post... We have the photo album uploaded if you can't wait (click on the Machu Picchu photo below), and here's a movie from that trek to wet your appetite...

Inka Trail - Machu Picchu

Before the trek, there were plenty of adventures worth writing about. After horseback riding in Salta, Argentina, we got ready to head for Bolivia. We found an overnight bus from Salta to La Quiaca, the border town with Bolivia. We had heard that Argentinian buses were good, but this bus was rather unfortunate. To start, the person in front of me reclined virtually into my lap. After that, the heat came on, and it REALLY came on. It was extremely uncomfortable. I practically had to hug the window pane, in order to absorb some of the cold air outside. When we finally arrived, I was quickly cooled off by the FRIGID temperatures outside! The sun hadn't yet come up, and since the border hadn't opened yet, we had to wait outside for about 45 minutes! Needless to say, I wasn't enjoying myself so much...

After crossing the border, we found the bus area, where we were immediately approached by several people trying to convince us to board their bus. One woman was mentioning Tupiza (our destination), but we were initially skeptical of people approaching us, so we said no and headed to the "terminal" area. We eventually realized that the people approaching you were actually the main way to get on buses, so we boarded this woman's bus. After talking to other people before our trip, we were worried that we'd be sitting on the floor of a school bus with chickens, but on this bus we actually had fairly comfortable seats. The bus flew through the streets, honking its horn relentlessly. We quickly learned that Bolivia does not specialize in paved roads, and the ride was rather bumpy. What was amusing was that the bus would randomly stop seemingly in the middle of nowhere and pick people up or drop them off. One French tourist fell asleep for the ride, and when he woke up, his bag was missing from the rack above him. Luckily for Carrie and I, our bags were in the storage area underneath the bus, and they were still there at the end of the ride.

Tupiza, much like other Bolivian tourist towns, was small, cute, and very touristy. There were small markets, a few internet cafes, some hostels, and lots of "Italian" restaurants selling pizza and pasta. Apparently this is the default tourist food. From here, we began our search for a tour company to take us on the 4 day jeep tour to the Salar de Uyuni. This was somewhat stressful, because we were speaking in broken Spanish or broken English with people explaining routes, options, the potential for English speaking guides. To add to the stress, the cost was dependent on how many people were in the group, and since it was just Carrie and I, we were relying on other people wanting to go on the same tour. We finally settled on a company, and ended up with a group of 5 tourists, one guide, and one cook. Carrie's 5,000 meters post has a photo of our entire group.

Our guide was named Rubén, and he was an outstanding driver who managed to navigate road conditions that were brutal at times.

Our chef was named Augustina, who was very friendly and cooked quite good meals! The other tourists included a French couple, and a Colorado College student taking a semester off. We were all packed into a Toyota Land Cruiser, with our backpacks thrown on top of the jeep, along with other supplies. After spending a few hours on the road, we were thankful that our group was not the maximum size of 6 tourists, which would have required 3 people in both the middle AND back rows. The weather was frigidly cold at night, so when we left in the morning, we eagerly waited for the moment that the sun would rise high enough to reach the jeep. As for the altitude, we found that sitting in a jeep was a good way to get used to things, because it didn't require any physical exertion. Chewing coca leaves also helped.

There were many times on this tour that I thought I was on another planet. There were no real roads to speak of, and the landscapes were like nothing I had ever seen before. We might drive for hours in fairly barren desert, and suddenly we'd approach a picturesque lake with flamingos! Below are some of my favorite photos and movies from the jeep tour:

From Salar de Uyun...

After the Jeep Tour, we took an overnight bus to La Paz, the capital. The bus was once again very bumpy, but the temperatures were more comfortable, and we actually managed to sleep! The city was very crowded, but it was nice to have fairly modern amenities. We went to some interesting museums, one of which was the coca museum. Bolivians and Peruvians have very interesting opinions about the coca leaf. Basically, the coca leaf has been used in its natural form by people of the Andes for hundreds and hundreds of years without problems. It is helpful for altitude, digestion, and energy. The problems came when outsiders came and figured out how to make the concentrated form of cocaine.

After La Paz, we rode a public bus to Copacabana, on Lake Titicaca. The highlight of the public bus was randomly being told to get off the bus and board a boat, while leaving our bags on the bus. While we were initially very skeptical, we later saw our bus floating on a boat next to us, and felt better. Copacabana is a cute small town, and has a church which "blesses" cars that come to it. In fact, our jeep from the Salar tour had been blessed there! From here we took a boat to the Isla del Sol, where we had an English speaking guide take Carrie and I on a tour. Here are some pictures:

From Lake Titicaca

After Isla del Sol, we took a bus to Puno, Peru, on the other side of the lake. Since this post has gotten rather long, I'll wait and write about our Peruvian adventures in my next post. ¡Hasta luego!

¡Boliva!

2007-09-14T22:00:00.000-04:00

Top 10 things I learned while in Bolivia:

10. Titikaka is named after a large stone on Isla Del Sol that resembles a puma. Titi means puma and kaka means stone. Can you see the Puma in the below picture? It is facing away from us and to the left.

From Lake Titicaca

9. Llamas are much better than donkies at going up steep inclines, but if you give a llama too much to carry, it will spit on you.

From Salar de Uyun...

8. The Bolivian national animal is the vicuña, which is like a small llama. You can get up to 30 years in jail for killing them.

From Salar de Uyun...

8. Llama meat has much less fat than beef, but is a little tougher.

From Salar de Uyun...

7. Instead of using signs designating where they are going, public transportation in La Paz has a person hired to shout out the window.

From La Paz

6. Watch out for holes in the sidewalk when walking around La Paz.

From La Paz

5. A bus from La Paz to Copacabana includes a short ferry trip across Lake Titicaca. The bus driver simply tells you to get off the bus and get on a boat, leaving your baggage on the bus. We crossed our fingers and followed his advice, and somehow it worked out. Our bus is in the background of the below picture.

From Lake Titicaca

4. Cars in La Paz rarely obey traffic lights, but there are friendly people dressed as Zebras to help you cross safely.

From La Paz

3. Almuerzos are a set three course lunch that usually cost about $1 US.

From La Paz

2. Always carry spare toilet paper in your pocket.

From Salar de Uyun...

1. Always check the hot water before staying in a hotel. Many hotels only have hot water during certain hours or, even worse, have a very liberal definition of "agua caliente".

A Night at 16,000 ft

2007-09-08T15:07:00.000-04:00

I just got back from a 4 day jeep tour thourgh the Salar de Uyuni, which winds through the high altitude mountains in the Southwest corner of Bolivia. We saw some amazing stuff, but it feels very nice to have technology again. Not just computers, but paved roads, flush toilets, hot water, and 24 hr electricity! One of the craziest nights was the one we spent at just under 5,000 meters, which is about 16,000 ft. To give that a little perspective, Denver, the ¨mile high¨city, is 5,280 ft.

From Salar de Uyun...

Before leaving the country we both got a perscription for Diamox, which is supposed to help with alititude sickness. However, the side affects from it (frequent urination, dizzyness, tingling in the hands and feet) were worse than any problems we had from the alititude. The Bolivian remedy for alitutde sickness is coca leaves, which are legal in Bolivia and Peru. Basically, you chew on the dry leaves along with a little pinch of catalyst (sweet, sticky, goo). Every time I started to get a bit of a headache from the altitude, I had a couple leaves. I didn´t really notice much from the leaves, except a slight tingling in my mouth. I definately noticed getting out of breath quicker from the altitude, but I never had any real issues.

From Salar de Uyun...

One of the things I quickly learned about high altitudes is that they tend to be extremely cold and windy. On top of that, from what I´ve seen so far, heated buildings seem to be somewhat rare in Bolivia. Most of the places we stayed were just a big room filled with twin beds. The beds have really nice, warm blankets, and on top of that we would put our sleeping bags under the covers to stay as toasty as possible. That night at 5,000 m we were very excited that our ¨hotel¨ had a room between the bedroom and the outside, which added an extra barrier of warmth. In addition, that exterior room had a little furnance! However, we learned that at such high altitudes, it is somewhat difficult to get a fire going because there is so little oxygen in the air. They had to coat each piece of wood in gasoline to get them going!

From Salar de Uyun...

One of the neatest things I noticed at high altitudes was while I was tucked away in my sleeping bag, hiding from the cold. Dan and I had rented bags from the tour company and mine was lined with black fleece. I´m not sure if it was the altitude, dry air, or what, but every time I brushed my fingers across the fleece, I could see a little trail of sparks. It was almost likely being in my own little Bioluminescent Bay.

I mentioned that the sparks in my sleeping bag were neat, but some of the other things we saw on the tour were flat out amazing. Words really can´t describe it, but here are a few pictures (or click here to view the entire album):

In addition to all of the beautiful landscapes we saw, I was also amazed by all the natural resources there are in the mountains of Bolivia. We passed by a giant lake/field of Borax, another of some ingredient commonly used in shampoo, and of course, an enourmous field of salt (bigger than Lake Titikaka). The salt plains looked like giant fields of snow, but it was actually just salt. Apparently, many of the lakes in the area evaporate over time, leaving behind useful minerals just waiting to be scooped up into a truck.

From Salar de Uyun...

I LOVE ARGENTINIAN FOOD!

2007-09-02T22:18:00.000-04:00

Carrie and I just got back from our Bolivia 4 day Jeep Tour (more info to come on that later), but for now I must post on the incredible Argentinian food we ate on our first day!

Lunch on Saturday:

Carrie had a steak sandwich, and I had a steak sandwich with fried egg, cheese, and ham. These were pretty spectacular. Unfortunatley we lost this picture in a slow internet cafe, but you'll have to trust me on this... it was awesome.

DINNER ON SATURDAY:

This may have been the greatest dinner I have ever had. We headed out for dinner at about 8:15, and walked by one restaurant that looked fancy, but was completely empty. We then kept going and saw a restaurant that was highly recommended by Fodors, El Trapiche. It also was not very crowded, but there were at least a few people sitting down, so we gave it a shot. We ordered a bottle of Argentinian red wine, along with 2 bottles of agua sin gas. After struggling with the enormous menu for a while (the waiter informed us that they have 200 items), the waiter gave us a menu with both English and Spanish. We ended up ordering artichokes au gratin for an appetizer.

From Argentina Part 1

We then both ordered lomo, which is what the Argentines call tenderloin steak. Carrie ordered one with mushrooms, and I got one with a spring onion sauce. These steaks were absolutely spectacular. They must have been at least one pound each, and very thick. They were a perfect medium rare, and came with some potatoes and sauces. Look at these pictures... they are a work of art.

From Argentina Part 1

Carrie only finished half of her steak, at which point she informed the waiter, "quiero comer mañana", which means, "I want to eat tomorrow" in Spanish. The waiter laughed and packed up her steak in a box. The waiter seemed very amused the entire night by our attempts at Spanish.

For dessert, we got the "Floating Tower" with some sort of creamy sauce. It was like a tower of the white part of lemon marangue pie, and it was very delicious. Unfortunately, this picture also was a casualty of the lousy Salta, Argentina internet cafe.

For all this, including tip, we paid a mere 179 pesos, which equates to slightly less than $60 dollars!! Wow.

One other observation -- When we left the restaurant around 11pm, it was completely full of people! Apparently the Argentines usually dine at 10 or later! When we walked by the other restaurant on our way home, it was also full! We'll remember this next time we're in Buenos Aires (in a little more than 1 month).

Carrie and I then flew to Salta, which is in the Northwest part of the country. While there, we had a full day gaucho experience! Carrie and I spent the day with Alejandro on a ranch way out in the mountains near Salta Argentina. We rode horseback, ate steak off the grill, sipped mate, chatted about life, and enjoyed the tranquil atmosphere. Here's a picture from then...

From Argentina Part 1

After Salta, it was an overnight bus to the Argentina - Bolivia border. We'll have more on that in a future post. Feel free to look at our full photo album by clicking on the link underneath any of the pictures for this post. We uploaded the full size images, so feel free to download.

¡We Made It!

2007-09-01T15:28:00.000-04:00

We made it to Buenos Aires! The flight was fairly anticlimatic, except for the THREE times I spilled on myself, which is a little tramatic when you only have a limited amount of clothes (1 shorts, 1 skirt, 1 pants, 3 tanks, and 4 shirts). We keep having to remind ourselves to stop making to-do lists and step back and enjoy ourselves. We had steak sandwiches for lunch. Mine was a giant steak on a tiny hamburger bun and Dan´s included cheese, onion, and egg (I´ll add pictures later). We´re planning to have steak again for dinner (and maybe breakfast too). Then we´re off to Salta, which is in the mountains in the Northwest corner of Argentina. From there our plan is to go Bolivia, Peru (Machu Picchu on the 19th), Ecuador, coastal Peru (skipping the earthquake area), Chile, Argentina (costarring Joe Morrow), and finally Brazil.

Also, last week I sold the Saturn for $750! The guy bought it for his 17-year-old to use as her first car. Coincidentally, right as we finished making the deal in Dan´s driveway, we heard this huge crash. It turns out that a friend of the buyer´s daughter had seen us, got distracted, and crashed into a tree. The SUV was probably totalled, but the driver seemed okay. I think it was a good move for the Saturn buyer to get a car more suitable for wrapping around trees.

Thoughts before the big journey begins...

2007-08-31T12:45:00.000-04:00

It's Friday afternoon, August 31 -- later tonight, we'll be on a plane to Buenos Aires. I'm excited for the big trip to finally begin... I feel like we've been planning and shopping constantly and I'm ready to finally get into the trip. Before we leave, a few parting thoughts:

- It looks like when we return, we'll be moving to the Bay Area. After our California trip, we were having a really hard time deciding, because both cities were really great. When Carrie went back to Chicago, we had a conversation with people at work and it seemed like the Bay Area was what more people were leaning towards. While I feel bad about not going to San Diego, I'm excited about the Bay Area and I'm looking forward to being able to visit Dave and Brodie in San Diego much easier.

- This month has flown by... I had initially envisioned it as us doing some trip preparation, but mostly spending time exploring New England and relaxing. Instead, somehow things just flew by and we're leaving tonight!

- If you ever have the time and the logistics make sense, I highly recommend getting "sleeper" accomodations on an Amtrak train at least once in your life.

- The JD Drew era for the Boston Red Sox is not going over well.

- The new Miss Fairchild album is fantastic. Look to www.missfairchild.com for tour dates in your area!

Hopefully Carrie and I will be able to check in on the blog semi-regularly when we're in South America. From what we've been reading, most hotels / hostels have computers with internet access, and even smaller towns have internet cafes. Remember to enter your email address in the upper-right hand corner of the blog main page so that you receive notices whenever we update the blog. And feel free to email us personally -- It will be good to hear from people back home while we're so far away.

Hasta luego!

Dan

San Diego and Getting There

2007-08-21T12:06:00.001-04:00

After our stay in the Bay Area, we took an Amtrak train to Santa Barbara. Driving from San Francisco to Santa Barbara takes about 5 hours, but Amtrak takes at least 9 hours, and often more due to delays. Since it was such a long ride, we decided to upgrade to a 2 person room. The room consisted of two easy chairs facing each other with a small fold out table in the middle. The chairs can slide out to form a twin-sized bed, and above that another bed can fold down from the ceiling. Most importantly, upgrading to the suite meant we had access to all meals being served in the dining car (yay free food!). Since trains are often delayed, they couldn’t say for sure which meals we would get. We were supposed to get breakfast and lunch, but due to an hour delay, got lunch and dinner instead.

I spent the first few hours of the ride sleeping off the effects of the previous night’s baseball game and then it was time for lunch. Space is at a premium on the train so we were seated with another couple. This arrangement was actually really nice because everyone was very nice and it was fun to hear other people’s stories. For lunch we sat with a retired couple from Oklahoma who were taking trains literally all over the US. When we told them we were from Chicago, the husband told us he didn’t like Chicago. I asked why, and he said because it has a lot of low-clearance roads (he used to be a truck driver). He also asked Dan and me how long we’d been married, and we told him we weren’t. He said that if we liked, he could marry us right on the train!

That afternoon there was a wine and cheese tasting in the parlour car (lounge only accessible to people who had a reserved room). The things we tasted weren’t that exciting, but it was fun chatting with more people, and watching the train curve around the countryside.

The last few hours of the trip were the most scenic, with most of the tracks on a cliff overlooking untouched beaches. Before we knew it, we were in Santa Barbara. Train travel is very relaxing and if you have the time and are okay with delays that may double the length of the trip, I highly recommend it.

We had one day in Santa Barbara to hang out with my parents and take care of a couple things. Sadly my camera lens stopped functioning towards the end of the train ride, but miraculously, I had bought my camera exactly 355 days before it broke so the one year warranty was still good! Even more miraculously, with all the chaos of leaving Chicago, I just happened to put my camera warranty and receipt in a box we shipped to Santa Barbara (I had originally put it in a bag for the car ride to Groton, MA but remember incorrectly thinking that the warranty was up, so I may as well ship the instructions/warranty/etc to SB since there is no way I’d need it before getting back from South America). The camera was successfully fixed (yay for Panasonic for holding true on their warranty) and is currently being shipped back to Groton, MA.

The next morning we were back on an Amtrak train headed for San Diego. This was only a 5 hour ride (driving is about 3 hours). We took the 7 am train, so it was pretty empty and I could lounge out and take a nap. Around LA I woke up because the train started filling up with LA-types. However, I passed the time by making friends with a little inch worm we found crawling on the window. I put him in my leftover carrot bag, intending to let him out when we got to San Diego. However, I put him in my purse and forgot about him until a few days later. Fortunately, there had been a few droplets of water in the bag, so he managed to survive, and I found him a new home a safe distance away from Dave and Brodie’s house.

I had intended to write about our San Diego trip in this post, but I got a little carried away with Amtrak tales. I guess I’ll have to save San Diego for my next post.

Dan's Guide to San Diego!

2007-08-14T14:28:00.000-04:00

Hello again! After a pleasant stay with Carrie's parents in Santa Barbara, it was off to San Diego. We had a really great time staying with my good friend Dave and his wife Brodie, and last night we finally got back to Massachusetts. Carrie and I haven't yet made our final decision on where we're going to live next... The good news is that we've confirmed that we really can't go wrong with this decision -- both places were great.

Carrie will once again cover the fun stuff of what we did each day in San Diego, but I get the task of providing the San Diego guide, using the more analytical approach. My Bay Area post was pretty long, so I tried to shorten this one, but it still came out pretty thorough.

BASIC GEOGRAPHY OF SAN DIEGO

San Diego is somewhat unique in that the downtown is not at the center of the city in terms of north / south. Once you go south of downtown, you are very close to Mexico. The airport is right downtown, with beaches west and northwest of downtown. If you head inland and north, you hit neighborhoods like Hillcrest (the "Boystown" of San Diego), and then further north into vast residential neighborhoods, in addition to office parks. One thing I noticed about San Diego is that it really seems small geographically -- nothing is that far from anything else, and since there are lots of freeways, you can get from place to place fairly quickly and without too much traffic. OK - Let's get into the neighborhoods.

THE BEACHES (Pacific Beach, Mission Beach, Ocean Beach, La Jolla)

GEOGRAPHY
Along the West Coast, from south to north, the beaches go Ocean Beach, Mission Beach, Pacific Beach, La Jolla. There are more beaches to the north, but we did not make it up that far. Ocean Beach is basically west of downtown, whereas the rest are northwest of downtown. Mission Beach is a narrow strip of land bordered by the ocean to the west and Mission Bay to the east. The larger Pacific Beach has more land east of the Ocean, as Mission Bay and Mission Beach border it to the South. North of Pacific Beach is La Jolla, which has beaches and some cliffs on the ocean.

PEOPLE
The people you find at the beaches are different for each area. Ocean Beach was described to us as being the more "hippie" beach neighborhood, and we did observe that to an extent. Our friends also warned us that there were more homeless in Ocean Beach. The ages were quite varied. Once you move into Mission and Pacific Beaches, you run into a younger, party oriented crowd. Carrie and I felt that we might be a little bit too old for the neighborhood, and we became turned off by the constant catcalls from drunk guys driving by in pickup trucks. As you head into the more upscale La Jolla, we found more tourists and older, wealthier residents. My thought was that this neighborhood was a little too ritzy for my taste.

CULTURE / THINGS TO DO
In the beach neighborhoods, when the weather is always perfect, the beach is definitely the place to be. The ocean is great for swimming (although a little cold in the winter, we hear), and the sand at the beach is fantastic. Alcohol is allowed at beaches, which appears to be quite popular in Pacific Beach especially. Assuming your apartment has a balcony or a yard, you can barbecue every day, 365 days a year. There are also restaurants and bars. The Pacific Beach bars are similar to Wrigleyville after Cubs games, except people are wearing bathing suits and there is more outdoor seating. The restaurants vary from cheap fast food to upscale. There are some hotel / beach club type places that have live music, but we didn't check those out as much.

WEATHER
After hearing so much about the "perfect" San Diego weather, I was curious to see if it could live up to the hype. It did. Every single day, there is a blue sky with some occasional floating clouds. The beaches get a few more clouds, but they quickly burn off. The temperature during the day is always in the 70s, but could occasionally float into the 80s on "hot" days. At night, the weather cools into the 60s, and is comfortable for sleeping. I've been told that it can occasionally get into the 50s in the winter, and it even rains for a few days in January.

GETTING AROUND
This is Southern California, so cars are the primary mode of transportation. However, if you live in the beach neighborhood and want to go to the beach, walking is usually doable, and riding a bike is easy. There does appear to be a bus system that accesses the beaches, but we did not try it, and it does not seem heavily used. For getting to Downtown and other neighborhoods, the I-5 is the westernmost freeway and basically your primary option from the Beaches.

SPORTS
I guess there could be Frisbee on the beach -- but the pro sports teams are inland. Since one can get around San Diego pretty quickly, the sports teams are not all that far away.

OVERALL
San Diego's beaches are beautiful, and well worth going to. However, I'm not sure that I'd want to live in the beach towns themselves. Pacific Beach is too "frat party" like, and La Jolla is too ritzy. Ocean Beach might be a possibility, but we'd need to spend a little more time there to know for sure.

DOWNTOWN / LITTLE ITALY / HILLCREST / BANKER'S HILL

GEOGRAPHY
From the beaches, head inland and a little south, and you'll hit the more "urban" San Diego. Downtown is south and west, and has the airport, tall buildings, and the like. Little Italy is basically part of downtown. Banker's Hill is just north of downtown, and is a fairly residential neighborhood with a canyon running through it. Hillcrest is also north of downtown and inland from Banker's Hill. Downtown is generally east of the I-5 and south of the I-8. The very large and pretty Balboa Park borders nearly all of these neighborhoods to the east.

PEOPLE
These neighborhoods are more urban, so you'll find a more diverse crowd here. This is also a somewhat more intellectual crowd than the beaches. Downtown is primarily the financial / big business / hotel district, so you'll see plenty of tourists and business people here. Hillcrest is the openly gay-friendly neighborhood. Banker's Hill seemed like it would be home to professionals, but we didn't really get a sense of the people there.

CULTURE / THINGS TO DO
Downtown has the Gaslamp District, which is full of restaurants and bars. There is also live music downtown. Little Italy obviously has tons of Italian restaurants. Balboa Park is nearby, which contains lots of open green space. Hillcrest contains plenty of restaurants, bars, and coffee shops.

WEATHER
Same as the beaches, except even fewer clouds.

GETTING AROUND

Downtown has a trolley system (pictured above), but its scope is fairly limited. We rode the trolley from the Amtrak station to the airport Enterprise rent-a-car location, and the ride was pleasant enough. The fare varies depending on how far you go, and what's interesting is that paying the fare is based on the honors system. We were told that occasionally attendants will randomly come on a trolley and check for tickets, and if you don't have a ticket, you pay an enormous fine (~$80-$100). Within Hillcrest, things are very walkable. One can also walk from Banker's Hill to Downtown or Hillcrest, or Little Italy to Downtown, etc, although the walking distances are longer. Since the weather is always nice, long walks aren't necessarily a bad thing. Biking also seems like it could work, although you're often sharing the road with cars. If you are more pressed for time, the car is certainly the primary method of transportation.

SPORTS
The Padres (baseball) play downtown in the brand new Petco Park. Unfortunately they were on the road while we were visiting, so we didn't get a chance to enter the park. The Chargers (football) play in Qualcomm Stadium, which is north and east of downtown, but is easily accessible by many freeways. Unfortunately, there is no pro basketball in San Diego.

OVERALL
Provided appropriate housing options were available, I could definitely see myself living in these parts. Little Italy and Downtown are fairly expensive and more "high-rise" like, so those might not be good options. Hillcrest and Banker's Hill seem like better and more affordable options.

UTC / CLAREMONT / TIERRASANTA

GEOGRAPHY
Head north of downtown, and more inland from the beaches. UTC is just east of La Jolla, Claremont is a little more east of Pacific Beach, and Tierrasanta is further east. The Beaches are anywhere from 3-10 miles away from these areas. Things become a little more spread out and suburban here. The residential neighborhoods tend to be more subdivision like, and there are more office parks. In terms of residential areas, Tierrasanta seemed very appealing with more green / tree-lined streets and more space for your money. UTC tends to have more condo-like units that are parts of larger communities that share pools / health clubs, etc. Claremont has more typical small houses. There are some large canyons that go through Claremont. All of these areas are close to multiple freeways, making the rest of San Diego fairly easily accessible.

PEOPLE
These areas appear to have your standard family / middle class housing. This is definitely a more suburban crowd.

CULTURE / THINGS TO DO
Some residential complexes have their own pools and gym, and they may have events going on. In terms of restaurants / bars / shops, there tend to be more strip-malls and fewer dense streets. We'd no longer be able to leave the apartment and walk to a restaurant. However, since these areas are very centrally located, it wouldn't be difficult to drive downtown or to the beaches, where there are more entertainment options available.

WEATHER
It's still San Diego, so nothing to complain about here.

GETTING AROUND
Here, it's almost exclusively the car. Biking is possible, but the area is fairly hilly, so we'd certainly get in shape.

SPORTS
These areas are probably closest to the football stadium, although with all of the freeways near here, getting to Petco Park can't be too hard.

OVERALL
It would be an adjustment, but I think this area could work, especially if the new office were to be in the area. We'd need to find the right type of apartment, but it's possible.

That's all for now. We really enjoyed San Diego, but we also enjoyed the Bay Area, so Carrie and I have some thinking to do. We may need to do what we do best -- make a spreadsheet and start figuring things out. Once we get this California decision settled, I'll post more about the other fun California things like the Amtrak... and then we'll be in full scale South America prep-mode! I can't believe it's only a couple weeks away.

Bay Area Adventures!

2007-08-11T14:34:00.000-04:00

After a quick stop in Groton, MA, it was on to California to determine where we should live when our travels are over. We took car to commuter rail, commuter rail to the T, the T to the silver line (an underground bus that Boston likes to pretend is a train), silver line to airplane, airplane to airport shuttle in SFO, shuttle to BART, and BART to my brother’s apartment!

Chris very nicely let us borrow his car, so our first day in San Francisco, we decided to explore the East Bay (Berkley, Oakland, etc). We looked up a couple apartment listings on Craigslist and entered them into Dan’s GPS navigator. However, we kept ending up in “not so nice” parts of town, so instead, Dan came up with the idea of looking for interesting neighborhoods online and then using Google Earth to locate which streets looked like main drags. After driving down the main drag, if it looked like someplace we’d consider living, we would park and take a closer look. If we still liked what we saw, we’d also check out the nearby residential area. We found that looking at the cars in the neighborhood was a good way to determine if it is in our price range. Check out Dan’s blog to see a very thorough analysis of what we thought of the bay area.

In addition, to researching the Bay Area, we managed to squeeze in some entertainment as well. On Thursday we visited my Grandpa in Lafayette. He is 94, but still lives in the same house my Mom grew up in and is doing very well. He has a magic peach tree that grows 2 varieties of plums (he actually grafted the plum branches onto the tree). Thursday evening Chris’ friends, Sam and Katie, showed us around Oakland and Berkley. The highlight of the evening was going to this amazing dive bar tucked away in the back of a strip mall in El Cerrito. In addition to surprisingly cheap drinks, they had old fashioned décor with velvet wall paper!

Friday we explored San Jose and the Peninsula (south of San Francisco). In addition to exploring neihborhoods (see Dan’s blog), we decided to check out three of our favorite investments; Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG), and Spongecell (privately held). We knew we were at Apple headquarters when everyone we saw were nerds, wearing jeans, either listening to their iPods and/or playing with their iPhones. We drove around Infinite Loop (name of the street) and then went to their visitor center. We asked for a tour and they very nicely told us that if we don’t have an appointment, we must leave. We asked if they had a museum of old Apple products and they said they had closed it because they needed the space, but that they had a visitor store that we were welcome to check out. We skipped the store and headed for Google.

After walking past the beach volley ball court and a security guard on a Segway, we made our way to Google’s visitor center. We told them we were investors and that we would like a tour. They also very nicely told us that unless we had an appointment, we must leave immediately, but unlike Apple, they gave us free juice on our way out! Next we headed to Spongecell’s headquarters, where they not only gave us a full tour, but they also gave us free pizza and booze!

On Saturday my brother hosted a BBQ. His backyard has a nice big deck and we lucked out and had amazingly sunny day. Chris bought several pounds of sausage from Costco and we made super fresh screwdrivers from oranges we squeezed ourselves (the vodka was store bought). That evening we met up with Dan’s friend Scott and his wife Jen, and we went to another party. The apartment was on a hill overlooking the city and as the fog thinned out towards the end of the party, we had a perfect view of Alcatraz.

Sunday we were back to work investigating the Bay Area, this time touring San Francisco on foot with my brother. San Francisco is extremely hilly, which made for a perfect opportunity to test out my new hiking boots for the hike to Machu Picchu. They definitely need some more breaking in. Sunday evening we went to a jazz club in Oakland called Yoshi’s. We happened to catch the last night of the Pete Escovedo Orchestra. They’re from Oakland and had a lot of friends and family there that night, so they really let loose! In addition to his usual group Pete brought up 2 sons and a daughter and in addition to ragging on each other, they played some great Latin jazz.

Monday evening my brother’s company, Spongecell, took everyone to the Giants game. We all wore Spongecell T-shirts, and it was Irsh heritage day so we also got free hats! AT&T Park has an amazing view and our upper deck seats had a very nice view of the field. However, the $8 beers and lack of beer vendors were a little disappointing. It just so happened that Barry Bonds had recently tied for most career home runs, and he could potentially have broken the record at that game. Everyone has very excited! However, after several failed at bats, they took Barry out. Despite the tie score, at least half the fans left! I was very disappointed in the Giants fans. I was also disappointed to see Barry Bonds beat the home run record at the very next game! At least we got to see it on my parents fancy TV in Santa Barbara.

After nine innings the score was still tied, and all but 5 of the Spongecell group remained. Fortunately, the Giants managed to pull out a win after only a few additional innings! We went out to a bar to celebrate, and when we left, this random dude came up and asked if we wanted to
ride a tractor with him. I thought I had left behind all my tractor riding oppurtunites in the Midwest, so I was curious to find out what he meant. We followed him around the corner, and he told us he had noticed a construction site where they had left the keys in one of the machines! He got in, turned it on, and started moving the arm up and down. A night watchman came over and fairly quickly put his antics to an end. The next morning we woke up at 5:20 AM to take the train to Santa Barbara. I'll write more later, but for now I'm heading to the beach!

The Bay Area (and more!)

2007-08-09T02:59:00.001-04:00

Hello again... It's been a little while since we last posted, so to make up for it, this one will be really long. Carrie and I are doing really well. Right now, we're at Carrie's parents' house in Santa Barbara, and shortly we will be boarding the Amtrak for San Diego.

Speaking for myself, I've begun getting used to our new lifestyle. It's certainly a change. We don't really have homes anymore. It will be a long time before I sleep in my own bed again, and when that happens, it will be a new bed in California. It's nice not having tight schedules, and not working certainly frees up some time, but the new stresses come from traveling in unfamiliar territory all the time, and trying to make enough sense out of new places to be able to decide, "could I live here and enjoy it?"

We're also spending time with lots of new people. Whether it was my family in Hanford Bay, my parents, Carrie's brother and friends, or Carrie's parents, it's been really neat getting to spend time with people we only get to see a few times a year. I've gotten to see some old friends who I probably haven't seen in 10+ years. I'm looking forward to continuing this for the rest of August.

I'm also getting used to not being fully in touch with the world at all times. I didn't find out about the Minnesota bridge collapse until a day or two later (while Carrie and I drove all over the Bay Area on giant bridges). I didn't realize Barry Bonds had tied Hank Aaron's record until I learned that I would be at the game when he could potentially break the record (more on that later). As we spent a day in Groton MA, I learned that the Celtics had gotten Kevin Garnett on the same day that the Red Sox got Eric Gagne. The notoriously skeptical Dan Shaughnessy wrote a column in the Boston Globe that now was the best time ever to be a New England sports fan. Then I packed up and got ready to check out my new home state of California, on the opposite coast from New England. In away, it's been refreshing to get away from the 24-7 news coverage that the internet, CNN, ESPN, and the like make available.

OK - Enough deep thoughts for now... let's get to what we've seen over the past week or so. Specifically, THE BAY AREA.

I've decided to break this down into different regions of the Bay Area, and then describe our impressions of different factors for each region.

The Bay Area can be broken down to 5 parts: San Francisco, north of San Francisco, East Bay, San Jose, and Silicon Valley / The Peninsula.

NORTH OF SAN FRANCISCO

Carrie and I didn't go north of San Francisco. It's extremely expensive, even by Bay Area standards, and it's only connected to the rest of the Bay Area by driving over the Golden Gate Bridge. For those reasons, we ruled that area out.

SAN FRANCISCO

GEOGRAPHY
San Francisco is surrounded by water to the west, north, and east. With so much water surrounding it, San Francisco is not especially large from a geography perspective. The Golden Gate Bridge connects San Francisco to the north, and the Bay Bridge connects it to the East Bay. Both bridges area really pretty, and the views are beautiful on a clear day. San Francisco itself is made of many small neighborhoods, each with their own "micro-climates" and unique characteristics. Most of San Francisco is very hilly... it amazes me that they decided to build a city on such hilly land. That said, the topography of San Francisco is a lot of fun. If you live on a hill, you can get some amazing views of the city and water below. The picture above is from an apartment in the Russian Hill neighborhood.

PEOPLE
Carrie and I met a bunch of neat people in San Francisco. Very generally speaking, people in San Francisco are very intelligent and friendly. People like to have fun like anywhere else. What I noticed that was different was that people in San Francisco are really into things like recycling, riding bikes to work, stopping their cars for people in the crosswalk, and the like. People are very open -- at one bar, we witnessed a lesbian strip poker game!

CULTURE / THINGS TO DO
San Francisco is a major city, and arguably the most culturally active city on the west coast. There is plenty of music of all types. Bars are plentiful and diverse. We ate lots of good food. There are neat parks where you can go for hikes and climbs, right in the city. San Francisco needs no help in this area.

NEIGHBORHOODS / HOUSING
Due to its geographic restrictions, San Francisco is a pretty dense city. Some neighborhoods are quite crowded with lots of apartments, restaurants, shops, and bars right near each other. Since Carrie and I are looking for a slightly less urban environment than Lakeview in Chicago, this makes some San Francisco neighborhoods less desirable. Generally speaking, we liked places near the Panhandle, the Haight, or around Cole Valley. These neighborhoods were a little quieter and had a little bit less traffic. One neat thing we saw was that many apartments have nice back yards (pictured below)

GETTING AROUND
There are many, many ways to get around San Francisco. One can walk places, although this becomes more difficult in the really hilly neighborhoods. Biking is common, and they even have topographical maps for bikers. We also saw a lot of people riding motor scooters and motorcycles. In terms of public transportation, San Francisco has the MUNI system which goes through San Francisco itself and has good city coverage. The BART system is more well known, and it connects San Francisco to the East Bay, but it doesn't have great coverage in San Francisco itself. That said, in terms of speed and reliability, BART is like heaven compared to the CTA or the MBTA. The trains run on schedule, the stations tell you when the next trains are coming, the trains move quickly, and the seats are comfortable and clean. You do pay more for BART -- they charge by distance, and we always paid at least $2.90 for a one way fare (it was over $5 one way from the airport). For driving in San Francisco, it didn't seem that bad within the city. The hills get a little frightening with a manual transmission, but traffic isn't horrible. Getting across the bridges to other cities can be another story, especially during rush hour.

WEATHER
The weather in San Francisco is cold! A sweater and pants were basically mandatory at night. In some neighborhoods, fog hangs over the city most days. Other neighborhoods such as The Mission get more sun, but even they have a lot of fog. In our 5.5 days in the Bay Area, we got 1 really nice sunny day, and one other day where we got some sun. The rest of the days were largely foggy, and one day had a slow light drizzle for much of the day. To summarize -- you won't get a lot of really great weather days, but you won't get a lot of really bad days either. It never gets THAT cold, especially by Chicago or Boston standards.

SPORTS
The Giants play at AT&T Park, which is a beautiful park right on the bay. I must admit, this is a beautiful place to watch a game. While the atmosphere is nowhere even close to Fenway or Wrigley, the physical setting is spectacular. Unfortunately, the beers are $8+, and food is also expensive. The most popular food item appears to be garlic fries, which I tried and were very delicious, although it leaves you with some interesting breath for the rest of your night. I'll have more on the baseball game later.

For NFL, the 49ers are here, although we didn't check out their stadium. I can't say I feel much for the 49ers... I may need to look into sports bars with NFL Sunday Ticket if I live in San Francisco. There is no NBA in San Francisco... you have to go to Oakland for that.

OVERALL
I could possibly see myself living in San Francisco, but only in certain situations. If possible, I'd want to live somewhere that wasn't as dense, where the weather wasn't foggy all the time. Having access to MUNI or BART would be nice as well. So while San Francisco could work, I think there were parts of the Bay Area that Carrie and I liked better, such as the East Bay. Speaking of which...

EAST BAY

GEOGRAPHY
When we visited the East Bay, we spent much of our time in the Oakland and Berkeley areas, with a little time in Emeryville and Alameda. Generally, there is more space here, and the hills are a little less extreme than San Francisco.

PEOPLE
Oakland is an incredibly diverse and integrated city. Carrie and I were once again amazed as people always stopped their cars even as we approached a crosswalk! Very generally speaking, people in Oakland seemed down to earth and smart, although we didn't really have a large sample size.

NEIGHBORHOODS / HOUSING
Much like the South Side of Chicago, the East Bay has kind of a tough reputation. While one can find neighborhoods that are pretty scary, there are a lot of really beautiful, vibrant, and safe neighborhoods as well. Carrie and I liked the Rockridge area, as well as Piedmont Avenue, and some areas surrounding Lake Merritt. Generally speaking, housing in Oakland is more house-based, as opposed to apartment buildings in San Francisco. People looking to rent could live in one floor of a large house, or possibly even get a small cottage for themselves. One Oakland resident told us that if you live in Oakland, you get views of San Francisco, which is really pretty, whereas if you live in San Francisco, you get views of Oakland. Parts of Downtown Oakland and Emeryville are growing, and they are attempting to lure small businesses. The key is being very selective in exactly where you locate... as there are some parts of town that are not so attractive.

CULTURE / THINGS TO DO
While there is probably more going on in San Francisco, Oakland does have its own scene. One night, Carrie and I went to Yoshi's, which is a big name jazz club and sushi restaurant (what a great combination!) Oakland is a little bit more up and coming... While Yoshi's was nice, there really wasn't much else going on in the area surrounding the jazz club. Each of our favorite neighborhoods did have plenty of restaurants, and while the number of bars isn't at Chicago levels, it appears to be enough.

GETTING AROUND
BART goes to the East Bay, and it is a great way to get across the Bay. You could also use BART to an extent within Oakland, depending on where you live. Oakland also appears to have its own bus system. Biking seems doable, although Oakland is a little more spread out, so you may go for longer distances. To go far in the East Bay, you'd almost definitely need a car.

WEATHER
The East Bay still has its share of fog. However, it appears to get a little more sun than San Francisco, and it is a few degrees warmer every day.

SPORTS
The Oakland A's play at the Coloseum, which I understand is a pretty lousy baseball stadium. We met one Oakland A's fan, who basically said that people who go to A's game are there for the baseball, and the baseball alone. This actually sounds more like my style of baseball. The A's share the Coloseum with the Raiders, who are fairly famous for their fans and antics. I could see myself becoming a closet Raiders fan, unless they faced the Patriots (and maybe the Bears). The Golden State Warriors play in the same sports complex. ESPN's Bill Simmons has written extensively about how Golden State gets great home crowds, so this could be another good option.

OVERALL
Carrie and I liked the East Bay a lot. It is a little calmer than San Francisco, and more up and coming. As long as you are selective with locations, it seems like you could get more for your money, both in terms of housing and office space. I could definitely see myself living here.

SAN JOSE

GEOGRAPHY
San Jose is located South of San Francisco and Oakland, at the bottom of the bay. In terms of population, it is actually the largest city in the Bay Area. CalTrain (the commuter rail) can get you to San Francisco, or you can drive on the 101 or 280 freeways. Oakland is accessible via freeway as well.

WEATHER
San Jose gets much, much more sun than San Francisco and Oakland. It's also warmer here. You can't argue with that.

CULTURE / THINGS TO DO
It appears that there are ample things to do in San Jose, although we didn't stick around long enough to sample them. We basically got our information from newspaper listings. Driving around, it did appear that there were plenty of restaurants, shops, and bars, and there were lots of signs advertising the upcoming San Jose Jazz Festival.

NEIGHBORHOODS / HOUSING
Downtown looked nice. It was very clean and had lots of trees. Once we got a few blocks out of downtown, it got more residential, with plenty of nice areas. A renter could live in part of a house or in a smaller cottage. The Willow Glen neighborhood was pleasant, with its own commercial district. Japantown left something to be desired, only because it was really small and didn't have a whole lot of variety. Below are a couple pictures from Downtown.

GETTING AROUND
San Jose appears to have some light rail, and possibly some buses. Driving most likely is the most common mode of transportation, although bike riding could probably work as well.

SPORTS
San Jose is home to hockey's Sharks, and that's about it for professional sports. I believe they have minor league baseball though.

OVERALL
Carrie and I liked San Jose, and I could maybe, maybe see myself living there. To me, things felt a little bit too new and clean... the whole place felt a little sterile. The other issue is that we don't really know anyone down here. So it's possible, but not my first preference.

SILICON VALLEY / THE PENINSULA

I won't get into too much here. Yes, the weather is nicer here. The city of Mountain View did have a pretty downtown commercial strip of restaurants with lots of outdoor seating (pictured below), and Google gives the entire city free wireless internet.

Cities like Cupertino and Sunnyvale left much to be desired. Redwood City wasn't too bad, but I think we'd end up making lots of trips into San Francisco when we wanted to do anything cultural. It was fun going to Apple HQ and Google HQ and being promptly asked to leave immediately though.

In conclusion -- Our trip definitely gave me some clarity as to what the options were within the Bay Area. I could definitely see myself living there, provided I choose carefully.

COMING SOON: The 9.5 hour Amtrak experience, and what it was like to be at AT&T Park for a game when Barry Bonds was going for 756.

Hanford Bay, Niagra Falls, and the Saturn

2007-07-31T00:12:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone -- This is my first post to the blog! I hope that Carrie and I are able to update this regularly and keep everyone updated on our travels. Please use the comments section or email us directly so that we can keep in touch throughout our trip.

First off, we had a great send-off in Chicago before we left. It was great talking to everyone (and seeing many of you) before we left. I know we will miss Chicago and all of our friends there. With all of the craziness that came with moving, we didn't really get a chance to step back and dwell on the fact that we were leaving... perhaps this was a good thing because it gave us less time to feel sad. Now that I've had time to think about that moving period, here are a few thoughts / tidbits about the move itself:

- Our total shipping costs: About $300. This was worth every penny (assuming the boxes get to our parents' houses), because as you'll see later, Carrie's car isn't that large and we filled it completely.

- For bulk shipping of books / CDs / DVDs, USPS Media Mail is fantastic. You do have to wait in line and it takes a little longer to get everything shipped, but it is CHEAP! For non-media mail packages, UPS Ground is the way to go... You pay a little more, but we left 8 boxes with them, and the guy at the store took care of everything while we got some lunch next door.

- The Dan-Ryan construction doesn't seem that bad! We hit it at about 4:30 on a weekday, and we coasted through without much trouble at all.

- On the sentimental side, it's starting to hit me that we've met so many great people in Chicago over the years. I'm very thankful for all my time in Chicago and for getting to know everyone there. Please stay in touch!

OK -- On to the trip! It's off to a great start. See Carrie's post (it has been updated with a picture) for details on our drive to Hanford Bay, the first stop on our journey. Hanford Bay is where my Aunt Judi, Uncle Marc, and cousins Adam and Todd have their cottage on Lake Erie. It was a perfect place to start the trip. In Hanford Bay, the day basically consists of the following:

- Wake up and eat breakfast
- Go to the beach
- Walk 80 steps back to the cottage and eat lunch
- Go back to the beach
- Head back to the cottage for dinner
- Go back to the beach and watch the sunset
- Have a drink back at the cottage before bed

Below are some photos of our stay in Hanford Bay. If you're curious, use this link to see where Hanford Bay is on the map.

This is the setup on the beach... Very relaxing:

Here is Carrie and I in the boat on Lake Erie.

After a few days in Hanford Bay, we drove eastward to Niagra Falls. For those who haven't been, it's well worth the trip. I highly recommend doing the "Maid of the Mist" and the "Cave of the Winds" on the American Side. The Maid of the Mist is a boat that takes you right up to the American and Canadian falls. The Cave of the Winds allows you to walk right up to the base of the American Falls, and you get very wet! The Canadian side gets fairly touristy, but it does give some slightly better views of the larger Canadian Horseshoe falls. Here are some pictures and videos from the falls:

Carrie and I with the American Falls as our backdrop (aboard Maid of the Mist):

View of the Canadian Horseshoe Falls from the Maid of the Mist:

My cousin Todd, cousin Adam, and Adam's fiancee Debbie getting wet at the Cave of the Winds (the video is sideways):

View of the falls from the Rainbow Bridge to Canada:

Carrie and I also got to sample some some Buffalo food. They don't mess around with their spicy food here. We had some spaghetti with cajun tomato sauce that is spectacular, Mighty Taco with the "Super Mighty", and the greasy but delicious Chicken Finger Subs! If you're ever in Buffalo, these are not to be missed. If you're in Hanford Bay, we also highly recommend Frosty Treat ice cream!

MIGHTY TACO!

Chicken Finger Sandwich (includes chicken fingers coated in wing sauce, bleu cheese dressing, cheese, lettuce, tomato)!

Today, we took the plunge and headed for Groton, Massachusetts. Our fear was that Carrie's car may not make it, given the fuse problems, leaky roof, and new grinding noise when we hit the brakes. As we began our trip, the brake noises got worse, and we decided we needed to get it looked at. As it turns out, the brake pads had ground down to near nothing, leaving the car doing dangerous metal to metal braking. $115 and 30 minutes later, we had new brake pads and were on the road.

After the brake pad fix, the car made it with no problems. I'm sure the over 50% of you who voted that car would make it helped provide the good karma! To those who didn't expect it to make it, I guess you could think we cheated by getting new brake pads. If that makes you feel better about your dire prediction, good for you. For anyone considering doing the drive, the section of I-90 from a little before Albany in New York through the Berkshires in Massachusetts is really quite pretty. Or maybe it just seems that way after 250 miles of flat and straight upstate New York (not to mention all of Ohio and Indiana).

Below is a video of our packed car in my parents' driveway in Groton (the cat you hear in the background is my family's loud cat Sidney):

The next stop on our journey will be California, where we audition the Bay Area and San Diego for our potential new home and office location! We head there on Wednesday. Feel free to post comments regarding neighborhoods to live in, experiences in these cities, etc. Bye for now!

The Trip Begins!

2007-07-26T22:12:00.001-04:00

We just left Chicago yesterday, and already are trip has been full of adventures! We had so much stuff to bring with us, we had to fill every inch of the car, including a cooler on the passenger's lap! Our noon departure time turned into a 4pm departure, but fortunately traffic wasn't too bad. It was pouring rain in Indiana, but we taped the left side of the car shut and things stayed pretty dry. A few days before our trip we noticed that the dashboard lights were not functioning so as it got dark, we periodically used a flashlight to check our speed, car temperature, and gasoline level.

The craziest part of our drive to New York happened while passing through Ohio. We had heard that Ohio cops were strict (especially towards cars with IL plates) so Dan was very careful to stay under 70 in the 65 zone. However, despite our efforts, the first cop we passed pulled us over! He asked us how fast we were going, and Dan very nicely told him that we couldn't have been going much over 65 because he had set the cruise control. The cop laughed and said he actually had no idea how fast we were going, but that he had pulled us over only because our back lights were out! He said it was probably just a broken fuse because both lights were out and the break lights worked fine. He suspected we were speeding because Dan had slammed on the breaks when he saw him. Dan joked that doesn't everyone do that when they see the police, and the cop was amused. He advised that we pull into a rest stop and try and fix the lights, but that if we couldn't get them back on, we should drive with our emergency flashers to the nearest hotel and wait to continue our trip during daylight. Fortunately, we managed to figure out the fuses and even found the right size replacement fuse in one of the spare slots! Fixing the taillights also fixed the dashboard lights.

We were back on the road in about 45 minutes, and managed to make it to Hanford Bay shortly after 2 am. Since then we've been enjoying the company of Dan's aunt and uncle and soaking in the beauty and relaxing atmosphere of Hanford Bay.