Gone Till December

Could write a haiku
But I don't know how many
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brain itches Theme by Adam Holwerda.
Nov
25
We’re home! …but we’re not done telling our stories.  As they come to us, we’ll be posting more, along with pictures.  I don’t know how long we’ll keep this up, but, as you can probably imagine, it’s pretty overwhelming to try to relay all that happend to us during our time on the road.  Stories pop into my mind from time to time that really need to be told.  So keep checking back.  We’ve left a lot out.  We’re going to let you fill in plenty on your own, but we’ll give you a little more structure from time to time.  For instance… Elena mentioned a little while back how great some of our travel companions have been.  Er, had been.  I need to get used to referring to the trip in the past tense.  Whew.  Tough to adjust to being home.  Starting in Ecuador and continuing into Peru, we were lucky enough to hook up with a few people with goals similar to ours: explore the world and have as much fun as possible doing such.  Two Israelis gals and a dude from Belgium (not the start to a bad joke) made being away from home much more fun.  Maya, Sheva, and Hans are great friends that we were lucky enough to share paths with.  They’re great folks, and I hope to see them again soon. We first met in Quito, Ecuador, and parted ways (for now) in Arequipa, Peru.  That’s a lot of kilometers.  And a lot of kababs.

We’re home!

…but we’re not done telling our stories.  As they come to us, we’ll be posting more, along with pictures.  I don’t know how long we’ll keep this up, but, as you can probably imagine, it’s pretty overwhelming to try to relay all that happend to us during our time on the road.  Stories pop into my mind from time to time that really need to be told.  So keep checking back.  We’ve left a lot out.  We’re going to let you fill in plenty on your own, but we’ll give you a little more structure from time to time.  For instance…

Elena mentioned a little while back how great some of our travel companions have been.  Er, had been.  I need to get used to referring to the trip in the past tense.  Whew.  Tough to adjust to being home.  Starting in Ecuador and continuing into Peru, we were lucky enough to hook up with a few people with goals similar to ours: explore the world and have as much fun as possible doing such.  Two Israelis gals and a dude from Belgium (not the start to a bad joke) made being away from home much more fun.  Maya, Sheva, and Hans are great friends that we were lucky enough to share paths with.  They’re great folks, and I hope to see them again soon.

We first met in Quito, Ecuador, and parted ways (for now) in Arequipa, Peru.  That’s a lot of kilometers.  And a lot of kababs.

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Nov
05

In the end, you start to think about the beginning…

It’s been about three and a half months since we left our friends, family, and familiar surroundings behind for this unpredictable adventure.  It’s funny to think back to our first few weeks ‘on the road’.  We lost things, got things stolen, got lost, confused, disoriented, frustrated, lonely, and homesick.  We still do and get those things.  But, to a certain, unexplainable degree, that state of chaos has become more and more comfortable.  Starting out, our eyes were wide and we were ready to swallow the world whole.  Well, we don’t have quite as lofty expectations at this point.  We realize we missed things.  Jungles in Ecuador, ruins in Peru, sea turtles in Costa Rica, drug trafficking in Panama all went unseen.  We skipped the entire country of Colombia.  Reflecting this evening, knowing that tomorrow we begin a four day trek into Machu Piccu, these sights that have gone unseen strike a certain chord with me.  It’s not remorse and it’s not regret….it’s more like return.  We are lucky enough to be young, ambitious, and adventurous.  A trip like this is only the beginning…

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Oct
31

I Can´t Believe it is Halloween Already…

Hola! Wow, our blogging capabilities seem to be failing, sorry about the delay in news. Since our last post, we have seen many different towns, including a new country! We made it to Peru after a long night bus. Luckily we landed in a quiet beach town, Mancora, and caught up on our sleep. We had been itching to go to a town called Huaraz which was about 18 hours from Mancora. We split the trip up by stopping in Huanchaco, another beach town, but very small and much colder. Our hostel had two turtles and we learned a card game in Dutch! You really never know what can happen in a day.

After Huanchaco, we took an eight hour ride to Huaraz, the much talked about mountain town of Peru. And it has a right to be! The surrounding mountain ranges are amazing; 22 peaks, second highest range to the Himalayas. They were stunning. (Pictures coming soon). We were welcomed warmly at six in the morning by Teo, who works at Caroline Lodging, our shelter for a week. We hiked to a lagoon called Churup with Maya and Sheva, our Israeli buddies. There are pictures of it on our Photo Bucket account, please peak. We also had the hilarious opportunity to go rock climbing! Our guide, Freddy, spoke about twenty words the whole time. The shoes were painful, but the climbing was really fun. Something out of the ordinary for us. It felt good to use our hands instead of our weary feet. There is a popular hike called the Santa Cruz Trek near Huaraz which takes three nights and four days to complete. We had it all set up to leave but Garrison turned up with a fever the night before! For that reason, we spent the next three days wathcing movies and drinking plenty of tea. We were able to make connections with Heikel, a very sweet German man among many many others who were quick to offer any medicine they had for Gar. A nice surprise to end his sickness was Hans, our friend from Belgium, showing up to meet us! He, Sheva, Maya, and us went to the Way Inn (thewayinn.com). We spent three nights in a beautifully built lodge with warm comforters and stunning views, the best sunset we have seen yet.

After departing from the sweet surroundings of the lodge, we took another night but to Lima! And the best news yet: our friend Lauren is flying in tonight to meet us! She is coming from CO to spend the last 17 days with us. And to make it that much more exciting, we have decided to show up to the airport in our Halloween costumes! Elvis and Miss Colorado will welcome her warmly!! We can´t wait to show you the pictures. Again, sorry for the delay in posts. We will try to add more before it is all over! We miss you and cannot wait to hug you all soon!!

Elena (and Garrison)

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Oct
12
The friends we have made are hilarious. They speak Hebrew, Dutch, French, and English. They are short, taaaaaall, quiet, loud, night owls, and adventurous. When we flew into Quito, Ecuador we luckily landed in the best hostel in town. We met Hans who is from Belgium. He is about 6 feet and has dreadlocks down to his buttocks. We also met Maya and Sheva, both from Isreal. Garrison and I left for Baños before everyone else but luckily Hans spotted us fro the top floor of a bar…perfect! We watched a local soccer game with everyone and then we all met in Cuenca. The highlight has been our trip to Parque National Cajas. We took a five hour hike through some of the most beautiful terrain I have seen on this trip yet. We have had dinners with ten or more people every night and spend the days roaming the city with everyone! Two days after my birthday we went out to dinner with everyone and Hans had the waiter bring out cake with candles! Everyone sang to me, five languages in total! This computer is extremely slow, so, the next time we have a better connection you will see photos and hear more about our adventures! We are going into Peru tonight with four other people and should get there tomorrow morning. We miss you! Elena (and Gar)

The friends we have made are hilarious. They speak Hebrew, Dutch, French, and English. They are short, taaaaaall, quiet, loud, night owls, and adventurous. When we flew into Quito, Ecuador we luckily landed in the best hostel in town. We met Hans who is from Belgium. He is about 6 feet and has dreadlocks down to his buttocks. We also met Maya and Sheva, both from Isreal. Garrison and I left for Baños before everyone else but luckily Hans spotted us fro the top floor of a bar…perfect! We watched a local soccer game with everyone and then we all met in Cuenca. The highlight has been our trip to Parque National Cajas. We took a five hour hike through some of the most beautiful terrain I have seen on this trip yet. We have had dinners with ten or more people every night and spend the days roaming the city with everyone! Two days after my birthday we went out to dinner with everyone and Hans had the waiter bring out cake with candles! Everyone sang to me, five languages in total! This computer is extremely slow, so, the next time we have a better connection you will see photos and hear more about our adventures! We are going into Peru tonight with four other people and should get there tomorrow morning. We miss you!

Elena (and Gar)

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Oct
06

Dig in!!

The best way to see a country is to actively participate in that countries customs, culture, and passtimes.  As our friend Fabian demonstrates, eating Guinea Pig was the, ahem, most filling way to experience Ecuador.  Well, maybe it wasn´t.  I tried some, and it wasn´t my favorite thing in the world.  I like Ecuador much more than I like eating Guinea Pig.  Sarah, what were your hamster´s names?  I apologized to them as I bit into this bad boy.


I didn´t think it was possible, but Elena proved me wrong.  Apparently, you can balance an egg on a nail on the equator.  An egg.  On a nail, driven into a platform, aligned with the GPS defined equator.  I wasn´t buying it.  In fact, I wasn´t buying any of these, ¨water spins the other direction, balancing/strength defying phenomenons¨that were circulating the hostel before we visited the mitad del mundo.  But there it was.  We stood on that line and eggs magically balanced.  Water decided to take a left rather than a right when placed on either side.  People toppled over when trying to walk along it with their eyes closed.  I was physically weaker.  I still chalk it up to psychology.  How can three meters difference have such a huge affect on the way the water spins on an Earth so massive?  Really?  Just three meters and it changes?  How big is the Earth?  For some reason, the equator has a vaguely fishy smell…

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Oct
02

An overdue update

Whew.  It´s been a little bit since I´ve blogged.  Sorry about that.  Here are some updates from the past few weeks:

San Blas

As Elena informed you, this place was amazing.  Living on a postcard perfect tropical island for two days is pretty much just as you would imagine it to be: relaxing, mostly.  The pictures do a better job explaining it than I ever could.

Quito, Ecuador

We arrived in Quito after our pleasant journey through Panama.  We liked Panama, and weren´t sure what to expect of Ecuador.  When we arrived at baggage claim, I noticed our bags a little dirty.  On further inspection, I discovered that my bad had been damaged.  Pretty severely.  It had three dime to half dollar sized gashes spread in a line across the brain, interupted by a broken zipper.  Perfect.  The place where I kept all my important belongings and valuables was hemmeraging personal documents and first aid supplies.  Frustration overcame me for a moment, but Elena, as usual, was able to calm me down and shake some sense into me.  It wasn´t that big of a deal.

We took a taxi to the hostel that was recommended to us, The Blue House.  This place was a breath of fresh air.  We loved it.  We stayed in a 6 person dorm room for 7 bucks a night, made fast friends with fellow travelers and staff, and enjoyed nights out with locals, Argentinian BBQs, and Sunday football with a friendly American (how bout them Broncos?!).  During our stay in Quito, we…

Checked out the incredible Basilica:

 

Took in the view from the 4,000 meter tram:

 

Hung out on the Equator:

 

Checked out the Old Town district:

 

And made friends with the hostel dog, Pinky:

 

All in all, Quito was an extremely fun town to hang out in.  In fact, I think it´s been my favorite big city we´ve been to thus far.  The weather was nice, the people friendly, and the friends we made should be around for awhile.  I´d say that makes a pretty great place.

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Sep
21
We went to paradise! San Blas consists of over 378 islands, also home to the native Kuna people. We spent two nights on Isla Pelicano with ten other people. We ate fresh fish and lobster, picked right out of the fresh, clear blue waters. We spent our full day there snorkeling through the ocean life, Gar thinks we saw a small baracuda! That morning we went to the Kuna village. It was simple, full of mud streets, and children saying ‘Hola!’. Women follow us white folk around trying to sell off their beautifully crafted bracelets and anklets that they wear themselves. There are not many words to describe this place, just drastically different from home, which is refreshing. On the boat ride back we saw dolphins!We slept in a hut, I never thought I would! Much different from the cabin we spent five months in at the farm in Costa Rica. That cabin was plush compared to this. Check out the pictures on our photo bucket website! We are still on a sort of high from being there, or we just are not city people because the past few days in Panama City have not been very productive! I did get a cold, so laying low in front of our cable television was quite alright. But off to Ecuador tomorrow and we are thrilled. We are staying at the Blue House hostel (http://www.bluehousequito.com/) for $7 a night! Amazing. The prices are going to plumet once we get to South America! We hope all is well at home. We have passed our half way point and are looking forward to getting home and hearing stories from all of you. Miss all of you and love you. Elena (and Gar)

We went to paradise! San Blas consists of over 378 islands, also home to the native Kuna people. We spent two nights on Isla Pelicano with ten other people. We ate fresh fish and lobster, picked right out of the fresh, clear blue waters. We spent our full day there snorkeling through the ocean life, Gar thinks we saw a small baracuda! That morning we went to the Kuna village. It was simple, full of mud streets, and children saying ‘Hola!’. Women follow us white folk around trying to sell off their beautifully crafted bracelets and anklets that they wear themselves. There are not many words to describe this place, just drastically different from home, which is refreshing. On the boat ride back we saw dolphins!We slept in a hut, I never thought I would! Much different from the cabin we spent five months in at the farm in Costa Rica. That cabin was plush compared to this. Check out the pictures on our photo bucket website! We are still on a sort of high from being there, or we just are not city people because the past few days in Panama City have not been very productive! I did get a cold, so laying low in front of our cable television was quite alright. But off to Ecuador tomorrow and we are thrilled. We are staying at the Blue House hostel (http://www.bluehousequito.com/) for $7 a night! Amazing. The prices are going to plumet once we get to South America! We hope all is well at home. We have passed our half way point and are looking forward to getting home and hearing stories from all of you. Miss all of you and love you.

Elena (and Gar)

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Sep
11

To answer your question, yes, this song does play 24/7 in this country, and everyone is dressed similar to Eddie and crew.

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+
Sprint Travelers vs Marathon Travelers There are some common themes we´ve seen develop in our…two months (wow, already?) on the road.  I´m specifically talking about types of people we meet.  They can generally be broken down into two categories: the Sprinter and the Marathoner. The Sprint Traveler: Clutches a guide book like the bible, often with a pen or other writing implement, determined to check attractions off of a list. Upon arriving in a place, immediately wants to know ¨what there is to do¨. Stays in one particular place only as long as they are entertained and occupied. Has a laundry list of places they have seen, and talks about them like badges of honor. The Marathon Traveler: Is more concerned with feeling comfortable and at home in a place than with what there is to do or what the guide books say about it (they´re usually wrong anyway). Paces themselves, and is unconcerned with packing as many stamps into their passports as time allows. Meet people, and reconnect with them down the road. Share stories about the people they´ve met more than the places they´ve seen.  When they do talk about the destinations, their eyes take on more of a sparkle and their voice becomes passionate. Never loose sight of the fact that the journey is the destination. In my humble opinion, seeing as much as possible is not the goal of travel.  It is about immersing yourself in a totally new, fresh, and alien experience and discovering how you react.  It is about finding comfort and solitude in the places you go and the people you meet.  It is about moving, and resting when you´re tired.  Elena and I have grown so much already, and we look forward to what else our travels might bring.

Sprint Travelers vs Marathon Travelers

There are some common themes we´ve seen develop in our…two months (wow, already?) on the road.  I´m specifically talking about types of people we meet.  They can generally be broken down into two categories: the Sprinter and the Marathoner.

The Sprint Traveler:

  • Clutches a guide book like the bible, often with a pen or other writing implement, determined to check attractions off of a list.
  • Upon arriving in a place, immediately wants to know ¨what there is to do¨.
  • Stays in one particular place only as long as they are entertained and occupied.
  • Has a laundry list of places they have seen, and talks about them like badges of honor.

The Marathon Traveler:

  • Is more concerned with feeling comfortable and at home in a place than with what there is to do or what the guide books say about it (they´re usually wrong anyway).
  • Paces themselves, and is unconcerned with packing as many stamps into their passports as time allows.
  • Meet people, and reconnect with them down the road.
  • Share stories about the people they´ve met more than the places they´ve seen.  When they do talk about the destinations, their eyes take on more of a sparkle and their voice becomes passionate.
  • Never loose sight of the fact that the journey is the destination.

In my humble opinion, seeing as much as possible is not the goal of travel.  It is about immersing yourself in a totally new, fresh, and alien experience and discovering how you react.  It is about finding comfort and solitude in the places you go and the people you meet.  It is about moving, and resting when you´re tired.  Elena and I have grown so much already, and we look forward to what else our travels might bring.

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Sep
07

We’re in Our Element

Hola Amigos!

The days are flying by! We left Costa Rica on the 5th and headed for Panama. We took two buses and one water taxi (which is really fun!) to get to Bocas del Toro. I guess we had something else in mind, but it was not our favorite town! We feel bad saying that, like we’re a bit travel snobby by now. But we accepted it, and then left. We only spent two nights there and within that time the funniest thing happened. First off we met a crazy Australian, Elyse. Really good fun. So Garrison, Elyse, and I decided to go to another island and go to a beach. Sounds typical, right? Not. We get dropped off from our water taxi ride, proceed to take the trail to the beach when we run into an older couple. The clouds started rolling in so they invited us to their boat in the marina! To top it off her name was Babette, so hilarious. It was awesome! Just a little home on the water. We then are invited to another boat, 4 times the size! They give us each a beer, make some tacos, and we watch American football on the big screen! Pretty surreal if you ask me. Just picture it, Elyse and I out on the deck with the ladies talking about our emotions while Garrison was inside watching football getting bogged down in cigar smoke. The random days like that are the best.

Those days are fun but there are also very humbling days. Today we left Bocas del Toro and took a water taxi and another two buses to get to the small mountain town of Boquete. On the bus to Boquete, I sat next to a father and daughter, she was about 3. After a couple minutes I realized she had casts on both her little legs. So for the next hour, I had miniature legs on my lap, cased in little red casts. It felt like a good day already, helping out a dad who looked so hurt for his daughter. When we got here, we found a perfect little hostel; we get pancakes every morning! Over lunch we met an American and a Canadian, ridiculous. They are both retired and had plenty of advice for us. So, we never know who we will meet, what kind of place we will sleep in, or really what we are doing! Also, the weather here is exquisite. Cool breeze and sun. It feels just like Gunnison.

It has been a whirlwind of the past few days, but we are really looking forward to our week here. We are always thinking of home and hope that you are well and enjoying the change of the seasons. Until next time!

Love to all.

Elena (and Garrison)

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