MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Here is the link to an album of pics from Laos!!
We hope everyone at home had a very Merry Christmas!!! We missed being with friends and family and are so thankful for all of our loved ones far away.

heather

Christmas time in Laos!

Vang Vieng. A must see for backpackers in Laos, famous for its tubing down the Nam Song river, restaurants that continually play Friends episodes, and its beautiful limestone mountains surrounding the river. We had met so many people that were heading to Vang Vieng for Christmas, to simply relax and spend the holiday floating down the river. We did not arrive until late afternoon on Sunday, and with Talita (Holland), we found a cheap and cheerful guesthouse and then got sucked into watching Friends while eating pizza and the amazing fruit shakes!

Monday morning, we headed out in a Tuktuk to 4 of the nearby limestone caves. The caves were cool, not as impressive as some that we saw in Central America, but interesting none the less.
These caves were used as hide outs for the locals during the Secret War in Laos. In the 60s and 70s, unknowingly to most, the US bombed Laos (which was also being taken over by a communist regime) and caused loads of damage to the land and people. The caves each had in them Buddhas for the people to perform their prayers during the bombings.

We thought the safety was bad in Central America, but we soon discovered that it can still be worse! At least we got helmets in Belize and Nicaragua! I greatly appreciated those helmets after slipping in the mud in one cave and hitting my head on a stalactite! It hurt (I am totally fine!) and I bled all over my face in front of lots of people! Super embarrassing!

After caving, we arrived back 1 1/2 later than planned (typical Laos style!), so we decided to save tubing for the next day! We watched some more Friends, met some real friends at dinner, and generally enjoyed the Laos backpackers scene for the evening! This city is certainly not where you encounter the most authentic Laotian culture, but it is fun to be around lots of travelers so near to Christmas! We have been debating since we arrived where to spend Christmas, in Vang Vieng or north in Luang Probang.


Tuesday we had breakfast with Talita, Bailey (UK) and Andy (Australia) at a great organic restaurant! I had a the most amazing mulberry pancakes with lime and honey! After breakfast, we hired some tubes, caught a tuktuk and headed to the start of the tubing! After having a fresh Mojitio at another organic farm near the start, we hit the river! We knew the tubing wasn't far, but we realized it was actually a really short distance, but with lots of places to stop along the river! The river banks are lined with wood platforms full of people hanging out. Each 'stop' has its own form of fairly unsafe entertainment, like huge Tarzan swings, slides, mud pits, bon fires. So, although the tubing part was fairly lame, but the view was great and the swings/slides were really fun!

Because we had done what we came here to do, tubing and caving, and because there is not a lot to do in the evenings except watch Friends :), we decided to hit the road and head north. We found only 1 company in town that offered an overnight bus to Luang Probang, which we though was really strange, but we decided to try it out. It turns out our instincts were right, and we had gotten totally scammed. We walked onto a bus full of people that looked as if they had been on the bus, every seat was filled and the isles were filled with people sitting on stools, huge boxes, and tires. We were totally in shock and before we knew it the bus was already rolling. They eventually found us seats, however, I shared 2 seats with a woman and her 6 year old son, a tire next to me, and boxes at my feet. Toriann sat with a Lao woman who very much thought Toriann didnt mind sharing her seat with her, and also woke up at 6am to put on makeup and listen to music on her cellphone REALLY loud. Ahh, good old night buses! But, on the positive, we made it safe and sound to Luang Prabang.

Luang Prabang is an old French colonial town, now an UNESCO World Heritage site. It is filled with loads of Wats (temples). It is very quaint and the most 'Christmasy' place we had been in all of Asia yet! The overnight bus dropped us off around 5am, so we wandered the streets for a while waiting for town to open. While we were waiting, we got to see the monks procession down the main street of LP. Every morning at sunrise all of the monks in the city walk down the street and people come to the streets to give them breakfast. It was a very peaceful sight and a great way to pass the morning while we waited to find a guesthouse.

We were happy with our decision to move to LP for Christmas and spent Christmas eve in the beautiful night market Christmas shopping. The market is brilliant, filled with silk blankets, scarves, silver jewelry, and other handicrafts. It is the best market we have been to around the world for sure. On Christmas day, we decided to take a day trip to a nearby waterfall. We met Sam (Colorado) the night before, so we met him for breakfast and then set off to find a tuktuk. On the way, we met 2 other guys from the US and shared a tuktuk to Kuang Si waterfall outside of town. The waterfall park included a bear rescue facility, random, but the bears were super cute! We hiked to the top of the waterfall, enjoyed the view, then hiked back down where Toriann and Talita dared to swim in the frigid water while I stayed out and guarded our stuff.
After the swim, we headed back to town to hit the Internet cafe and make some calls home. We were so blessed to get to call friends and family and get to hear (and see!) loved ones! It was definitely the highlight of Christmas day in Asia. It was so different to be celebrating Christmas in a non Christmas celebrating country. For Christmas dinner, Toriann, Talita, myself, and another friend we had met on a bus in southern Laos, Lisa (Holland) had Asian food at a packed restaurant full of foreigners. It turned out to be good food and good company, so although not a normal Christmas, it was not so bad!

So, Christmas being technically over, it was time to hit to road to head to Thailand to meet my family. We spent one last day in Luang Prabang, seeing some more of sights including, the Royal Palace, the banks of the Mekong river and other famous Wats. Unfortunately it rained all afternoon, but that made it easy to hop on overnight bus #3 for Laos and head south to Viene Tiene.

We arrived in Viene Tiene early, by this time we were experts at arriving into town before the sunrise, and we headed to the street of a guesthouse that we knew we could buy train tickets to Bangkok. We found a cafe nearby that was open, had breakfast, and then went back to the guesthouse and purchased train tickets. The guesthouse was super nice and let us shower and store our stuff for the day! It is definitely people like that you come to very much appreciate when you are traveling! That left us with the afternoon to kill, and we headed to a Buddha sculpture park. It was both Buddhist and Hindu sculptures collected by a man that donated it to the park. On the way there we had a small tuktuk verses truck accident, but luckily, no one was hurt and only the tuktuk had a small scratch!

After our park adventure, we boarded a bus, crossed the border to Thailand, and found our seats on the overnight train. The train was deluxe, at least compared the buses we had been taking, with our own beds and everything! It was really fun because we ran into a lot of people that we had met in Vang Vieng, so we got to hang out and play card until we were told to 'go to bed now!' by the train man. After a few hours sleep, the train man came around again, 'time to wake up, get down now!'
So, that was the rest of our time in Laos, we have now arrived in Bangkok to meet up with the Buchans!

The never ending travel day...

32 hours later and we finally arrived here in Vang Vieng. Yesterday morning we left Don Dhet island at 5:30 am on a little canoe motor boat where I proceeded to slip and rammed my leg into the boat as I tried to get in. With my bruised shin we boated over to the main land, where we hoped on a local min bus (a truck with benches in the back-all natural air con!) and drove to Ban Lak 30 where they dropped us off. Expecting to find lots of tuk tuks to take us to Ban Muang, where we told to catch the ferry boat to Champasak, we only found a truck which drove us down to the water. From here we got aboard a SE Asian style ferry boat (two canoes with wooden boards lade on top) and cruised over to Champasak. There is not much to do here, but visit the famous Wat Phu ruins which are spoken very highly of. The Wat Phu ruins are about 8km outside of Champasak so we were in desperate need of finding a tuk tuk that would drive us out there and watch our stuff while we visited the ruins. Within a few minutes we found a tuk tuk and arrived at Vat Phou. Vat Phou literally means mountain temple. It's divided into two parts with a steep stone stairway connecting the lower part to the upper part. As we climbed up the steep staircase we saw the beautiful view of the Mekong Valley. The upper section is the temple sanctuary itself which was originally built by Hindus in the 6th century but was later converted into a Buddhist temple during the Angkor period of the 9th and 13 century. Just outside the temple, we saw the elephant stone and the crocodile stone- both very cool to see. After our visit we decided to make the steep climb down the stairs and of course I slipped and fell down the last four or five steps (fall #2 for the day!). Laughing and bent over from falling, all the locals came over with there concerned words and looks and helped me up. With just a minor scratch on my foot we thought it was time to head back and figure out how to get to Pakse. Upon boarding the ferry boat which was much bigger then the first one, we found a local bus that was heading to Pakse. We asked the driver if we could join...he pointed in the direction of Pakse laughed and said yes. So we threw our bags on top and climbed in the back... realizing shortly after that we may have imposed ourselves onto an eighth grade class excursion (since everyone was about 13 years old except for two male teachers and ourselves). With several giggles and stares, an hour and half later we were kicked off the bus and handed over to a tuk tuk that drove us the rest of the way into Pakse and dropped us off at a VIP bus station. Pumped to finally take the "famous" overnight bed bus that we had heard about we booked our tickets to Vientiane. With a few hours to kill before the bus left we headed into town and had lunch/dinner, visited a small Catholic church, tried Laos coffee, and walked through Wat Luang. Our few hours flew by and before we knew it we were settling into our VERY small narrow beds for the night. The bus is stacked with bunk beds and two people sleep parallel to each other on top as well as on the bottom...there is no room for personal space. Both Heather and I were feeling thankful we had each other because we would not want to be sleeping on this bus next to a stranger. After a rough night sleep we arrived in Vientiane homeless, tired and hungry. We, along with a few other travels whom we had met, roamed the streets in search of a hostel, but no where were there vacancies. Frustrated and impatient both Heather and I decided to just keep going and catch a bus to Vang Vieng. After we booked our ticket we settled ourselves down for a relaxing breakfast and just waited for the bus to pick us up. Roughly three hours later we made it to Vang Vieng and that completed our 32 hour travel day (days).

4K Islands..Welcome to Laos!

After heading up north through Cambodia with an overnight stop in quiet Stung Treng, we crossed the border into Laos. We went through the border, got a stamp, got dropped off and then picked up in another van. That van proceded to fill up with people heading back to Cambodia, but we were reassured that we were on the right bus. So, we drove back to the border, dropped the crowd of people off going south, turned around again, and were on our way again into Laos. Our first stop in Laos was 4 Thousand Islands, on the island of Don Dhet. Don Dhet has 2 main streets, Sunrise and Sunset. We settled into a (very) small bungalow on Sunset blvd, complete with hammocks and an amazing view . Don Dhet is connected to the island just south, Don Khon, where you can catch a boat to view the rare river dolphins. We rented bikes and biked the dusty, bumpy road down to the other island, hired a boat, and floated out to somewhere on the water between Laos and Cambodia. Our driver spoke no English, but he was able to point out quite a few of the dolphins. Unfortantely they were fairly far away, and when we asked to go closer, he said, 'no, Cambodia!'. We stayed on the water till just before sunset, then came back and rushed to a nearby beach to watch the beautiful sunset. Riding back it got a little dark, but we made it back, had some dinner with Cav (from Denver, yah!) and Susie (Germany).
The next day we rented bikes again and continued exploring the islands. We rode to a small waterfall, lots of beautiful scenery, and a fabulous bakery!! We made sure to be back at our bungalow to watch the sunset from our hammocks which was amazing! Laos is definitely beautiful and I cant wait to see more!
PS We should have pictures up soon for Cambodia and Laos!!

Angkor Wat

After taking a month or two off from the Latin American ruins, we felt it was time to go back and explore some ruins here in Cambodia. The Temples of Angkor is the heart and soul of the Cambodian people. They look to these temples for inspiration and national pride as they struggle to rebuild their lives after the Pol Pot's regime. Some people spend a week visiting all the temples and others like ourselves just spend a day seeing and absorbing a small portion of what could take several days. The temples of Angkor are the perfect blend of artistic carvings and structure as well as spiritual devotion. Of the hundreds of temples here, the Bayon, Ta Prohm, and Angkor Wat are the three most magnificent temples due to their size, scale and symmetry. The temples were built between 9th and 13th century.
Since we only had day to visit Angkor, we decided to get up at 4:30 am and go watch the sunrise. The Tuk Tuk picked us up at our hostel and drove us out to Angkor Wat where we sat and watched the sunrise over the temple. It was beautiful- SO much better then the sunrise we watched in Tikal (Guatemala). It was beautiful, although Heather only got to see the beginning before she feel asleep on the ruins! When she woke up, we walked through Angkor Wat, the mother temple due to its unbelievable structure and size. Angkor Wat is the largest religious building in the world. After we walked through, we headed to the ancient city of Angkor Thom to see Bayon and Baphuon. The City of Angkor Thom was built by Angkor's greatest king, Jayavarman VII and who built Bayon around 1200. Although Angkor Wat is the mother temple, Bayon is Angkor's most stunning temple do to its eerie faces that stare down at you while you walk around. Apparently there are 216 faces of Avalokiteshvara watching over the tourist as they explore this memorable temple. From here we traveled by tuk tuk and stopped at the Terrace of Elephants, Terrace of the Leper King, Phnom Bakheng, Ta Keo until we arrived at Ta Prohm. Ta Prohm is famous for two reasons, one being that Tomb Raider and Two Brothers were filmed here. The other reason is that it has started to be taken over by jungle vegetation. As we walked through the narrow corridors, we saw the roots of several huge trees hug the stonework of this temple. It was quite a sight to be able to see a small vision of what the archeologist's saw when they re-discovered these temples. Our day visit here was incredible and definitely a different sight then what we had been used to from L.A. The Mayan and Inka ruins were big stone buildings focused around the astronomical calender, where these temples display exquisite artistic stone carvings. Both similar in the sense of being big stone buildings, yet the feelings you get from walking around from both is so different. We both loved it and wish we had another day or two to explore the other temples, but our time is too short in SE Asia!! (but whats new!)

Phnom Phen

We have managed to travel to three countries in three days-Indonesia, Malaysia, and now Cambodia! It has been a little overwhelming and a bit exhausting, but we are glad to have finally made it here in Phnom Phen, Cambodia. Upon our arrival, we were approached by a tuk tuk driver and a taxi driver who offered to take us to our hotel...we decided to go with the tuk tuk. The drive was fun and definitely different then the typical taxi drives. Especially because the driver payed more attention to us then the road... a little concerning, yet funny all at the same time. For our first day here we headed down to the river front to visit the National Museum and the Royal Palace. We tried to go into the palace, but we were not dressed appropriately (we needed to have covered shoulders and knees)so we had to go back the next day. After we were turned down, we headed back to the hotel and ended up resting for the late afternoon, and then slept through the night. Since we were finally more rested, we got up this morning energized and pumped to return to the Royal Palace. Wow, is pretty much all i can say... the detail that went into the building are amazing. The RP, as well as temples and building, here are just amazing, nothing like we have seen yet on our trip. The colors of the building are so fresh and warm with gold, white, yellow, blue and a little bit of burnt orange... what a sight. After our visit we stopped for a late breakfast and then found a tuk tuk that took us to the Killing Fields. Boy, we not prepared for the emotions we felt this afternoon. So here is a quick run down of Cambodia's history... on April 17, 1975 Cambodia fell to the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot's leadership. This then implemented one of the most bloody revolutions the world has ever seen, which is now seen as geniced. During Pol Pot's regime, which was between 1975-1979 roughly 2 million Cambodians died. Today we visited the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek where roughly 17,000 men, women, and children were executed. Upon walking in we saw the white stupa (religious monument) which holds 9000 human skulls which were found during excavations. Seeing the skulls and reading the sign posts which told briefly about what went on here, we were taken back at the idea of one human being taking the lives of their own people. Emotionally struck, yet eager to learn and understand more of what went on, we headed to Tuol Slend Museum- which was once Pol pot's Security Prison 21. Before it was a prison, it was once Tuol Sway Prey High School. During the regime the prisoners were morally violated, electrocuted, beaten, slashed, and water bourted for "miss behavior." Those who died during torture were buried in the prison grounds and most everyone else was sent to the killing field. Today these former class rooms which were then turned into cells hold pictures of prisoners who were torched on rusty metal beds. The rooms also shared stories of Cambodians who survived, as well as mug shots of most of the prisoners who were held there. The mug shot pictures of the children as well as some of the others who conveyed strong fear in their eyes were the worst to look at. After a while we just had to say it was enough our hearts and stomachs could not take any more. It is a great thing that Cambodia wants to preserve these places but it can only be consumed in small dosages. By preserving these ugly and tragic years we can only hope that something as horrible as this will never happen again. Our heart goes out to all the Cambodians who suffered through this and may those who died rest in peace.

Bali Bliss...and a day in Malaysia!

After being back in the English speaking world in NZ and Sydney, we eased our way into Asia by spending a week in beautiful Bali. We flew in on a Friday night, arrived, hopped in a taxi, and headed to Kuta. After accomplishing the necessities-lodging, food, drink, we headed to the beach for a quick look. It looked amazing!...however, since it was dark, we couldn't see how filthy it actually was, eh. The next morning, after setting up diving and plans to get out of Kuta, we went back to Kuta to see it in daylight. Although the shore was literally covered in dead fish and trash. That didn't stop us though, we rented surf boards and paddled out to the surf. Unfortunately the water did not get any cleaner, it actually was difficult to avoid being covered in garbage if and when we got up on the surf board! Yuck.
The next morning, we drove 2 1/2 hours up the island to do a wreck dive called Tulamben. The ship was an old US Cargo ship that was sunk by the Japanese in WWII. Our dive team was Toriann, Luke, 2 Austrians and myself, plus 2 dive masters. The water was warm, the fish were plentiful and AMAZING, and it was really cool to explore the sunken ship. Highlights of the dive were the great barracuda (apparently a friendly one), lots of Nemos, a sting ray, weird ribbon looking slugs, and the multitude of coral. After the dive, we headed back to Kuta and made plans to get out to a nicer, less touristy beach the next day. There are so many places that sounded amazing, but we decided due to our time restraints we would go to Nusa Lembongan, a small island about 1 hour away.
We took a small boat to Lembongan and when we arrived, we were picked up on the back of motor bikes to our guest house. We decided we liked the motor bikes so much, we rented them for the next 2 days to explore the island. We hopped on, Toriann and Luke taking the lead and me on the back, and rode to Sunset and Dream beach. Both beaches were absolutely stunning, definitely on the top 10 most beautiful beaches ever list!!! It was a good call to leave Kuta to discover these seemingly untouched beaches.
The rest of our time on NL was great and we had to leave much too soon. Toriann did another great dive, while I just enjoyed scooting around and exploring the beaches. She took a boat out to Manta Point and Crystal Bay where she saw several Manta rays swim by and one in particular circled around them for several minutes during their dive. She also saw a small shark, colorful coral, a trigger fish which seemed to attack them as well as a variety of other colorful fish we normally only see at the aquarium. After her dive we spent our last afternoon body surfing on the killer waves that were rolling in do to the rain storm. We met a man doing the same that lived on the island, and he informed us the waves would be even better tomorrow...I think he probably meant that there was going to be a small monsoon because when we made the short walk to catch our ferry boat back to Bali, it was POURING and us and everything we owned got drenched. Our ferry ended up being canceled, but we caught the 'speed' boat over to the mainland, and it was probably one of the only times in my life that I actually would have loved to be wearing a life jacket. Unfortunately, there was not a life jacket in sight...eh! But we made it, safe and sound, and spent the rest of our afternoon in Kuta before running to the airport to fly out to Malaysia!
We caught the 9:30 flight to Kaula Lumpur...which meant we arrived at 1:30 am!! It always seems like a good idea to book these crazy flights, but then when you are doing it, its like what were we thinking!! However, we found some comfy benches and actually got some good sleep. When we woke up, we took the very nice subway into the city, found a hostel near Chinatown, and headed out to see the sights! We certainly made the most of our day in KL, and we ate in Chinatown, visited the Central Market, went into (not up) the Petronas Twin Towers, and the National Mosque. When the afternoon rains came, we headed back to the hostel and met a guy from the US named Cameron, who had plans to meet some locals that evening. He invited us along and we met up with 2 guys from KL who were kind enough to take us out for tea and hookah. We had a great time and felt like our 1 day in KL was complete. After a short nights sleep, we headed back to the airport to fly to our 3rd country in 3 days-Cambodia!

Sydney in a week...

Its summer time in Sydney (yah!) and the weather was amazing most of the week we were there. Our week in Sydney flew by, but whats new, every week just seems to go by so fast. Upon our day of arrival we took a stroll through Darling Harbor and sat on the harbor steps and enjoyed a delicious gelato ice cream to cool us down. That evening we meet up with Isobel and Ken, friends of Bonnie (Heathers sister) and attended church at Hillsong- one of the biggest mega churches in the world. The service was interesting...it is definetly different then the traditional church, with its fancy technology, stadium seating and suround sound, but nevertheless we had a good time and the people were nice.
As for the rest of the week, Heather and I got into a bit of a routine which consisted of getting up in the morning, having a cup of coffee at several different little coffee shops, heading to the groceriy store to pick up food for lunch, and finally doing our excursion for the day. Our first excusrion was down in Circle Quay where we took pictures of the Opera House and the Sydney Bridge. Excited to be here we looked into different shows at the Opera House and decided on attedning The Pig Iron People, a theatrecal drama. The play was amazingly well done. It tells a humurous story about the differences between generations when the governement changed from conservative to liberal. Although it had a lot of Australian humor, we managed to understand most everything and really gained a better insight into the bluecollar Australian lifestyle.
As I mentioned before its summer here, so we just had to spend a day laying on the beach. We took a bus out to Bondi Beach and just relaxed and read for most of the day. The weather was perfect and it really rejuvinated us... sometimes you just need a day like this one. Anxious to see Kangaroos and Koalas, we took a visit out to Taronga Zoo. In order to get to the zoo we had to catch a ferry boat which dropped us off on the other side of the harbor, right by the zoo. The zoo was great we saw tones of different animals- from Kangaroos and Koalas to penguins and seals. Our favorite part was the Koala exhibit were we got to see them be feed eucalyptis leaves. Aparently Koalas sleep some 20 hours a day becuase their body spends most of its energy digesting the eucalyptis leaves. Hum...sound familar...they reminded me a lot of sloths and are equally as cute. Heather and I took one and put it in our bag with the other animals we have picked up along the way. JK :)
That evening we meet up with Isobel and her friend Anka for drinks and dinner. Our evenign out with the girls was tons of fun. We meet them in a Newtown, a neighborhood outside of Sydney. Isobel, the Australian she is, insisted we try vegemite(a very strange yeast extract spread), so she went in to store and bought bread and vegemite. Un sure whether we would like it, we each braved it and ate a slice of bread with vegemite. Not so bad... definitely not my favorite nor do i think i will ever have a craving for it but edible. Excited by our reaction she gave us the jar of vegemite as a souvener.
As for our last day and a half, we spent some of our hours in the STA office working out flights for the next part of our trip and doing some planning. The guys working in the office suggested we try kangaroo pizza at the Australian Hotel. Un sure how we felt about eating kangaroo(it just seems so wrong!), but we thought, hey, we are in Australia so we should do as the Australins do. That evening we meet them for dinner and tried kangaroo as well as crocodile pizza. After a bite, I said it wasnt for me, but Heather didnt seem to mind the kangaroo. Im not sure whether either of us would eat kangaroo or crocodile again, but hey, at least we tried it! This concludes our speedy week of Sydney... it was enjoyable, food adventurous and historically insightfull.

NZ # 3: WOOFing on Blueberry Bliss

Before i begin to tell you about our time on the farm... first i will explain what woofing is...woofing is really an organization which can be found all over the world and it means Willing to Work On Organic Farms. Heather and I volunteered four hours a day on Wendy and Don's Blueberry Bliss farm in exchange for a place to stay and meals. In essence, we spent our last week working on a blueberry farm- getting it ready for picking season, which starts Jan 1st. Our week on the farm went surprisingly fast... we spent several hours weeding the rows of blueberries, shoveling dirt to lay over the netting that we sowed up to keep the rabbits out, as well as mending the bird net (to keep the birds out). At times our days were long, but it was good physical exercise, which we enjoyed since we've lacked it since leaving. Heather and I put in a few extra hours our first couple of days so we could take a day off at the end of the week. We took friday off to meet up with our friend Luke who had just arrived from visiting Queenstown. The three of us spent Friday relaxing and enjoying Christchurch. We visited the Art Museum, the Botanical Gardens, stopped and smelled the roses and then went to see the new James Bond movie. The movie was good and very action filled so if you were wondering if you should see it i suggest yes. As for our last day on the farm as well as in New Zealand, Heather and I put in our last hours of work and then headed in to the city. Anxious to see the beach, we decided to rent a car for the day and drive along the coast. Luke, being from England, would be the most practical person to drive but since he didn't have his license that left Heather and I in charge of the wheel. Our drive went surprisingly well and by the end we were moderately confident left hand drivers. We started our day visiting Littleton and then driving along Summit Road, which took us along the coastal hillside towards Akaroa. The views along the drive are amazing with the blue/green water in front of us and the hills along the side. We stopped in the small town of Akaroa, had a picnic lunch along the beach, and took a walk around town. Before heading back to Christchurch we stopped at another beautiful beach and went for a cold but nice swim. Our three weeks here in NZ have gone by fast...we feel confident that we saw and did everything we wanted to. However, the highlight of NZ was definitely meeting up with old friends (Sarah and Craig) and meeting great new ones!
We are now in Sydney, Australia for a quick visit so check back soon to read more about our time here in Sydney... so far so good :)

New Zealand #2: South Island

On Sunday morning, we said goodbye to Craig and his family and got on the ferry to the South Island. However, compared to the ferries at home, this was more like a cruise. There were recliner seats, restaurants, a bar, a children's play area, a movie theater, and not to mention beautiful scenery along the way! We arrived to the city of Picton, boarded a bus to Blenheim, our first stop on the SI. After finding beds at The Grapevine Backpackers and meeting our new roommate Luke from England, we all went out to explore Blenheim. We figured out it was a pretty lame small town, but that was ok because we had really stopped here to go wine tasting! The Marlborough region is known for their white wines, and my favorite wine Oyster Bay is made here, so I was super excited to go out and try more NZ wines. The next day we rented bikes, got a map and some directions to some of the good wineries, and started our winery tour. We visited 5 wineries-Villa Maria, Matua, Highfield Estate, Fromm, and Wither Hills. All were good, but our favorites were Villa Maria and Wither Hills. It was a great success for our first bike/wine tour :) Oh and did I mention the tastings were free!!!
After an afternoon of wine tasting, we bused it to the city of Nelson. Nelson is at the edge of the Abel Tasman National Park, which we had heard was amazing. We arrived into Nelson around 8pm and had our first experience with not being able to find a hostel. Our bus driver was kind enough to call around for us and found us (and our friend Luke) 3 beds at Paradiso Hostel. They only had 3 beds in different rooms and for the first time in over 3 months, Toriann and I didn't sleep in the same room, crazy! But, somehow we managed :) We found that Nelson was another city that closed up very early and after settling into our hostel, we went for a wander into Burger King, as it was the only place still open (at like, 10pm). The hostel itself was pretty cool, complete with a pool, hot tub, volleyball court, and large busy kitchen which offered free soup at dinner time.
The next morning, bright and early, we headed out to the Abel Tasman for a full day of hiking and kayaking. We rode the water taxi to our first stop at Bark Bay Beach with scenic stops at Split Apple rock and Pinnacle Island. From Bark Bay, we hiked for 3 hours or so along the coast to Torrent Bay. We had heard the sand flies were bad at these beaches, so I had decided to try out our all natural 'jungle juice' that we purchased from a man in Panama. He had claimed that this magic 'jungle juice' was mosquito and sand fly repellent, relief from insect and stingray bites, sunscreen, could be poured in your ear for ear infections, and...and, could cure melanoma cancer if applied properly. Sounded good to us, so I generously applied it to my legs. After hiking for a bit, I realized that although I was not getting bit (but neither was Toriann), I had heaps of dead sand flies stuck to my legs. I'm not sure if I would consider the 'jungle juice' a success or not... Back to Abel Tasman, after enjoying Torrent Bay beach, the water taxi picked us up and delivered us to Watering Cove, where we had a picnic lunch of veggie sandwiches and banana chocolate muffins (so good!). We met our kayak instructor, had a crash course on kayaking, and headed out to sea. We first kayaked to a small island that often has seals. We saw one seal and he swam right up next to the boat. It was really cool, but a lot of work to see him...because, we then had to turn into the wind and paddle back to the coast. Toriann and I were taking our time, but apparently we were too slow and our guide decided we should be towed by the boys boat. So, the strong men helped pull Toriann and I to safety, and then we continued on down the coast back to Marahau, where the whole day had originally started. We figured out that maybe we had been a wee bit slow because we rolled in about 1 1/2 late. Luckily, the bus had been kind enough to wait for us, and drove us home to Nelson!
Our next day in Nelson, we debated whether or not to go skydiving. We both had been going back and forth for days, and ended up deciding against it. However our good friend Luke decided to do it for his birthday and ended up loving it although i am not sure he would do it again... ooh well maybe next time. We instead had a leisurely day in the city and caught up on life (whatever that means...)
Our days of traveling before having to be in Christchurch to start work on the farm were very few, so the next day we left Nelson and 9 hours later arrived in Franz Joseph. The buses here are great, they pick you up and drop you off at your hostel, and they provide tea and lunch stops. One of our stops was at Punakaiki, where they have 35 million-year-old pancake rocks, created by the waves pounding on the limestone and mudstone cliffs. The rocks are beautiful, unique twisted formations with the gorgeous west coast in the backdrop. It was definitely a worth while bus stop! Sure made us hungry for pancakes:) Franz Joseph is a town based around the Franz Joseph Glacier, one of NZs most famous glaciers. The climate is really unique because the glacier is surrounded by rain forest. We did a half day hike, through the valley leading up to the glacier and then up onto the ice. We were fully suited up with warm gear and crampons, and we had an excellent guide from Delaware. The walk on the ice was really awesome, up and down steep staircases of ice, through a naturally carved tunnel, and through a very, very narrow crevasse. We spent the remainder of the day, hot tubing, staying warm, and enjoying the scenery of the town.
And that completed our speed tour of the South Island, from FJ glacier, we did another long bus journey to Christchurch. Next adventure in NZ, WOOFing...

New Zealand #1: North Island

Truth be told we have just a few days left here in Kiwi land and have yet to blog about our weeks. Here is a quick run down of how these next few blogs will go...we spent a week in the north island, a week in the south island and our last week here WOOFing on the farm. First thing first let me tell you about the north island. We arrived in Auckland and Heathers high school friend picked us up from the airport and took us back to her house. Sarah and her husband Ken moved to Auckland, NZ a little over a year ago and offered to let us stay with them once they knew we were coming. Once we unpacked, Sarah took us out for a bite to eat and showed us around Auckland. We ate lunch down by the beach, shopped, and just roamed the streets near where she lived. Sadly we missed "thanksgiving dinner" which Sarah and Ken had enjoyed with some other American friends the night before we arrived, but as usual their were left overs which Heather greatly enjoyed. Before leaving Auckland, Ken drove us to Mount Eden, a view point (and extinct volcano crater) where you can see most if not all of Auckland city and its various volcano's. Afterwards he dropped us off near Parnell street where Heather and I then proceeded to walk the streets and see downtown Auckland. Parnell street/neighborhood is Auckland upscale neighborhood filled with boutique shops and Victorian homes. Not interested in the boutiques, Heather and I sat at a little chocolate shop and enjoyed a Flat White (NZ way of saying a latte) and a maple chocolate cake. Oh so good. Its great being back to western foods. After our sugar and coffee fix we proceeded on our tour through Auckland and visited the Auckland Domain (park), Auckland University, Albert park, Auckland Art Gallery, and the Waterfront. Aside from the many parks all of which I loved, the art gallery was great because it was free and had some interesting art on display.
Since time is precious we hoped on a bus early the next morning and headed to Rotorua to see the geysers and take in the oh so delicious sulfur air...or should i say the rotten hard boiled egg smell which makes you want to vomit. Luckily you only get the egg smell when the air blows it in your direction. The hostel we stayed in suggested to go and visit Te Puia a Te Whakarewarewa (Maori word) thermal reserve and Maori Cultural Center. Our visit was great because we got to see nature and culture in one. Our guide who is a Maori gave us a brief history lesson on the geysers and then showed us and told us about the Maori carving and weaving schools which they have there. We also visited the Kiwi house where we saw one kiwi moving around. did you know that kiwi's cannot fly and are nocturnal...i didn't until she told us...very interesting. After our tour around the grounds and our visit to the boiling mud pools and geysers we saw the Maori's perform some of their dances. The show lasted about 30 min. and it was all very interesting and beautiful but the part we most liked was the warrior dance. The men perform this and while dancing, they hit themselves on their chest, arms and legs and make their eyes freaky big and stick out their tongue. Oh so strange looking, but it is their traditional warrior face and you will see it carved into most wood carvings.
Disgusted by the smell, it was time to travel to our next stop which was Taupo to do the Tongariro Crossing. Upon our arrival into Taupo we made friends with Grant from Aussy. The three of us stayed in the same hostel and since we had some time left in the day we all ventured out for a quick hike to Huka Falls. Along the way we stumbled upon this spot were hot thermal water spills out into the Walkato River. Bummed that we didn't have our swimsuits we continued walking to the falls. The falls were beautiful with its blue/green water. Interesting enough it dumps enough water every second to fill two Olympic size swimming pools...crazy huh... also Taupo uses this fall as a hydro electric power station. Exhausted from traveling and our little hike we crashed early to rest up for our upcoming 20k hike. Since we are short on time we opted to do the day hike instead of the three day circuit around Tongariro. The bus picked us up at 6:20am and drove us out to where the hike begins. The fist part of the hike is up these steep steps called the devil stairs but once your at the top it dumps you at the bottom of Mt Ngauruhoe and Mt. Tongariro. Continuing on our way, some of the guys we were hiking with decided to climb the volcanic rock path up to the top of Ngauruhoe summit. Heather, Dino and myself continued walking on the path crossing the south crater, red crater and then up Tangariro summit. The view was amazing. We were able to see so much with the weather being so perfect. Once we descended down the summit, we stopped for our tomato and avocado sandwich lunch break. After refueling we passed the emerald lakes, central crater, blue lake, north crater and then proceeded along the never ending path to the finish point. The first half of the crossing was amazing and we saw so much, but the last half was long with switch backs down the mountain side and through the forest. I thought the end would never come but at last it did were we meet up with the rest of the gang and waited for the bus back to town. We made it back to our hostel, but since we were taking the overnight bus to Wellington, we had checked out and in essence were homeless for the evening. The hostel offered to let us use the showers for $10, but to save money we decided we would head back to the spot where the thermal water flowed into the river to bath. It ended up being a party with our new hiking friends, Grant, Carle, Ben and Dino. We all enjoyed soaking our sore muscles in the hot water with beers and music provided by Ben and Grant. It was the perfect end to a long day of hiking! After our party at the river, we went out for dinner and drinks to pass the time till our 1 am bus came and picked us up to take us to Wellington.
Last stop in the north island, Wellington, to visit our dear friend Craig whom we traveled with in Central America for a month. When we arrived we were tired yet excited to see Craig. He picked us up and took us in for the next few days. The kind man that Craig is, he drove us to two view points- Mt. Victoria, where we saw the panoramic views of the harbor, and the Carter Observatory, which has a great view of the city and its hills. We also visited the Botanic Gardens and took in all the wonderful smells of the roses. Oh so beautiful with its various colors and what delicious smells they each had. We loved it.
Craig is a sailor and works as a sailing instructor. On Fridays evenings they have sailing races and Craig happened to be taking out his current class, so he invited us on the boat to tag along. Unfortunately, many hours into the race, the race was sadly canceled do to no wind...bummer. Craig had to dock the boat at a different dock so he asked us to drive the car over. Nervous yet excited to drive I got to experience what it feels like to drive on the left hand side of the road. Lets just say it feels strange and a bit scary, but no worries we made it safely and with no near crashes.
For our second day in Wellington, Craig and his dad dropped us off at the New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa Museum, while they went sailing. The Museum was great for many reasons- first, it was free, but it also had interactive exhibits on NZ land, history and culture. It was very child friendly which is probably why we liked it, it kept us entertained. Later Craig took us off roading along the beautiful beach coast which was fun yet a bit car sickening. The coast was amazing with secluded beaches with bright turquoise water that was so clear you could see the bottom in parts!
To end our time in the north we sat down with Craig's family and enjoyed a delicious family dinner. Oh how wonderful it is to be in a house verses a hostel. Well that was our quick trip through the north...now we are just a ferry boat away from the south.

Inka Trail to Machu Picchu...

After leaving Huancayo, Tino, and the kids, we set off for our next adventure-hiking Machu Picchu! We took the bus back to Lima, where we were determined to keep ourselves busy until our flight left at 5 am the next morning, without getting a hostel! We found a hostel that was kind enough to store our belongings and we managed to entertain ourselves until we headed to the airport at 3:30 the next morning! On the flight to Cusco, Toriann began to feel sick and by the time we had settled into our hostel, she had full blown stomach flu. This was more than concerning as we were about to set off on a 4 day hiking trip!! But, after some rest, meds and TLC, the next morning Toriann was feeling good enough, thankfully, to pack and start the Inca Trail!!
And so, we were off. We met our guides, Juan Carlos and John Carlos, our 10 porters, and the rest of our group-2 Canadians and 5 Slovenians at 6:30am and bused to Piskacucho. We hiked about 1 1/2 hr until we stopped for lunch, where I began to feel sick...uhhh. But luckily it wasn't our toughest day and we both made it to our camp site for the night at Wayllabamba. The porters are amazing, they not only carried all the gear, they also went ahead and set up camp, cooked the meals, and then cleaned up. The average career of a porter only lasts 2 years because it is such strenuous work, but the oldest known porter is 77!!
The second morning we woke up at 5am and forced down breakfast because we were heading into our hardest day of hiking. We hiked from 7 am to 2 pm straight up the trail to the Dead Woman's Pass, 12,000 fasl. It was incredible...the scenery breathtaking! They told us, take your time, dont go too fast, and fast is definitely not how I would describe how we made it up...we would go for about 2 minutes before we had to stop and take a break. But, we made it to the top of the pass, had a bag of skittles to celebrate and then prepared for the next 2 hours. The last 2.5 kms were down winding steep steps across the valley into our 2nd camp. To celebrate completing the hardest day we had popcorn at tea time! (Other than the popcorn, the food on our whole trek was below average!)
The third day was the longest, 15 km, but easier and more interesting than the 2nd day. We stopped at several ruin sites along the way and Juan Carlos was a wealth of information regarding the Inca buildings. The final camp site was buzzing when we arrived, full of tired, but excited hikers to be so close to MP...and also for the showers and beers!! We got the chance to clean up and relax a bit (still not eat much!) before sleeping a bit before getting up at 4 am to walk the last 2 hours before reaching MP. The last morning was a race! Noone wanted to be passed, and although it was only an hour to reach the Sun Gate, we worked up a sweat. Our first view of MP was quick, before the clouds covered it completely. But as we hiked down from the Sun Gate, the clouds lifted, the sun appeared, and we saw MP! The ruins are ridiculous, the best we have seen of the many ruins site we have visited, and are 80% original. After taking our pictures off the famous viewpoint rock, Juan Carlos gave us a 1 1/2 tour.
After the tour, the group was meeting in Aquas Calientes town to have lunch and visit the therapeutic hot springs. Our options to get there were either, one, take a $7 bus or two, walk another hour and twenty minutes down steep steps. Toriann and I, being on a budget, somehow made it down the steps to the town and arrived after the rest of the group had just finished eating lunch. But we had lunch, did the hot springs, and finally, got on the train to return to Cusco. Needless to say, when we arrived back at our hostel, we were wiped.
We packed, slept, and got up early the next morning to fly back to Lima! We spent the next day in Lima, seeing the sights, enjoying the city until our flight left for Buenos Aires at 12am. We then had a red eye flight to Buenos Aires and spent the next 15 hours in the airport, still exhausted from sickness, hiking and traveling. But at last, we boarded our last flight to get to Auckland, New Zealand-only 13.4 hours to go! The flight actually went by fairly fast, which was amazing, because Argentina Airlines was HORRIBLE. They only played 1 movie and fed us 2 very small meals...crazy.
It is hard to believe that we are saying good bye to Latin America. It has been a remarkable first 3 months of our trip. We have met amazing people, done and seen great things, and learned so much, about the culture, the people, and about ourselves.
Love, having no geography, knows no boundaries.
-Truman Capote

Tinkuy Peru

...We are on the third floor of a cement building-house, overlooking the poorest neighborhood of Huancayo, Peru. The desert highlands are in the distance and the weather cannot decide if it wants to be hot or freezing cold. It seems to change every minute. We are in a classroom filled with Peruvian kids from the neighborhood as well as Tino, the founder of Tinkuy Peru. Tino, the most accomplished weaver in Peru, decided five years ago that he needed to help the poor in his community. Tino has traveled to the US to display his artwork and weavings at prominent art shows, and he also has a weaving hanging in the National Geographic headquarters. By Peruvian standards, Tino is very successful, lives in a large home that he shares with about 10 family members, 2 young girls without families, and the volunteers that come from all over the world to work at the school...
Since we arrived we have been able to do some exploring around Huancayo. Mabel took us to visit a ruin sight that was owned by the Huancas, which is how this citys name came about. We walked through a little museum explaining the history of the Huancas, as well as other neighboring tribes. Then we visited the ruin sight just outside the museum where we saw how the Huancas lived and learned about there practices and beliefs. All very similar to other indigenous tribes, but never the less interesting to see. On Sunday, Huancayo has the largest Sunday Market in Peru, which sells many local arts and crafts, as well as wool or alpaca clothing. We both just fell in love with the warm sweaters, socks, gloves, and hats. The material is just so warm and cuddly it was hard to resist buying it all. At least we have stocked up a bit for our intense and possibly very cold Machu Picchu hike coming up in a few days. During our roam around Huancayo after the market we noticed lots of people selling Turron which is a famous Peruvian cake. Come to find out this cake is only made during the month of October, also know as the purple month, for their celebration of El Señor de los Milagros (Lord of Miracles). During this month they hold a large procession where people from the church carry a big figure of the Lord of Miracles around the streets till very early in the morning. Fortunately for us we were able to see this procession happen. The most interesting thing of all is that various people of Huancayo create these elaborate drawings and then draw them on the gowned of the path the procession will take. They draw the picture out with chalk and then fill it in with colored dirt or flower peddles. When it is done it looked like carpet, it was amazing. I had never seen anything like it before. I am glad that Marie, Gloria and Mabel took us out to share the experience with us. Everyone here is so nice and hospitable they are such wonderful people.
Enough about Huancayo let me tell you about our time here in Tinkuy Peru... Everyday both Heather and I get up in the morning eat breakfast and head out for our 20 minute walk to the mountains where we teach orphans and poor children who can not afford to buy school books and uniforms to attend public schools. Our first day was pretty relaxed because Brian and Judd, two other volunteers came with us and showed us the ropes. It was their last day so we had a little party in the afternoon and everyone was very sad to say good bye. As for the rest of the week, Heather and I were solo with the help of Tino, Mabel and Marie. In the mornings I taught a kindergarten/first grade class. We went over the names of body parts, food categories, shapes and colors and counting syllables. Heather taught English verbs to middle school aged children in preparation for there big verb test. Lets hope they do well since they had some 100+ verbs to learn. Once morning class was over we all headed home for lunch and then meet up again for the afternoon class. Our afternoons are much fuller then the morning, not sure why. For the afternoon, I taught English and math to 4,5 and 6th graders and Heather taught math to the junior highers. Lets just say, both Heather and I had to do some review on fractions and angles before teaching them to the class since it has been a while. Luckily it went smoothly even though we were a bit nervious. Our week here has gone by incredibly fast and we are both sad to have to say good bye tomorrow to all the children. Having come to realize how much the volunteers mean here I wish we had a month or more to stay and work with all the children. The investment Tino has put into the children and school is just amazing and such a wonderful thing for each one of these children. All the children are so excited to come to school everyday and just love being around the volunteers, Tino, and his family. If after reading about our experience here touched you at all we kindly ask that this christmas you donate a few dollars to Tinkuy Peru. You can visit the website by clicking on the link just left of the blog titled "Tinkuy Peru" where you can read more about Tinos plans for the future. Tino not only deals with the day to day happenings of the school, but he also has incredible hopes for the future of these children. Education is the number one most important way to change the future and this is exactly what Tino is working towards. Also if you ever care to travel down to Peru and want to volunteer we would highly recommend volunteering here in Huancayo with Tinkuy Peru.
I hope this blog has found each of you well. Our thoughts are with all of you as election time nears. We will be in mid hike up to Macchu Picchu but will await the results when we get back. May the best man win. Adios for now.

Ecuador, the best and the rest.

Our last week in Ecuador has flown by! We got back from the jungle and after some laundry and showering, we made the most of our remaining time in Ecuador. We spent one last night in Banos before getting on the bus to head to Mindo, a small city north of Quito. It turned out to be a long travel day,7 hours to Mindo. We also learned our lesson about the bus, even after many warnings about how dangerous it is, we still managed to get robbed. On the bus right outside of Quito, a couple of guys reached under Torianns seat and took her Zune and sunglasses! Irritating to say the least! But we managed to make it to Mindo, even if in terrible spirits. We checked into a ´recommended´ hostel, which was basically some guy named Juan's house, haha. It definitely had a special aroma, but we were too tired to look around town for something different. After checking in, we headed off to explore and as soon as we turned the corner, we were greeted by 3 of our friends from the Galapagos, Nick, Charlotte and Brad plus a friend of Brads that had just arrived from Texas. It was the best feeling, to come to a city and be greeted by friendly faces! It was what we needed to cheer us up! We vented to them about the frustrations of our day, and funny enough, Nick had had his Ipod stolen in Quito as well! That made 3 of us that had lost our Ipods in 3 days. Crazy. But life goes on, and so must we... Charlotte, an avid frog lover, convinced us to go to an evening ´Frog Concert¨. We were a little weary of what a frog concert would entail, but it included a glass of wine, so we decided to go. It turned out to be pretty cool. It was basically a man, who loved frogs, that had created a beautiful garden with a huge pond that had attracted 18 different species of frogs and toads. While we drank our wine, he played the noises that the frogs made and the frogs would sing back. We then, armed with our flashlights, wondered around the grounds to look for frogs. We did not see a ton of frogs but it was pretty cool when we did. Needless to say, if you are ever in Mindo, we would recommend the frog concert.
Afterwards, we headed to an organic restaurant near their hostel that had just opened. We met Zac, a peacecore from Texas (so many Texans in Ecuador!), that was friendly and extremely helpful in planning our next day in Mindo. Zac had originally come down to Ecuador to work with coffee, but the Peacecore had transferred him to Mindo to help kids learn how to sell chickens door to door, apparently a new project for them. Somehow, I don't remember the details, he is now managing a restaurant. After brownies and ice cream, we headed back to Juans house to get some sleep.
The next morning, we met up with the gang and caught a taxi truck to the waterfall Nambilla. My family, when they had come to Ecuador, visited this waterfall, which also has a water slide, and they highly recommended it. Quote from my mom, ¨don't worry, you may think you are going to die, but you wont!¨ The water slide, which actually did not look so bad, for Latin American standards, almost killed Brad. He thought he should lie down in order to go faster, but the slide was pretty fast itself. He flipped over the side before getting all the way to the bottom and almost landed on a boulder in the river. After that, everyone was pretty nervous to go down but we all did it! None of us did get up the courage to jump off the waterfall though...but, you have to leave somethings for next time, right :) After the waterfall, water park adventure, we decided since we were already freezing and wet to go tubing. Tubing turned out to almost be more intense than rafting, going down rapids on 6 tubes tied together with guides pushing us through.
Toriann and I had originally planned on leaving back to Quito that afternoon, but for a couple of reasons and to extend our time with friends, we decided to stay one more night. We hung out at the hostel and cooked a delicious steak dinner.
In the morning we took an early bus, well, semi early, since we decided to have the pancakes again at the organic restaurant (and i don't even like pancakes!), and rode to Minda del Mundo, the equator. We somehow got into the main compound with paying, but after taking a quick picture, we wondered over to the alternative´ museum that is apparently on the real equator. The story is that the Incas had found the real equator, but the French came and said that was wrong and moved it. GPS now shows that the Incas were correct and the museum on the actual equator is really cool, although some skeptics don't believe the tricks they show you, such as balancing an egg or water falling straight the drain.
After the museum, we got back on a bus and found our way to the Quito airport. It was really bittersweet leaving Ecuador. We both felt our time was too short here and really enjoyed everywhere we went. However, we are on our way to Peru to volunteer and hike the Inca trail, so we cannot be sad for too long!

The Jungle

Well, we have been traveling in Ecuador, or should i say the Galapagos for a week, and since then we traveled down south of Quito to a town called Baños, which is a few hours outside of the jungle. On our first day here we decided to do a little hike which ended up lasting about three hours. From the town you can hike up to this cross which also gives you an amazing view of the town. Once we made it up the steep mountain side which we were guided by this nice Ecuadorian man named Yofred. He told us we could follow the path to a town called Rundun which would take us in a loop and then lead us back to Baños. Hesitant because of the intensity of the first part, we were not sure if we wanted to but since we had spent the past two days traveling on the plane and bus we thought it best to get some exercise. The hike was a bit off the beaten path and we had some moments when we thought we were lost but in the end we made it to Rundun and saw the Volcano Tungurahua. From Rundun, we just hiked down the mountain following the sighs pointing to Baños. Exhausted from the hike we made dinner at our hostel and met some others cooking as well. They told us about some of their adventures and sold us on going white water rafting. They set us up with one of the hostel workers who also worked for a tourist company and before we knew it we booked our rafting trip as well as a three day, two night trip in the Jungle. That's right.... we went into the jungle and stayed with a Quicha indigenous community. Before i tell you about it, let me just say the rafting part was loads of fun. We did a class 3,4 and fortunatly no one fell out which was good. The rapids were intense and the trip went by so fast. Back to our jungle experience, right after rafting we left for the jungle and arrived to the community around 5pm. Our first night was relaxing. We played with the children, helped prepare dinner and just chatted with the Quichua family. This community has about 58 people living hear and they are all from one family. Our guide, Delfin, was the son of the grandfather in the community and he has 17 brothers and sisters. For our next two days Delfin took us on sever hikes through the jungle showing us different plants and fruits that grown here in the jungle. Our fist hike was to this look out point and along the way he made us crowns out of palm leaves, a basket/side bag out of branches as well as painted our faces with some red seed paint. That after noon the family did a traditional dance for us which we ended up participating in. After the dance Delfin took us fishing which was interesting. His technique for fishing is to get the fish drunk so they swim to the surface and then catch them. Apparently there is a this root from a plant that you smash open and when you put it in the water the fish drink the fluid that comes out of the root and it gets them drunk. We, or should I say Delfin and the three kids that were with us, caught about 15 hand size fish. Heather and I tried but were not very good at keeping the fish in our hands. Most often they would fling out and the children would then catch the fish. Over all the experience was interesting and different but i have to say we were not such a fan of fishing. For our last day we got up and headed for a more intense hike that we thought would never end to visit a lagoon and a little waterfall. In the lagoon we saw one cayman which is a little crocodile. I had never heard of them before but from the picture it looks like a crocodile. After the hike through the jungle were we walked through many spider webs, slipped down some of the muddy paths, walked through a little river, as well as tarzan swung to the other side of the hill we arrived back to the house/hut and relaxed before eating lunch. After lunch we packed our bags and said good bye to everyone. Our three days went by fast and i have to say it was sad to have to say good bye. Living in the jungle is hard with the bugs and most everything being very unsanitary but never the less i admire those who live with out electricity and very little belongings. Well we are back here in Baños for the night and then we hope to make it to Mindu for a few days before we leave for Lima, Peru. Our time here in Ecuador has been amazing and has gone by so fast. Its such a different feel traveling on our own with out a leader and just making decisions about what to do and where to go on the spot and at times very last minute. Plus we have meet so many nice people in the hostels as well as from our boat excursion in the Galapagos. We have come to realize that there are many people like ourselves who have taken this moment in there lives to spend some time traveling the world and seeing what life outside their own has to offer. I hope all is well at home, we are thinking about all of you lots as election time nears. Feel free to keep us posted on the economy and politics since its far and few times in between that we catch any news.

Life in the Galapagos!

Sorry we haven't written for so long! We have been so busy, we have not had a chance to write... We flew to Ecuador after writing the last entry, left the next day for the Galapagos for a week, flew back to Quito (after getting delayed for 6 hours) and after dinner in Quito, the power went out in our neighborhood, and we have been on the road and in the jungle ever since!! Sorry it is so long, but we have a lot to tell...read on...love, Heather and Toriann
Galapagos
We had not even considered the possibility of going to the Galapagos Islands while in Ecuador, but we were slowly persuaded by some friends we met in Central America, Nick and Charlotte. They flew down to Quito a day earlier, and searched the city for the best deal. We flew down last Friday and as soon as we dropped our stuff off at the hostel, we headed to their hostel to find them. Before we even arrived, we saw Nick running down the street, saying ¨we found the best deal, you have 10 minutes to decide!¨ After a few panicky moments of how much this was going to blow our budget, we decided to go for it!
Words cannot explain the Galapagos. I don't know what I was expecting, but I was surprised by the vast desert that we landed in. We signed up for a 5 day, 4 night boat trip, so we were met at the airport by Freddy, our driver. Freddy led us down from the airport, which is at the north end of Santa Cruz island down to Porta Ayora at the southern tip. We had lunch with Nick, Charlotte and an American couple that were also joining us on the boat. Our first stop after lunch was the Charles Darwin Center, where we learned a bit about the history of the islands and saw our first batch of GIANT tortoises. We got to see the famous Lonely George, the last tortoise of his subspecies. He is like, 150 years old and for a long time he wouldn't mate...but, good news, he has 2 eggs! (He was bred with the closest genetic subspecies). We couldn't find the albino tortoise that supposedly lives somewhere in the center, apparently no one had heard of him but us :). These tortoises are amazing, they seem almost dinosaur like. Apparently Steven Spielberg came here and based the movie ET off these amazing creatures!
After cruising through the CD center, we boarded the boat we would spend the next 4 days on. In a marina filled with huge yachts, we pulled right up to a pirate ship! The ship was small, there were only 12 of us on board plus the crew, and it was built in 1901. Although it was cramped and at times I thought we were going to tip over or I was going to fall out of my bunk, it proved to be a great ship. And our group was really nice as well, our guide told us this was the first group he had had in a while that was under 60!
Over the next 4 days we visited Floreana, Isabella, and Santa Cruz Island. We snorkeled just about everyday, and it was so different than any other snorkeling I have done! It was cold and we would go out in place with fairly strong currents, so you really had to work to one, stay warm, and two, try and stay with the group. But, when you saw something, it was breathtaking, amazing, surreal! We saw huge sea turtles, sting rays, manta rays, parrot fish and tons of other amazingly colorful fish!! My favorite thing was that all over all the islands, there were sea lions! And you could get so close to them, you just wanted to pet them! A couple of times while snorkeling, the sea lions would swim by right next to you! It was so great, if I could take home any animal, it would definitely be a baby sea lion :) orr, orr!
Besides snorkeling, we saw a lot of the islands, and the climates alone were unique. We did a horse back riding trip up Volcano Sierra Negro, and when we started, it was lush and green, cold and cloudy. As we rode, it suddenly changed to dessert where it just proceeded to get hotter and hotter. We saw the huge crater, where it the volcano had last erupted in 2005, eh! We then hiked further to Volcano Chico, where the land was desolate, covered in volcanic rock and cactus's. We also hiked across another beach where in a small cove, we saw about 15 white tip sharks resting. On that particular beach, you could hardly step without seeing a huge mound of marine iguanas. They were everywhere, and definitely not as cute as the sea lions. They spit constantly to get rid of the salt they swallow while feeding in the ocean. They are the only breed of iguanas to feed underwater. Unfortunately, we never got to see any of them underwater but we saw more than plenty on the beaches!
Apparently tortoises (and their conservation) are really important to the Galapagos. Other than the Charles Darwin center, we visited a tortoise farm, a tortoise breeding center, and a national park filled with tortoises in their natural environment. Needless to say, I have a lot of pictures of tortoises!! The best sighting was while we were driving into the national park and there was a huge tortoise in the road. It was up to our guide to try and move him, which he did unsuccessfully for a bit, but we eventually just drove around him.
Our boat trip ended on Wednesday and we got off and headed back to Puerto Ayora. We got off the boat, and set off to find a place to stay and sign up to dive the next day! The lodging was fairly expensive, 10 dollars with no hot water, boo!, but we found a great dive shop! We signed up to dive the next day and asked the lady if she knew of any cheaper places to stay. She said, uh, my house...she apparently rents out a room, but her sister in law was also out of town, so we stayed in her house for very cheap! It was really cool because we were out of the touristy part of town and back in the neighborhoods. We found amazing street food and got to see how Galapageans live.
The next day we went diving...I (Heather), was SOO nervous. The diving in the Galapagos is supposed to be amazing, some of the best in the world, but also fairly intense! But, with Toriann at my side (and a dive master!), we went down in our full wet suits, hood and all, and it was amazing! By the time we finished our second dive, I did not want it to be over and can not wait for the next opportunity we get to go! We did two dives, the first one we saw sea lions, a sea turtle, more amazing fish, eel gardens, and the shadow of a black tip shark! The second dive we saw all of the same but also got about 10 ft from a sleeping white tip shark and passed by 2 hammerhead sharks (we missed seeing them by about 15 seconds!!)
Overall, the Galapagos was super cool and once in a lifetime! One of the girls on our ship had been there 15 years earlier and she said it is not the same place as it was then. They are doing a lot of conservation and protection for the plants and animals, but some of the damage done is irreversible. Invasive species, both plants and animals, continue to endanger the endemic species that make the Galapagos so special. Hopefully, the work that is being done will continue to be successful and the Galapagos will an amazing place for decades to come!
Here is the link to some of our pictures...too many to put in a slide show!

heather

Together we can-Curundu!

Hola! We have spent the past two days living the life of our friend Rachel. Rachel moved to Panama to be a teacher, and this year has moved from being a teacher at an international school to working at a community center in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Panama City- Curundu. We spent two days at the center, one day teaching Bible, the next teaching English. It is 'tranquilo', very laid back, kids coming in and out, and amazing teachers and volunteers who oversee it all! The kids are soo cute, and so well behaved! Today, their school was cancelled (school is apparently sporadic, kids often released early or teachers just cancel classes) so there was 40 kids there for the morning session! The center is small, 2 rooms, a patio, and kitchen, but the kids are respectful and have a great time despite the cramped spaces. The kids get breakfast and lunch, all made at the center. Rachel is amazing, connecting with the kids who have so little, giving them something to look foward to in their day to day life. She has such a heart for the children of Latin America and it definitly shows through her work. The first morning we were there, we got to walk back further into the neighborhoods to visit a new baby. Even while we walked back, we were warned...'you know its dangerous back there'. The houses were built on stilts over basically a swamp filled with garbage. It was dirty, and although I did not feel threatened or nervous, apparently the local gangs war with each other, thus making the area very dangerous. It breaks my heart to think that most likely the 11 and 12 year old boys at the center will soon (or already have) drop out of school and be pulled into the gangs.
Thank you Rachel for allowing us to be a part of your life for a few days, letting us crash on your air mattress, and showing us a different side of Panama!
Below are pictures of Paradise Gardens, El Valle, Playa Palmar, Panama City and Curundu...Enjoy!

Panama...

Good bye GAP. We are here in Panama City and have just said good bye to the four girls we have been traveling with since Mexico City, as well as the rest of the group and our leader Micheal. Its hard to believe that we have crossed six boarders, visited seven countries, and have been traveling for two months. We have seen so much and meet so many people, yet it feels like we are just starting our travels after saying good bye to the group.
This past week has been slower but, we have seen and enjoyed each place we visited. From Bocas del Toro we traveled to Boquete where we stayed at a cozy hotel which had the feel of a hostel- communal kitchen, TV room, and balcony. The best thing about Boquete, and maybe our whole trip was our visits to a place called Paradise Gardens. A couple from England retired in Boquete and brought with them a few Macaws that they owned in England. Since moving to Panama, their home has turned into a rehabilitation house where threatened, poorly cared for and/or abused animals are taken in, cared for and then, if possible released back into their natural habitat. Paul and his wife Debbie showed us all the animals and told us the stories of how they ended up here. Some of the few animals they have or once had in there home are geoffroys, tamarins, kinkajou, margay, sloth, tucans, macaws, monkeys and much more. During our visit we were able to feed Niki the kinkajou a banana, pet the margay, scratch/pet and hold Precious the scarlet macaw, go inside the cage of the white faced monkeys and play with Billy and Montey, hold Tember the 3 month old sloth and talk with the birds. Our fist visit was great and we loved it so much we decided to go back the next day and it was just as a amazing. Its so great to see Paul and Debbie be so welcoming to what was unspokenly set out before them. Their plan was to retire, have a beautiful garden and butterfuly house, but instead they have spent the last three years creating Paradise Gardens. The have already helped so many animals, and are showing no signs of stopping! They truly love their life and are so thankful to be caring for the animals! The volunteers we met who help them really seemed to enjoy their work as well. One of the girls from our GAP tour is actually heading back to spend another week volunteering there. They are working on their website right now, but if anyone is looking for a great place to contribute to the environment and play with animals, we have their contact info! If time had elated Heather and I both would love to have stayed and volunteer but sadly we had to continue on.
From Boquete we traveled our last long day to a town called El Valle. El Valle is a town inside the crater of a volcano. Apparently millions of years ago the volcano erupted and created a crater lake. An earthquake happened and cracked the moutains and the water ran out and now people have been living here for a few hundred years. If living inside a crater isnt strange enough this town is surounded by mountains and the most famous mountain is the Sleeping Indian Girl. The legend goes that when colonizers came to El Valle there was a prince who fell in love with an indian girl. The prince went back to his father to ask if he could marry the girl. The king said no because he was obligated to merry someone of royalty. The indian girl did not like this decision, and then killed herself. According to legend, she now lays in the moutain side wating for her prince to return. Once her prince returns she will wake up and they will live happly ever after. This is just one version of the story there are many more but the outline of the indina girl dose layout on the moutian. During our time here we took a day excursion to a beach town called Pelmar where we learned how to surf and layed out on the beach. Micheal, our guide rented a surf board gave us a little lession and then took us out into the Pacific ocean and attempted to teach us to surf. After a few attempts, both Heather and I succefuly stood up on the board and it was great. Who knows, maybe we will take surf class while we are in Australia to better our skills. Either way, it was loads of fun and it was a great last day at the beach with everyone before our last stop, Panama City.
We started our trip in Mexico City and we are here in Panama City ending it. Panama city has been a great place to end the tour, an amazing city with a rich history. Before saying good bye to everyone Michael took us around town and showed us Casco Viejo, The Canal, and the View Piont. Panama has two down towns- "the new town" which is filled with modern sky rises, and "the old town" which is called Casco Viejo. Casco Viejo has become Panamas historical site where you see vintage buildings, churches, plazas and the first university. It was really interesting to see the contrast of old and new, and take in the impact the canal has had on this city, its people, and the surronding land. The next day we spent the morning at Miraflores Locks- one of the engineering wonders of the world. Toriann and I thought it looked a lot like the Ballard locks (other than it had a HUGE freight going through holding 5000 or so Japanese cars, haha). The Panama canal has been open for 94 years now, and has been hugely successful. It has shaped a large part of Panama Citys history, impacting the people to the politics. The US handed over control in 1999, with many fears about how the Panamanians would handle the switch. But the canal is more efficient than ever, and an expanded portion is currently being built.
So, we are now transitioning to being on our own, being without the group and a guide. We have a few more days in Panama City, staying with Torianns roommate from SPU, Rachel. She has been kind enough to let us stay in her apartment that she shares with 3 other girls! Tomorrow she is going to let us tag along to the community center where she tutors inner city children!
We hope all is well at home!
Much love, Heather and Toriann

Bikes, beaches, bananas and boats

We have completed our time in Costa Rica, our last stop in Puerto Viejo...an old port town, now a Caribbean beach town surrounded by banana plantations. We are on the fourth and final portion of the trip, and we got to spend 3 nights in Puerto Viejo, which was amazing. We spent the first night having dinner at a soda restaurant (a small hole in the wall restaurant, Costa Rican style) having traditional, famous rice and beans. Rice and beans here are made with coconut milk and served with your choice of meat, our favorite was fish with Caribbean sauce...soooo goood! After dinner, we found a place called Bread and Chocolate. Bread and Chocolate was a dangerous place...haha, they served mint brownie sundaes to fried egg sandwiches to homemade bagels..soooo good too!
The next day we rented bikes and rode to a couple nearby beaches-Cocles and Punta Uva, both were beautiful with turquoise water and white sand. We decided to have a survivor challenge and see who could get down a coconut to drink. After some unsuccessful attempts to climb the trees, throw stones and old coconuts, a kind lifeguard lent us a ladder and a knife. We then managed to open it up with just a stone and shared in drinking coconut juice fresh from a coconut. It definitely made me have respect for those people on Survivor!
The following day, our tour leader took us to Cahuita National Park. Cahuita National Park was established in the 1970s to protect the large coral reef just off shore. Unfortantly, the reef is still dying due partially to a large earthquake in 1992, but also from pesticide run off from the large banana plantations. The pesticide causes plankton blooms that block the sunlight and poison the water. These same banana plantation use bags to protect the bananas from bugs. The bags are not properly disposed of and almost always end up in the sea. This is rapidly killing off the turtle population, as the turtles can choke on the bags. To say the least, banana plantations are having a harmful effect on the environment. Chiquita and Dole are two major companies who are taking part in the careless treatment of the environment, and it makes you think twice when buying produce at home. The park itself was beautiful, including rain forests filled with Howler and white-faced Capuchin monkeys, sloths, hawks, and leaf-cutting ants. After exploring the jungle, we visited the beaches that lined Cahuita National Park, which were similar to the beaches from the day before. After spending the day at the park, we headed back to Bread and Chocolate for a late afternoon snack before we had our last plate of rice and beans, so good but sad to have to say goodbye to Costa Rica!
In the morning we crossed our last border in Central America with GAP. We finally arrived in Panama!! Our first stop in Panama is in the district of Bocas del Toro, on Isla Colon, the most developed of the 6 islands in the area. It is an Afro Caribbean island with a small town feel. It was discovered by Columbus, who named it after himself, then left because there was no gold. A few hundred years later, immigrants from Jamiaca and England came to the island, leaving a mixed population of Afro Caribbeans, indigenous tribes, and white people from the mainland. The islands were also commercialized by the United Fruit Company (banana farms now owned by Chiquita, Dole and Del Monte) in the 1900s. Bananas remain one of the major exports of Panama, as well as most countries in Central America.
Our first and only excursion we did on the island was the Catamaran tour. We spent the day relaxing on the boat watching the dolphins swim by and snorkeled in a privately contracted part of the reef. Our first stop was amazing, the water was so clear and the reef was filled with brilliant colors of the rainbow. As for the coral reef its the best we have seen so far. After our relaxing snorkel swim I (Toriann) thought it would be fun to swim to a nearby island to get some exercise. Well in the midst of swimming I felt my body starting the sting and then realized i had swam through a spool of jelly fish. I was not just stung once but about four times. Thus, I decided to swim back. Never being stung by a jelly fish before I was shocked by how bad it hurts. My advice is if you see jelly fish don't then go for a leisurely swim because there inevitably will be more. After the jelly fish encounter, we boarded the boat had amazing sub sandwiches and boated to the second snorkeling spot. Heather and i ventured out to snorkel but still freaked out about the jelly fish I freaked out midway and swam back. Heather, on the other hand was much braver and snorkeled around the beautiful coral reef and enjoyed the colors of the reef and fish. Before we realized the day had past and we were back on the island were we spent the rest of the evening relaxing around town. The Caribbean chill feel has really grown on us and it is sad to have to say good bye.

Nicaragua and Costa Rica

Pura Vida!


We have been in Costa Rica for almost a week now and it has blown me away with how beautiful it is here! After our last stop in Nicaragua, a volcano island called Ometepe, we took a van, ferry, taxi, and bus to cross the border into Costa Rica. Our first destination was Monte Verde, a small town in the jungle filled mountains. It was originally settled in the 1950s by Quakers that escaped the Korean draft in the US. The Quakers started a cheese factory, and the mountains are now filed not only with amazingly rich natural flora and fauna, but also huge black and white dairy cows! Getting up the mountain, you drive along a rough dirt road for about 2 hours, and Toriann said multiple times, I don't know why they don't just pave this road...apparently its a controversial issue and the Quakers oppose it because of the influx of people and pollution it will bring to their area. So, it will probably be a bumpy ride for a while!
The morning after recovering from the trip, we decided to take a ´hike´-its a road, but a very steep one, to the cheese factory. We made it about half way up until it started POURING rain. We were very unprepared and left stranded at a bus stop. Luckily, one of two tuktuks drove by and drove us up the wet, dirt road the rest of the way to the factory. I definitely thought we were going to tip over a few times, but he made it there safely. We had a small tour and an ice cream treat before we realized it was still raining and we had no way down. Amazingly enough, the same tuk tuk showed up to pick up ice cream to deliver to the town, and was nice enough to take us back down the mountain.
After our adventure to the cheese factory, we zip lined in the jungle canopy's. This is a very popular thing to do in Costa Rica, and it was really fun! We zip lined down 14 different lines, the longest one was 70 meters. We also repelled down a tree and swung on the Tarzan swing. Overall, zip lining was really fun and it was a great way to see the mountains from above! It has definitely been one of our favorite activities!
Our next stop after Monte Verde was La Fortuna, a city at the base of Volcano Arenal. (If you haven't noticed, this was the volcano portion of our trip!) We did a tour of the volcano and the guide was SO informative! He told us the history of the volcano, pointed out native plants and wildlife, and was actually able to communicate to the howler monkeys. He sang the song...Who let the monkeys out?, and then we all were supposed the make our best monkey sounds...which was fairly retarded sounding but the monkeys yelled back! It was SO cool!!! Compared to other guides, hmm, the one in Guatemala that got us lost, the guide was a gem! Even though there was more water from the rain than in most of our showers, the tour through the jungle was amazing, soaking wet and all! The people of this area did not know Arenal was an active volcano until it erupted in the 1940s. It is now the most active in Costa Rica. It erupted again in the 1968, destroying the town of Arenal and killed the entire population. The volcano continues to erupt everyday since, and has created a total of 3 craters. Supposedly the volcano erupts every 5-10 minutes and we were able to see it erupt with a fair amount of lava! We went when it was dark and it was incredible to see red lava streaming down the mountain! We were glad to sit in a van and not be too close!
Other than that we had a great time in La Fortuna, we rented bikes and went to a local swimming hole, had amazing local food (Chicken and rice...one of Torianns favorites!), went to a hot spring resort with a crazy water slide and generally took in the sights of Costa Rica! From La Fortuna we ventured to Costa Rica's capital San Jose to say good bye to our third group and welcome our fourth and final group. We have a new tour leader named Micheal and a couple from England. Since being here in San Jose, my old stomping ground, I took Heather on a little adventure around the city. We rode the local buses to my old school where we had lunch with some of my teachers who still work there and chated with the some of the students. After my little reunion we headed into San Jose's main square which has two major pedestrian streets filled with shops. We had chocobananas from a little ice cream shop called POPS and then just roamed the streets. San Jose is very much a busy city, crowded with people and one could easily get lost but luckily i remembered a lot of the city and we were able to walk around without getting lost. Sadly our time here in San Jose is too short and we leave today to visit the Caribbean side of Costa Rica, a town called Puerto Viejo. It should be fun and we have been told that there are some great beaches. So until next time bye, take care and Pura Vida!!!

The voyage of discovery lies not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes
Marcel Proust

Honduras

Copan Ruinas
Copan was such a cute, small city in the midst of the Hondurean mountains. We stopped here for only 1 night, mostly so we could see the last of the major Mayan ruins. But, we have seen so many ruins and we liked the city so much we decided to skip the ruins and spend the afternoon in the city. It was nothing exciting, just fruit smoothies, internet, and a nap, but it was awesome. We are on the go so much on this tour, everyday traveling or going on some adventure and it was great to have a relaxing afternoon! In the evening we walked up to an old jail where we could overlook the whole city and watch the sunset.
A Very Long Day of Traveling to Utila
The next morning we left at 5:45 on a bus to the city of Ceiba, where we would catch a ferry to the island of Utila. The bus made it about 6 hours into the trip and then the engine blew. That left us stranded on the side of the road for about an hour until another bus (mostly full bus!) rescued us. We spend the last 2 hours standing in the isles of that bus until we finally arrived in Ceiba. At the ferry terminal, we learned that they had given away 10 of our 16 ferry tickets. But, our skillful leader hired 2 private boats that whisked us across the sea while the sun was setting-it was SO beautiful! When we were about 100 ft from shore however, we ran over a rope (it was dark at this point), and the boat stuttered to a stop. So there we were, so close, after such a long day, but stuck! We had to have the other boat unload and come and rescue us! It was quite fitting to have a day with a broken bus and a broken boat! But the journey was worth it, the island of Utila was beautiful! The island feels more Caribbean than Honduran, its English speaking, and only a small percentage of the population are actually from Honduras. While most of the group spent their days at the pool or snorkeling, Toriann and I spent a full 2 days getting our PADI certification to scuba dive! It was a time well spent and the dives were amazing, so wished we had an underwater camera to capture all the cool fish, snake, and coral we saw.
Leaving Utila...Entering Nicaragua!
After two full days on the island we sadly left and embarked on two VERY long travel days. The first day was about 12 hours on a boat and bus which got us to Tegucigalpa, the capitol of Honduras. The second day was only 10 hours but by the end we were all ecstatic to be off the bus and in Granada, Nicaragua. Granada is a colonial town and is surrounded by four or five volcanos and Nicaragua's two major lakes. Excited to be here, the next day we decided to do an all day tour around Granada. The day was long but we saw so many famous things in Nicaragua. First we stopped at a small local pottery factory, visited a lookout point were we saw Lake Apoyo, and then proceeded to drive down to the lake to have a little swim and cool off. After we took a dip in the lake, we drove to Masaya market which is Nicaragua's heart of arts and crafts and had lunch and did a bit of shopping. Energized from lunch we visited one of, I'm sure, many prisons Somoza (Nicaraguan dictator) had during his rule. The El Coyotepe jail was built in 1893 and was used to hold political prisoners where they were held in inhuman conditions, tortured and possibly electrical shock. Although it was interesting to see and hearing stories its hard to think that there are individuals who can commit such harsh behaviors, and think that its right and for a good cause. After we left the prison, we ended our day visiting the Masaya Volcano (another active volcanoe!). Our excursion up to Masaya Volcano was much more relaxed then our first one we did in Antigua. We climbed up the mountain side to see the loads of sulfer gas steaming from the active crater. Once it was dark, we could see the glow of the lava at the bottom. The sight from the top was really nice, and once the clouds shifted we could see Lake Managua and Ometepe Island, where we are heading tomorrow. We also trekked into caves, created by flowing lava that hardened. The caves were home to 3 types of bats, all which were flying above our heads.
Independence day in Granada
Today was the celebration of the Central American independence from the Spanish in 1821. The city was pretty dead for being a holiday, we heard there was supposed to be a parade and street parties, but we have yet to see them! Maybe we should leave the internet cafe and go find some holiday festivities...;)
Lots of love from Nicaragua....