Marius and Imani's Big Adventure

Marius and I are 2 weeks into our 7 week Caribbean island-hopping tour.

Before this we spent 4 wonderful weeks at the Casa de Earl. As much as we had a blast traveling through South America, it was really nice being home. My dad cooked us some of our favorite meals: Skirt steak, breaded chicken, lamb chops… mmm; we got to wear normal clothes; and every night we got to sleep in the same comfy bed.

But now we are back on the road, and so far it has been great.
First stop was Port of Spain, Trinidad. One of the first thing I noticed in the airport were how many Indians there were. Later, I found out that they make up 40% of the population - equal the % of people of African descent.

After 2 days in the capital we ventured up to the northern shore to a village called Blanchisseuse. It was a tiny little place right on the coast and at the edge of rainsforest. The owner was a nice German guy and he introduced us to this great board game called RummiKub. The second day, while we might normally have spent time at the beach, we instead spent the entire day on the deck playing the game. We liked the game so much that we bought two decks of cards and now play 3 or 4 hands most nights.

The German owner, Fred, was an interesting character. That night at dinner he kept getting us confused with another couple staying at the hotel, and would suddenly start talking to Marius and me in German. I would just nod, and Marius would try to respond a bit cuz he understands German, but it obviously wasn't working. He kept doing it though, and then after he we'd already eaten our dinner and dessert, he tried to serve us the other couple's main course. He was a bit confused I think, but he kept easily beating us at RummiKub, so he couldn't have had it that bad.

My favorite place on Trinidad was Maracas Bay. We went on a Sunday and it was one of the prettiest beaches I've ever been to. It was surrounded on three sides by rainforest-covered hills, with beautiful light sand and tons of people enjoying the water and each other's company. I think the people were just as beautiful as the surroundings. They were swimming, splashing, playing volleyball, soccer and the classic game keep-away. They also waited in long lines for the mouthwatering Bake & Shark, a local specialty of fried shark sandwich with an impressive variety of sauces and fixings. Marius loved it! It seemed like no one had a care in the world and the energy was contagious. The picture was taken however on Monday morning when the beach was empty.

Our final day in Trinidad was spent at a most unlikely spot - The Queen's Park Oval - otherwise known as the largest cricket stadium in the Caribbean. The West Indies were playing Australia in a Test Match and we thought it would be fun to see what all the fuss is about. If you don't know what a test match is, you're not alone. I didn't know either until we got an Australian couple to explain the rules to us. It's the most traditional form of cricket and this type of match is super important, although no one could tell me exactly why and it's played over 5 days. We decided one day was enough and day 2 worked with our schedule, so that's where we found ourselves at noon on Monday. We actually missed the start at 10, but figured we'd still get to see our fair share since they play until the sun goes down.

My assessment of cricket: on the spectrum of spectator sport excitement it lies somewhere in between basebal and chess. We watched Australia bat for an hour and half, and then there was a rain delay for another hour and a half, and then we watched Austrailia again. Their score was 311. Finally I asked the guy behind me how many points the West Indies had, and he told me they hadn't been up to bat yet. What?!? The games been going on for a day a half and only one side has batted? Only 6 Australian batters had "struck out", and you need to strike out the whole team (10 players) to switch. It was 3:30 and we were about to leave, and all the sudden the Aussies struck out 4 times in like 45 minutes and we decided to stay. Finally the game was getting.. well I wouldn't say exciting, but at least something was happening. When we left around 5, the score was Australia 311- West Indies 29, with 3 outs already. We left feeling like we'd given cricket a fair shot, and actually I liked it a lot more than I thought it would, once I better understood the rules. It makes me smile seeing a bunch of black people drinking beers and watching cricket in a bar. It really is a big sport in this corner of the world.

We've now also been to Grenada and Bequia (part of St. Vincent and the Grenadines). I will always remember Grenada for its beautiful and completely empty beaches. During the week, tourists are the only ones out there, and now that's its low season, the beaches are practically deserted. In Grenada alone, we went to 3 seperate beaches where we were the only ones there. Although at aptly named Paradise Beach, there was this crazy one guy. Imagine you're the only one on a 250 meter long beach, and a guy with big beer belly comes and hangs out in the water 10 meters away. He just stays there looking back towards the beach, talking to himself. After about 45 minutes he gets outs, pees in the bushes not far behind you, and then goes back to the water. When we left, we turned to look back and, like that, he was gone. Weird! But even with him there, the beach was still really Paradise.

One more thing. Apparently the Caribbean is where old Norwegian ferry boats go to retire. The red ship in the left of the photo below was from Stavanger. Between St. Vincent and Bequia island we rode one from Trondheim. Not a bad place to go for retirement. The harbor in the pictures is St. George's, Grenada. It is a beautiful capital.

We have now been traveling for 5 months and 3 weeks. Next Monday we fly back to Santa Monica. Although I'm sad to say goodbye to South America, I'm also really glad to be heading home. For one thing Santa Monica doesn't have any blood-sucking insects. Here in northern Colombia, they love me. Thankfully they haven't been of the malaria/dengue fever variety, but man do they itch, like crazy. The twenty or so bites I had after our stay on the Caribbean coast itched so bad I nearly started crying. No, I won't miss the bugs.

After nearly 6 months, traveler's fatigue has started to set in. As far as sights and activities, we're starting to pick the low-hanging fruit - gone are the days of 3 hour one-way bus rides to archeological sites- and its becoming harder to impress us. Today, a perfect example. We took a 30 minute bus from the town of San Gil, and then hiked 30 minutes to a waterfall. The jungle surroundings were beautiful, but we didn't bother to take out the camera. We've got enough pictures of waterfalls and jungle. I'm sure 3 months ago we would have stayed for longer, and taken (at least some) pictures. Instead after 20 minutes we turned to back. Unfortunately the return bus wasn't running on our schedule. Problem- we were being attacked. Marius got stung by a wasp, and about every 3 minutes there was a fresh drop of blood on my legs. I hate being lunch! 45 minutes and 15 bites later, our bus finally came. I am ready to go home.

Which is not to say that we are being lazy in Colombia. Yesterday, another short bus ride took us to the small town of Barichara. Its one-story spanish colonial style buildings really gave you a sense of history. Sorry for not having a picture to show you, see the paragraph above on travel fatigue. From there we hiked downhill 6miles (9km) to yet another picturesque colonial-style town, this one called Guane. We stopped for Cokes and bananas, and then hiked back to Barichara, this time along El Camino Real, a colonial era rock trail. I could imagine a hundred years ago, walking past donkeys loaded high with cargo.

Back in Barichara, we stopped for more Coke, more bananas, and peanuts- they don't do cliff bars or energy gels here in Colombia- and headed one more time back down to Guane. Trip total: about 18miles (30km). We're doing the LA marathon on the 18th and had to get one long walk in. We did it, and actually were feeling pretty good today, at least until the insects started assaulting us.

Speaking of insects. A week ago we were Palomino, a really small village on the Caribbean Coast. We stayed about 30 meters from the ocean in an open-air thatch-roofed hut. It was super relaxing, and the outdoor shower was divine. Only problem is we weren't the only ones who thought it was a great place to hang out. We came home from dinner one night to find this guy hanging out in our open-to-nature bathroom. He must hold the record for world's largest cockroach, yuck!

We decided to just leave him alone, and tuck our mosquito net extra snug around our bed.
We figured having an extra roommate was a small inconvenience given the beautiful and utterlysolitary beach we got to enjoy each day.

Our original plan was to hang out on the coast in order to recover after 4 days of hard partying in Barranquilla during Carnival. The first day turned out to be the best. There were tons of people in the streets, almost all throwing baking flour or shooting bubbles at each other. Marius being the tallest person for miles, was an easy target. Although compared to others, he got off really easy.

We were expecting wild street parties, and eagerly anticipated participating in public drinking and dancing in the streets. Sadly, our Carnival dreams went unfilled. At first I thought we just weren't in the know, but all the other travelers we've talked to since have said the same. Except for the daily parade there really wasn't that much to write home about. But parts of the parade were pretty cool actually.

One other photo I have to add.

This was the nicest and cleanest porto-potty I've ever visited in my life. It was a pleasant surprise. =)

Medellín was another stop in Colombia. I will forever be grateful to the city for introducing me and Marius to my new favorite sculptor, Botero. He helped us get in touch with our inner 15 year-olds.

We did also take a couple "normal" photos, but the ones with heavy-set naked people were the funniest.

And lastly, wanted to share a few more nature photos. We hiked for about 4 hours in the Valle de Cocora, outside the town of Salento. It would have been a little shorter if I hadn't got things mixed up and made us do the 800m straight up incline part of the hike twice. The main highlight here was the wax palms, the tallest palms in the world. They were really quite impressive.

See if you can spot me in this one.

So there you have our highlights from Colombia. Well, and these cows. I don't know why I get such a kick out of farm animals.

A post on Ecuador is long overdue. Although my lack of writing might suggest otherwise, Ecuador was one of my favorite countries of the trip. There weren't a a whole lot of spectacular sites per se, but there was a lot of variety, and travel was easy. Its possible to bus from Amazon jungle, through Andean cloud forest and arrive at nice beaches all in one day. Another part I really liked was that it was so frickin' cheap.
5-hour bus ride: $5
3 course set lunch: $3
2 tasty, yet strong happy hour caipirinhas on the beach: $2. I'm in love!

Ecuador is known for the Galapagos Islands. They are amazing. You get to see all sorts of wildlife up close, and you can even play with sea lions that swim right up next to you. The price: a cool $3500 per person for an 8 night cruise. We opted instead to visit the "Poor Man's Galapagos" also known as Isla de la Plata. For a budget friendly $22 per person we went to an island that also has plenty of goofy-looking blue-footed boobies. We did some average snorkeling and saw sea turtles and some fish, but given the alternative I was quite happy with our choice.

The small fluffy one is a baby.

The most random, but also really fun thing we saw was the Iguana Park in Guayaquil. Its a plaza right in the middle of the city, home to dozens of iguanas. They don't ever wander outside the plazas gates, but there's really nothing keeping them in either. They walked around like they owned the place, and I didn't see anyone trying to argue with them.

But our favorite place in Ecuador was Cuenca. Its a city in the Andes with about 450,000 people, of which 700 or so are expats. The downtown area has a colonial feel to it, but it's completely modern and has most of the comforts of home. On Sunday, when everything else was closed we headed to the American-owned Inka Bar. We watched NFL playoffs while eating excellent burgers and drinking $1.25 (8kr) pints of beer.

The climate there is fabulous. I felt like I was back in Santa Monica. Standard dress was t-shirt during the day, light sweater at night. There was no humidity, no bugs, no sweating. It was great. And unlike a lot of other big cities in South America, the air felt super clean. There was even a national park outside town. A cheap 30 minute bus ride and we were hiking in the wilderness.

About 2 days into our stay, we figured out we weren't the only ones in love with Cuenca.
It turns out International Living named Ecuador its number one place in the world to retire the last 3 years in a row.
http://internationalliving.com/2011/08/the-worlds-best-retirement-haven/

And not only that, but Cuenca is a super inexpensive and yet great place to live. A couple can live like royalty for $1500 total a month!
http://internationalliving.com/2010/08/saving-money-is-easy-in-cuenca-ecuador/

Marius and I might one day find ourselves back in that wonderful city.
But before we make any hasty decisions, we have to check out Colombia first.

P.S. And now that I've finally got video to work on this blog, I updated the post from our trip to Antarctica. There are 2 short videos of the penguins and us swimming if you're interested =)

Peru has provided more than it's fair share of memorable trip experiences, some amazing, a few not so much,

Lake Titicaca is divided between Bolivia and Peru. Marius and I woke up on Isla del Sol, Bolivia on December 20th, and enjoyed my birthday breakfast from the patio of our hotel room overlooking the bay below. The sound of children playing, waves breaking below, and donkeys beginning their hard days work was an excellent soundtrack for the morning.

But all that niceness was left behind when later that day we crossed the border and arrived in Puno, our first stop in Peru. Apparently Bolivia didn't want to be rude, and so sent me along with a parting birthday gift. Something on Lake Titicaca had given the one in this relationship with the tities a little extra caca. And so instead of spending my birthday making trips to and from the bar for drinks, I was making trips to and from the bathroom. Not my idea of good time, but a birthday I'll be hard pressed to forget nonetheless. Thanks a lot Bolivia. And Peru, I deemed guilty by association.

So my first impressions of Peru weren't so great. This was also compounded by a series of transportation debacles:
Our bus from Puno to Arequipa was stuck in a standstill due to a traffic accident. With a rock wall on one side and a cliff on the other there was nothing to do but wait until the blockage was cleared 2 hours later. This was done by crushing the already totaled truck against the wall until one lane was cleared. Effective, I guess.

Once in Arequipa our taxi broke down in the middle of a torrential downpour with bumper to bumper traffic. We walked the last 15 minutes to the hotel, dodging the splash caused by cars speeding past.

On the way to pick up my dad and Jaryd at the Lima airport, our taxi got a flat tire, and we stood by the side of the road, as our death-defying cabbie, changed the driver side rear tire, as cars whizzed by going highway speed.

In Chiclayo, we boarded a taxi that rattled and clunked so loudly it sounded like it was dying. A minute into the ride, Marius saw the driver lunge to grab his door before it fell off its hinges as he was driving.

Another bus, this time between Chiclayo and Chichapoyas, stopped completely in the middle of the road between 1am and 9am. Same principle as before, two-lanes, rock wall, and cliff, only this time the cause of the blockage was a gigantic mudslide. Our already long 11 hour bus ride, became a seemingly endless 19 hour lesson in patience, especially after I sat on and broke my endlessly entertaining kindle. Now I'm reduced to stealing books from hotels. Marius does not approve.

But there were definitely many pleasant and beautiful highlights to our trip in Peru. Among the best were:

-Partying with Marius, my dad, and brother for New Years in Cuzco. Dad went home shortly after the parade around the main square at midnight, but Jaryd hung out like a champ with the big kids. We got back to the hotel at 3am, and decided to go back out until 4:30 when the hotel would serve its free, warm breakfast. Oh how we suffered the next day when the hotel made us check out at 9am.

-Playing with Alpaca's. This guy was super cute and not nearly as fat as his fur would suggest. But boy was he moody. One minute he was trying to kiss my ear, the next he was chasing me around the courtyard biting at my ankles. I guess I got off lucky. Marius had a vicuña spit at him as he walked towards the exit.

-Eating the peruvian specialty of guinea pig. It was quite tasty, but way too much work to get at such little meat. And eating Ceviche. Definitely some of the best you can find.

-Posing with the famouns Peruvian Hairless Dog. With a body temperature 3º above normal, the locals used to use them to treat arthritis. Alas, they are still definitely one of God's uglier creations. Somehow my irresistible urge to pet living things won out. Marius immediately doused me in hand sanitizer.

-Visiting Machu Picchu was amazing. The train ride just to get there was beautiful. Earl was really blown away by the what the Incans were capable of building. When it started raining at the end of the day, Jaryd was well prepared.

-Marius and I also visited Peru's lesser know Kuelap ruins, which were much cheaper than Machu Picchu, almost equally as impressive, and completly deserted (in a good way) in comparison. Whereas Machu Picchu gets around 2,000 visitors a day, we were among 30 or so in Kuelap.

-Hiking to Gocta, the world's 3rd highest waterfall. 771 meters, almost two laps around a track.

Our first three days in Peru had Marius and I cursing Peru and it's bad weather, and faulty transportation. But by the end of our 3 weeks we really came to appreciate the beauty and history of the country.

Well it took a few days to finally get the time for an update. Sorry for the lack of more photos, and not enough pictures. It was either blog now or who knows when.

Marius and I spent the last two weeks sailing from southern Argentina to Antarctica and back. What a journey!

The tour company we went with, Hurtigruten, is Norwegian, and not surprisingly there were quite a few Europeans, a tour group from the US, and a couple each of Canadians, South Africans, and Mexicans. But I was definitely the only person onboard with a genetically induced suntan. Everyone else on the boat was fair-skinned European. That is one thing I've noticed throughout this trip. Whether it's on a cruise or in a bunkbed-filled youth hostel, there are very few minorities traveling. For me its a bit sad, and I wish that more minorities (from all over the world) but especially from the US and Western Europe would get and take the chance to travel more. Its such an amazing experience.

But back to our travels. First stop was Isla Magdalena in the Strait of Magellan. The only permanent residents on the island are Magellanic Penguins, and boy were they cute... and everywhere. They had a roped-off trail for visitors to follow to the lighthouse on highest hill. The only really instuctions given us by the crew were: 1) don't touch the penguins; 2) the penguins have the right of way; 3) stay at least 5m/15 ft from the penguins. Then the crew added that "Of course the penguins don't pay attention to any of the rules," if you stay still long enough, one might just initiate contact with you. And so that's what I tried.

These two guys quickly showed up, and what little terrors they were. The one staring at the camera, went around to my back and when he came up on my left side, he started biting at my gloved hand. I let him to do, because a) it didn't hurt that bad and b) if I couldn't pick him up like the piggies on the farm, then this was the next best thing. And so he kept biting me harder and harder, and trying to take a piece of my glove with him. Eventually when we figured out he couldn't, he started wacking me with his wing. It was awesome, but left with a small beak-sized bruise mark on my hand. But the penguins were so cute I had to forgive them.

The other major memory Marius and I will remember from the cruise is going swimming in Antarctic waters. Our ship spent a day in Deception Island, which is actually a giant volcanoe crater. The middle of the island is the crater, about 13 square kilometers big. As we were sailing from one part of the crater to the other, the crew announced that at the next stop those of us who wanted could go for a swim. They promised to have the defibrillators ready in case they were needed. Ominous!

I decided right away that it was something I wanted to do. How many times in your life do you get to swim in the Antarctic? Marius was a bit skeptical, but I managed to get him onboard with the idea. When it was our turn to go onto land, we had our swimsuits on, and also the 3 or 4 layers we'd need to keep warm before the actual swim. It was below freezing temperature outside, as evidenced by the snow flakes falling around us. Finally when it was our turn, we stripped down just to the suits. Marius started walking normally into the water, but I knew the only way I could do was to sprint in, so off i took running into the water until it was deep enough to dive into, and holy baloney it was sooo cold! - somewhere between 0 and 2 degrees Celsius or 32-35 degrees Fahrenheit. Brrr.