TSPAdventures

Our Been There Done That List is Dwindling!

2011-10-22T15:54:00.001-06:00

Ok, not really. There are still tons of places we want to go and things we want to do, but we are for sure making a dent in our list.

So if you haven’t heard by now, our latest adventure was this: diving with the Great White Sharks!!!! Actually, we were not really diving with them, we were in cages the whole time which was ok because these things were ginormous!!!! We have dived with some big sharks before like bull sharks and large Galapagos sharks but these Great Whites were a whole new ball game!!!

I know you don’t want to see a ton of photos of sharks but here are some great ones! Just so you know, Troy does not have a zoom on his camera. In fact the camera he used is for macro use. So yes, these sharks are this close!

There are a few places around the world where Great Whites are accessible to dive with. Off the coast of San Francisco, South Africa and then a very tiny island off the west coast of Mexico called Guadalupe Island. There were several huge benefits of why we chose Guadalupe Island:

We only had to go to Mexico as opposed to South Africa
Visibility was over 100’ (San Francisco, viability is only 30’ max)
And the major factor was the cages we were in were lowed down to 40’ where all the other destinations kept the cage at the surface of the water, which sucks for those people because the sharks rarely went above 30’.

To catch our boat we had to fly into San Diego then take a bus down to Ensenada, Mexico. The crossing into Mexico was kind of a cluster. Considering we were going into Mexico, one would think it would be fast and easy because Mexico could care less about who came into their country. But it was not fast…nor easy.

First we got off the bus (there were about 20 of us), unloaded our luggage then pressed the notorious green light/red light button to see whether or not our luggage would be searched. Then as a group we had to go to a window and fill out an immigration form. Oh, but wait, the immigration man ran out of forms so now we have to wait for him to get more. After filling it out, we then had to go stand in line at another window and hand the form to some lady who types in all the information into the computer (using the 2 finger method as opposed to all 10 fingers). After she gives us a printed version of what we just filled out, we then go back to the first window to the same man who gave us the form to fill out. He stamps the piece of paper and our passport and THEN we are allowed to get back on the bus. If that’s not a classic cluster, I don’t know what is.

So after continuing our drive to Ensenada we caught our boat, the Natuilus Explorer, for a 22 hour boat ride out to Guadalupe Island. The crossing wasn’t so bad (if you don't mind 9 foot swells), but everyone for the most part stayed in their cabin the entire trip…although a few ventured out for cocktail hour! It was tough to sleep at night because there were intervals where the water would get really rough and would just slam against the side of the boat making a horrifying loud banging noise. Until I figured out it was the ocean I was hearing, I kept thinking to myself, “How is it that none of the crew realize that the clothes dryer on the top deck is sliding around and banging into everything?” Sometimes I’m not the brightest color in the crayon box.

The nice thing about this trip was the only dive gear we needed was our wetsuits and masks. Nothing else was needed. We would be breathing from a hookah system so no use for BCD’s, we weren’t going to be swimming so no fins, and definitely didn't need our computers because our time and depth in the water was completely up to the people running the cages. For me personally, the only sucky thing about how this “diving” was done is that everyone was overly weighted down because the crew didn’t want us floating around the cages. They wanted us planted on the bottom. So that meant everyone, me included, got 40lbs of weight put on them. They would take a 40lbs weight belt off of a guy who weighed almost twice as much as me, turn around and put it on me! So yeah, for me it sucked considering 40lbs is close to half my weight. By the time the 45 minute dive was done, my shoulders and back were a wreck.

Speaking of the cages…when we initially got on the boat , the very first thing I noticed were the four cages sitting on the back deck. During the day, two would be attached to the back deck and the other two would be off the port and starboard side of the boat. One of the back cages would be at the surface level (standing on the bottom of it the diver would be in about 10’ of water) the second cage was lowered to 15’ (once again, standing on the bottom the diver is at about 20’ of water) then the two off the sides would get lowered down to 40’ (bottom of the cage about 50’). I happened to make a comment to the captain that we seemed to be much deeper than 40’ and that I had read somewhere the cages were not allowed to go any deeper than 12 meters (roughly 40’). He responded “Well… the Mexican government said the cages could not go any lower than 12 meters but they were not specific as to what part of the cage had to be at 12 meters so I left it up to my discretion as to what part of the cage is at 12 meters… which is the top of the cage! So, yes, you guys are deeper than 40’”. Bonus!!!!

Before we got on our boat and saw the cages I thought, “You know what, I bet we really don’t need to be in the cages. The sharks probably don’t get anywhere near us, they’re probably not as big as they seem in photos and I doubt they have no aggressive tendencies at all.” OMG, I was wrong! When I saw them for the first time, I think I peed in my wetsuit a little – and not on purpose. I wasn’t prepared for how big they are. We named a few of them Maytag and Whirlpool because they looked like they could swallow a few washing machines. And then, of course, there is my stupidness of how close they got to the cages. They were so close that a few times fellow divers could reach out and touch the fin. Which resulted in the dive master that was standing on top of the cage to immediately pull the regulator out of the offending divers mouth! And then there are the teeth. All of the sharks we have dived with, the teeth are very non intimidating, whether because we can’t see them or because they’re small (although very sharp). But Great Whites' teeth are there, out in the open in all their glory, and they’re screaming “YOU BETTER STAY WHERE YOU ARE BECAUSE I AM GOING TO RIP YOUR ARM FROM YOUR BODY IF YOU LEAVE THAT CAGE!” So as you can see, my previous ridiculous thoughts about how small they would be and how non threatening they could be is just another example of not being the brightest crayon in the box!

Oh, and then let’s not forget those aggressive tendencies that I thought would be non-existent. Once again, proved wrong. On one of our first dives we had about 3-4 sharks circling our cages. I happened to be watching a specific one when all of a sudden he went completely vertical, did this speed rocket thing and completely breached out of the water! I’m shouting through my regulator to my cage mates “Holy shit!!! Did you see that???” Found out later from a researcher that lives on the island that when a shark breaches he is trying to make as big a splash as possible to show the other sharks around that he is the king and to not mess with him. Even though he demonstrated his power and size there were a few other sharks from time to time that would get fairly aggressive and start darting around real fast like a crazed lunatic.

Although we were always in the cage, we had an opportunity to come out and stand on top with the dive master. For the most part it wasn’t a good place to be because you had to dodge the bubbles floating up from below. Also the sharks tended to stay either at the mid cage level or below. So being in the cage was the place to be. If the sharks came higher than mid cage level, the diver was forced back into the cage by the dive master. At one point when we had an aggressive shark swimming around us he was getting really close to our dive master above us and our dive master was using every gadget…technique…whatever available to get the shark away. The four of us below him were looking up, cameras ready, watching anxiously to see what would happen. The week before we were there, one of the divers got a photo of a shark sticking his head into a slot in the cage that is used to get the best view of the sharks. I thought the sharks heads were too big to fit, but evidently there are one or two that are just small enough and have figured out where the slot is. So aggressive tendencies…check!!!

One evening the researcher that lives on the island came aboard and gave us a short presentation about the sharks in the area. Several of us were wondering why the sharks were there and this was his answer “We used to have no idea why the sharks are here. However, I theorized they come to eat the Elephant Seals but other researches say they have never seen this. Finally, last year we got video of it!” What a cool job he has! Also, the researchers do know that during breeding season they leave, meet up out in the middle of nowhere with Great Whites that have come down from Hawaii, do their business then return to Guadalupe Island. They don’t mix and mingle and head up to Hawaii afterwards, and the Hawaiian sharks don’t go to Guadalupe Island. Interesting!

This was an amazing trip! Short, fast and expensive but definitely worth it. It has been something I have always wanted to do since becoming an avid diver. Troy was along for the ride. He didn’t have much interest in diving with Great Whites (he had no fear, he just had no interest) but he was hooked after the first shark lovingly swam by and stroked our cage with his fin and eyed us with his big, blue eye while picking his last victim out of his teeth!

Churchill, Manitoba - Polar Bear Capital of the World

2010-11-02T14:43:00.006-06:00

Troy got some amazing photos! We had great luck with the bears. Click here to see his pictures.

Traveling to a tiny town on the edge of the Hudson Bay far north in Manitoba, Canada just as winter is beginning is not a destination most people would choose for a vacation. But to see the largest concentration of polar bears in the world, Churchill is the place to be. And when I say tiny town, I mean tiny. Population 923 to be more exact.

Our first stop before Churchill was Winnipeg which looked like it was designed by an East Berlin architect from the 1940’s. Definitely not the most attractive town. But before we could fly out the next morning to Churchill, me, Troy and our two friends Seon and Ki first had to piss off the snotty bar waiter and pretty much half the group we would be traveling with for the next six days! Our trip had barely just begun and we were already labeled as “those people”! But honestly, if that fat, cross eyed lady had not stolen my wine, maybe I would have been nicer to her! A quick note here regarding the people in the tour groups: they were all old! I don’t know if I accidentally went to Geriatric.com to book this or what, but we were the youngest by far. We asked our guide, Elise, about it and she said that 65+ was the normal demographic for the trip. I’m guessing it’s because it’s such a sedentary trip. This was by far the least active trip Troy and I have ever done!

Churchill is something else. It is probably one of the most remote places we have ever been, which is saying something. There are literally no roads leading to this miniature town. The only way to get there is by a $1800 plane ticket, a 40+ hour train ride or by ship (notice I didn’t say cruise ship). Think about how big Canada is. It’s pretty amazing to think that Churchill is so far away from anything that there is not even a single road leading to it. That led us to all kinds of questions regarding the people who live there: Who do they date? How many kids are in the high school graduating class? What is their prom like? What do they do for fun? It’s not like there is a larger town 50 miles away that could provide solutions to these problems. There is nothing!!! We did find out that their bars, actually hotel lounges, stay open until 2am and the “lounge to be at” rotates throughout the week so they do have some sort of social action here. They even have Churchill Idol! Our last night there we found “ladies night” at the Tundra Inn which featured several female musicians as well as an Adam Lambert look a like! I guess he was the inspiration for Churchill Idol! It was a lot of fun!

We did get the opportunity one morning to do a tour of the town. It was excruciating! When we looked at our itinerary and found out it was going to be a 3 ½ hour tour, we just about choked. We thought there is no way it will be that long, the itinerary is exaggerating. We were sadly wrong. It didn't start out too bad and was almost interesting until our tour guide pointed out in detail everything including the dilapidated grain elevator, clumps of trees, the needles on the clumps of trees, ridges of dirt, unfinished hotels and the town dump. We drove up and down every single street and even made a stop at the post office. I think the most interesting thing she pointed out was the polar bear holding facility (which I’ll talk about later). We did find out that besides the polar bears being a tourist attraction for Churchill, they do have a really well kept secret: in the summer around 3000 beluga whales migrate up the Churchill river for the birthing season. We saw photos of them swimming up the river in groups of 100’s.

Their medical system was fascinating. They have three doctors full time at the hospital (which by the way is connected to the curling rink) and a dentist and vet that flies in every once in awhile. So for people who need a dental checkup and cleaning, they check the dentists schedule to find out when he is there and makes an appointment. Same thing for vets. But if you have an emergency, you’re kind of S.O.L. The doctors have books they can refer to try to help but otherwise you have to wait for the dentist or vet. So the last thing the locals want to do is get in a fight and get a tooth busted out or to drink too much and fall down and break their teeth. We thought the vet thing was sad. If a dog gets sick or hurt and the doctor can’t help them, there is nothing that can be done. Oh, and people don’t get embalmed when they die. They don’t have the equipment for it and if someone wants to be cremated, it’s very expensive because they have to be flown to Winnipeg to have this done.

Of course, like all small towns there is history behind it but it bored me so I won’t bore you with it. One interesting thing though is it had a small army base during WWII so it has a very long runway at the airport. It’s almost 9800’ long and can accommodate the space shuttle and is actually an alternate landing site if it is needed.

Like I said before, Churchill has the highest concentration of bears because of the towns’ proximity to the Hudson Bay. The bears have sight memory, which means they remember they were born here, plus they remember that this is where the ice first forms over the bay. The Hudson Bay is where they spend the winter hunting Ring Seal, their main source of food. When the hunting season ends and the ice starts to melt, they come back to land near Churchill and do a walking hibernation. They then spread out over hundreds of miles until it is time again to return to the bay to hunt. The bear population here can reach up to 900 bears as they wait for the ice to form.

Churchill is so close to the bear activity on the tundra that there are several warning systems in place to protect the people. First off there is a 10pm curfew for the kids under 18. This warning sounds like an air raid siren announcing the arrival of WWIII. It was a good thing we were told about this because we all would have thought we were under attack. Second, tourists are warned to not walk around town after dark and they are highly discouraged to walk down to the water. Of course after hitting the town on our last night there, as we’re walking to our hotel at midnight, the last thing we were concerned with was running into a polar bear. We were more concerned about making snow angels. Sometimes we’re not the smartest or the most aware! We were also told if we heard gun shots to not be alarmed. It is just the locals shooting guns to scare off the bears. If bears are seen wandering around town that can’t be scared off, they are lured into a bear trap and then taken to a bear holding facility right next to the airport. This facility is an old quonset hut leftover from the WWII. If someone volunteers up the money, the bear is flown by helicopter about 40 miles away and then released, otherwise the bear is kept in the facility until the bay freezes over then they are transported a short distance to the bay by truck and released.

The trucks we toured the tundra in are called tundra buggies. They weigh 240,000lbs and get 8mpg and the top speed is 28mph but we averaged around 7pmh. The truck has to be tall and tough enough to protect the tourists from bears. The bears get curious and stand up to get a closer look at the smells coming from the interior. Plus they are very strong (duh). The town dump is inside a facility which had to have its walls reinforced with steel because the bears were pounding down the walls trying to get inside. It wouldn’t look very good for the town if a few tourists got mauled because they were taken out to the tundra in a school bus!

We had three full days on the tundra with one day split in half. Our first full day out we had 19 bear sightings. Elise said that is the most she had seen so far that season. There were bears lounging by the side of the road, walking across ice, rolling around in the snow and also circling our buggy. I asked Elise how thick the ice needs to be for a bear to walk across. She said only 3”. I asked her if she had ever seen a bear fall in because he misjudged and she said no. Not maybe an hour later we watched a bear fall in and then pull himself out. He then dragged himself across the ice because he realized it was too thin for him to walk on. We love it when our guides get excited because it shows that we are seeing something very exceptional!

Our last day on the tundra was blizzard like conditions. Elise says the bears like the snow but not the wind and that they take cover in the willows. So we were not expecting much. But this ended up being the best day. Just by chance we came across a mother and her two cubs. These cubs were not the cute cuddly bears that crawl all over their mom. They were huge and probably weighed close to 600#’s. Elise said this would be the season they would leave their mom. For almost two hours we sat and watched while they slept, rolled and walked around, fought over seaweed and pretty much ignored us…until Elise got the smart idea of opening up a package of cookies and putting them on the radiator. As soon as Troy says “I smell caramel!” one of the bears got up to come see what the smell was. As he approached the back of the truck, everyone jumped up and ran out the back to the open viewing platform. We didn’t care that it was -15 with the wind chill, there was a huge polar bear walking straight for the back of the buggy. He was cautious at first as he approached, but he soon realized how much bigger he was then us and came right up to the back of the truck. He sat, stared at us and walked under us (the floor of the viewing platform is made out of a metal grate so we could have easily touched his nose). He then decided he was hungry because he started chewing on the tail of the buggy, tearing off chunks of the wood bumper. Elise had told us that if he started to stand up that we all needed to back up because she had no idea how tall he would be. No sooner had she said that when he decided to stand up and lean on the side of the truck to get a closer look at us. The railings of these trucks are 10’ above the ground so think about how intimidating this is to have a 600lb bear that can stand 10’ tall! In our geriatric group there was a couple named Jim and Helen. When the bear stood up Helen was standing right in front of the bear. Her instinct (which was a good instinct) was to back up. Jim was not going to let her. As he pushes her forward he yells “Helen, he’s not going to eat you, just take the damn picture!” This became the quote of the trip. Luckily for Helen the bear didn’t reach the top of the truck, but then he went around to the other side of the truck and discovered a rock he could stand on that made him about 2’ taller. As he stands up again, Elise tells Jim (that just made the quote of the trip) to get back. It was at that moment he chose to have selective hearing because he did not move. He just kept taking pictures. Well because the bear found the rock to stand on, he is now tall enough to not only reach the top of the truck railing but if he chose he could have easily reached over and grabbed the first thing which would have been Jim and his camera! Needless to say he did not like the shit we gave him for the rest of the trip! I wonder if Elise and the rest of the guides get together at the end of each trip and give out awards to which tourist did the stupidest thing? Jim would have won!

Also, Troy got this little video recorder when he worked for Qwest, so I took it to Churchill and made my first video:

My, What a Big Head You Have!

2010-04-25T12:33:00.005-06:00

Once again instead of bombarding you with all of our photos, here are the top 50!

There is one thing that I have learned about me and Troy in the past 5 years: There is no destination too far, too remote, too weird, too scary that we won’t travel to. Ok, obviously Afghanistan won’t be on that list, but you get the idea. Easter Island has always intrigued me and since there is no easy way to get there I decided to tag it onto the end of our Machu Picchu trip. Easter Island is one of the world’s most isolated inhabited island and lies 2000 miles off the west coast of Chili and over 2500 miles east of Tahiti. It is roughly 14 miles by 7 miles with a population of about 3500. What the island is famous for is the moai statues which number around 900!

I have pretty much become a travel snob and assume everyone knows as much about travel as I do. So when I get questions about Easter Island such as “Do you take a boat there? Do you just fly over it? Can you go on the island? What’s there? Do cannibals live there?” I have to stop and tell myself “Shelly, no one is as smart as you and knows as much as you! People are also not as pretty and sophisticated as you so give them a break!” Ok, back to the real world… anyways I have to remember that Easter Island is not on every ones radar and when I do run into the occasional person who knows about it (which is rare), I am pleasantly surprised!

A little background on Easter Island:

The island got it’s name because it was discovered on Easter Sunday (duh)
The Polynesian name is Rapa Nui and the Spanish name is Isla de Pascua
It is speculated to have been settled around 700-1000AD and was populated by Polynesians who navigated their way there by canoe from the Marquesas Islands over 2300 miles away.
The massive moai statues were erected by these early settlers and represented deified ancestors. It was believed that the living had a symbiotic relationship with the dead where the dead provided everything the living needed (health, fertility of land and animals, fortune, etc.,) and the living through offerings could provide the dead with a better place in the spirit world.
Most settlements were located on the coast and moai were erected all along the coastline, watching over their descendants in the settlements before them, with their backs toward the spirit world in the sea. As the island became overpopulated, different cults emerged which caused fighting among the people.
The Birdman Cult believed human beings chosen from a competition would represent the deceased ancestors and not the moai statues. Many statues around the island were toppled over by the Birdman Cult which to this day remain down.

Our first full day on the island was spent on a 13 mile hike around the island. (I guess we didn’t get enough hiking in Peru.) From town we took a taxi to Anakena beach and set out around the northwest coast of the island. Other than seeing 1 car, 2 swimmers, 2 motorcycles and 1 horseman, we saw no one for hours! There were no roads, cars, power lines, people, boats, airplanes…nothing. The only thing we came across were horses, cows and the occasional horse carcass. It gave us a feeling of being very isolated and even abandoned. As we gazed out north from the island towards the open ocean it was scary to think that if we fell in the water and were caught in a northbound current, the next land fall we would make would be, oh, I don’t know, Alaska, or maybe Russia! Or if we’re really unlucky maybe we would just shoot straight past them through the Bering Strait! Ok, I’m exaggerating, we would probably hit the Canadian coast first! Since it is a very volcanic island we were constantly stumbling over small lava rocks that threatened to trip us up at any moment. But the views and the surrounding island was amazing! It's been written that it is one of the finest coastal walks in the South Pacific and I couldn't agree more!

The next day we rented a car and headed out to see the sights. But first we needed to exchange our money since we couldn’t do it at the Santiago airport because it was closed. Pat, our B&B owner, told us to go to the gas station to do this. What? Seriously? The gas station? Ok. Sure enough, the guy pulled out a huge bag of Chilean Pesos and exchanged our USD for local currency at the best exchange rate on the island or Chile mainland.

We had no plan for the day so we first headed to Rano Raraku which is the quarry where all the moai were carved. I love having no idea what to expect because it makes the surprise so much better! As you can guess, I had no idea what to expect at Rano Raraku and was shocked when from a distance we could see all these heads sticking out of the ground. (Any minute now there is going to be a “That’s what she said!” opportunity!) In fact the quarry has almost 400 statues in various stages of completion lying scattered around the crater. We parked, paid our admission fee, looked around and realized we were the only ones there! From the side of the hill we could see for miles and there were no cars coming at all! So here is an incredible UNESCO World Heritage site…and me and Troy!

We were able to get all the photos we wanted without any other tourists in the shots! We did make sure to obey the rules and not go off the trail or touch any of the moai or step on the Ahu (platforms). There is one picture that looks like I’m touching the statue, but I’m not. I do have a few caring cells in my body! We found out a few days later that when the big tour groups show up, a ranger follows them around. If someone breaks the rule, the ranger doesn’t reprimand them there, he takes a photo of them. The photos then get hung up at the airport and upon your departure, if your photo is hung up, you get fined!

Before we left the quarry, Troy wanted to go inside the crater. I wasn’t interested because… well I wasn’t interested. But I followed him anyways and was glad I did. Inside the crater were about 30 more heads! And again, just me and Troy!

Our next stop was Tongariki which is the most famous sight because it consists of 15 standing moai with a stunning ocean view at their backs. When we got there, there were two tourists and their guide. They left shortly and once again it was me and Troy. We couldn’t figure out where all the tourists were but found out later that week we did the “tour itinerary” backwards. The tour groups leave Rono Raraku and Tongariki as the last stops.

We went back to Anakena beach for lunch before heading onwards. There was a tiny little shack open for business ran by an old woman. Her menu consisted of four items written on a piece of cardboard. We ordered the tuna and were shooed off while she started her BBQ. When we came back there were four huge pieces of tuna on the grill and I looked around thinking “Who else is she feeding here?” Before I knew it there was a huge plate of food placed in front of my face that looked like it belonged in a four star restaurant! Although I don’t think four star restaurants have enormous amounts of flies that appear out of nowhere. While we’re eating two craft ladies showed up and started to set up their booths. Our BBQ lady started telling them a story and even though we couldn’t tell what they were saying we could tell it was extraordinarily sad. We found out our BBQ ladies 2 year old granddaughter had been killed the day before. She had been accidentally ran over by her father!

We stopped at several other sights on the way back to town but none held our interest the way the quarry and Tongariki did. We visited Akivi which has 7 moai that were erected in the middle of the island and there is much speculation as to why they were built inland whereas all the rest of the moai were placed right along the islands coast. We also stopped to see the quarry where the red hats were made. I would love to know the theory behind why the moai needed hats!

The next day we went diving. We knew not to expect much but we can’t go to an island and not dive. Our dive guide was an interesting guy. His name was Henri, was French, over 60 years old and had worked closely with Jacques Cousteau on his boat the Calypso. We wish we spoke French because he would have been a very interesting person to get to know. The diving was ok. Not much fish life, visibility ok, underwater terrain very cool… but at least it was cold! On our second dive I looked at my watch and was excited to see that the dive was almost over because I was very, very cold. At this point Henri looked at everyones' air gauge and continued on. A few minutes later I looked up and thought “Woohoo, there’s the boat! Wait, where you going Henri, the boat is right above us. We’re not stopping? We’re still going? Crap!” Like I said, Henri was interesting but our boat driver was a big fat grump! He looked like the most miserable person on the island!

As we’re hanging out at the shop after the dive we notice the little girls funeral procession going through town. The bad thing about our B&B, it’s located right next to the cemetery. As we made our way back to our room, we walked fast, kept our heads down and walked on the opposite side of the dirt parking lot because we didn’t want the locals thinking we were being nosy tourists. The last thing we wanted to do was intrude on this very tragic personal time. One of the sad things about this funeral is that instead of the coffin being taken to the cemetery in a hearse, it was taken in the back of a beat up old Toyota pick up truck.

Our last day we still had not had enough of hiking as we proceeded to do a 9 mile round trip hike to the Rano Kau volcano. The dogs in this town know who the tourists are because as we walked down the street, a random dog would start to follow us. If we stopped in a store or restaurant, he would sit and wait outside until we were done. So as we headed out of town to the volcano, a dog , who we nicknamed Yellow Belly, started following us. We thought after 10 minutes he would get bored and would turn around. No, he followed us the whole way up and back down. I don't think he was used to walking that far because he started to lag as we got to the stop of the volcano. We gave him some water and cheese and then he was good to go. No wonder they follow the tourists. They know we're suckers and will fall for the "I'm so tired!" act!

I don't think Easter Island will ever make it on any of the Food Networks shows because it is not necessarily known for their food but do they make a killer ceviche. We ate so much tuna! Every day we either had tuna sashimi, tuna steaks or tuna ceviche! And believe it or not, this tiny island in the middle of nowhere brews it’s own beer! They definitely have their priorities straight!

We Kicked the Inca's Trail's Ass!

2010-04-25T11:20:00.003-06:00

We whittled down the 100's of photos to the top 50 or so which you can see here.

Every so often someone will ask me “How do you decide where to travel to?” Little do they know I have a very long list of destinations! Even though we have been to a ton of places, there are still a ton more to see. I got the idea for this trip after our dive trip last summer to the Galapagos. It never occurred to me that Machu Picchu in Peru was so close and then what better time to go to Easter Island since we would be near the west coast of Chile! So off we went. The only downsize to where we travel to is how long it takes to get there. It is not a hop, skip and a jump like to Mexico. No, we’re lucky if we make it to our destination in 24 hours!

This trip almost didn’t happen though. Beginning of January, the Cusco/Machu Picchu (MP) region got an enormous amount of rain which washed out part of the Inca Trail and the rail line between MP and Ollantaytambo. Thousands of tourists were stranded and had to be air lifted out of MP. The trail was closed for the next three months while repairs were made. I had made reservations back in December and crossed my fingers the trail would be open again April 12 which was when we were to go. The trail opened no problem on April 1, but then there was the issue of getting a train ticket. Since only one train was running instead of the normal four, tickets were very hard to come by and our trekking company had to buy ours on the gray market. Normally worrying about if we had a train ticket or not would not be an issue but at the checkpoint before we began the trek, we had to show a government official we had a train ticket otherwise we were not allowed to go. But we got our tickets and were good to go!

Our trekking company required everyone to be in Cusco at least two days before departure to acclimate to the altitude, which is at 11,000 feet! I think living a mile above sea level helped us but we still felt it walking up the steep streets. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the people who came straight from sea level. Our original plan upon arriving at 7am was to go straight to bed but that is really hard to do in a foreign city when there is so much to see. So we headed out to see the town and nearby Inca sights, oh, and a really big white Jesus statue that had creepy eyes! During our roaming of Cusco we came across the local market that had everything from dozens of juice and local food stalls, to ladies selling flowers, huge round loaves of bread, raw meat and what we think were cow noses. Hmm… I wonder if a cow nose makes a good soup stock? We did discover another thing in Cusco: Alpaca meat is goooood! Cured Alpaca meat on a pizza was especially good!

A friend who recently went to Cusco told me that a festival happens every Sunday in the main square. We asked our B&B owner, Phillippe, if he knew what festival was going on that day and he says “There is not a festival today. Unless it is a holiday, but today there is nothing.” Remember that quote. So we head to the main square and guess what we came upon? Not a festival but a small parade. It was actually quite lame. It started out with school children in their uniforms marching (or trying to march) to the band. Then next came the business women of Cusco. They all had on business suits, heels and even carried their purses (I thought the purses was a nice touch!)

After watching this for 20 minutes we got bored and thought that Phillippe was right, this was no festival. Shortly after settling down at a nearby café to sample Peru’s famous coffee, we realized that yes, today there would be a festival. Starting from the opposite direction came groups of people in brilliant colored costumes and masks with trumpets, tubas, drums and dancing! Now this was a festival! And it went on for hours! It was a parade I would love to be in. At each corner the parade stopped and a kid would run out to the participants with a crate full of beer and pass them around.

Each group was introduced by a banner that said who they were, but only one group was advertising a product… diapers and toilet paper. The group started out with a large roll of toilet paper dancing down the street then followed by small children (like 4 years old) dressed as cowboys wearing masks with large noses. I’m not sure which part was weirder: the part where they had bags of diapers shoved into their pants or that they were dancing holding bottles of beer! Then these kids were followed by adults dressed the same way, diapers and all stuffed into their pants. The only difference with the adults is that they were drinking the beer they were holding. Personally if I had to go in public with diapers shoved in my pants, I would be drinking too. We tried to find out what the festival was for and after much questioning we found out it was the anniversary for the black market. What??? After we got back to our B&B we told Phillippe about the festival and he says (remember his quote from earlier?) “Oh yes, every Sunday there is a festival in the square."

Of course, going to Machu Picchu by train like everybody else just isn’t our style so we decided to do the four day trek along the Inca Trail which is about 25 miles. Even though we normally do 8-10 miles hikes throughout the summer here in Colorado we were a bit nervous about the trek since we have never done a multi-day trip carrying our own gear. Luckily since this was our first time we had it quite easy because we didn’t have to carry our food or tents, just our own personal items. We have some friends that are true mountaineers that are reading this and probably laughing their asses off thinking how easy we had it! I’ll admit, it could have been much tougher then it was, although it was still tough.

Our group was made up of people from all around the world: Germany, China, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US. The first day everyone in our group seemed to be sizing each other up: My pack is bigger than yours. I wonder if I could have brought a smaller pack? You’ve climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro? Are you going to be slow or fast? Does your ten year old daughter even want to do this? You have never heard of zip-off pants? But soon everyone fell into a groove with each other even though no one could remember the others name.

You know how in a group there is always that one annoying person? Well ours was Chuck Norris. His real name was Eric, but one of the porters named him Chuck Norris because of his hair and the name stuck. Sometime not too long ago I think he fried part of his brain on drugs because something about him just wasn’t right. He really was an idiot. He kind of made life miserable for everyone in the group, especially the guide. He would be anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours behind everyone else and would get pissed that the guide didn’t wait for him although there was a guide who was always behind him bringing up the rear.

There are a lot of trekking companies out there and we were very happy with our company, Peru Treks. Upon arrival at each stop for a meal we were greeted with juice, bowls of warm water and soap were laid out for us to wash up before eating, at the campsite our tents were set up and taken down for us by the porters and each morning coffee was brought to our tent. Oh, and the food was awesome. Speaking of the porters, they are who made the trip possible. Each trekking group had their own porters who carried the sleeping tents, food tent, collapsible stools, food, propane, eating utensils, tea kettle and whatever else was needed to make our stay comfortable. They did the same trek with us but at a much faster pace and with more weight on their backs. The government regulates it so that each porter cannot carry more than 55lbs. That is still a lot of weight but before the government got involved, each porter carried over 100lbs. One of our porters was even 66 years old! So we never once complained about the weight of our own packs.

Our first day was easy with most of the trek flat going through grass fields and passing the occasional small Inca sight. The second day was a different story, but more on that later. The first camp site was gorgeous with views of the beautiful Andes mountains surrounding us and a zillion stars after the sun set. The only bad thing about our site was the toilet. Oh, the toilet. Obviously there is no running water here, so it is a squatter toilet (toilet level with the floor) in an outhouse with a trash can in the corner for the toilet paper. We quickly found out that there were people along the trek that were having problems with their bowels and not quite making it to the toilet in time. This was evident in the outhouse because there were piles of shit on the floor that missed the toilet by 6”. And yes, this is gross, very gross, but it was a part of our everyday life on the trek!

The second day was the challenge: it was straight up from the camp and gained over 4200’ in elevation in a little over 5 miles. The pass was called Dead Woman’s Pass and Cesar, our guide, told us the story of how it got its name but it was so lame it doesn’t even deserve to be repeated - but Cesar is a great story teller. Right after breakfast Cesar gave us a demonstration on how to chew coca leaves to alleviate altitude sickness. This was quite the novelty because coca leaves is the raw form that cocaine is made of. After chewing several leaves and then spitting them out after two minutes, the tongue goes numb. The leaves made me gag and I had no desire to chew them while struggling up the steep climb so I did without. Fortunately Troy and I were fine whereas others in our group did not have such an easy time with the altitude, coca leaves or not. So backpacks on, here we go. Cesar said it would take five hours to reach the top. Troy and I did it in three! Guess all the training at the gym paid off! A lot of people in our group that day had problems whether it was dehydration, diarrhea, headaches, nausea, lost toe nails or just pure and simple struggled to get up the hill, I was happy Troy and I had no problems. Once we got to the top it was straight down to our next campsite.

The third day was the longest day. The distance covered was longer and there were more Inca sights to stop and see so it took everyone 10 hours to get to camp. That is, except for Chuck Norris and his girlfriend. They were two hours behind everyone and arrived at camp after dark. Before we arrived at our last camp everyone had to walk down Gringo Killer which was 3000’of elevation loss in the form of steps that went down, down, down. If no one was sore before this, they were sore after wards. The last camp was a very civilized with showers and a bar and restaurant. After throwing our packs in our tent and taking a quick shower we all headed to the bar. Funny thing, we drank all their beer! There were probably 30 other people in the bar before us but when a girl from our group went to buy us five beers, she was cut off. We all thought five was the limit that could be bought at one time. Ended up five was the limit because that was all that was left. But what do you know, 30 minutes later here comes a porter with a potato sack full of beer!

Our last morning we rose at 3:45am had a quick breakfast and were on the trail by 4:45. It had rained very heavily the night before but stopped by the time we got up. We have had such gorgeous weather to this point that a little rain was to be expected. There is a gated checkpoint on the Inca Trail that leads towards MP. It didn’t open until 5:30 so all the trekkers were lined up at this gate when it opened. Then it became kind of a mad dash to MP. Cesar kept warning us that there would be trekkers who would over take each other and to just let them but to stay on the mountainside. There is a very steep drop off the edge that would make the beginning of any ones day very bad! Our first meeting point as a group was at the Sun Gate. This was an Inca site that was at the top of a pass. I think we left our campsite so early so that when we got to the Sun Gate we could see the sunrise over MP. But unfortunately because of the previously nights rain, everything was shrouded in clouds and there was to be no sunrise over MP. Once everyone realized this, there was no longer a mad dash to get to MP first. So along we kept trekking, having no idea whatsoever that just beyond the clouds was MP! The first inclination I had that we were really close was when out of the clouds came this woman wearing a pink and white flowered sundress! I almost stopped in my tracks and looked around and thought “Where the hell did she come from?!?” But then more and more of these oddly dressed people who were clean and smelled good started appearing out of nowhere.

We finally arrived at MP and was a little disappointed because of the cloud cover. But slowly as the sun warmed up the air, bits and pieces of MP started revealing itself to us until finally the entire cloud cover burned away and we could see MP in all its glory! If I was a religious person I would almost think I heard angels singing! But since I’m not I’ll say I heard Metallica rocking out as the clouds disappeared!

Along the trek we did learn a few things besides the fact that large packs of dogs love to bark and chase after chickens through our camp at 3 am. For instance the Inca trail was not used by the common person, it was used by important people such as architects, astronomers, priests and the occasional king and there was more than one trail to confuse the enemies. The Inca’s were master stone builders and never used mortar of any kind to build walls and that the stones were carved and sculpted so tightly next to each other that even a blade of a knife can’t be inserted. What struck me the most was how random the Inca dwellings were built in the mountainside and how they were in the middle of nowhere, miles and miles from anything.

Because of all the photos I have seen of MP, I knew what to expect when we arrived, or at least what to expect after the clouds lifted. But after seeing it in person after the 4 day trek, it impressed me far more than I expected. Along the trek all the Inca sights were small, with maybe a few terraces for farming but MP is huge and is truly a Lost City. It was only recently discovered in 1911 and covers about 5 square miles and even though little is known about the social or religious use it is believed that it’s primary function was for astronomical observation.

This was an extraordinary journey and every single one of us in our group felt that we deserved to be there and not the people who came in by train! They should at least be required to do some jumping jacks or push ups before they get to go!

Next up, Easter Island!

How To Lose Your Sanity in Italy

2009-09-20T17:00:00.006-06:00

This is a long blog, but worth reading. I have not had this much to write about a trip in a long time! Even Galapagos was not filled with this many stories!

Before we begin, here is a cast of characters and a little background to help you along:

Rick: Troy’s dad
Pam: Troy’s step-mom
Ray: Troy’s uncle
Carol: Troy’s aunt
Mary: Troy’s grandma
Mario: Mary’s first cousin in Italy
Nicola: Marios son in Rome
Dominic: owner of B&B in Pescara

Background

During our year trip one of the incredible countries we visited was Italy. Of course we wanted to see all the amazing cities but Troy had an alternative reason for visiting. His great grandfather, who grew up in Italy, moved to the US in 1909. His grandmother, Mary and her sisters were born in the US a few years later. So Mary still has several first cousins there that she has never met since she has never been to Italy. Some US relatives of Mary had traveled to Italy several years ago and had found these first cousins and passed along information such as names, who was still alive and the name of the village, Nocciano, where most of them lived. When we decided to visit Italy, Troy said he wanted to find this village for his grandma, who he is very close to. So we booked a B&B at a major city that we knew was near Nocciano thinking that we would rent a car and drive to the village, take some photos and that be the end of it.

Some of the information that was brought back from the relatives was that Mary’s first cousin, Mario had a son, Nicola, who was a heart surgeon in Rome. Since we knew we were going to be in Rome, Troy made contact with Nicola and we ended up meeting him and his family in Rome.

So to continue with this long story, when we arrived at our B&B in Pescara, we were pleasantly surprised to find the owner, Dominic, spoke perfect English. When we told him why we were in Pescara, he told us to rent a car and he would go with us to Nocciano to find Mary’s first cousin. So Troy called Nicola in Rome and told him we were going to try to find his dad to meet him. Nicola called his dad and told him to expect us the next day. For some reason we didn’t have his address but Dominic said it wasn’t a problem. Nocciano was so small that all we needed to do was stop at the first old person we saw and ask for Mario Luciani’s house. Sure enough, the first old man we saw gave us perfect directions to his house. That afternoon we met Mario, his wife and several other family members. Mario even gave us photos to give to Mary. One photo was of her grandmother who she had never met. Since Troy was so close to his grandma he decided that before it was too late he would get her back to Italy to meet her family. She just turned 90 so we knew that the time was now or never. That is how this return trip came to be.

Onto the Story

It started out that Troy and his grandma was going to go. He wanted me to go because he knew he would need help. If anyone else wanted to go, great. Rick and Ray definitely wanted to go who in turn invited Carol and Pam to go as well. Mary soon decided that she would pay for everyone to go which meant that she wanted to invite a slew of people. Things rapidly got out of hand with how many people she wanted to invite. It was going to be hard enough as it was traveling as a group of 7 with one of them being 90 years old. But luckily the invite list got under control and I was able to start making travel plans.

I was in charge of the travel plans so my stress started long before the trip even began. It’s one thing to book a trip for just Troy and I. I don’t need to check with him on anything because I know how he likes to travel. It’s another thing to book for 5 other people I have never traveled with and who have not traveled internationally in quite some time (if at all). I had to be the travel coordinator and basically tell people what they had to do, where to be at a certain time, how to prepare for the trip, etc, without sounding like a bitch. However, it ended up that being a bitch was what got results from everyone! Anyways, I had to figure out how to get a wheelchair for Mary (she can walk fine but not for hours at a time); what was the best way to get her around Rome to see all the sights; finding flights with enough layover time to get everyone to the gate in time; etc. Booking the B&B in Pescara was easy because Dominic had 2 units we could use. He said he would help book our apartment in Rome so he became our go between for the Rome accommodations. I didn’t like that. There was an extraordinary number of e-mails that were passed back and forth to explain to him that 7 adults were not going to fit into beds that slept only 5. I don’t care what country we’re going to, it just doesn’t work.

Okay, Let's Go!!!

Troy and I knew we were going to need a lot of patience for this trip and that it would be tested over and over again but we didn’t know the testing would start so soon at DIA. We had no sooner gone through security when both Rick and Ray realize they had lost their money pouches. What??? Both of you??? You’re kidding me! Two grown men losing their money before we have even left the country. Ended up when they took their belts off to go through security, the pouches had slid down their pants leg. Or in Ray’s case got stuck in his underwear because that is where he had tucked his. But I can’t give them too much grief. I made a dumb mistake myself of booking our hotel transfer for the wrong day. Me, the world traveler who booked our year trip without a hitch! What happened was September 5 was stuck in my mind for the day we left that it never occurred to me we were arriving the next day. It only dawned on me when we were landing and Troy asked me what the date was because he was changing it on his watch. Troy had received a call at 2am from Italy the morning we were leaving . We couldn’t figure out who would be calling us. I thought it was a coincidence. Ended up being our transfer at the airport wondering where we were! Whoops!

I have to stop here for a moment and give Ray some more shit (that is the great thing about family - we can do that). One of the afternoons in Rome, him and Carol had it free to do their own thing so they went and visited the Roman Forum. This is the central area in Rome where the ancient Roman civilization developed. The oldest and most important structures of the ancient city are located here. Do you kind of have an idea of how important this site is? As they are touring the grounds, guess what Ray did? He picked up a rock from the ground and kept it!!!!!! It’s like going to the Petrified Forest and taking a piece of the forest or going to the Acropolis in Athens and taking a rock from there. You know the old saying “If everyone took one…!” You just don’t do these things! When I found out what he did I was horrified!

Our first day was a good start. After getting settled into our apartment, which was going to be cozy (to say the least) for the next 4 days, we went to lunch and then went to visit the San Giovanni in Laterano Catholic Church, of which the Pope is Bishop of and is considered the “Mother of All Churches”. This church was right by our apartment so it was an easy walk to visit. This was my favorite church when we visited in the past and still is. Stop laughing!!! I can have a favorite church if I want to! Anyways, there are all these…coves… (for lack of a better word because I have no idea what they are called) in a church where people can sit or kneel and pray. So Mary, who is very Catholic, stops and prays at the first one after putting in her 1Euro to light the electric candle. She then moves onto the next cove and sits and prays more. I turn to Troy and say “What’s she praying for now that she didn’t pray for over there?” After that we rested, walked down to the Collosseum which was very near our place, had dinner then started the vacation off with a bang by preceding to drink way too much which pretty much set the tone for the rest of the trip.

On Tuesday we had booked a tour of the Vatican Museum, which Troy and I had seen last time around, but we didn’t have a guide so we didn’t get the inside scoop on a lot of things. Such as: Michelangelo was so angry he was blackmailed into painting the Sistine Chapel, that he painted God’s Ass on the ceiling. Hmmm… do you capitalize ass since it is God’s ass we are referring to? There is also a sculpture from the Roman period that looks disturbingly too much like Bill Clinton - I mean, exactly like him! Pompous hairdo and bulbous nose and everything! Oh, and you can see his penis!

After our tour we stopped to get lunch where pretty much a full brawl broke out amongst us. There was mis-communication about who was spending the afternoon doing what, who was going off to do their own thing, etc. and the next thing I know "the adults" were yelling at each other and trying to get the last word in. Mary is sitting at the end of the table completely oblivious to this fight going on around her. She turns to Troy and says “Do you want a bite of my potatas? How about my fish?”

We knew Mary needed to see St. Peter’s Basilica regardless how tired she was, so after lunch and everyone settled down we took her back to the Vatican. We had used the wheelchair that morning for the museum tour because it was going to be 3 hours of walking. We knew she would need it because she wouldn’t be able to walk or stand for long periods. She hated it though. She gave it dirty looks every time we told her she had to use it. So upon arrival at the Vatican, I immediately went to get a place in the long line thinking Troy is bringing up the rear while pushing Mary in the wheelchair. Next thing I know, Rick is getting a phone call from Troy saying they were in already inside! Ahh… the power of a wheelchair! So the rest of us stood outside in the sweltering sun silently cursing the fact that Troy is already inside.

Troy and I had to leave early that afternoon to go pick up tickets to the Papal Audience I had reserved at a Catholic Church that I had found through the internet. Just as Troy and I are rushing out of the Vatican square to catch the subway, Rick calls to say Pam got tickets! What??? How??? It literally stopped us in our tracks because we didn’t understand how she got the tickets so easily. Long story short, the nun in the Vatican gift shop offered them to her because they were having a difficult time communicating how much something cost. Troy and I didn’t know what to do because it was made very clear to us that we needed to either pick up the tickets or cancel the reservation so someone else could get the tickets. I didn’t have the contact information with me to cancel the tickets so instead Troy and I bought a beer, sat outside the Vatican walls and contemplated that we were going to burn in hell for not picking up the tickets… oh, and the fact that we’re drinking a beer outside of the Vatican in St. Peters Square!

Wednesday morning was the day of the Papal Audience. While I was researching tours and things to take Mary to do, I kept coming across this. Since she was Roman Catholic I thought she would like the opportunity to see the Pope. I couldn’t get very detailed information about what this would entail but what my assumption was after talking to other people and what little I read on the internet, I thought we would be in St. Peter’s square with 100,000 other people and would see the Pope as a tiny little speck at his window a half mile away. Sure, he would be a tiny little speck but it would still be the Pope. So Wednesday morning we get up, put on our casual clothes, slather on the sunscreen, get Mary’s umbrella, grab the wheelchair and off we go to the Vatican again. When we arrived 2 hours early I anticipated a lot of people. There were a lot of people but not as many as I expected. After we got through security, instead of going straight into the square which is directly ahead of us, we are directed left through a gate that is guarded by the Pontifical Swiss Guard. I immediately knew something was up since the average tourist rarely sees these guards around the Vatican.

So me, Rick, Pam, Troy and Mary in her wheelchair follow the line of people away from the square towards who knows where. We are then directed into an auditorium but Troy and his grandma are told to go in a different entrance because of the wheelchair. We quickly find chairs because we were tired of fighting the crowd. We sit down, look around and see a large stage in front of us with a huge sculpture in the background with Jesus growing out of it. In the center of the stage is a lone chair and I ask Rick how far are we away from that. He quickly thinks about what golf club he would use to hit that chair and says 75 yards. As 10:30 nears the three of us are sitting trying to figure out what is about to happen. 10:30, on the dot, here comes the frickin Pope! Here we are 75 yards away from him, but guess where Troy and his grandma are? 30’ away. 30 frickin’ feet. They are in the front row barely off center stage. As soon as he walks on stage the whole audience roars to life!!!!! He stands there with his hands raised with the attitude of “I am such a rock star!!!” Afterward we asked Mary what she thought of the wheelchair and she says “Oh, I like the wheelchair now!”

The Papal Audience was the most bizarre thing. Here we are in a group of 5000 people in the presence of the Pope and people are yelling, whistling, screaming (yes, screaming at the Pope) waving their country flags, unfurling huge banners, playing trumpets, there was even a full fledge high school band complete with pom pom girls! It was by far nothing any of us expected!

Have you ever gone souvenir shopping with a 90 year old in a foreign country? Don’t do it! Rick had told Mary from day one that she needed to do her shopping. Either she kept forgetting or what I think is the real case is she wouldn’t speak up when she wanted to go into a store. So after the Papal Audience and lunch we told her it was time to do her shopping. She only wanted to spend $2US per person which in Rome is not getting you much. The stuff she picked out and how much she bought was unreal. After she bought for everyone on her list she kept buying little ceramic figurines “just in case!” When we got to Pescara she wanted to do more shopping. She said she wanted to find “tourist candy”, whatever that is. Then, when we were at the Rome airport, more shopping, then at Washington DC airport, still even more shopping. By that point we all put our foot down and said no because no one wanted to carry her stuff. I was already carrying 5 big boxes of candy for her and I was not going to carry anything else. I know I'm being hard and she’s 90 but there has to be a line drawn at some point!

When Troy and I had traveled through Italy before we were not able to experience the food like it deserves. We were on such a tight budget that we ate as cheap as we could. We made up for it on this trip! For the most part in Rome we ate pasta and pizza – nothing special. But in Pescara and the Abruzzo region we feasted. Our first full day in Pescara we rented a car, went and toured a winery then went to lunch at a place that Dominic recommended. The waiter spoke very little English but Troy was able to order for all of us. We had bruschetta, several antipasta plates, 2 pastas, rosticcini – which are small skewers of the best tasting lamb ever – pork chops and a few other plates I’m forgetting right now. It was a nice $150 lunch!

That afternoon was the first time that Mary was to meet Mario, her first cousin who is 86 and has exactly 4.5 teeth. That evening 12 of us went to dinner at this tiny, no frills, boring restaurant. It was one of those places with the plastic tables and chairs outside, stuffed animal heads on the wall, Pizza Hut table cloths and a fat old lady cooking in the kitchen. But in spite of all this, the food was phenomenal. Our anti-pasta plate consisted of boars meat, the pasta had shaved dried truffles (which evidently are common in the area) and of course copious amounts of wine.

The following day was the family reunion. This was what Troy brought Mary to Italy for: so she could meet her four first cousins and other family members she had never met. By pure coincidence, this year was the 100 year anniversary of when Mary’s father moved to the US. Pretty clever of us! We had hired three translators, one being Dominic who in turn hired two university students. Talk about a small world. One of the students, Stefano had lived in Colorado Springs, where his grandparents resided, to attend school. In the meantime his grandparents have moved to Casa Grande, AZ where my aunt and her family used to live. Anyways, there were about 40 people at this reunion, very few could speak English outside of Nicola’s family but that is why we brought three translators. I can’t imagine what was going through Mary’s mind when we arrived and she first got out of the car. I personally would have been nervous as hell and hoping I could get through the afternoon without making a fool of myself.

Through our translator, Mario told me and Troy a funny story. Two years ago when we had visited, the day after we left, Mario received a phone call from a friend that said he was on the news. Mario responded with “Go to hell,” before he let his friend continue with his story. Evidently word got out that these 2 Americans had come to Nocciano to meet their distant relatives. I guess in their very small world, this was a big deal and found it to be very news worthy. Then to top it off, the news people found it even more bizarre that these 2 Americans were traveling the world for a year. We never knew who told who what about our visit but we thought it was funny that something like this made their local news. We were celebrities and didn’t even know it!

After the reunion, Mary wanted to find the house her father grew up in. The last relatives to visit had said they had found the house. At the end of our own personal house hunt, we think somebody lied to them. Two relatives from the reunion came with us so off we went in a caravan of three cars. One of the relatives was a farmer who knew the surrounding area very well and the other one was Mario who had been to the house when he was very young. So we all thought it would be a short 15 minute drive to the house, take a few photos etc. etc, then be on our way back to our hotel after a long day. Oh no. One and a half hours later we are still searching. Troy had his GPS out because everyone wanted him to mark the spot but after the hour and a half drive, all he had to show was a spaghetti bowl of crazy driving all over the Italian countryside! So after our too long search we stop to talk to this old man at the side of the road who is in a motorized scooter. We all thought he was being asked directions, but next thing I know he is getting in one of the cars. Mary asks “Do they know him?” Me, being the smartass, couldn’t resist and said “No, they just like to pick up random old people from the side of the road!” Turns out he was a second cousin of the Luciani family. Luckily he did come with us because he took us directly to the spot where the house was. Who knows what house the last relatives saw, but what we saw was a lot of empty land with a very small dilapidated building on it. We know for a fact this building was not the house because it used to be big enough to hold 48 people. Since Mary was so excited to be here she wanted to add to her souvenir collection and collect a few rocks. These were not small rocks that would fit in your pants pocket. No, they weighed several pounds each and no one was allowed to wash off the dirt.

Sunday was our last day here so we piled into the car and took a driving tour of the castle villages in the area. The main one to visit was Rocca Calascio. This was built in the 14th century and is the tallest bastion in Italy. Isn’t Troy’s photo of it awesome? After visiting the castle we were to head onto the next village following the Tom Tom’s GPS directions. You know, the navigational device with the pleasant female voice that says “In 200 yards, bear left!” I think our Tom Tom was Satan in disguise. In fact, here on after, I am going to refer to the Tom Tom as Satan. Heading down from the castle Satan says “At the end of the road, turn right” which is taking us into the village. I’m sitting in the middle seat and I start mumbling quietly “This is not a good idea, this is not a good idea.” As Satan takes us deeper into the village my mumblings get louder and louder. Ray turns to Troy and says “Why is this not a good idea?” and Troy responds “Because Shelly is remembering the villages we walked through and how narrow the streets are. “Narrow streets” is an understatement. Sure, we’re in a car that can hold 7 people but it’s still a small car. We’re driving through alleys that are so narrow that we have to fold in the mirrors. I am getting more nervous with each block we go because I have yet to see a place for us to turn around. I start rubbing my temples thinking this can’t end up good and that there is no way Troy can back up through these narrow streets. He was barely able to navigate them going forward. So we finally come to a fork in the road and Troy says “What do I do?” Remember Satan has directed us to this point in the village and is telling us to go left - tricky f**ker. I say, “Someone needs to get out and look to see where the road going down leads to.” Ray gets out, goes and looks, comes back and says it’s tight but we can do it. When he looked at the road and the passage we had to make he was thinking of the width of the car, not the length.

So Troy proceeds down an incline that curves left then immediately cuts right between two old buildings. So Troy tries with no luck. He can get the front left bumper through the corner but that means the back right panel is going to get scrapped really, really bad. So he backs up. Tries again, no go. Backs up again, still no go. By this time the clutch is burning because it has no torque to back up this steep incline. During all of this an old man has come out of his house to see what the bad burning smell is all about. He doesn’t speak any English but tries to give us directions on what to do. Troy and I both had the same idea that he should get in a drive. At one point, Troy gives up and Ray gives it a whirl. He get’s the back right panel the clearance it needs only to have smashed the front left bumper into the wall. “Am I ok on the front left?” “No, not anymore!” He gives up so Troy jumps back in the driver seat. In the meantime an Indian has come out who speaks both English and Italian and is helping to translate what the old man is saying. He tells Troy “You can make it but it will be a small crash.” Troy responds “We have insurance” and the Indian says “Ahhh, you have insurance, big crash, no problem!” The old man has finally lost his patience and has kicked Troy out of the car and has taken over driving. Both Troy, me and Rick realize that all we need to do to make this sharp corner is to pick up the rear end and move it left 4”. That’s all we need, 4”. So me, Troy, Rick, Ray and a few locals start lifting the bumper up and down to bounce it while Troy is pushing it left. Lo and behold we moved it enough to get the car through. We found out at the end of all this Mary had her rosary out the whole time praying we would make it! And of course no one got a photo of the car stuck. Damn! I also forgot to apologize to the locals for trying to destroy their several hundred year old village.

Ok, ordeal done with, Troy’s adrenaline has subsided and his legs have stopped shaking from dealing with the stupid clutch. Onto another small village called Santo Stefano for lunch that is 2 hours overdue. First restaurant we see we stop because we are all famished. The waitress speaks very little English so Troy accidentally ends up ordering the whole menu. So $300 and 2 hours later this is what we have devoured: 2 bottles of wine, individual plates of prosciutto and pepperoni, 2 types of bruschetta, pickled zucchini , a plate of some sort of tasty sliced fat, platter of ricotta and assorted cheeses, cold green beans, lentil soup, roasted potatoes, gnocchi, pasta with red sauce, pasta with white sauce, fried cheese with honey, puffed rice, porkchops and sausages. Troy caught her in time to keep her from bringing us dessert because we had no room on the table or in our bellies for it!

Finally, we had booked a private transfer from Pescara to the Rome airport because the bus and train schedules were not going to work with our flight departure time. So I tell the driver we are on United. When we get to the airport I repeat it again. He drops us off at the airport and I’m seeing signs for multiple airlines but I’m not seeing United. I figure it would get sorted out when we get in the terminal. Shortly after we enter the terminal we quickly realize he had dropped us off at the wrong terminal and we had to catch a shuttle bus to get to the right place. There is nothing like running down the airport road to catch a bus dragging 6 people and their luggage with them with and trying to coax a 90 year old grandmother to keep up with us.

Ok, I’m done!

The Incredible Wildlife of the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

2009-07-07T18:16:00.005-06:00

See the "best of" photos of the Galapagos.

As if Troy and I have not dived the best the world has to offer, there are still a few places (believe it or not) that we have yet to conquer. A few weeks ago, we marked one of the big ones off our dwindling list: Galapagos Islands! We tried to work this into our year trip but the timing of available diving liveaboards just didn’t work out. Let me tell you, the diving was unbelievable. We ranked it side by side with Cocos Island, Costa Rica as far as shark life goes but when you add in the overall fish and marine life, Galapagos is off the scale! There was a 15 year old diver with us and her family and we told her, “You got nowhere to go from here! You’ve seen the best and you’re only 15! Stop diving now!”

Before we got on our dive boat we spent a few days in Quito, Ecuador. As we’re heading to the hotel from the airport we received our first impression of Quito right away. You know when you pull up to a stop light in a busy city and little kids run up to your car selling newspapers or Chiclets or try to wash your window? Not in Quito. The little kids are flame throwers! Our taxi is at a stop light and we look over and see this kid spitting alcohol into a lighter and out explodes this huge flame! If we had been in the right lane I would definitely have paid $1 to see that again!

We met up with our dive group the next morning to take a walking tour of the city. Our first stop was in Old Town to go see The Basilica del Voto Nacional or in simple terms The Basilica. But first we had to get our entire group onto the packed trolley. When I say packed I mean the people of Quito could put the people of Tokyo to shame when it comes to how they pack themselves onto their public transportation. We missed the first two trolley’s because our group was just not forceful enough. Troy and I (the experts when it comes to packed transportation) told the group they were going to have to be brutal if they were going to get anywhere. The look of absolute horror on their faces was priceless when they realized they were going to have to give the old lady next to them a swift elbow to the ribs in order to get on the trolley. They did it, only to get off on the wrong stop!!!

Anyways, back to the church: it was gorgeous. It sat on top of a hill in the center of the city and could be seen from everywhere, considering it was the tallest thing around. Most of the city consisted of square, flat, boring buildings so anything that was not square stood out. Although i do have to say that in Old Town and around our hotel there were some great old colonial buildings. The first thing I noticed about it was the gargoyles. Actually, instead of gargoyles, there were turtles, iguanas, and birds lurching out of the side of the immense building. This church was enormous and completely open to visitors to climb and crawl all over it, which we did. There were steep ladders and wire mesh platforms that led up to the highest points of the tower. The part I thought was the craziest was once we got to the very top, there was a gate “open” that allowed us to crawl out onto a 2’ wide ledge that allowed an amazing, uninterrupted view of the whole city. I’m sharing this 2’ ledge with our friend, listening to him tell me about the last time he was up there pieces of the church broke off when he touched them. Ok, so maybe we shouldn’t be standing out here anymore. I’m not scared of heights but standing on that ledge definitely gave me the heebie jeebies! We spent the rest of the afternoon hop, skip and jumping around the town, throwing in a grande beer here and there. Oh, and paying $2 for a postcard stamp! What?????

A trip to Ecuador is not complete without a visit to the equator which we did the next day on our way to a local market in a small town called Otvallo. I found two things to be quite interesting: 1) At the equator both hemispheres star constellations can be viewed at night; 2) Ecuador is considered truly the center of the Earth because it is the only place (in ancient times) where the movement of the sun can accurately be monitored. Everywhere else the equator crosses is either in the ocean or is deep in the jungle. The things you learn!

Finally off to Galapagos Islands! After getting settled into our cabins on the Aggressor II and getting our dive gear set up we had our first dive of the day which is normally fairly boring because it’s mainly for everyone to get their gear straightened out and to see if there are any problems. Day after next we were going to be a long ways from civilization and if anybody needed a dive shop, today is the day. Like I said, usually it’s a boring dive but when you dive with sea lions nothing is boring! You never know when they were going to grab our fin, knock our mask off and play keep away with it or try and bite our face for a bit of entertainment! Gotta love an open mouth racing towards you at full speed and then turning away at the last minute! I swear I heard them laughing.

All of our time in Galapagos was not spent diving. We were allowed to have four land excursions. I know you’re thinking “You were allowed? And only four?” Let me explain… The Ecuadorian government keeps a tight rein on the islands (as they should) and are always changing rules regarding what tourists are allowed to do. Right now the government is in the process of changing policies so that if you are there as a diver, you are not allowed on land. If you are there as a land tourist, you are not allowed to dive. They have been trying to implement this for many years and luckily for us we were allowed to do both. Until we actually got on land to do our excursions we never knew if things were going to change on us at the last minute. One of our excursions we were allowed to do was to see the giant tortoises (more about them later). A few years ago when our dive shop went, they were not allowed to see the tortoises. This is what I mean by things changing.

Our first excursion was to see the sea lions on land, the marine iguanas, the frigates and the Blue Footed Boobies. The landscape was very desolate with bare, skeleton trees since the area does not get a lot of rain. When it is stated that the animals are not afraid of humans, it couldn’t be more true. We had to step over sea lions that were lying across our path, birds nested right next to the trail and mothers were not overly protective of their eggs. It was birthing season (is that right?) for the Blue Footed Boobies so we saw tons of babies everywhere. We saw babies that ranged in age from only a few hours old to several months. The babies that were several months were incredibly fuzzy and white and looked a little pathetic as they flopped their wings around as if they were alien appendages they didn’t know what to do with. What I want to know is why the Blue Footed Boobies have blue feet. Does it have something to do with attracting a mate? Is this natures version of Elvis’ blue suede shoes? I have to say, they were pretty cool. I kept telling Troy “Get a picture of their feet, get a picture of their feet!”

I loved going on the islands because they were all different from each other both in animals and in landscape and we never knew what to expect. Where one island had mainly marine iguanas (black, small, flat tail) another island had land iguanas that were much bigger with colors that varied from brown to yellow to orange. They were also fat which made me want to grab one and squeeze it. I don’t think our naturalist would have liked that! “Senorita, put the iguana down now!” The islands landscapes varied from looking as if we’re on the moon (did the moon have a boardwalk on it?), to islands with giant cactus with Mickey Mouse ear leaves and ground covering bushes with greens, reds and oranges. I did get tired of the smell quickly though. Between bird guano and seal poop it was enough to make us be glad we were back on the boat. One island did have a small colony of penguins. When I say small, I mean like 40. How lonely is that? We had an opportunity to go snorkeling with them but Troy and I did not want to get geared up in our drysuits just to go snorkeling so we tagged along with the other swimmers on the panga with beer in hand.

After our diving and before we headed back to Quito was our last opportunity to do a land excursion and this was to see the famous giant tortoises. We could have visited the Charles Darwin Research Center but our trip leader (who has been to Galapagos before) said that going to a tortoise farm would be better. He was right. When I say farm, it’s not a farm where they are raised in captivity. These tortoises are wild and just happen to be on some man’s farm. They don’t move fast or very far so they have been here forever. We saw dozens of them with many being over 100 years old and the huge ones weighing in at 500 lbs. They definitely didn’t like people too much. As soon as we got near them, they pulled in their giant heads as much as they could and made this evil hissing sound that made us think twice about getting too close. Even though we would be able to outrun them (I would pay to see them run), they could, without a doubt, tear a limb from us with one tug. Like their name says, they are giants and utterly fascinating to look at up close. From the patterns on their shells, to the scales on their legs, to the drool coming out of their mouth, they were absolutely gorgeous in their own way. I suppose Troy could be gorgeous in his own way if he had drool coming out of his mouth!!!

Onto the diving! This is what we came for and paid a lot of money to do. Not to mention making fellow divers envious. I already told you about our first dive with the sea lions. It only got better from there. The most famous places in Galapagos to dive is Wolf and Darwin Islands. Only four dive boats are allowed there and we figured roughly 3000 divers a year go to these two islands. It’s about a 12 hour ride out from San Christobal and no one is allowed on the islands so the only people that go here are divers. There are no day boats with tourists with floppy hats, sunscreen, guide books and loud voices asking where the bathroom is. It was only us and the other Aggressor dive boat. Our first dive on Wolf Island lived up to the Galapagos reputation: dozens and dozens of Hammerhead sharks, Galapagos sharks (which are huge), Spotted Eagle Rays and an annoying number of eels. Everywhere Troy and I have dived, eels are always hidden away in their holes in the reef. The only thing you see is their head or their tail. Only rarely will we see them out free swimming. Not at Wolf and Darwin Island. They were out swimming everywhere and they were fat! “Senorita, put the eel down now!” There was so much else going on that they actually got to be a little annoying as they swam around us as we’re trying to watch the Hammers.

There was one point on a dive we thought a huge storm cloud came in and blocked out the sun because it got very dark all of a sudden. Troy and I looked up and a massive school of Jacks was swimming by. They were so thick they blocked out the light of the sun. We’ve seen big schools of fish but nothing like this. The best part was when we swam away from the reef into the blue. At the end of every dive when we did this, almost the same thing happened every time: We would be about 30’ deep when coming toward us out of nowhere is 75 -100 silky sharks. They’re not scared of us so they start circling around us coming closer and closer with each pass. They’re not aggressive so we were never in any danger but it was a little unsettling knowing we’re in the middle of nowhere, hours from civilization and there are about 100 sharks circling us! It was amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!! We didn’t want the dive to end. And then on top of that (as if that was not enough) here comes a huge school of Yellow Fin Tuna. These guys were monsters. Seeing them actually made me sad because I love sushi and I don’t think I want to eat it anymore! Oh wait and then there are the dolphins. Troy and I have always seen dolphins on the surface as we’re going to the dive site, but as soon as we get in the water, they’re gone. Not here! They were everywhere. We could hear them chatter, we would stare at them as they zoom by, watch them leap out of the water, we could even hear them fight as they would tail slap each other. Now that is a weird sound.

But unfortunately there were times where we were at the wrong place at the wrong time. The other dive group saw a Whale Shark three times. A Whale Shark is the mother lode of diving. People dive their whole lives without seeing one. Our dive group saw one but only for a short time until one of the other annoying divers got too close and scared it off. Ass. We were also at the last dive site at the end of the trip when the other dive guide saw a school of about 50 rays swim by. We were at the wrong place by 80’ and the wrong time by mere minutes. But that is the nature of diving.

Before we left Quito, we had one last little bit of excitement (if that is what you want to call it). As most of you know, Troy and I collect masks from all over the world. In Otovallo we got an awesome one that had six bullhorns on it. When we left Quito for Galapagos I didn’t think about leaving it behind at the hotel we would be staying at upon our return. So as soon as we arrive in Galapagos and start going through customs I think to myself “There is no way they are going to let this mask in since it has animal parts on it.” They didn’t even give it a second glance since it was wrapped in paper. I thought I was home free after that. Not so. We get to the Quito airport to fly to Miami and that is where I ran into problems. As it comes out of the x-ray machine, a security agent pulls it aside and shakes her head. She then escorts it and us to our departing gate where there is a more thorough security screening. I ask Troy if the problem is because it’s made of animal and he says no, they think it could be a dangerous weapon. "Headline: LAN Ecuador Flight Hijacked By Man With Bullhorns." Anyways, she has a discussion with the gate security agent, both of them looking at the horns and shaking their heads. I’m getting mad because this mask wasn’t cheap and I wanted it. Troy on the other hand is keeping his cool and a constant smile on his face (if there is one thing he has learned in all his travels is that getting angry does nothing). I’m thinking they’re going to confiscate it. Instead the security agent tells us to follow him. We follow him through a secure door, down stairs and outside to where the baggage is getting loaded on to the carts that go to the airplanes. Troy and I are a little shocked because this would never be allowed in the states. So we walk over to where the heavy hitters of airport security are with their camouflage (camouflage at an airport?), big guns and heavy, black boots. They’re looking at the mask and laughing at it. At this point I’m relieved because even if we can’t carry it on, our checked bags are nearby and we can pack it in them. Next thing I know one of the security police takes out his Swiss Army knife, cuts away the paper and starts digging into the glue that is holding the horns onto the wooden mask. All of a sudden things are not funny anymore as I realize he is checking for drugs. Troy and I are both thinking “If they have any doubt at all, we’re screwed! We are totally f**ked!” I’m holding my coffee cup with a shaking hand and Troy is wiping the sweat off of his brow during all of this. The police tastes what he has scraped off and nods his head. Ok? What does that mean? Ok, there are drugs, arrest them. Ok, it is nothing. What??????????? He hands the mask back to the first security agent and tells us ok. OK, what????? I’m still not getting an answer to this very important questions. He then says, it’s ok, you can go. Whew! Talk about excitement that really wasn’t so funny!

Getting Rooted in the USA

2008-03-22T16:00:00.002-06:00

Well folks, this is it. This is the final blog from our round the world trip. We know we were making a lot of people jealous and pissing them off with our travels so we decided to come home! We appreciate the faithful followers and readers who stayed with us, and for those of you who for some reason are reading this but didn't read the rest of our blog postings ... well you missed out on some great stories!

As for what's next, we have decided to put our roots down in Denver, Colorado. Troy got a job at Qwest (which is a huge communications company in Colorado) and will start in another week. He actually got offered the job while we were still in Vanuatu so that was one huge stress off of us. As for me, I will be working too although that will be hard after not having to for three years. (I know, I know I have had it so rough.) We are a bit stressed out having to get settled back in. We have no cars so we have to shop for one, we have to find a house, we have to get our taxes done, we have to cook for ourselves, we're not diving today and we have found that drinking at 10am is frowned upon.

Along our travels we accumulated a few interesting facts we would like to share with you:

Number of miles traveled: A crap load
Bottles of suntan lotion: 8
Pairs of shoes: 3
Shitty hotels: Lost count
Run ins with the law: 3
Lonely Planet guidebooks: 7
Pairs of underwear: 8 (thought that might interest you)
Hitch hiked: 7
Number of currencies: 15
Number of countries: 21
Number of nights slept at airport: 3
Lost: Camera lens cover, dive knife, dive safety sausage, rain jacket, 2 socks, wedding ring (I lost mine white water rafting in Costa Rica)
Not enough money to pay: 2
Deepest dive Troy: 205', Shelly 209' (and Troy is pissed I went deeper)
Number of dives Troy: 323, Shelly 320
Number of hours diving: 283 or 11.8 days
Most expensive internet: Vanuatu $15/hr
Cheapest internet: Cairns, Australia .90/hr

The most amazing things:

Missed flights: 0
Visits to doctor or hospital: 0
Lost luggage: 0
Bouts of diarrhea: 0 (thought you would like that one too)
Lost or stolen money, wallet or passport: 0

We have met some amazing people on the road, seen beautiful countries and have experienced some extraordinary cultures. All of which will be a few of the many things we will miss. But we will not miss the disgustingly long flights, the August heat of Egypt and bad hotel beds. But our travels are not over, they are just on pause. We just have to save our money again!

Vanuatu: Kava, Coolidge and Coca Cola

2008-03-13T10:01:00.005-06:00

To see Troy's fabulous photos of Vanuatu go to our photo website.

Unless you have watched Survivor from almost day one, most people have never heard of Vanuatu: It is a country consisting of about seven islands that sit between Fiji and Australia. Oh, they also had cannibalism up to 1969 - gives a whole new meaning to "mystery meat". Troy and I have also found it to be home to the worlds most expensive internet - $15/hour - and the worlds most expensive postcards - $4 to mail a waterproof postcard from the worlds first underwater mailbox. I about shit my pants when I did the currency conversion and realized we spent $24 on six of these things!

Remember when I mentioned the kava in Fiji and how it was realtively weak and that after eight bowls all I had was perma-grin? Well on our way to Vanuatu we were told by several people that kava in Vanuatu was ten times as strong as in Fiji. Oh lordy, let me tell you, they were not kidding. Three bowls for me and I was blitzed! After a day of diving we met up with our dive guides and some fellow divers to go to a very local kava bar. We originally all met in front of a small hotel then proceeded to walk down a very dark, unlit street. We had a choice between the red light kava bar and the green light kava bar. Hence denoted by the green and red lights right outside the entrance. We were told the red bar was better so in we went. The bar was nothing more then a packed dirt floor, a few wooden planks nailed to the wall for benches, plywood stacked on concrete blocks for tables and the kava bar. This was by far the sketchiest place we have ever been in and we have been in a few. It was so sketchy we felt like we were doing something illegeal. The only light was from a small tv in the far back corner and a single bulb burning over the bar. We could barely see each other, not to mention the people sitting next to us. The most we could see of them was the end of their glowing cigarettes. The funniest part was when you ordered. It is ordered by price, 50 Vatu, 100 Vatu or 200 Vatu. Being the brave bunch we ordered the medium size, 100 Vatu. The guys behind the counter then proceeded to act like he was working at a hamburger joint. Instead of yelling out "5 hamburger, 5 hamburger, 5 hamburger" it was "5-100, 5-100, 5-100"! Nevermind the fact the guy pouring the kava was two feet away from him, he still shouted it out. So two bowls of this filthy stuff later, we decided to head across the street to the green bar. When we saw how small the 100 Vatu pour of kava was here we started complaining amongst ourselves. "There is hardly anything in my bowl! What a rip. I want more kava!" Ten minutes later when I am trying to keep from falling off the bench, I decided to shut my mouth about how small the pour was. Unfortunately for Troy, he felt nothing. For some reason he had a tolerance to it while the rest of us just got rippped!

Vanuatu is also home to the cult religion of John Frum which is an adaptation of "John from America". He is depicted as an American World War II serviceman who will bring wealth and prosperity to the people if they follow him. On the island of Tanna, a native named Manehivi adapted this alias and told all the islanders he was a god who would bring people houses, clothes, food and transport if they followed him. The religion gained traction when large number of American troops were stationed in Vanuatu during WWII. The islanders were impressed with the American wealth and power and started seeing Uncle Sam, Santa Clause and John the Baptist as mythical figures. (Who doesn't see Santa Clause as a mythical figure?) Followers of the cult started building symbolic landing strips in the hopes that American airplanes would bring them "cargo". The native islanders believe that John Frum will return to them on February 15 so each year that day is celebrated as John Frum Day. See, there are some places in the world that like Americans. Even if they live in la la land and have no idea what we are really like!

And of course, the main reason we came to Vanuatu was for diving. During WWII, the island of Espiritu Santo had the largest American naval base outside of Pearl Harbor with over 300,000 troops stationed here. It was on the edge of this island that the S.S. President Coolidge sunk. Built in 1931 it was a 655' long passenger ship used mainly by wealthy Americans for travel. jn early 1942, just after the bombing of Pearl harbor, it was refitted and adapted to carry large number of troops and was dispatched to the South Pacific. On Oct 6 it set sail for Santo. On Oct 26 it approached the island that was surrounded by friendly mines. There was only one narrow channel that was not mined but upon seeing a wider channel the captain decided to go this route. When the naval controllers realized what the captain was doing it was too late to stop the massive ship from going forward. After hitting the two mines the ship was able to get close to shore where the troops could climb off the ship and make it safely to land. The captain left the ship and decided to go back the next day to retrieve things left behind. 90 minutes later the ship had sunk! Today the Coolidge is the worlds largest accessible shipwreck with the ship laying on it's port side (yes, I know what the port side is) with the bow starting at about 40' at the bottom of the stern about 240'.
When we were in Chuuk diving the WWII wrecks, we were hesitant everytime we approached 150' in depth thinking it was way out of our diving limits. On the Coolidge half of our dives started at 150'! We definitely did some things that went beyond our training, but as you can see I'm writing this so we made it out of the ship and back alive. Because the ship is laying on it's side, divers are able to go all the way down the B, C, D and E deck with out having to get super deep. Some of the rooms we saw were the doctors office, captains toilet, first class dining room with the carpet still on the floor (or what is now the wall because of how the ship is laying), lobby, galley, barber shop, engine room, bathrooms with rows of toilets and cargo holds with dozens of trucks and tons of ammunition. We even saw the swimming pool which still had water in it! (How many sorry souls are sitting there scratching their heads because they didn't get that joke?) It was an absolute maze twisting and turning through all the rooms, bending our bodies around doorways, getting stuck on miscellaneous protrusions all the while not trying to not lose our guide because we stopped to look at the massive potato peeler in the galley.

The main hazard of doing these kind of dives is keeping your wits about you. Personally I tried to not think about where I was. I tried to not think about the fact that I'm at 190', deep inside this ship at deck Q or something ridiculous, way back in the stern looking at the gigantic gear mechanism for the rudder or the fact that if we lost our guide we would be.... well.... let's just not go there. The other problem about being so deep is you get nitrogen narcosis which starts happening after 100'. Basically you are drunk from the nitrogen in the air you are breathing. You see absolutely no problem in giving your air to a fish, you have this sudden urge to tear everything off of you and swim naked and you are overjoyed to discover that 4+4 does equal banana. When we were at the pool, which is at 180', our guide told us to count the number of different color tiles to see if we could do it. Honestly, I could have cared less. I gave up after counting a blue and red tile. Then when we went to the stern at 209' to see the name "Coolidge", we were so narced we could barely spell it. C...O...O... wait...C... O.... ooooh, look at that pretty fish! Our dive computers were also not happy we went so deep. After a certain depth they started beeping, screaming at us "What the hell are you doing down here? I don't like it so deep! Go up, pleeeeaaaaassee!" The scary thing is when they stop screaming at us. You're not so sure if they have died or if they have given up on you and assumed we have died!

The best dive on the Coolidge by far was the night dive. In fact it was probably the best night dive we have ever done. I know a lot of divers will say they've done great night dives but there is no other night dive like the one we did on the Coolidge. Troy and I have talked about how best to describe it but we have agreed it is almost impossible to get across to readers exactly what we experienced. I will try though so hold on to your shorts. Hidden in the deep, dark holes of the ship are thousands and thousands of flashlight fish. They are about 4" long and have a gland under each eye filled with bacteria. When they breath, the flap opens and the bacteria glows. They don't like the light so they are only seen when it is absolutely dark. So for our night dive we were to descend into the ship when it is completely dark out... without lights. That was unnerving to say the least. It's one thing to dive without a light, it's another thing to go into a wreck without one. But it was unbelieveable. As we enter the ship there are thousands and thousands of these "lights" swimming all around us. It's like being in the solar system with all the stars flying by you. Because it is pitch black you can't see anything else but all these lights zipping right past your eyes. It gave you a horrible sense of vertigo because you felt like you were moving but you were not. I'm laughing and screaming with excitement at seeing this that all Troy had to do was follow the sound to find me. Then as we're leaving the ship it is now dark enough outside the ship that all the flashlight fish are leaving. So there is this waterfall of light pouring out of the ship and flowing away. The ones remaining in the ship are so dense that the ship looks like it's alive with the low glow of light emitting from the portholes. As we get farther away from the ship and turn back, the flashlight fish swimming around looks like a big city viewed at night from an airplane. It was absolutely unreal! Then to top it all off there is tons of phosphorescence (glowing plankton) in the water so whenever you agitate the water with your hands and fins it swirls with glowing particles. We looked like a bunch of tinkerbells with trails of sparkles coming off our fins. Not to mention how stupid we looked swirling our hands all around us like we're some sort of spastic flamenco dancer.

One last thing before I let you go. There was one last very unique dive site we had to go to. It's called Million Dollar Point. At the end of WWII there was a surplus of army equipment that no one wanted. The American Army didn't want to take it back to the states partly because of foreign soil on the equipment but also because it would hurt the economy. They tried to sell it to the local government for pennies on the dollar but they didn't want the equipment. So the local American base built a ramp running out to the sea and they drove millions of dollars of equipment into the sea. Today there is a gigantic pile of cranes, bulldozers, trucks, semis, ambulances, fork lifts and cases of Coca-Cola just a few hundred feet off the shore. Troy in fact found a Coke bottle dated 1942. If you can get over the fact that all this crap was dumped in the ocean it is defintely a one of a kind dive site.

Before our long flight home we had one last stopover in Fiji for three days. When we were in Australia a fellow diver told us about a shark feeding dive in Fiji. We have done shark feeds before but when we learned there would be bull and tiger sharks on the feed I decided we had to go. We never saw a tiger shark (which is a good thing since they are man eaters) but we did see about 15 different bull sharks. These sharks live up to their name "bull" by being absolutely enormous. Their girth is...well enormous! They are completely unlike any other shark we have ever dived with so we were very excited. A little side note about them: they are known to dwell in shallow waters so they are more dangerous to humans then any other shark species. Nice comforting thought. To keep our group safe we had several dive guides with us that had long metal poles that they used to discourage the sharks from getting too close to us. I don't know what it is about these island countries that think long sticks will protect us from dangerous creatures such as bull sharks and Komodo dragons. Personally I would opt for a big ol' gun!

Bula Fiji!

2008-02-13T19:25:00.018-07:00

We just spent a very short eight days in Savusavu, Fiji. Because we were not here very long we have only a handful of photos that you can view on our photo website.

Even though we were here a very short time we absolutely fell in love with the Fijians! In fact I think they are our new favorite nationality. As you walk down the street they would yell "Bula! Bula! Bula!" which is hello. They wave at you so much that you kind of feel like a movie star. They're so friendly and want to say hi that they tuck their giant machete under their armpit as they wave hello to you! The only downside to Fiji (and I hate to say this) is that 40% of the population consists of Indians (from India). A few hundred years ago when the English ruled the islands (I swear the English must have ruled the whole world at some point or another) they wanted the local Fijians to work the sugar cane fields. When the Fijians refused because they were happy fishing and working their own farms, the English decided to bring in the Indians to work the cane fields. They never left. I say that they're a downer for Fiji because they are just not very nice. You smile and say hello and they give you this blank stare in return.

The Fijians are a little quirky though. While at a local bar a gentlemen came around to see if we wanted to enter a raffle that was to help support the local youth group. One drawing was to win $200. The other raffle was to win a chicken. Hmmm.... let me think about this.... which drawing do I want to enter? Do I want to win $200 or a chicken??? Kind of bizarre. We also noticed several of the men are just a little to in touch with their feminine side. We noticed this right away upon arrival at the airport. As one of "these guys" is explaining to us where to catch a shuttle to our hotel, he is slowly massaging Troy's shoulder and fluttering his eyes at him.

Of course coming to Fiji we wanted to do some diving. It didn't turn out quite the way we expected but that is ok since we basically have had a lifetime of diving experiences this past year. We met a fellow diver several months ago that said to come to the island of Vanua Levu because there was a fantastic marine park. That sounded like a great endorsement so away we went. Upon arrival we found there were not many dive shops to choose from and since it was low season no one was going to the marine park which was about a 2 hour boat ride away. So we were disappointed about this but oh well. Then after one of our dives, everyone is on the boat taking off wet suits and Troy's expensive dive computer accidentally got knocked out of his hand and into the water it went. He jumped in right away but since he didn't have his mask or fins on there was no way he could catch it in time. So that sucked big time! We thought we were drifting in a current over 700' of water so we decided it was long gone. That evening we tried to soak our sorrows away in a few beers but it didn't help much. The next day the same boat guide asked if we wanted to look for it. He said when it went overboard we had just come off the mooring and we were still over 175' of water and he had a very good idea of where it might be. So we said we would go look. Back to the dive site we went and four minutes into the dive the guide found the computer in 165' of water on a very small lip of the reef before it plummeted to the extreme depths!!!!!!!!!! Talk about happiness!!

There wasn't a whole lot to do in Savusavu so we rented a little Rav4 one day to explore the island and find some deserted beaches. This didn't go so well either. The roads were horrible! There is only one paved road on the island and is only about 50 miles long. After that it is just shit, shit and more shit mixed with mud. Not to mention dodging goats and cows on the side of the road as we slip and slide everywhere. Our goal was to get all the way around the island but we gave up once we realized the roads were getting worse not better. Funny thing, when we got back to the paved road we remembered that the SUV had 4 wheel drive! Whoops. But that probably wouldn't have helped too much since the tires were bald - at least that is Troy's story. We did manage to pick up a few hitch hikers to pay back the hitch hiking god since we have hitched a few rides through out our travels. At one point on our road journey we came across an area of road that stretched for 100 yards that had been washed out by recent rains. We were amazed at the amount of road construction machinery that was fixing the problem.....two guys, a shovel and a wheel barrel. As Troy says "Those guys have a job for life!"

Fiji is also known for their Kava which is a drink made from the Kava root which is part of the pepper leaf family. We had heard about it so of course we had to give it a try. Kava is such a huge part of the Fijians social life that as you walk down the street you can witness groups of neighbors sitting on the front lawn drinking it. The Fijians drink so much of it that when it is made it is mixed in a bowl large enough to do a load of laundry in. At this point everyone sits around this large tub while small bowls of Kava is passed around. Anyone can buy the powder in the store and mix it up yourself but the more fun way is to drink it with the locals at a Kava ceremony. Our last night in Fiji found us joining such a ceremony at our hotel. There is not much to the ceremony. Water is poured in a big wooden bowl then the powder is wrapped up in a cloth to soak in the water. When the Kava is ready the Kava Master says some mumbo-jumbo in Fijian then we are ready to drink. A series of claps happen before and after the drinking, bula is shouted a few times then the mouth numbness sets in along with the perma-grin. It was all very entertaining. Especially when "Chief Troy" didn't clap at the appropriate time and had to drink extra servings. There were also two young Japanese girls drinking with us who really didn't know much about Fiji's history. When the Kava Master, Taiku, told them that his ancestors used to be cannibals, the expression on the girls faces was absolutely priceless. They thought he was joking but were horrified to learn he was not. By the way, Kava does not taste good. Probably why it is served in a plastic tub is because it looks and tastes like dirty dish water. There are definitely worse things we have tried but this one is right up there.

After Vanuatu we will come back to Fiji for three more days before we head back to the US because our year trip will have come to an end. How sad is that?

Campervans in New Zealand Kick Ass!!!!

2008-01-29T15:26:00.000-07:00

New Zealand is just too gorgeous of a place to not check out Troy's photos of South Island on our photo website.

We just spent close to three weeks in South Island, New Zealand and we loved it especially since it reminds us of Colorado, of course without the ocean and the gajillion sheep. Both are beautiful with huge mountains, snow capped peaks, gorgeous sunsets, rolling farmlands that are brown... excuse me... golden, high fire hazard, chilly nights, and perfectly clear skies. We did our fair share of driving, covering over 2300 miles in 18 days. Honestly I didn't know the South Island was big enough to drive that far. But drive we did and we saw as much as there is to see.

Spending three weeks in NZ Troy and I decided to rent a camper van instead of staying in hotels every night. As we found out a huge number of tourists do this so we were not original in our thinking. You would probably feel like the lonely fat kid on the block who has no friends if you were driving around in a little rent-a-car instead. Troy and I are not very good campers. We have discovered there are certain comforts we like to have while out in the big bad wilderness such as a refrigerator, toilet, shower, and a soft comfy bed. We are a little ashamed of ourselves but at least we can admit it. We definitely were happy with our shower/toilet combo since it's cold at night and the last thing we wanted was to have to do our business in the woods while we froze our ass off! Originally we planned on staying at camp sites every few days to use the power. But once we realized it was not essential to have the power to run our microwave so we could have popcorn we headed off the beaten path and camped every night next to rivers, lakes and beaches eating chili dogs (mmmm chili dogs), NZ green lip mussels and enough local wine to open our own liquor store. The beach was the best until Troy's handy dandy GPS told us it was full moon with high tide at 2am and the ocean tide got a little too close for comfort to our camper.

Speaking of the gajillion sheep, they are not very smart animals. We're driving down a dirt road and the fields on both sides of us are packed with sheep. Some how a lot of them were outside the fence so they were crossing back and forth across the road as we approached. It is amazing how quick they panic and freak out. We're driving as slow as we can so they can get out of our way (and to cause them the least amount of panic) but there is this one lone sheep that can't figure out what to do. "Which way do I go? Do I go this way, no I'll run this way. Oh wait, no I'll go back across the road. Oh shit, the truck is still there, where do I go, what do I do? Somebody help me! Ahhhgggh, I wish my brain wasn't so small so I could figure out what to do!" The sheep is running faster and faster as he criss crosses back and forth across the road until he finally manages to find the side of the road only to run full speed, face first into the fence. You could only laugh at the poor animal!

One thing we planned on doing when we got here was some hiking. We have become quite lazy on our trip so we definitely needed some exercise. Only we became a bit over ambitious on our first hike and ended up doing a 17 mile/28 kilometer hike. Considering over the last few months our main form of exercise consisted of walking from the train station to the hotel with our backpacks, climbing a few church steeples and swimming against current while diving, this hike just about did us in. But obviously we survived and didn't go quite as far on other hikes. One of our hikes ended at the base of a glacier with dozens of waterfalls running down the rock face with the bright sun shining everywhere. It was one of the most beautiful hikes we have ever done. We were feeling quite special since we were alone and thought we were the only ones who knew of this hike. That is until we turned around and on our trek back we must have passed at least 75 people heading toward the same glacier.

We also wanted to tackle some white water rafting which is one of our most favorite things to do and whenever there is an opportunity to go, we go. Unfortunately since it is not spring there is no snow run off so the rivers were not running very fast or high. We almost decided to not go until we were offered a little two person rubber duckie raft. This was a hoot!!!! In a normal raft that sits about six people, you sit fairly high above the rapids. And unless they are class three, four or even five (four being scary huge rapids) you don't get very wet nor is it horribly exciting. You just kind of putz along the river looking at the scenery. We love scenery and all but we can get that out of the windows of our camper van. So we wanted something a little more exciting. This little duckie turned class two rapids into class three+ rapids which was wild. We were down low in the thick of the rapids and were getting drenched at every bump and turn. Loads of freezing water gushing over our heads, water forcefully splashed into our faces, water going up our noses and filling our duckie with water. It was also a lot more work then on the big raft because Troy had to steer (instead of the guide steering) while I paddled us through the rapids before the rapids paddled us. We're both yelling at each other "PADDLE! PADDLE! GO RIGHT! PADDLE HARDER! GO LEFT, GO LEFT, GO LEFT! PADDLE PADDLE PADDLE! WATCH OUT FOR THE ROCKS! OHHHHHH SHIIIIIIT!" Seriously, it was a blast!!!!!!

If we thought we got close to the water with our rubber duckie, we got even closer when we went river sledging. We have never heard of this before we got here so we definitely had to see what it was all about and give it a go. What you do is you put on a really thick wetsuit, fins, helmet (mandatory to avoid getting your head smashed by a boulder) grab a glorified boogie board, jump in the river and ride the rapids just like you're riding a wave at the ocean. Talk about a face full of water at every turn not to mention the adrenaline of not having a raft to protect you from running into the rock walls. Our first run down the river wore us out because we had no idea what we were doing even though we were given instructions. It is definitely one of those things that looks easier then done. But our second run down was much easier and more fun since we had figured things out.

You can't come to New Zealand and not see the amazing wildlife that the country is known for. We saw a lot of sea lions from car parks while they sunned on nearby rocks but we hoped to get closer to them. My guidebook named several places on the west coast to see them up close but our best clue was knowing where the locals go. So on a rainy, windy day we headed to Sarat Bay in the hopes the sea lions would be out. After getting drenched walking in the rain and tall, wet grass we almost gave up until we turned the corner and saw four huge sea lions right on the beach about 50' away from us. We couldn't tell from their behavior if they were playing or fighting but we found out later that it is the mating season so there was some testosterone behavior going on, trying to woo the females towards the males [see video of sea lions]. We really had to keep our eye on them as we moved closer because we were told they move very fast on sand and since it is breeding season the male might have wanted to try one or both of us on for size!

Next was the Royal Albatross which is an endangered species. Birds don't normally interest us but these are amazing creatures. For one thing their wing span is 9' across. That is just enormous if you think about it. Second, they can spend years (yes years) out at sea never setting foot on land. The South Island is the only place in the world that has a mainland colony of breeding Albatross birds. All the other breeding sites are on small islands so it is very difficult to see these birds so close unless you're on the open ocean. Another bird we had to see in the wild were penguins. We lucked out at one beach as we saw one penguin come out of the surf and head to the grass where her babies were. But she was not that close and there was only one. We were greedy, we wanted to see more. Very near the Albatross colony was a penguin conservation reserve that is on private farmland but is open to the public to view the penguins that come and go from the ocean. I honestly have to say, these penguins were just so cute. I never use that word, but they were cute that I wanted to pick them up and hug and squeeze them. Though not so cute when they poop. It's a little sad that they have no legs, just feet attached to a fat belly and have to waddle and hop to get from one place to the next. I guess evolution forgot a few things when it came to the penguin. The penguin we saw is the Yellow Eyed Penguin or the Hoiho. These are very endangered with only 4000-5000 left in the world. We also saw the blue penguin which is the smallest peguin in the world, but they wouldn't come out of their little holes so we could see them better. We have a video of a penguin walking and a video of a penguin being fed if you are interested.

New Zealand also has the most unusual geological land. Everywhere we turned were either millions of years old petrified forests, odd perfectly shaped spheres of rock, cliffs of rock and sand that shot out of the earth like stack of church spires, deformed shaped bouders and disgusting sea kelp that looked like gigantic strands of spinach fettuccini. I know it's not the most exciting thing to write home about (which is obviously what I am doing) but the things we saw were just weird. Just look at the photos and see for yourself!

It's a good thing we're done with New Zealand because Troy is tired of driving. After 2300+ miles I don't blame him. Next up, Fiji then onto Vanuatu!

Trapped In The Outback of Australia

2008-01-16T17:25:00.001-07:00

Check out our Australia Photos at our Photo Website!

We just finished up with almost three weeks in Australia and "it was kind of a bust. But as far as busts go it wasn't a bad bust" (Troy's quote of the day). Diving was ok but not the best, it rained everywhere we went, roads were closed (and there are not a lot of roads here), cyclones circled nearby, we got stranded, beer is not very good, but we did meet some great people, saw some beautiful rain forest, did not see any snakes within six feet of us, did not get bitten by anything poisonous and became very familiar with some of the quirks of the Australian locals. We did manage to keep ourselves entertained by taking photos of me pointing at big things along the road: big fish, big peanut men, big crabs, big mangos...Australians love big things!

Just a few observations about Australia and the people:

It is the only place we have gone to that when you ask for a mug of beer you get a pitcher worthy of serving five people.
When you order a bottle of beer in a bar it automatically comes with a coozie to keep it cold. Hot cities around the world should adopt this practice.
They have awesome names for places: Mooloolaba, Wollongong, Lillimooloora, Woolloomooloo and my favorite Nooldoonooldoona.
They have more things that will kill you then anywhere else in the world. Of all the worlds 10 most poisonous snakes, all are Australian.
80% of plans and animals that live in Australia live nowhere else in the world - oh, and even some of those plants are poisonous enough to cause excruciating pain for months!
They have stoplights at their roundabouts - what is that about?

I recently read a story about Australia that I found interesting enough to share. This should help you get a perspective about how big Australia is and how sparsely populated it is. It's population is 20 million which is how much China grows each year. It is so vast and empty that in 1993, a group known as Aum Shirikyo - the group responsible for the attack on the Tokyo subway system with sarin gas - set off the first non-governmental atomic bomb on 500,000 acres of land they own in Western Australia. Even though the seismograph records showed it was not consistent with an earthquake, it was not discovered for four years what had happened! Can you imagine that? That just shows how empty Australia is!

Only in Australia: While driving down the road listening to the radio, we heard a story about a man who died after being shot by his dog! Evidently when letting the dog out of the truck to go get the goose the hunter had just shot, the dog stepped on the trigger of the gun that was in the back of the truck with him, causing the gun to fire and kill the owner. Actually, to be fair, this type of thing probably happens all the time in Kentucky or Tennessee.

Speaking of stupid things we heard on the news...In Australia the game of Cricket is huge. I think...um... England plays it and......er..... Pakistan.....and um... India plays it..... and no one else! Anyways there was a huge controversy the other day where the game - or test as they call it - was delayed and a player suspended because he called another player a bastard!!!!!! He then also called him a monkey!!!!!!!!!!!!! How insanely stupid is this? It was also one of the top sports stories for days. Troy and I died laughing thinking if these sissy Cricket players heard how American Football and basketball players talked to each other their ears would shrivel up and fall off the side of their heads.

Ok, about our trip now. The first part of our time was on a diving liveaboard to the outer Great Barrier Reef. To get to the boat, we took a low-level flight on a 16 seat plane to a northern town called Cooktown. When I say low-level, I really mean low-level. The wings were barely skimming the top of trees. Our rogue pilot would fly within a few hundred feet of a tall, skinny rock pinnacle, getting so close that all you could see out the window was rock, not the whole pinnacle. We knew things in Australia were dangerous but we didn't think that included pilots and their flying skills!

Upon arrival to our boat and after getting settled in, we were given our dive briefing. This is basically what it consisted of:

"Australia has some of the most poisonous animals on the land and in the sea. While you're diving please keep in mind if it's ugly it will kill you; if it's pretty it will kill you; if it moves slow it will kill you; if it moves fast it will kill you; if it sits still it will kill you; if it swims it will kill you!" You get the idea. During all of our diving over the last several months Troy has only worn a t-shirt and shorts. But upon hearing these warnings he opted for the full length wetsuit. While diving I'll sometimes touch things that I know are harmless such as sea cucumbers or clams. But here I wouldn't dare touch anything. One time I accidentally brushed up against a sea fan and the hypochondriac in me came out. "What was that? What did I just touch? Is that a tingling in my fingers? Am I going blind in my right eye? Aaaagh, I'm about to die a horrible, excruciating death!"

But it was mostly good diving. Because of the season we didn't have the best visibility but we did some wall dives that had some of the best coral we have ever seen. Not to mention the wall just dropping perfectly straight down to the ocean floor, 100's of feet below. The guides also did a shark feeding - they call it a shark "attract" since they don't actually personally feed the sharks because that is not allowed - for the group which consisted of a crate full of fish being dropped down that was then fed to the White Tip and Grey Reef sharks. It's more fun rather then exhilarating - unless you have never done this before, then it can be very exciting - because the white tip sharks are just these little annoying puppy dogs that don't know a dead fish from their ass. So as a result they bump into each other, the crate, the reef, us. I personally thought the most exciting thing happened when we got back on the boat and had a go at Shark Wrangling. This is where you take a fish head and poke it's eyes out - you can only participate if you poke the eyes out - and then thread a rope through the eye holes so it becomes a large piece of bait. You then throw the rope out into the water to try to catch a shark. Once the shark grabs hold of the bait you quickly pull on the rope and wrangle the shark in to see how close you can get it to the boat. It was all fun and games for me until this Grey Reef shark almost pulled my ass into the water with it!

For the next part of our adventure: rain, fried food, bad motel rooms, rain, flooded roads, leeches and a little tiny rent-a-matchbox-car. We should have known we were in for a rough ride when we first left Cairns and it was raining so hard there were waterfalls falling onto the road. Not into drainage ditches or trenches but right onto the road. We had nine days with our matchbox car so our plan was to do a driving route through the outback. Everyone who we told of our plan either told us we were crazy and would get stranded for weeks - not hours - or looked at our little car and sadly shook their head. It seems the road we wanted to take is prone to being inundated with floods since it is the rainy season. Oh, and the Australians have an aversion to building bridges so instead of roads being clear all year, three months of the year they are only passable to 18 wheelers and trucks with a snorkel. Our car was neither an 18 wheeler or had a snorkel. But to defend ourselves, we kept hearing conflicting stores "It will be fine... it hasn't been raining for months... in that car, sure!" Plus, how can someone get stranded for weeks? But so we were not entirely stupid we made sure we had plenty of water and some snacks. So off we went.

For the first few days, things were awesome! Beautiful and powerful waterfalls (from all the rain...hmmm) gorgeous rain forest, green and luscious fields (from all the rain, again). We even didn't mind getting soaked walking to a few of the waterfalls until upon return to our car we realized we both had several leeches attached to our legs! That was just disgusting.

Our first sign of real trouble was when we started heading toward the outback and we pulled into this tiny town of Mt. Surprise to get gas and lunch. As I step from the car to go pay, the lovely local older gentlemen in his insanely short shorts says to me "You going that way?" Pointing in the direction that we are heading.

"Yes"

"Well then you better go! Don't stop just go! The Ensleigh River is rising. This morning she was at a 4 now she's at a 5. You better go now!"

"Do we have time for lunch?" I meekly ask.

As he frantically waves his arms around "Good God no! Just go! The Einsleigh is rising. If you stop now, you'll get stuck and won't have a meal for months! Go!"

So we took his advice and off we went. We stopped in the next little town of Georgetown for lunch and continued on and things were going smoothly until we came across a car stopped in front of a flooded flood way. Hmmm... maybe this is what everyone was telling us about. So this Australian couple - notice how they're locals, not foreigners - is standing there gauging if the water is rising or falling. We step out of our car and proceed to do the same. We all walked through the water to see how deep it was and then discussed how to get our cars across. A local came across from the other direction and told us this was the worst crossing. There were several more up the road but they were not as bad as this. So the four of us thought, "lets go for it." The first car went and got several inches of water in his car. We went, stalled and had to push our car the rest of the way but at least we didn't get any water in it. We get to the other side, hop in our cars, and off we go. A few miles later we come upon the next floodway. To our astonishment and utter horror, the guy was wrong. This crossing was much deeper by several inches and we found out the ones farther down the road were just as bad. So we waited around for about an hour to see if the water was going up or down. It was going nowhere. The thing about Australia is it is flat, flat, flat. This water was sitting with no place to go. So by this point Troy and I have given up on our Outback adventure and have decided to figure somewhere else to go. But first we have to turn around.

We turn around and go back to the first floodway with the supreme confidence that we will cross it with no problem and with in an hour we will have a cold beer in our hands, being kept chilled by it's coozie. Guess what? The water is not any higher but is now running faster and there is the very real possibility of it being strong enough to push our car down river. So this is what people meant when they said we could be stranded for weeks on a island highway. So we wait and wait and wait to see if the water is going up or down. To our delight it is going down but not quick enough. And it is getting dark and in the land of poisonous animals, Troy and I were not too anxious to be out in the middle of nowhere. But to make a long story short, we braved it out and got our little car across. Troy was not happy, to put it mildly, but our only choice was to stay the night out on the highway. So we made it back to the happenin' town of Croydon - population of 200 - where we had a shitty room for the night and greasy fried food for dinner. Have you ever been to a town with a population of 200? They don't even have a post office. They have a guy who works at the gas station with dirty fingernails who not only sells you stamps but will lasciviously lick them and place them on your postcard for you.

The next day we woke with a new plan in mind and headed out on the road with gusto, eager to see new places. So we're driving down the road, got the windows open, enjoying the fresh air, we actually got a station on our radio, there are no kangaroos jumping out at us, when we come around the corner and come to a screeching halt. A river that we had crossed so easily the day before - no, not the Ensleigh, this is the Gilbert - is in the process of massively overflowing the 1000' long bridge. And it's not just a sluggish flow. It's carrying large logs, farm animals and homes. Ok, so there were no farm animals and homes, but we expected to see that at any minute it was flowing so fast. The couple who we had met the day before at the other floodway pulled up behind us. We then did what we had become really good at - standing, watching, wondering if the water was going up or down. After an hour Troy and I decided to go back to Croydon, hang out have an early lunch then go back in a few hours to see if there was much change and hope for the best.

So three hours later we return and guess what? The water was higher, much, much higher then before - not even 18 wheelers or trucks with snorkels are crossing. Before people could walk across it without the fear of getting swept off. But not anymore. At this point we didn't know what to do other then laugh and say "We can't say we weren't warned!" So we decided to wait. To make this short, we - and many other people - waited all day and around 6pm the water started dropping rapidly. We finally made it across at 10pm and got a hotel for the night. We then decided to "play it safe" and head back to the east coast and go down south to the Whitsunday Islands. The next night we stay in a larger town called Charters Towers. We didn't get stuck and made it out safely the next morning but late in the day we heard on the news that a cyclone struck the town and the dam burst from too much water. To say we made it out of the town just in time is an understatement.

Onto the Whitsunday Islands and Airlie Beach where it rain and rained and rained. It actually rained 14 inches in 24 hours causing Airlie Beach - where we were staying - to be considered a natural disaster area. Once again roads surrounding this area were flooded so no one, including us could leave. So we stayed. The big problem about Australia is the roads to get places are few and far between . There are a lot of undeveloped and dirt roads but nothing suitable for our matchbox car. So we didn't have a lot of choice to move about.

We finally made it back to Cairns to catch our flight to New Zealand. It was close though. As we were leaving Airlie Beach we still came across a major road that was closed from flooding. But within an hour it opened and it was smooth sailing all the way back. We wish we could have had better luck but our luck has held out so far on our travels that it was bound to happen sooner or later. And like we have become fond of saying "It makes a great story!" That is as long as we survive to tell the story!

Yap: Land of Stone Money

2007-12-26T18:01:00.000-07:00

Go to our photo website to see Troy's fabulous Yap photos.

In our travels we have not come across many cultures that have preserved their old traditions and way of life. Most have been influenced by the western world and today's modern technology. But we found one such culture on a tiny island called Yap. The Yapese are still so ingrained in their old traditions that they use stone money for some monetary transactions. Yap is in the close vicinity of Chuuk and Palau, which is where we just spent the last one and a half months, but it is still in the middle of nowhere.

The stone money is most likely not what you are thinking of. They are not small pieces the size of a quarter made out of stone that you can easily put in your pocket. Their stone money is much, much larger, ranging from two feet to seven feet in diameter weighing several hundred pounds. Definitely not something you can put in your piggy bank.

This is the story of how the Yapese came to use stone money: Hundred of years ago an ancient navigator named Fathaan traveled to Palau which was 260 nautical miles south of Yap. There he found glistening limestone which he first cut into the shape of a fish but found the giant shaped pieces too difficult to transport. He then cut the pieces into a crescent moon which he still didn't like. Then he tried cutting them into a full moon with a hole cut in the middle into which was inserted a wooden pole. The pole was hoisted onto the shoulder which made the transport to boats much easier. The journey back to Yap with the round stones was perilous because of the length of the journey and the rough seas. Many men lost their lives in the journey. The Yapese villagers came to realize that the risk involved in acquiring these stone disks made them desirable to have and carried prestige.

Villagers started trading the stone disks for agriculture, farm animals and land just so they could have these "full moons with the hole in the middle". Hundreds of Yapese followed Fathaans example trying to get these stone disks from Palau with many hundreds of sailors dying in the journey. The dangers attributed to the journey made the stone disks more valuable in trade. The worth of the stone disk was partly based on size and quality of cut but the more sailors that died in the journey, the more the stone disk was worth. The stone disks at this point had taken on the characteristics of money: they were a store of value, a medium of exchange and a unit of account.

Although the stone money is still in use today it is losing it's value. It can be used to settle disputes such as if your teenage son vandalized a neighbors property. Instead of going to court you can give the neighbor stone money. It can also be used to buy a wife or exchanged at a village ceremony. The island also has "stone money banks" which is basically a path or road lined with dozens of pieces of stone money.

But the best example of how the locals practice old traditions is in how they dress. Before we arrived in Yap I had read that womens bare thighs were offensive so I made sure to always wear long shorts or skirts to cover mine. But I didn't know what was considered appropriate when it came to womens bare shoulders (in Muslim cultures it is offensive to have knees and shoulders exposed). But as we walked into the local grocery store, I quickly found out the answer. Right next to the Pop Tarts in the cereal aisle is this local woman with her big ol' saggy boobs just hanging out. I don't mean that her top was so skimpy she was falling out .... she had no top on at all. But her thighs were covered! Then walking down the toiletry aisle was an old man, probably in his 70's, wearing what is known locally as a Thu. Imagine what a Japanese sumo wrestler wears: a small piece of loin cloth to cover his privates but his ass cheeks hanging out! Just that and his sandals. After we left the store we walked around the corner and sitting there was a whole gaggle of these topless women just hanging out on the sidewalk. Unfortunately Troy didn't have his camera at the time but he did have it when we went to the bank and got a photo of this lovely fellow in his gorgeous Thue! The thing was, it wasn't that we were so surprised to see the locals in their traditional dress, it was more startling to see them in such modern settings dressed like this. Honestly though, this is something we really respect of the Yappese - keeping their tradition alive while showing us their boobies and ass cheeks!

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We did a cultural tour to see the ancient mens houses, resting places, stone money banks and to see a traditional dance. Here all the women were topless. From the young six year olds all the way up to the 70 year old women. Troy and I were so glad my brother-in-law, Ryun, was not with us. He would have been turning every which way saying "Look at the hooters on that grandma! Holy cow, I can't believe I'm looking at the boobs on a 16 year old and I'm not getting arrested." Oh, Ryun, we love you!!!

Remember from the Palau blog I talked about the Betlnut? Well, the Yapese are the biggest consumers of it. It is amazing how it is such a huge part of their life. Walking down the hall in the hotel we would come across the maids sitting on the floor preparing their betlenut. The ladies at the reception would have such a big wad of it in their mouth that they could barely answer our questions. The guys at the dive shop would be hanging out with their man bags (called a Way) full of betlenut. The sidewalks and streets are stained red from the massive amount of spit. Chewing it produces so much saliva that they have to use a Pringles can to hold their spit. The Yapese would put a rodeo full of Copenhagen chewing cowboys to shame. And of course as the saying goes "When in Rome, do as the Romans do" so we had to give it a go. Troy had a much better time with it then I did. What it came down to was he didn't make a fool of himself. Me on the otherhand....the piece I had was too big for my mouth so I was a mess, drooling and slobbering all over the place. But I did get the buzz and warm fuzzy feeling from it so it wasn't a total loss.

We thought the people in Palau had bad teeth from chewing it, but the Yapese have them beat hands down. If you remember I told you how it stains the teeth, lips and mouth red and with too much chewing it wears the teeth down to nubs. We came across a German who knew nothing about the betlenut and as he went through immigration at the airport he was a little freaked out because he thought the island was inhabited by vampires. Another European thought the locals were fist fighting all the time because of all the "bloody mouths". I never, ever though I would say this but it was nice to get away from this disgustingness and to get around normal people who smoked! Troy says he actually got used to seeing it though and still might prefer it over smoking.

So enough about the island and people of Yap. The main reason we came to Yap was for..... you guessed it, the diving!!!!!! But not for the reefs or the fish life, Yap is known for the Manta Rays. They are these amazingly huge, beautiful, graceful creatures. You never tire of seeing them and just get giddy when they come around. There are a few channels near the island that attract the Mantas after they have been out to sea feeding. Not only do they come in from the open ocean to get cleaned but they also come to mate, so we would see groups of them at a single time. They are also very curious and love divers bubbles so they come in very close, sometimes just inches from your head. As much as you want to, obviously you're not allowed to touch them. This causes them to go away and stay away for days, not to mention how much it pisses off the dive guides and other divers.

We spent our Christmas Eve and Christmas day in Yap. For Christmas Eve dinner we went to a nearby hotel since we were tired of the food where we were staying. Troy got a wild hair up his butt and tried the betlenut martini.
It was not good. He described it as a martini glass filled with hairspray with a twist of nastiness garnished with a dash of grossness. But he drank it.

Just a few side notes here, Troy and I have come to learn something about ourselves on our travels: Either we're really goood about pointing out what can be improved (like with dive boats, hotel rooms, restaurants menu) or we have just become really hard to please. You would think on our travels it would be the opposite and we would be happy with anything, but evidently that is not the case. Troy's quote of the day "We are easy to please once things are the way we like them!" Hmmm... not quite sure how this happened. Another thing I have recently noticed about myself is my response when I come across a store, any store. Since September we have not been places where there are many stores to shop at. I'm not a shopper by any means but I have found there is something in my inner being that misses it. For instance, while in Palau we went to an office supply store to find paper to mail a box. I found myself going up and down every aisle looking to see if there was anything I needed. "Ooh, paperclips, I think I need those. What about this printer ink cartridge? Cool, it's even red. Troy look, they have a dry erase board. Should we buy it?" You get the picture.

Next stop, Australia and the Great Barrier Reef where we will spend a week diving the outer reefs then we'll rent a car for nine days and drive to who knows where considering it's a ginormous country!

Palau: Home to Jellyfish Lake, Betlenut and Prehistoric Creatures

2007-12-11T19:37:00.000-07:00

Go to our photo website to see Troy's fabulous Palau photos.

Like some of the places we have traveled to, a lot of people have never heard of Palau. But if you have it’s because you are either a diver or you watch the reality TV show, Survivor. Like Chuuk, this group of small islands is located out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, a long ways from anything. That’s why internet connection is horrible and Troy can’t get his photos downloaded. So beware, once we get a great connection you will bombarded with about 1000 photos! Ok, maybe not that many, but close to it.

We loved Palau! The people are very friendly, fabulous weather year round, incredibly gorgeous islands and some of the best diving we have done. It is one of the few places we have been that we could move to and work for a year or two. In fact we inquired about being Dive Masters with the shop we dived with but sadly for us they have already hired for the upcoming season. We also found hitchhiking to be very easy here. So easy even an off duty cop picked us up and took us where we wanted to go. When he pulled over we saw his uniform and thought “Uh oh, he will probably take us downtown… right downtown to the police station!” (Another Troy quote of the day). The only thing we didn’t like about Palau is a huge percent of the locals chew betelnut. It is a green nut, a little bigger then a grape but very fibrous so it can be chewed on for an hour without falling apart. It is a narcotic so the locals are addicted to it. They chew it with a lime or a mint leaf (to get rid of the gross taste) and a piece of a cigarette or coral powder to activate the betlenut. The reason we don’t like it is it turns the teeth a revolting brown and red and wears down the teeth almost to nubs. When you talk to someone that has been chewing this for years, it takes every ounce of willpower to not cringe and look away from this disgusting sight. In fact the guy sitting next to me right now at the internet cafe is getting ready to put a huge wad in his mouth. At least it doesn't stink like cigarette smoke, although the spitting is gross.

Palau also has the most ridiculous Capital building. It is like a miniature White House with a tall white dome and huge porch columns. It is also out in the middle of nowhere surrounded by nothing but hills, jungle, shacks and dirt roads. Most of Palau’s population is on the island of Koror but the capital is miles and miles and miles north. For a country whose population is only 20,000 it is enormous. Just shows what happens when the US gives a country too much money.

Palau is known locally as Belau and is made up of over 300 islands that stretch out over 400 miles but only eight islands are inhabited, total population of 20,000. Palauian legend has it that a child named Uab was born to a goddess of the sea. As he grew up he had a voracious appetite and all the villagers fed him day and night to satisfy his hunger. He ate so much he grew into an enormous giant. The villagers were threatened with famine so one night while Uab was sleeping, they tied him up and set him ablaze. When he woke up he was so angry that he roared and kicked and the island shook. The struggle was so fierce that he kicked himself to pieces which settled upon the ocean and formed the islands of Belau (Palau). So for the locals it is very easy to give directions to the island where they live: I live on the third island past the kneecap, you know, just before the eyeball but after the spleen!

More WWII fighting happened here as well. Peleliu is a south island of Palau that had an airstrip that was fought over between the US and the Japanese. On the island there are hundreds of limestone caves that the Japanese used to hide from the US reconnaissance. The US knew the Japanese were here but not in great numbers so they thought they could easily take over the small island. When the US invaded Peleliu, they realized the massive number of Japanese hiding among the caves which resulted in one of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific War. A tour of the island shows old tanks, Zero Attack planes, large Japanese guns, pill boxes, and artifacts such as shoes, skulls, live grenades, ammunition and canteens. There are also torpedoes on several beaches that I guess missed their targets during the war. They’re just sitting there basking in the sun, rusting and rotting away. Needless to say, I’m a little WWII historied out. I’ve learned more in the last few weeks about the war then I learned in school.

If you are a Survivor fan I’m going to spill the beans and tell you that the next Survivor is in Palau (again) and the one after that is Africa. So much for the employee’s confidentiality agreements! I don’t think it has been announced in the media yet so I just gave you privileged information. Funny, we would come across people and ask them if they are here with Survivor and they would reluctantly say yes. When I would ask them why they are so reluctant to answer, they would say they are not supposed to say they are here with Survivor. I just want to slap them and say “Then why don’t you answer my question with a NO, I’m just here to dive!”? Stupid college girls just want to seem cool. Anyway, there was an island that was off limits to everyone because that is where the Survivors were staying. It is amazing how well the producers make it seem that the Survivors are in the middle of nowhere and that they are thousands of miles from civilization when in reality there are dive boats zipping past their beach all day long.

Like I said before, the diving is unbelievable. There are tons of sharks here. Next to Coco’s Island, Costa Rica, where we saw hundreds and hundreds of sharks, Palau is next in line for the immense number of sharks. It is a Chinese fisherman’s wet dream! Right now it is mating season for the sharks so the males are out in packs and are very aggressive. Normally they are alone and swim slow and gracefully. On one of our first dives, they were in packs of 8-12, swimming very fast, darting about quickly, looking for females to mate with.

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You can easily identify the females because they have bite and cut marks all over their bodies from the males trying to grab and hold onto them while they mate. Unfortunately for a female, she will get attacked by several males at once, all of them wanting to mate with her. Many of the females even die because the males get so aggressive. So a few divers amongst all this forceful testosterone is a little freaky. Troy and I have been around a lot of sharks and are not scared of them at all, but these sharks definitely put us on edge.

Palau is home of the famous Jellyfish Lake. The name says it all. It is a small saltwater lake which is fed by water seeping in through the limestone and is filled with millions of non-stinging jellyfish. They are all the same shape and color but range from the size of a quarter up to 8"-9" across. There is no place like this anywhere else in the world. In fact Palau has four of these jellyfish lakes but only one is open to the public. The lake was formed millions of years ago when the islands were underwater. When the islands rose from the sea, a species of jellyfish was trapped. Because no outside predators could get into the lake, the jellyfish lost their ability to sting because they didn’t need to defend themselves. As the jellyfish grew, they reproduced and had no way to leave the lake. Scientists believe the jellyfish have been untouched by the outside world for thousands of years so they live peacefully in their own little universe until it is invaded by hundreds of screaming Chinese tourists that don’t know how to swim.

Palau also has an ancient creature that is only found in a few Pacific Islands. This is the Chambered Nautilus. Of the known seven species in the world, at least two are found in Palau. It is found near the Belau Trench - 27,000’ deep - which is one of the deepest trenches in the world. This animal is part of the octopus family but lives at great depths in the ocean – 1000’ and deeper. A diver will never come across it on a normal dive. If they do, they are really, really stupid and are somewhere they shouldn’t be - oh, and dead. The Chambered Nautilus is prehistoric because it has remained unchanged for millions of years and is considered a living fossil. They are extremely fragile, one bump on the reef and their shell breaks allowing them to the drift to the surface to die. The only way to see these beautiful creatures is on a staged dive. A cage has to be dropped down to about 600’ with something in the cage to attract the Nautlilus’ attention. For some reason they like chicken. The sticker and smellier the more attractive it is. So a smelly chicken is crucified and strung up in the cage and then dropped into the water overnight. The next morning, the cage is brought to the surface and the divers jump in to see how many were caught and to take as many photos as they can. Most marine animals can’t go from a depth of 1000’ to 8’ without exploding but the Nautilus has 38 chambers that allow the animal to regulate the air chambers so it won’t die.

Next, we are off to Yap, just another unknown island where the use of Betlenut is even worse then Palau. Oh, I hope my stomach can handle it!

A friend said they love reading our blogs but we never say how we are doing. So if you're interested, we are fine. Healthy, no broken bones, no lost limbs, no strange tropical diseases, unless you count what the local food does to Troy, no shark bites (although my finger did get nipped by a "Shelly size" Napolean Wrasse because I tried to feed it sushi), Troy cut his hair so he no longer looks like a hippie, we've gained a pound or two from pure laziness and too many beers, we have not spent all our money and have yet to be arrested. And no, we don't know yet what we are going to do when are done with this trip, maybe just keep traveling since we have leftover money!

From Devastation to Tourist Attraction

2007-11-22T18:01:00.000-07:00

Check out the Chuuk Micronesia photos at our photo website (more photos will be uploaded as internet access allows).

For roughly two months Troy and I are in a little known area of the world called Micronesia. Its way west of Hawaii (across the international date line), east of the Philippines, south of Japan and north of Indonesia. I know, too much information. The area consists of hundreds of small islands spread out over a few thousand kilometer’s and yes, since we are in the middle of the ocean, we are diving again. After a couple hundred dives over the last few months, you would think we would be tired of diving, but not yet. But lucky for you, this time I'm not going to bore you with shark sightings and fish tales. This time I am going to write about something far more interesting...war!

Our first stop in Micronesia is Chuuk otherwise known as Truk Lagoon. This is one of the largest enclosed lagoons in the world and is circled by 225 kilometers of reef. The main attraction for Chuuk is the WWII wrecks lying in the shallow waters of the lagoon. There are over 100 wrecks consisting of Japanese naval vessels, merchant ships and airplanes. During WWII Japan used Truk Lagoon as the headquarters for the Japanese Imperial Navy Fourth Fleet. This was Japans largest naval base outside of Tokyo. The Americans called it Japans Pearl Harbor. In February1944, the Americans proceeded with Operation Hailstone resulting in the destruction and sinking of these vessels. Around the resort are photos that recorded this specific operation of the war, showing how close the ships were to the islands when they were being bombed. As I sit on the balcony of our hotel room writing this, I am looking out through the gracefully swaying palm trees, across jade green grass towards the perfectly blue water, thinking about the vicious obliteration, destruction and madness that went on just right off the beach of our small, peaceful island.

Troy and I have dived some wrecks during our travels, but they are nothing compared to Japanese WWII war vessels. Before our first dive we thought we would only get to see the outside of the ships but we were given the opportunity to explore inside as well. We swam through rooms such as the engine room, surgical room, galley (kitchen for you non-boat people), bridge (where the ship gets driven), showers with tile stalls, cargo holds, the list goes on. Not only are the ships themselves fascinating but all the items and artifacts we found on the wrecks were enthralling. Items that we see day to day such as books, shoes, tea kettles, kitchen pots to items that we don’t see everyday such as thousands of pounds of ammunition, 18” bombs, torpedoes, gas masks, bones, skulls, periscopes, deck guns, mines, artillery shells and tanks. Some things are also a little weird to see in 100' of water such as telephones, binoculars, china, motorcycles, bicycles, trucks, bulldozers and disassembled planes.It was exciting wondering what weird and creepy stuff we would find on the next dive. On one specific wreck there were huge torpedoes, rooms with small bombs and on the deck were two bombs laying side by side. I decided I had to get Troy to take a photo of me sitting on one. It’s not everyone that can say they have sat on a Japanese WWII bomb. In fact I think I’ll add that to my growing list of “Been There, Done That!” You never know, it could be a great conversation starter. (Don't you just love the pink fins???)

As we're going through some of these rooms, it was not difficult to imagine how small the Japanese men were. Troy would be coming out of the galley and his shoulders would barely fit through the narrow doorway. He would have to squeeze them in and turn sideways to get out. He's not a football linebacker, but he is also not a small guy. There were several tanks sitting on one deck and we were told they could hold three men which seemed unbelieveable once we poked our heads into the hatch. Those Japanese were small f**kers!

The diving here was definitely a step up in technicality from what we are normally used to. An example of the typical diver that comes to Truk is very experienced, is trained to go very deep and has diving certification a few levels higher then Troy and I. Because the diving here is more technical we definitely did a few no no’s that went beyond our training. For instance, its one thing to go inside an enclosed compartment in a wreck in the water, but to do it at 120’ was not the smartest thing we have ever done. Also, not to mention reaching a depth of 170’ when we are only certified to go to 130’. But as you can see, you are reading this so we are alive and well. We always followed our guide and made sure we paid attention to our dive computers when it came to ascending safely. The boat also had an extra air tank hanging underneath in case we ran out of air (which, luckily, we never did). Troy and I never felt unsafe. Believe it or not, we are smart enough (hey, no laughing) to know what is beyond our comfort level and we are not out to prove anything by trying to keep up with other divers. Although Troy is a little “put out” that I went deeper then him (I did 170’, he did 160’) and I wouldn’t be surprised if at the first chance he tried to beat me.

But enough about the diving, Chuuk itself is an interesting but boring little place (is that possible?). The island we stayed on is called Weno and is pretty poor. Naked little boys run rampant, wrecked cars are used to shore up the banks surrounding the town and ship cargo containers are used as stores. Multiple times Troy and I had discussions wondering what the locals did for jobs and money and what kind of future the children had ahead of them. Chuuk is a protectorate (we have yet to figure out what that means) of the US so there is always the possibility for the kids to go to the mainland for school. But even though it is poor and not well taken care of, the island is beautiful and sunny year round. The inland hills are covered with dense green jungles and the surrounding water is clear, warm and blue.

Besides a few exceptions we didn’t find the locals overly friendly. A few times we ventured off of the resort grounds and into the small town. The teenage boys dress like they are left over from an 80’s LA gang. We thought they were going to suddenly pull out a piece of cardboard and start break dancing. We noticed that the women like their mumu’s and the local dentist must find gold very appealing because just about every person we met had gold teeth. Then there is the guy who sneaks onto the resort property after dark and approaches you from the shadow of a tree. He pulls a license plate from his pants saying he’ll sell it to you for $50. For one thing I’m not interested in paying $50 for a license plate, second I’m especially not interested since it came from his pants! Down the street from the hotel we came across a group of young girls who were eager to have their picture taken. As they hunkered down and smiled for the camera, the oldest girl (probably 7 years old) stood behind them and along with her quirky smile, she flipped off the camera with both hands! After Troy and I recovered from this unexpected gesture Troy showed the girls the photo and she hailed us with a cheery “Fuck you!” before scurrying off.

We did have one interesting little incident happen to us and some friends one afternoon in town. A couple from Canada that we met rented a car so five of us piled in and made the liquor store and dinner our destination. As we’re leaving the small alley from the liquor store, a guy pulling in couldn’t wait for us to get out of the way so he ended up side swiping us. (I know a fender bender story is normally not very interesting. But this one is because of how the local police treated the whole thing). Of course we pull over expecting to exchange pleasantries and insurance info and then be on our way. But the other guy decided to not stop and just kept on driving which to us is taboo. In the mean time someone called the police so about five cops showed up to see what was going on. By this time the other driver returned to “the scene of the crime” and was telling our friend that he “did the very best he could to not hit her” and that “he didn’t mean to hit her!” Well, duh!!!! The cops got everyone’s stories, then instead of writing all this down and letting us go, he tells the five of us to get in the back of the police truck to go to the station. So into the back of the truck we pile. The police station was little more then a brick building with two typewriters, two desks and air conditioner and a room labeled armory. As for the police report, there was no official 3-part form to fill out, it was a blank sheet of paper that we wrote down our name, address, etc and then our version of what happened. When our friend asked if she would get a copy of the so called police report, the police officer thought about it and said “maybe tomorrow”. When she asked what she should tell the hotel who she rented the car through, he discreetly said “I wouldn’t tell them anything if I was you!” We all figured that no one in this town reports auto accidents and that the police are there mainly to break up machete fights. The funny thing about this accident, the guy who hit us and decided to go on his merry way was a local police detective.

As we’re standing around the police parking lot waiting for this to be somewhat resolved, I noticed a fenced in area with several guys hanging out watching what we are doing. Also, inside the police building was a long hallway that was blocked off with a 4’ high plywood board keeping criminals away from the public population, kind of like how you block off access to the living room from your dog. In fact, leaning on the board was one of Chuuks “upstanding citizens”. We thought it was a jail for drunk drivers, misdemeanors, shoplifting, etc. After talking to the captain, we found out it is the islands prison and upon further inquiry the crimes some of the prisoners commit include homicide, attempted murder…you get the picture. I couldn’t help but blurt out “You mean that little piece of board in the hallway is all that is keeping them from us?” He just smiled and made no comment.

The diving in Chuuk is absolutely incomparable to anywhere we have been. If we are to come back, we'll make sure we have a little higher diving certification to be able to explore the wrecks more in depth (no pun intended). Our next stop is Palau…ho hum...just another beautiful Pacific island!!!

I Thought Diving Was Suppose To Be Quiet and Peaceful!

2007-11-01T02:06:00.000-06:00

Check out the Sipadan Malaysia photos at our photo website.

Before I tell you about our recent diving trip (yes, more diving tales), I have to share with you an experience during our last afternoon in Bali. We witnessed an honest to god, true cock fight. It was pretty much what I expected plus a little more. The only difference, was it wasn't held in a "cock fighting arena" but instead it was in the dirt parking lot of a Hindu temple. As we're walking down the street with our dive guide, Graham, he notices what is going on and pulls us in. Since we are very curious to how the local people live, we just couldn't pass up this opportunity to see a cock fight. The one bonus is Graham spoke the language so I could ask him all my trivial questions. One thing that I didn't know happened at these fights is that the owners of the roosters (sorry, I just can't bring myself to say cock over and over again) ties a 3 inch long sharp blade to the back of one of the roosters feet. When they fight they use their feet to kick and claw at the opponent. So here are these two huge roosters going at it, slicing at each other with these surgical blades tied around their feet. The first round took awhile, the roosters were just not interested no matter how much the owners tried to antagonize them, so it was a draw. The second one was over much quicker with the loser having his wing sliced off and his throat cut open. And in case you're wondering what they do with the loser rooster afterwards - they make soup! All this just as we're on our way to lunch.

Ok, onto Sipadan, Malaysia. Sipadan is one of those world famous dive destinations that everyone tries to get to at one point or another. Sadly enough, Troy and I were not overly impressed. (I think we're getting jaded.) But seriously, I think part of it was this time of the year the visibility was not so good which is always a drag. We both think that Indonesia was so much better no matter what excuses we try and make. But on the other hand, we talked to other people that have been in Sipadan in peak season and the place is packed, the dive staff is stressed and there are ten boats filled with divers that go out instead of the three boats that went out while we were there. Even though we are not able to time all our diving during peak dive season there are definitely trade offs to being at destinations in low season. But... we saw tons of turtles lots of white tip reef sharks and our resort was beautiful. The entire place, which can accommodate about 120 people, sits entirely over water, including the helicopter pad. There is only a small patch of sand that gets exposed in low tide and all the guests have their own individual bungalow with a private balcony. So much for being a budget backpacker!

Our first dive was not a great way to start the week. It was just off the house reef and is referred to as a "check dive" so the dive staff knows that we know what we are doing. Asking us how many dives we have and the last time we dived would have been just too much trouble on their part, so we participated in their stupid check dive. We actually saw some interesting stuff but that was only when we were dodging multitude of other divers and covering our ears from all the incessant tank banging:cling cling cling, clang clang clang, tink tink tink, klunk klunk klunk, quak quak quak. A lot of dive guides and divers, (Troy and I included) bang their tank with these short metal sticks that make great noise when you want to attract the attention of other divers. Some people have a horn that sounds like a duck, hence the quak quak quak sound. There were so many guides on the check dive that they each had their own personal beat they tapped out. Troy and I quickly realized that to get each others attention when we found something cool, our tank bangers would get lost in the cacophony of noise. We had to figure out a different way to get each others attention so made up our own noise. Think of Homer from the Simpsons when he says "Mmm... pizza, Mmm...donuts!" We decided to use this sound as the "mmm" travels very well and no one does it but us. Every time I heard it though I was hoping that Troy had found a pizza or box of donuts because since we are back in Malaysia again, the food is still shit!

For many years, there was a resort on the island of Sipadan itself but guests are no longer allowed to stay on the island. Today divers and snorkelers are only allowed to use the beach for a few hours a day. Part of the reason the resort closed is for conservation of the island and turtles that come and lay eggs there. Another reason is in 2000, 21 divers and workers were kidnapped from the island. Several were held for close to five months before being released. Today there is a small military base on the island and our resort, located 15 minutes away by boat, have guards clad in camouflage and armed with automatic rifles (although we noticed their guns didn't have ammo clips and camouflage doesn't work too well when you're not in the jungle). The security is more then welcome but it's kind of funny when you're getting ready for a dive, putting your wet suit on and these two guys walk by looking like they are about to go to war. Our room is also equipped with a heavy wooden bar to block the door and a red emergency button. Evidently if we press the button a red light outside our door flashes and the military come running. I wonder how many times guests have been drunk and pressed it just to see what would happen?

One morning there was a notice on the dive board saying "the military/army were going to be doing training procedures and to not worry or panic." This ended up being quite entertaining to watch. Between military boats zipping around our resort, a helicopter hovering over a small patch of sand to allow soldiers to repel down and scramble for cover with their ammo-less guns, to the commander or whoever he was using the reception area as his command post, it provided for some good conversation over lunch. Somehow I don't think this happens at the Hilton in Hawaii!

I know I didn't talk too much about the diving, but there is not a whole lot to share. Although there were a few dives that had thousands of schooling Jacks that looked like a slow moving silver tornado. That is until the divers came in with their cameras causing the fish to scatter for cover. Also, like I mentioned before the turtles were everywhere and very cool. You could just see the look of annoyance on their face when divers would get really close to take a picture causing the turtle to wake up and swim off. You know they're cussing, saying all kinds of obscene things because their sleep was interrupted. Sadly enough I don't think Sipadan will be on our list of places to return to especially if the food continues to be bad!

Next up is two months in Micronesia which no one can find on the map. But if you really want to see where it is, click here. Basically it's a four hour flight south east of Guam and was a very important area during WWII where a lot of battles took place so there are tons of wrecks to explore!

Alien Sea Creatures and Grumpy Dragons

2007-10-18T02:23:00.000-06:00

Check out the Best of our Indonesia photos at our photo website.

We just spent almost four amazing weeks diving around Indonesia. Problem is we did so much diving we didn’t get much of a chance to explore the land of Indonesia. Oh well, that just means we have to come back again.

Lembeh Strait

Our first stop for diving was the Lembeh Strait in North Sulawesi. We were told by fellow divers that this is muck diving and were given a description of muck so we thought we knew what to expect.
Upon entering the water, two questions went through my mind

What am I doing here?
I’m paying for this shit?

Basically there is no pretty coral or schools of fish to look at. You are diving on the bottom of the strait and it is rubble, gunk, volcanic black sand and just plain grossness. But there is a HUGE upside to this…the wackiest, most alien and sometimes creepy creatures ever can be found here. Creatures that are not found anywhere else in the world with new ones are being discovered all the time.

Lembeh Strait is known as the critter capital of the word and it definitely lives up to its name. I’m not even going to begin to tell you the names of what we saw because we have no idea what we saw. All we know is they ranged from the unusual (to put it mildly) to the outlandishly freaky (which is a more accurate description). After a dive I would be looking at Troy’s photos and I would ask “What is this?” A few of Troy’s typical responses “I don’t know but it walked! I don’t know but it had a mouth, two eyes and I saw it eat something! I don’t know but it gave me the heebie jeebies!”

On some of the dives you just didn’t know what you would come across. I would be swimming along looking at this vast bed of black sand when I would notice a small dab of color other then black. All of a sudden this huge blue, purple, white and red crab would come roaring out of the sand, claws raised to the sky just itching to yell expletives at me if only it could talk! Then there is a creature called a Bobbitt Worm. It is rumored to be up to nine feet long but lives in its hole perpendicular to the sand. So when it strikes, it comes straight up out of the ground. It got its name, Bobbitt, by the infamous case of Lorena Bobbit cutting off a certain appendage of her husband. People say the worm looks like said appendage. I think it got its name because the claws on top of the head looks like it could do the deed just fine. Not to mention the nine foot strike zone.

The resort we stayed at was beautiful but some of the guests were just a little uptight. I attributed it to their big cameras. It seems that when we are a at a dive place and no one has cameras and the diving is only so so, the divers are so much friendlier to each other and are just out to have a good time. But when we are at a place such as Lembeh where the diving is exceptional, all the big cameras come out as well as the attitude. It’s like “I have the best and biggest camera so I am by far a better diver then you since you don’t even have a camera and stay out of my way because only I get to see the creatures!” Trust me, Troy and I are not the only ones who feel this way. But aside from these yucky people we met up with two women from England who were in their late 60’s who were just a hoot to hang out with! Troy and I never thought we would hang out with geriatrics on our travels but they were the best and would love to meet up with them for future diving!

Raja Ampat

Our next stop was an 11 day liveaboard in Raja Ampat. Raja Ampat is a group of islands (stay with me now) on the western edge of Papua which is on the eastern edge of Indonesia. It’s on the west side of Papua New Guinea which is directly north of Australia (did you get that?) Some people know the area as Irian Jaya.

There was not a single individual item that stood out about the diving but everything together as a whole made it astonishing. For one thing, the place is absolutely untouched. For another the water was deliciously warm. Yes, I said deliciously. Raja Ampat is also a marine park where commercial fishing is not allowed so the reefs where totally pristine and fish life was outrageous .We saw Bumphead Parrotfish that were the size of the door of your grandpa’s old Cadillac and clams that were the size of a Mini Cooper. (Not so sure what is with the car/fish references but they work). We never once dived with other people so all our dives it was just us five guests and our two dive guides. We never saw another boat except for the rare fishing boats that had one or two guys on them. The area is known for currents which is normally good because it brings in the big fish. But it can also be bad. There were a few dives where the current was very strong. I would be hanging onto a rock with one hand and using my other hand to hold onto my hat to keep it from blowing off, while instead of leaves tumbling past its fish and divers.

I just have to make a small side comment here: Troy and I have come to realizes there are a lot of bad divers in this world. I’m not talking about the newbies at Sharm El Sheik who are just learning. I’m talking about experienced divers who should know what they’re doing but clearly don’t. There is the PHD mathematician that can figure out complex quantum physic algorithms but can’t figure out how much weight to use while diving which is something that is learned in Diving 101. Then there is the 70 year old retired doctor who doesn’t tell anyone (not even his dive buddy) that he is done diving and decides to go back to the boat by himself which is a HUGE diving no no!!!!!! We’re searching for him thinking he had a heart attack and is lying on the sea floor somewhere.

Komodo Islands

Next stop was the Komodo Islands. I have to briefly mention the airport that we flew into. It didn’t look like they were building the terminal, it looked like they were tearing it down. There were big holes in the wall, sections of roof missing, no windows, and huge piles of rubble and trash. It’s not like they decided to go the sensible route and do sections at a time, they (whoever they are) decided to remodel, build, whatever, the whole thing at once. It was really quite an amusing sight.

Back to the diving…Troy and I are suppose to be on this so called “budget” for this trip but for the Komodo Islands we decided we couldn’t be bothered with a budget and ended up chartering our own dive boat with our own personal dive guide! It sounds so posh and luxurious (and expensive) but it really wasn’t. This guy, Graham, from Diving 4 Images, had set up our Raja Ampat trip and suggested this small boat called Charlie for the Komodo region. No one was on it and was waiting for paying guests so we said why not. Graham didn’t have much to do that week for work so he decided to be our guide. Graham and Diving 4 Images were great and specialize in doing custom trips in and around Indonesia. We would highly recommend them for anyone planning a trip – especially diving – in this area.

We had been told that the south area was cold water and we thought we were prepared for it but we were not. It was cold and it sucked! One night dive I thought I was going to cry but then there is the dilemma of where does my snot go? Never again unless I have a thicker wetsuit - much thicker. The diving in Komodo was good but for me it was shrouded in the memory of cold water (did I mention it sucked?) Whenever the boat moved I was afraid it would be back into cold water so I never fully looked forward to the next dive. Troy didn’t enjoy the cold water either but he had a much better grasp of where the boat was moving so he was able to look forward to the dives because he knew we were still in warm water.

One day our boat was parked in a cove next to Rinca Island that has a large population of Komodo Dragons. While we sit and eat lunch we could watch them wander up and down the beach sunning themselves and looking for any stray animal that has wandered too far from mom. One afternoon the three of us took the dinghy boat to shore along with our lunch leftovers. After Graham threw the food onto the beach we waited a short bit to see what would come out of the vegetation. Here comes a dragon slowly sauntering down the beach getting a whiff of the food. He finds the first scrap then slowly picks up momentum as he finds the next scrap which actually is a trail that leads right to us. Hmmm… something is wrong with this picture. Do you know these big 250 pound dragons can actually move quite fast? Well let me tell you, they can. I don’t know if he is attracted to the scent of the food or us but he is walking, no wait, running toward us as we make our rapid retreat to the dinghy. Funny thing though, the tide has gone out quite a bit since our short time on the beach and we are struggling to push our boat into the water while the dragon is gaining ground on us. We get on the boat thinking we got the last laugh when Graham tells us that dragons are really good swimmers. We shut up rather quickly and high tailed it back to the main boat.

We decided that was not enough interaction with the dragons so three days later we went to the Komodo National Park where we were guaranteed to see multiples of them. We barely got to the ranger station when we noticed a big mamma (or papa) under one of the housing units. These guys are big, ugly, scary and grumpy. But we were safe though because our ranger guide had a big stick! Yes that was our only protection… a big stick! Then under the kitchen were three more lazing about with a few more coming from other areas because they saw they had “guests” – us. When they would invade each other’s space they would make this hissing sound that reminded me of lighting a kerosene lamp but much more evil. One big difference is if a kerosene lamp licks you it’s not going to give you flesh eating bacteria.

We will definitely be back to Indonesia. Probably not this trip but in near future travels. It is too big of a country to visit only once. Next stop, back to Malaysia to dive in Sipadan.

Gross Lizards and Scary Ass Monkeys in Malaysia

2007-09-20T20:11:00.003-06:00

Check out the rest of our Malaysia photos at our photo website.

When Troy and I started planning our trip two years ago I was basically in charge of choosing the destinations. Troy was up for anything so for the most part he didn't care where we went. For some reason I chose Malaysia as a destination. I remember hearing faint rumblings that it was a good place to go for diving. A few weeks before we were to head here I started reading my guide book and I kind of started to panic. I realized that Malaysia was not a great destination for diving and I thought "How am I going to tell Troy that I am dragging him to this country where the diving is blah and is not known as the most exciting country in Asia!" While in Egypt we ran into a group from Singapore and I asked their suggestions of where to go. They said Redang Island. I thought it was as good a suggestion as any I have had - which was none - so as soon as I could I booked us accommodations and diving. It was at this point that I told Troy not to expect too much. He gives me a questioning look "So why did you choose Malaysia if it's not good for diving?" I respond with "Dude, it was two years ago that I chose this place. I honestly can't remember why but we're stuck with it."

But there were two good things about Malaysia,

There is not a whole lot to share about it so this will be a short (and probably not very exciting) blog.
The food was shit so we hopefully lost a few pounds.

Troy and I had gained a few unwanted pounds during our short stint in the US which we have been hoping to lose. But between mounds of rice and beans in Costa Rica, endless supplies of pizza in Italy, copious amounts of bread and cheese in Switzerland and France and multiple buffets in Egypt it just hasn't been happening. Luckily Malaysia is not known for for their cuisine (you can only get so creative with rice) so we hope we have dropped a few of these unwanted pounds. It is also Ramadhan here which is Islam's holy month. For a full month, Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. No food, water, or cigarettes. So it is safe to say we dealt with a lot of grumpy Muslims - they were not very happy to be serving us food when they could not eat it themselves. This also added to not having a very big appetite when the restaurant staff was not very nice to us.

Redang Island

So off we went to Redang Island and we have to say we were pleasantly surprised and had a great time. The diving was not the best but was better then we expected. Water was warm, visibility not so good, saw more turtles in a few dives then we've seen in the past 30 dives, a few sharks and a lot of colorful nudibranchs (sea slugs) which is our favorite thing to find. We stayed at a very small diving hotel which we became very fond and very protective of. Whenever new guests showed up we gave them a look that said "What are you doing at OUR hotel?"

Tioman Island

After Redang Island we headed back south to Tioman Island. We were told the diving was just as good as at Redang but these people failed to tell us the water would be colder and the visibility even worse. Once again the diving was not fabulous but we found some unusual nudibranchs and many more turtles. Two days of our diving were spent helping the local dive shop collect Crown of Thorns which eat and destroy the coral (which is not a good thing). COT's are part of the starfish family so they are round have about 8-10 arms and are roughly the size of a giant dinner plate. They are also covered with poisonous spines so if you get poked by one, it is not pleasant. Since they have suctions on the bottom of them they have to be pried off the reef so we were given these evil BBQ tools to use in collecting them. As soon as you get them off the reef, they immediately curl into a tight ball which you can bat around like a ping pong ball. The next trick is to get them in the bag without using your partner (Troy in this case) as a backboard. Over two days and 35 divers we collected 1155 COT's. In case you're wondering, no, you can't chop them up to kill them; that only multiplies them. So once they are back on shore a deep hole is dug in the beach and they are buried. This is the best and cheapest way to get rid of them.

Tioman Island was not as nice as Redang but it grew on us. The dive shop and dive instructors were great - in fact, it was the best group of dive instructors I have ever come across abroad. Tioman also had more wildlife that were not scared of people such as big, ugly monkeys. While in Hong Kong we came across a lot of monkeys while hiking so we were used to them. But one afternoon, I'm sitting outside our bungalow minding my own business when something on my right catches my eye. As soon as I turn and look, this monkey comes running towards me, screaming and screeching his head off. This of course scares the piss out of me and I jump up in my chair, screaming an screeching my head off. He runs a few feet a way from me and stands there staring at me. I refuse to get down until either the monkey leaves or Troy comes and rescues me. He immediately sticks his head out the door wondering what the racket is and starts laughing upon seeing me standing on my chair having a staring contest with this monkey.

Then there are the giant monitor lizards that live in the muddy stream that backs up to all the hotel rooms. They range in size from babies that are one foot long to adults that are well over six feet in length. They are one of those animals that are so gross they are fascinating to watch. About 5am one morning a tiny little kitten shows up on our doorstep and won't stop mowing (animal lovers may not like this story... can you tell what is about to come?) When we finally get up there is this tiny, sick kitten right at our doorstep. It can barely stand, when it tries it falls over, one eye is bulging out of it's head like Marty Feldman and looks like it is about to die. We stand there looking at this helpless thing not knowing what we can do to help it. But we finally leave for a day of diving hoping that when we get back it will be gone and not dead on our doorstep. We then proceed to ask the guys at our hotel restaurant and the dive staff what we should do about the kitten, how we can help it. We all get the same response. "Feed it to the lizards!" What??? We can't do that!!! But then we get the argument that it will die a slow, horrible death and that it's survival of the fittest and wouldn't you rather put it out of it's misery? So Troy and I are looking at each other thinking that we might have a horrible task on hand when we return in the afternoon. Luckily when we got back the kitten was gone had found it's mom so we were not faced with a most unpleasant task of feeding a tiny kitten to a lizard. (Would you serve red or white wine with kitten meat??? Sorry, bad joke!)

Next up is a month in Indonesia. Yes, we know they have had recent earthquakes but they are always having earthquakes (not a very comforting thought, I know). But it's one of the world's best diving destinations and natural disasters won't keep us away!

My Husband, The Sheesha Addict

2007-09-04T03:48:00.000-06:00

Troy has the rest of our Egypt photos uploaded that you can view at our photo website.

We are happy to say that we made it through three weeks in Egypt safely and without getting sick. We got a little poopy at times but we met people that were sick and down and out for four days. So we counted ourselves lucky. Like I stated in our last blog, we never felt threatened or our safety jeopardized from the locals. Where we ran into problems was from foreigners visiting Egypt. For instance, we did a side trip to Mount Moses (more on that later) and in the van was a couple from Manchester, England and two Serbians. When the big Serbian dude found out who was in the van with him he says to the guide "You know why you never meet Serbian tourists? It is because we are poor, we have nothing, because England and America came and bombed and destroyed our country, leaving us with nothing!" The four of us are looking at each other with wide eyes asking "What is he talking about? What did we do?" He said this in a joking manner but you could sense the underlying anger and he continually made jabs to this effect the rest of our time together. Then there was the English guy in Sharm El Sheikh that we booked our diving with. When we told him about our year travels he asked if we were going to the Bikini Atolls for diving (a small group of islands in the South Pacific). When we told him no, he said "Oh, that's right, you've already been there when you tested your nuclear bombs!" I turn to Troy and ask "Did you test nuclear bombs without telling me? Is that what that mystery charge on the Visa was for?"

Moving on...
After leaving Aswan we needed to get to Hurghada, which is where we were getting our boat for a week of diving on the Red Sea. Up to this point we had found independent travel in Egypt was difficult, not like in Costa Rica where we could hop on any bus and go anywhere we wanted freely. Foreigners cannot hire taxis to go to certain destinations, roads are closed to us and most routes require convoys. Since we were not traveling with a group, our only choice to get to Hurghada was by public bus. Getting a bus ticket turned out to be incredibly frustrating. We were told the bus fills up days before departure and we were not going to be in Aswan early enough to buy the ticket ourselves and no one was willing to help us get the ticket. There were a few times I was on the verge of tears because all we wanted was a stupid bus ticket and we couldn't get it figured out and we felt everyone was trying to screw us telling us too many different things. After a few stress filled days everything worked out ok and we got to Hurghada with no problems.

Now, the bus ride itself was a whole other story. The journey was 10 hours in a piece of shit bus that was dirty and had to be hot wired to be started. The driver also had a brick by the gas pedal that I guess was his cruise control and at any given moment I thought for sure the bus door was going to fly off because it was barely hanging on by a few screws. But the worst thing about the drive was there was no air conditioning!!!!!!!!!!! Like my uncle would say, "There is no air conditioning, but at least it's a 10 hour ride!" Along all of our travels through Egypt there have been countless security checkpoints. Most of them are jokes and the bus or taxi driver only gets stopped if the security guard wants a bottle water, cigarette or tissue from the driver. On our bus ride to Hurghada, there was only one time the guards actually got on the bus and scrutinized passengers. As this particular guard was getting off the bus, he notices me and Troy and asks us our nationality. Upon hearing the response of "American" he gives us the suspicious eye, gets off the bus and starts talking to his colleagues motioning to us repeatedly. I don't know what this was all about but after a few minutes of this, he finally waved the bus on.

Red Sea

Upon reaching our dive boat in Hurghada we found we were going to spend a week with a fun group of Swiss, Russians and Italians on a beautiful 100' yacht. We have several friends in Hong Kong that raved about the diving in the Red Sea and it definitely lived up to its reputation. The visibility was absolutely incredible and the coral growth was nothing like we have ever seen before. The only downside is we like to look for small critters on the coral and they were either very difficult to find or just not there. An area in the Red Sea known for Hammerheads is the Brother Islands. There were Hammerheads but we saw only 12-14 of them. I know most people would be over whelmed and excited by seeing this number of Hammers, but problem is that we were just in Cocos Island where we saw 100's of them. So at the Brothers when our guide would get so excited by seeing one Hammer far off in the distance, it was difficult for me and Troy to not yawn and say "whatever"! The Brother Islands is one place where we experienced the strongest current ever. On the surface of the water, instead of the water having the calm, small ocean waves, you could see the surface of the water running like a river. There was one dive where we needed to get over the edge of the reef and out of the current. We were using all our strength pulling ourselves along the rock that at one point we could no longer move forward against the current. I then lost my grip and away I went. So needless to say, this was a bust dive. But it was a great week of diving with great people.

Sharm El Sheikh and Mount Moses

Next up was a week in Sharm El Sheikh which is a very resorty beach town on the Red Sea. To get here we took a ferry from Hurghada, which is just a mess of a town. Once again, there were no signs to direct us to the right boat so we had to trust that we would get on the boat heading to Sharm El Sheikh and not to Saudi Arabia (I'm not joking about this!) All around Egypt I was very diligent in how I dressed - keeping my knees and shoulders covered because of the Muslim culture. But in Sharm, it didn't matter. Western women would walk down the street in their tiny mini skirts and skimpy bathing tops. Most of you reading this are probably thinking "What does it matter, it's the beach." And I agree with that, but this is still Egypt with a high population of Muslims. So it was not uncommon to see a western women in her tiny, tiny bikini on the beach ten feet from a Muslim women completely covered head to toe in her black burka.

While in Sharm we planned on doing some more diving and to also go to Mt. Sinai or more commonly called Moses Mountain. It is revered by Christians, Muslims and Jews, who all believe this is where God gave Moses the 10 Commandments. At the base of the mountain is St. Katherine’s Monastery founded in 330 AD and is considered one of the oldest functioning monastic communities in the world. It's chapel is one of early Christianity's only surviving church. It is also built around what is believed to be the burning bush. Considering all the religious implications of this area, it's kind of funny that I am the one who wanted to go here, since I am the least religious person out of the two of us. At the end of the day, Troy was not too happy that I dragged him here. The trip started out by being picked up at our hotel at 10:30pm (getting scolded by the Serbian) then driving for three hours to the base of the mountain where we started our two hour climb up to the top of Mt. Sinai. We both thought there would be a lot of pilgrims making the trek but it was nothing but tourists. I also don't know what some of the women who went thought they were going to be doing. They were dressed in white linen pants, short mini skirts and heels. Stupid women. Our climb up in the dark was a little difficult even though we had flashlights. Not only were there 100's and 100's of people on the trail, but we had to dodge camels and their poop. Once on the top, we found the best spot possible to watch the sunrise, which was absolutely beautiful. Even though we were disappointed there were not more pilgrims it was interesting to see all in the same area Christian priests, Greek Orthodox bishops and groups of Muslims singing their morning prayers.

Great Pyramids, Saqqara and Dashur

We were to spend our last few days in Egypt in Cairo and the surrounding sights. Our first day was to see the Great Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx. Although I had read about this, I wasn't prepared to see the pyramids right smack in the middle of Cairo. We're in our taxi, driving down the road and on our right is vendors, small shopping malls and on our left are the pyramids. "Holy cow, there they are!" They are definitely cool to see in person although the Sphinx is much smaller then I imagined. One good thing about being in Egypt in August is there are very few tourists. So we did not have to share this ancient wonder of the world with thousands of other people. In the same day we went to Saqqara and Dashur. At Saqqara is the Step Pyramid built in 2650BC and is the world's earliest stone monument. Previous tombs had been built with perishable materials, such as mud and brick. But pharaoh, Zoser had his architect, Imhotep, built his tomb from hewn stone which from this flowed Egypt's other architectural feats including the Great Pyramids.

At Dashur, there were originally 11 pyramids that stretched over a distance of 3.5km. Today, only the Red Pyramid and Bent Pyramid remains. The Bent Pyramid derived it's name from it's odd shape. When the builders started experimenting, they started with a 54 degree angle. When stress and instability started showing, they changed the angle to 43 degrees. This pyramid is now in a militarized zone so we were only able to admire it from afar. The Red Pyramid is the world's oldest true pyramid and derives it's name from the red tones of the limestone. Upon arrival, Troy and I were the only visitors to Dashur. Our taxi looked so lonely sitting in the vast parking lot all alone. The bored guards and their camel, Antonio, were immediately there to greet us and to take us on a "tour" around the pyramid grounds. Our ticket could get us into the Red Pyramid but the guards said the lights were off and would be on in 5 minutes. Whether or not we wanted it, they showed us around to obvious things, telling us information that I could get from our guide book while expecting money from us. After they got their money from us, they took off while we made the steep climb to the pyramids entrance only to find out that the lights were not off, the generator was broken. Or so we were told. I think they didn't want to turn the lights on because it was just the two of us and there was no guide with us to argue.

Cairo

In Cairo is a place called the City of the Dead. No, it's not a violent video game but an actual cemetery where the poor and homeless of Cairo live. Centuries ago when the cemetery was first built, it was the tradition for extra rooms to be built so relatives could have picnics and even stay over night with their dead ancestors. The first floor was where the bodies were kept and the second floor was the extra room for the visiting relative. The homeless saw these extra rooms as free accommodation. No one knows the exact number of people living here, some say 50,000, others say 10 times that amount. Today, it is literally a city with schools, post office and police station. Wandering through the City of the Dead, unless you knew what you were driving through you would never guess it was a cemetery. It just looked like any other walled city only the decorations on the walls and doors were more ornate.

Our second to last stop in Cairo was Khan Al Khalili which was a huge market both for locals and tourists alike. It was crazy, crowded and we were constantly jumping out of the way to avoid being ran over. My arm was almost pulled out of it's socket numerous times from Troy pulling me left and right to get me out of the way. On the edge of this market were several large mosques. At 1pm on Friday is the Muslims big prayer, kind of like Sunday church for Christians. So Troy and I found a nice spot in a cafe to have lunch, watch the prayer and for Troy to smoke numerous sheesha's (tobacco water pipe). Sheesha's is Troys new favorite thing and he was always on the look out for any cafe that served them. I had overdosed on sheesha's in Sharm El Sheikh so I was having no part of them anymore. Watching the Muslims Friday prayer was interesting: from the blind Muslim in our cafe singing his prayers, to the hundreds of Muslims bowing, prostrating and praying, the cafe staff stealing the table cloths for their prayer mat, to watching three women fight over who got the best prayer mat. "Come on ladies, this is suppose to be a peaceful thing." Troy's quote of the day "Sitting at a street cafe in Cairo is so much more interesting then in Paris!"

The last thing we visited was the Egyptian Museum. This was by far the worst museum we have ever been in. It was old, dirty, looked like it had not been painted in 30 years and the labels for exhibits were typed up 50 years ago. There was no map to the museum and no audio guide. If you wanted a guide you had to hire one. There were hieroglyphic tablets, mummies, and statues stacked in piles everywhere. There were things stacked so high above us we couldn't see what they were. It's like they have too much stuff that they don't know what to do with it. There were broken windows, machinery in the middle of the aisle, scaffolding and just crap everywhere. Oh, and there was no air conditioning except for in two tiny little rooms. But we did get to see King Tut's death mask and all of this tombs treasures which made up for the no air conditioning.

We liked Egypt but it was nice to get out of there and have a two day layover in London where we did not have to step over piles of trash, stare at miles and miles of brown, drab desert and to be able to sit down to a meal and not worry if it's going to make us sick.

Next stop, two weeks in Malaysia.

Pharaohs, Convoys and Old Men With Guns

2007-08-23T07:44:00.002-06:00

There are more photos to come in another Egypt blog and once we have time to upload more, but you can see what we have uploaded so far (which isn't much) at our photo site.

As I’m writing this we have only spent about 11 days in Egypt and we have yet to decide what we think about Egypt as a whole. But I can share with you our thoughts, comments, experiences so far. First off, it’s hot!!! Not just a little bit hot or kind of hot, but hot! So hot I thought our limbs would fall off from melting muscle and ligaments. But luckily it’s a dry heat. [Troy, “whatever the hell that is supposed to mean, hot is hot!”] One day Troy’s watch said it was 117 (47 Celsius for our European friends) and that was in the shade. We thought his watch was going to break (or melt, whichever came first). Funny thing, our first morning in Cairo when we stepped outside our hotel the word “pleasant” actually escaped my mouth. I needed to give it one more hour before things really heated up.

Second, we definitely feel safe here. There have been a few times on the public bus that we got really scrutinized by the police but other than that we are ok. When Egyptians ask us where we’re from, we say America... hoping it’s the right answer. Luckily these people can differentiate between Americans and Bush such as when they say they like Americans but not Bush. We have met people that have travelled to countries where the locals do not like anything that have to do with America including Americans. We duly noted those countries. [Troy, “I was talking to our dive leader on our diving liveaboard last night and she said as little as three years ago, tourism dropped off so bad because of the start of the Iraq war the locals could not feed their families. They blamed America and Americans for this so you could not be an American here.”] It is also interesting that a few people on the dive boat, who dive the Red Sea frequently, told us this is the first time they have dived with American’s in Egypt.

Third, we are finding independent travel is not as easy as in other countries. Since we are not with a tour group we have to figure things out on our own or try to get help. One frustrating thing here is finding out which bus or train to get on. There are no signs or announcements (ok, there are announcements but they’re in Arabic so they don’t count). We would ask various people to make sure they were all giving the same answer. It boiled down to a matter of faith and trust that we would get on the right train in the right direction heading to the right destination. We didn’t like this knowledge being out of our control.

We do find it cleaner then India which probably isn’t saying much since almost every country is cleaner than India. The people are friendly, take no for an answer and actually walk away if you don’t buy what they’re selling. We do love the occasional old man dressed in his galabiyya (Egyptian robe) riding his bicycle down the road with his ancient AK-47 slung over the handlebars. Not sure what he plans on doing with it just as long as it doesn’t involve us. We just smile when he smiles at us and wave when he waves.

To start off our trip we flew into Cairo very late and had an awesome – free – huge suite at a JW Marriott. Sadly we only stayed there the one night and were off the next day to take an overnight train south to Luxor. The train was not nearly as nice as the suite. But it did have bunk beds and we were able to get some sleep before the train pulled into Luxor at 6am and dumped our asses off at the train station. That first day, after a short nap, we headed to the Luxor Museum and the Mummification Museum which was very interesting because they had a few mummies of pharaohs (Egyptian kings) and animals as well as tools used in the mummification process.

The following day we visited the Temple of Luxor and the Temples of Karnak; built in 1390BC and 1960BC respectively. Most of the temples we visited were built by the pharaohs to show their power and wealth. They were also built by the pharaohs to worship gods, stealing from other pharaohs work and often outdoing other pharaohs in the grandness of the temples to basically show “I can worship God Horus better then you!” Very third gradeish! The Temple of Luxor is one such temple with the walls decorated with hieroglyphs and scenes depicting battles, religious celebrations and festivals. I don’t know what I loved more about this temple, the huge stone statues of Ramses the II or the “undercover” security guard with his snub nose machine gun.

The Temple of Karnak is located 3km away from Temple of Luxor and at one point had sphinxes that lined the 3km road between the two temples. Today there is only a handful left. The Temple of Karnak is so large it can contain 10 cathedrals. This was the most important place of worship in Egypt during 1590-1290BC. The first pylon, or gate wall, is not complete so we are able to see the left over mud and brick mound used in the same way that we use scaffolding today. It was used to stack the enormous sand stones and shows how the walls were built to such heights. In the Great Hypostyle Hall are 134 papyrus shaped stone pillars that measure over 70 feet tall. It is very difficult to get a grasp of their size and their mass quantity because you are just an ant among this stone forest.

That evening we checked into our boat for a three day cruise down the Nile River. [Troy, “we were going to get a Falucca boat (local sail boat) but there are no beds, toilets, air conditioning, had to bring your own food, etc, so I chickened out because it was too hot to deal with the rest of that.] This is the best and easiest way to get from Luxor south to Aswan and to be able to see the monuments and sights along the way. But before we left Luxor, we crossed the river to the West Bank and visited the Valley of the Kings. Upon arrival it is quite boring, doesn’t look interesting and we don’t understand what the hoopla is about regarding these mountains of sand and stone. But when you realize this is the final resting place for ancient Egyptian royalty and that there are at least 62 known tombs in the immediate area, then it takes on a whole new level of interest. In the visitor center is a huge 3D model of the area.On the top is the mountainous landscape with the known tombs entrances marked, than underneath the surface are the various tombs and their rooms and chambers. Some are dug quite long and deep into the earth, with dozens of rooms branching off the main hall. It is at this point you get a clear idea of what is going on right under your feet. The Valley of the Kings is where King Tut was buried and his vast treasures were found. A lot people who think of Egypt automatically think of King Tut but the only reason why he is so famous in the modern world is because his treasures were not looted and his tomb was almost immediately lost thus leaving modern man to discover his tomb with his treasures in 1922. He was not a special king, he died young and in fact he had an inglorious burial and his tomb was hastily built.

Just over the mountain from Valley of the Kings is the Temple of Hatshepsut. Hatshepsut was a woman who ruled Egypt for 15 years and was the longest ruling female leader.Her temple was carved out of the surrounding cliffs and backups to the towering rock face and is just an amazing sight to see. Temple of Hatsheptsut is now known as Deir al-Bahri ever since the early Christians took over the temple as a monastery. Upon arrival the Christians defaced the drawings and carvings of gods and pharaohs that were on the wall because they didn’t want other people to worship pagan gods. We came across this vandalism in a lot of temples that were overtaken by Christians or other religions and/or cultures.

The Nile Cruise was definitely an interesting experience although I was a little disappointed at the music that played during dinner. I thought they would play some authentic Egyptian music or something cultural. No, they played Michael Bolton, Backstreet Boys and George Michael – kinda not the same thing as Egyptian music. Sitting on the top deck in the shade we quickly came to realize that while we were on the Nile River (which you have to admit is pretty cool!), we were also on a floating oven. There was no wind and the boat moved too slowly to generate a breeze so it was just stifling. We ended up spending a lot of time in the air conditioned saloon. We loved the passing scenery which ranged from green and lush right along the river banks to absolutely barren desert just a half a kilometer away from the waters edge. At one point on our journey we parked to wait for our turn to go through the lock. Immediately dozens of hawkers in small fishing boats pulled up to our 3 story tall cruise boat trying to sell us towels, tunics and other clothing items. The funny thing is we are 3 stories up from them so they would start throwing things up at us whether or not we asked for them. We felt like we were at a football game when the cheerleaders would throw mini footballs up into the stand. If you didn’t want something, you would throw it back to them and hope it made it in the boat.

We then headed further south (ooh, lucky for us since it is getting hotter the further south we go) and stopped at Esna and did a quick tour of the Temple of Horus (237BC) who is the God of the Union of Upper and Lower Egypt. We then travelled five more hours and stopped at a small village called Kom Ombo and toured the Temple of Kom Ombo (305BC-50AD). This was the temple of Sobek who is a crocodile god. Inside the temple are three mummified crocodiles which represent pharaonic might. As we’re touring these temples I kept looking at all these Egyptian gods – Horus, Isis, Osiris, Ra etc, I can’t help but think that these ancient Egyptians had very ingenious minds in creating these gods which represented aspects of the natural world. But I guess every culture has their “thing”.

Our final destination on the river boat was Aswan, home to the High Dam which created the largest artificial lake in the world, Lake Nasser. It is 500km long (300 in Egypt, 200 in Sudan) and supplies Egypt with 80% of its power. It is mostly made of sand and rock (not concrete) and has 17x the amount of material used in the Great Pyramid of Giza.

When the dam was built it put dozens of ancient monuments at risk. One temple that was rescued and moved to a nearby island is the Philae Temple on Agilkia Island. Another monument was the Great Temple of Ramses II at Abu Simbel but more on that shortly. After we toured the dam (where video cameras and telephoto lenses were barred) we went to the quarry of the Unfinished Obelisk. (An obelisk is a very tall square column with a pyramid on top). Its name says it all. It is literally a quarry where the ancient Egyptians were trying to carve an obelisk out of the sandstone but when a crack appeared, they abandoned what would have been the heaviest stone ever fashioned weighing 1168 tons. There are no inscriptions on the obelisk and there is absolutely no indication what the obelisk would have been used for or where it was destined to go.

The following early morning we headed further south to Abu Simbel which is 40km from the Sudan border (we just love getting close to these nations that love Americans)! But to get there we had to travel by convoy. Because of the problems Egypt has had in the past few years with terrorism attacks, the government has taken it upon themselves to organize police escorted caravans for vehicles carrying tourists travelling long distances over land. They somehow think by keeping 70 buses all together in one line while travelling 250km across the desert that we are safe and not “sitting” ducks such as we are. We have come to the conclusion that it is just a way to employ the local people and does absolutely nothing for the tourists’ safety. That morning our small group, which consisted of me, Troy our guide and four Singaporeans departed our boat and headed to the edge of town to meet up with the convoy that departs at 4am. After all the drivers check in, off we go. We quickly realize there are no police cars actually escorting us. Our guide tells us that instead of individual police cars, there is security people randomly placed in the tourist buses. I guess they figure they are more use if an individual bus gets hijacked and that we couldn’t possibly get attacked by a rocket propelled grenade. But that’s not something to joke about. Of course, about 30 minutes into the drive our driver has passed most of the other buses and there are no vehicles in site – some convoy!

Anyway, off we go. Our next destination is Abu Simbel and the Great Temple of Ramses II which was carved out of a mountain in 1274BC. Sitting in front of the temple so grandly are four absolutely gigantic sitting statues of Ramses II. Then inside the temple are endless scenes of Ramses trampling and conquering his enemies and showing what a powerful, great and mighty king he was - arrogant bastard. What makes this monument so fascinating is the rescue feat that happened when the waters of newly formed Lake Nasser started to rise. Unesco raised the alarm and countless archaeologists and financial donors from all over the world descended upon this temple to save it. Over a period of four years, the entire temple, including the adjacent Temple of Nefertari (Ramses II wife) was disassembled (which means carved from the mountain side), moved 210 meters away and 65 meters higher from its original place then re-assembled. The temple was cut into 2000 enormous stones that weighed between 10-40 tons each. Each cut was precisely measured and recorded, including the weight of the sand that was lost due to the sawing. The temple was then moved and oriented to face the exact same direction and all the cut stones were re-assembled to within a few millimeters of their original place among each other. After standing in astonishment of this temple, we then headed back to our “convoy” which safely returned us to Aswan.

We had yet to spend any time in the towns and villages because we were mainly on the cruise boat and dictated by their sailing schedule. So after returning to Aswan, we were finally able to ramble along the souq (local shopping street) to see what local Egyptian life is like and to smoke our first sheesha (Arabic water [tobacco] pipe). This is where we found out they like Americans and were very happy to see us. Sure, maybe they wanted to sell us something but for the most part they were genuinely nice to us. We lost count how many times Troy was told he was a lucky man because of me. Troy even had one guy point at me and ask “How many camels?” Not sure if he meant how many camels Troy would sell me for or how many he bought me for but I told him thousands and thousands!

Next stop, diving the Red Sea!

French People: They're Actually Really Nice!

2007-08-08T03:52:00.000-06:00

Check out Troy's fantastic pictures of France at our photo website. It also looks like this is going to be another long blog so I will try to keep it entertaining and not so boring!

Troy and I are really happy to say that despite what a large percentage of Americans think, the French are not rude, snobby people. For the most part we thought they were helpful, happy, kind, funny and skinny. Although there was the waiter in a small village of Monpazier that tried to stab Hoyt with a few steak knives and also tried to shoot Troy with his bottle opener (probably because they were mangling the French language), but other then that we were happily surprised with the French people. We only hope that when they visit the US they find us to be just as kind, helpful and funny, although probably not as skinny.

The one overall complaint we did have about France is their signage. Everything was in French. Call us picky or anal, but America is not the only country that speaks English. We went to a museum of Natural History and the only thing in English were these small laminated info sheets that covered maybe 1/3 of the artefacts in the museum. Even when we picked up brochures about exhibits, it only gave highlights in English and it was obvious there was a whole lot of info we were missing out on. The one place that we could not believe there was nothing in English was the Louvre Museum. This is not only a world famous museum, but also the worlds largest. Yes, you could rent an audio guide but this covered maybe 30% of the exhibits. All the signs for the remaining 70% were in French. You could maybe figure out the dates but even this was questionable because you didn't know if it was the date the object was found or created. It was very frustrating and honestly, very disappointing. We encountered many other English speakers (not just Americans) that felt the same way about France. But the one thing that shocked us regarding the lack of English signs at the Louvre was where we did find English signage - which was at the Catacombs. The Catacombs is a quarry of disused tunnels that now houses the exhumed bones from overflowing cemeteries from the late 1700's, but more on that later. Hmmm... English signs for art masterpieces or old, gross bones?

Upon arrival in France with my aunt and uncle, Troy and I couldn't remember why we chose France as a destination. But then we remembered our flight to Cairo departed from Paris so that was the only reason we could think of why we chose France. We obviously had no idea what to expect and were not really excited to be here. But we really liked it. We both agreed we would like to visit it again since there is a large portion we never even got near such as the north and south coasts.

Chamonix-Mont Blanc

Our first destination in France was just across the west border of Switzerland in an area of Chamonix-Mont Blanc which is surrounded by the most beautiful scenery of the French Alps. I have never heard of this area or the mountain range of Mont Blanc but in one word - AWESOME!!!!! The Mont Blanc peak is the highest peak of the French Alps and actually of all the Alps. Our first day in Chamonix (our hotel was actually in a small village called Les Houches) was spent hiking around the western side of the valley, making our way by lift to the top of Le Brevent which is the highest peak of the west valley. From there, we continued on a really easy hike to other lifts that took us up and down the mountain range. The views across the valley of Mont Blanc and the glacier called Mer De Glace, which is the second largest glacier in the Alps, is indescribable. You will have to look at Troy's photos just to see how spectacular it all was.

The next day we took the cable car to the top of Aiguille Du Midi which is 8km from Mont Blanc's domed summit. The cable car ride up was sketchy. I don't know how many people were allowed on the car, but I guarantee it was way beyond it's limit. People couldn't turn around if they wanted. All they had room to do was fart! When we first enquired about the cable car to the peak, the information lady said we would spend a few hours up there. The four of us looked at each other and said "yeah, right!" This lady was not wrong. After 2.5 hours at the top we actually were told to leave before we were ready because we hadn't made reservations to get back down. The cable car guy said "You have to leave now, you can't stay since you don't have a reservation!" Obviously hindsight we could have stayed longer because it wasn't like they were going to leave a few stupid Americans stranded at the summit!

Like I said 2.5 hours at the top was not enough. There were several platforms and levels where we could get views of the surrounding peaks, valleys and glaciers. Not to mention the various mountaineers, rock climbers and Mont Blanc summit seekers! Even though the elevation is similar to Trail Ridge Road in the Rocky Mountains, this mountain range just brings out the "Holy Cow!!!" in people because it is incredibly beautiful with the surrounding glaciers and tons of snow and endless views. I kept saying to Troy "This is amazing! This is incredible! Wow, look at that!" After about the 10th comment he was about to throw me over the railing! Anyways, just look at the photos. "Holy cow" just doesn't do it! I honestly don't remember what we did the next day. I think a hike or something. I have no idea. All I can remember right now is the beauty of the Mont Blanc mountain range.

Dordogne Region

The Dordogne region is more toward the center of France far away from any coast. It is the center of one of France's wine region as well as home to hundreds of medieval and Renaissance chateaus and castles. Some of the villages we visited to see these castles was LeBuge, Limeul, Belves, Monbazillac, Lanquais and Domme. Of course since we were in France in prime tourist season, we had to fight the traffic and crowds to see some of these beautiful monuments. One of the great benefits of having a car (or my aunt and uncle having a car, we just tagged along) is that instead of getting to these towns by public bus, we were able to cruise the French countryside, discovering old, hidden villages.

We did spend one day going from winery to winery doing wine tasting’s. These were nothing like the wine tasting’s in Napa that are a little stuffy and are quick to make you feel like you don't belong there and have no idea what you are doing. One winery was on the land of a family home and the host was an older woman who didn't speak a lick of English (and of course, we didn't speak a word of French) but she was so kind and accommodating and tried her best to communicate with hand signals and gestures. The hosts at a few of the other wineries spoke a little more English so we were given a pretty good education regarding French wine.

Another thing we found out about the Dordogne area, is it is rich in pre-history and Paleolithic artefacts. I never would have used France and Neanderthals in the same sentence but this area is crawling with ancient caves, tools and Cro-Magnon history. The most significant find is the Lascaux caves located outside of the village of Montignac. This is the most famous Palaeolithic sanctuary in the world. In 1940, 4 boys and a dog were wandering the countryside trying to discover caves they had heard were around. The dog fell in a small hole and after the boys dug down several feet they came across a series of caves over 700' in total length that contained cave paintings that dated over 17,000 years old. This find reminded me of how the Terracotta Warriors in Xian, China were found when the farmer stumbled across them after digging a well.

The caves were open to the public for 15 years but when archaeologists noticed the decay of the paintings the caves were immediately closed to the public. An immediate reproduction was soon built, now known as Lascaux II. For the next 4 years after the closure, sculpturists used an old abandoned quarry and built an exact replica of the caves with only 1cm of difference from the original. In the following 5 years, painters came in and exactly copied 90% of the cave paintings. One section of the caves known as the Hall of Bulls is a painting of a bull which measures over 15' long and is the largest paleolition cave painting in the world. I was a little unsure if I wanted to see a reproduction of such a significant find. You have to admit, there is something about seeing the original. But then when I put logical thought to it and realizing there is no way something 17,000 years old could survive millions of visitors a year, I decided to go and see the replica. Even though it was not the original, it was fabulous (I really need to get a thesaurus so I stop using fabulous and amazing).

After visiting Lascaux II, we spent the remaining of our final day in this region in Sarlat which has a spectacular medieval town center and old gas lamps. Troy and I decided to splurge and have a fantastic French meal complete with Foie Gras and Truffle sauce. I don't know what was more entertaining, my aunt's duck which was served flash frozen or our young waiter who laughed at us for mispronouncing every French word we said.

Paris

Onto Paris. All of us expected the worse of the Parisian people. Everyone we talked to, including the French, said the local people of Paris are rude, have no tolerance of foreigners and are disgusted when you don't speak French to them. I don't know what Paris these people were talking about but we didn't come across one rude person. There was the occasional waiter who was just busy and didn't have time for chit chat but people actually helped us, answered our questions and drew maps to give us directions to places. Not at all what we expected. We did have mixed feelings about Paris. For as big a city as it is, it was fairly clean but every so often we would come across a dirty diaper, drunks and crazy people yelling and lots of dog pooh.

Our first full day in Paris it dumped rain and was actually a little cold. We decided to make a beeline to the Louvre and got in right away. We thought we were in the wrong line because it was so short and moving so fast. We thought the people in the line ahead of us had some sort of super duper secret Louvre pass that we didn't know about. Ended up that we were just early and that's what happens when the museum first opens. So in we went, got our audio guide and went straight to the Mona Lisa... and took a picture. That was one thing I couldn't believe about this museum. They didn't care if we took pictures. When we went to the Bourghese Museum in Rome, they took our camera from us. So click away we went.

Next up was Notre Dame. This was a stunning church and has the best gothic architecture we have ever seen plus being incredibly old(originally begun in 1163). We don't know what we loved more, the giant 30' diameter stained glass window, the 7800 pipe organ or all the gargoyles surrounding the church. This was one place we actually didn't have to pay to get into, unlike a lot of other monuments. One interesting fact we found it is distances from Paris to every part of metropolitan France is measured from Notre Dame.

Our last day in Paris we spent as what Troy called "The Day of Death". First up was the Catacombs which I mentioned earlier when I talked about English signage. To expand a little more on this place: in 1785, the hygienic problems posed by Paris' overflowing cemeteries was solved by exhuming the bones and storing them in the tunnels of the disused quarries. Along 1.6km of tunnels are stacked, and in a lot of cases thrown, thousands of bones of thousands and thousands of people. It was very creepy and a little unsettling. I don't know what was more weird, seeing femur bones and skulls stacked nicely or ribs, clavicles and pelvis bones thrown haphazardly in piles. Then there were the mothers who, for whatever reason, decided to bring their small children into this place.

Last stop, the Cimetiere Du Pere Lachaise which is the largest cemetery in Paris with over 70,000 graves. We originally went here because this is where Jim Morrison (lead singer of The Doors) is buried. We didn't go to see his grave but to see the people who come to visit his grave. I had heard stories about what fans leave at his grave and about the various people who camp out. I was surprised to see that his grave was small compared to his surrounding neighbours but there were many things that set his grave apart from the others: barricades surrounding it, whole cigarettes thrown on top, the Ozzy Osbourne look alike, two teenagers jamming out to their I-Pod and grown women crying. What surprised me the most were the teenagers. How do they know who Jim Morrison is? He was dead before they were even born. We were happy (for lack of a better word) that we decided to come to this cemetery. (I'm not sure happy is normally used in the same sentence as cemetery.) But this was like an open air museum. The sculptures on graves were scary, cool and amazing. Every so often we would turn around and go "Woah, that's so creepy!" The graves were also old, decrepit and for some reason broken apart. Tops of sarcophagus were tipped over and laying on the side and doors pulled off the hinges of mausoleums graves. It made your imagination go wild thinking about how these graves got to be in this condition.

Anyways, I have gone on way too long about France but in our short time we saw a lot and had way too much to share.

Onto Egypt next!!!!

Switzerland: Sooo Good Lookin'

2007-07-30T10:56:00.000-06:00

For more photos go to our Switzerland photo album at our photo website.

When Troy and I were in Costa Rica, we thought that was the most beautiful country we have ever been in, but Switzerland is extraordinary! Every where we turn "Wow! What a huge waterfall! Holy cow, what beautiful mountains. Look at that gorgeous village. Isn't that like the 135th church we've seen today? It is so green here! I can't read a single word on this Swiss menu. 20 Francs for a Kalburst? What's a Kalburst? There is actually such a thing as a weinerschnitzel? I thought that was a bad fast food chain. Can't this guy in his Porsche get off our ass? It's cold on this mountaintop! Hoyt, stop looking around and drive!" You get the idea.

Mulegns and Sur

Our first few days in Switzerland we spent in and around two small towns called Mulegns and Sur. On our drive there we passed through St. Moritz which is as glamorous a town as I have always heard. We had lunch then got out quickly because we could just feel the money from our pockets getting sucked out! The hotel we stayed at in the village of Mulegns kind of reminded me of the hotel in The Shining. Old, decrepit, scary and ran by a creepy old lady. This was also our first introduction to hiking the Swiss Alps. Once again we couldn't get over how gorgeous it was here. Green rolling hills, beautiful and colorful flowers, snowy mountaintops. The whole "Heidi" image. The one thing I didn't expect and thought was found only in the movies was cow bells. The cows here actually wear bells. We would be walking along a trail and surrounding us was all this noise from the cow bells. Sometimes it was a nice background noise other times it was downright annoying. We asked and found out the reason why they wear the bells is so the owners could find the stray cows among the valleys and in the fog.

Interlaken

Our next stop was Interlaken. This is a haven for adventurous people. Outside of hiking there was rock climbing, rafting (on glacier water, I don't think so), skydiving and canyoning. Since Troy and I are on a budget we could only partake in the poor mans activities - hiking. Once again the hiking was extraordinary. Only downside on a few of the hikes was the amount of people. A few times we passed large groups of Japanese that were out for just a 1 hour guided hike which started at their bus and ended at the train which took them onto the next part of the tour. There were also tons of cows here (and their bells). We were amazed how unafraid they were of people. You could pet them, pose with them for photos even ring their cowbell. One got a little too friendly with me and tried to eat my pants. Scared me a little because a little bigger bite and I would be coming home with 1 less leg. Interlaken was also the first time in Europe we have come across such huge cultural diversity. Muslims, Europeans, Indians, Asians and Americans all in this little town.

Zermatt and the Matterhorn

Next up, Zermatt and the Matterhorn. Zermatt is an interesting little village for many reasons. One is that only authorized vehicles are allowed into the town. Everyone else has to take a train up the mountain. This ended up being very nice because the only cars in town besides hay tractors were electric taxis that looked like big Tonka Toys. So there was no street noise and we didn't have to dodge 100's of cars every time we crossed the street.

The Matterhorn is a very famous mountain for climbers and in the center of the village of Zermatt is a small graveyard for all the climbers that have died climbing it. And not just Swiss people. There were graves for people from all over the world. One other thing that stood out about Zermatt is the church bells. In the past Troy and I have complained about the noise from Muslims call to prayer. The Swiss church bells have them beat hands down when it comes to annoyance. Walking through the town as they start ringing, you can't even have a conversation until they stop which at one point was about 5 minutes.

Zermatt sits right at the base of the Matterhorn so everywhere we went there were astonishing views of the mountain and the surrounding range with their snow capped peaks. We did one hike that took us around the backside of it and flowing into the valley at the base of the Matterhorn were 5 glaciers that, unfortunately, no longer spill into this valley. Global warming or not, it is sad to see that these glaciers are receding quickly.

The Swiss Alps is known for a very rare flower called the Edelweiss. It's a small white flower about the size of a half dollar and is velvety to the touch. Troy and I were lucky enough to find two small bunches of them while hiking. As we're taking pictures other hikers would come across and get all excited saying "Edelweiss, Edelweiss!" and then saying whatever excited gibberish to each other in their language.

Even though we were only in Switzerland for a little over a week we got a really good feel for the country. The views of the Alps we saw and the number of waterfalls are unsurpassed. We were even fortunate enough to see the inside of an Alp when we took a wrong turn and ended up driving through a tunnel for 15 miles. That sucked in a car without air conditioning and slowly suffocating from the other cars fumes. Troy and I loved Switzerland but it is very expensive and just too cold for too many months of the year.

Next up France!

We Love the Italians

2007-07-24T09:18:00.000-06:00

If you want to see the mass of photos of Italy, grab a beer, sit back and enjoy otherwise below next to the section headings are links to the different cities we visited.

Troy and I have decided the Italians are our new favorite people. We still love the Germans but we just couldn’t get over how incredibly friendly the Italians were. Never once in our time there did we think they were rude or found them to be rude to us…except for the guy at the bus station who couldn’t figure out what bus we were telling him to book us on. But that was clearly our fault for not speaking the language. Every time we asked someone for help or directions they gladly helped us, even if they spoke no English and especially since we didn’t speak any Italian. They would just laugh and smile and help us the best they could. We had one lady escort us five blocks to a barber for Troy to get his haircut because she was not able to tell us in English where to go! We wish everyone could be like them. We just love them!

Love the New Family (Nocciano photos or Abruzzo region photos)

Remember back in the Rome blog we mentioned meeting up with a relative from Troy’s grandmother’s family? Well we took it a step farther. (Real quick here, Troy’s grandmother’s name is Mary). As soon as we left Greece we decided to visit the Abruzzo region (mid-east coast) to try to find the village where his grandmother’s family live. We knew the village name, Nocciano, but thought we would be lucky to find a bus there but we would try anyways. We scored when we found out the owner of our bed and breakfast, B&B Pescara, spoke fluent English and offered to accompany us to Nocciano to act as an interpreter. He knew the way there so we thought, why not. We rented a car for the day (luckily it was cheap) and off we went. Troy had called Nicola (Mary’s great nephew in Rome) and told him we were going. So he called his dad, Mario who is Mary’s cousin and told him to expect us in Nocciano, which is where he lives. We get there and ended up meeting three of Mary’s cousins who she has never met plus their various spouses and kids. Not only did Mario give us pictures of himself and his father (Mary’s uncle) but he also gave a picture of Mary’s grandmother whom she has never met. We couldn’t believe his generosity with these photos. He said he had tons of them and didn’t mind giving them to us. Troy snatched them up quickly because he knew his grandma would find them priceless. Knowing Mary had never met her grandmother made us sad to because we both think about the role and relationship we had with our grandmothers and what a loss that is for her.

Florence (photos)

After two days in the Abruzzo region, we were off to Florence. As everyone knows, Florence is the art capital of the world. While there you would think we go see famous sculptures and priceless paintings in museums. But did we, nooooooo. We went and saw Harry Frickin’ Potter!!!!!!! I’m at the movie and I’m thinking “I can’t believe I am in this fabulous city and I’m sitting watching this dumbass movie!” Troy is insisting that I let you know that museums and things were closed at the time of the movie… but whatever!!! The only good thing about it for me was that the theatre was over 600 years old. It was complete with sculptures, marble columns, carved balconies and a stained glass dome ceiling. Troy thought he was cool because he got to see the movie before it even opened in the US.

Of all the beautiful things we saw while in Florence, we came across one wacky thing that kinda stood out. They have a Museum of Serial Killers (hmmm… go see paintings by Raphael or wax dummies of Jeffrey Dahmer?) One thing we realized too late upon arrival into the city is you need to make a reservation to see the statue of the David. We didn’t make reservations and didn’t want to wait in line for 4 hours so we decided it was our loss. Upon talking to two local tour guides they gave us a little inside information. If you walk about 20 yards past the entrance to the gallery to the exit door you can see the David. It didn’t make sense so the next day we decided to see if they were right. Sure enough, 20 yards past the main door is the exit with smoked glass doors and you can look right in and there he is. The doors are not even solid and the statue is not even in a room deep inside the museum. People would come out and open the door wide open and there he was again, even more clearly. Of course I made Troy take a picture since you can’t take one inside and I guarantee you the people leaving didn’t think to turn around as soon as they left to take a picture so it was a bonus for us.

Siena (photos)

From Florence we did a day trip to Siena. Our old neighbor from Colorado is a wine broker and had set up a wine tour with Dievole, which has the oldest certified grape harvest in Italy dating to 1090. This was a very cool tour since they only do a tasting session five times a day and it has to be done by reservation and Troy and I were the only two at our tasting. Each tasting was done in a different room of the vineyard whether it’s the main wine room, the old cellar, the new cellar or the boutique.

The fourth tasting was done in an old church that dates back to the beginning of the vineyard. Even though it is no longer a church it still has pews, crosses with Jesus, pictures of Jesus on the wall even a prayer book. But on the alter is wine bottles and above the alter is a mid-evil painting of people in a pub. So we’re doing our tasting and in walks this little boy about 10 or 12. He kneels down and starts to pray. Troy and I look at each other and both think “For once, we are in the right place so he must not be.” Our wine guide looked at him and said, “This is no longer a church. You can stay and pray but it’s gonna do you no good!” I don’t think the little boy spoke any English but his eyes got wide with embarrassment and took off. It was sad but funny at the same time.

Venice (photos)

The following day was Venice. I don’t know what we were thinking or expecting going to this world famous city in July, the height of the tourist season, but there were so many people there it sucked! We got off the train and took a water bus to the Piazza San Marco which is the most famous square in Venice. That right there should have set off alarms in our head. It was overwhelming the number of people in this area, not to mention the number of gross pigeons feeding off of peoples’ hands and heads. Troy and I were instantly in a bad mood and I decided to take it out on fellow tourists by seeing how many photos I could either get in (a trick we learned from my brother-in-law Ryun) or how many photos I could completely disrupt by walking clearly in the middle of the people having their photos taken. We did the smart thing and immediately headed to the back streets and alleyways, which was the best thing we did. The main group of tourists dwindled out and we were no longer in the crowds and could finally have some breathing space. It was at this point that we could finally understand how people fall in love with Venice and find it so romantic.

The one thing (I won’t say it’s the only thing) that sucked was we bought a Chorus Pass that got us into 15 of Venice’s best churches. I know, I know, me, Shelly, of all people wanting to go into churches. Anyways, it’s Sunday, we’re thinking what a great way to see churches. We spent half our day wandering around to these churches to find out they were all closed!!!!!!! It’s frickin’ Sunday and they’re closed. Needless to say, Troy went back to the tourist office and got our money back. The lady started to argue with Troy saying the pass was good all year but Troy just gave her a look that said, “Don’t even try” and she gave our money back.

Dolmites (photos)

After Florence we headed further north to an area called Trentino known for the Dolmite mountains. We think we heard at one point they are part of the Italian Alps but we were never able to confirm that. Anyways, by pure luck we ended up staying in this great little village called Vattaro. It had a population of maybe 1800 and that was on a good day when no old people died (and there were a lot of old people here). It was at the base of one of the mountain ranges so we had great access to hiking. And hike we did. For not having done much exercise (other then running with our packs to catch a train) or have done a major hike since the beginning of Costa Rica we did ok. It was an absolutely beautiful area and we were really happy we decided to go there since we kind of pulled it out of our asses at the last moment.

Como (photos)

Next on our calendar was to meet up with my aunt and uncle from Phoenix, Hoyt and Shellie. They are in Europe traveling for 3 months and it worked out perfect for us to meet up with them. We initially met in a city called Lecco then headed up to the Como region known for it’s gorgeous Lake Como. Shellie found this amazing bed and breakfast in a nearby small town that was ran by the greatest Italian couple. The B&B was their home, which we found out the main part of the house was over 600 years old. It had this massive fireplace that used to be used for cooking and sky high ceilings.

We spent one day driving to Lake Como and the surrounding villages such as Bellagio and Verenna but there was a downside to this: It was hot, really hot and the car Hoyt and Shellie rented in Germany didn’t have air conditioning. We all thought we were just going to melt. In between melting, stopping for beers, Hoyt avoiding speeding BMW’s we kept trying to find George Clooney’s house. “Oooh, maybe it’s that one on the hill! It looks so George Clooneyish.”

But now we are out of the heat and in Switzerland. And oh, is it expensive here. Youch! “Yes, I’ll take a bratwurst and fries for $13 please!”

Athens Soup With A Side of Corn Bread

2007-07-10T09:10:00.000-06:00

For more photos go to our Greece photo Album at our photo website.

So Troy and I found Athens to be about as appealing as pea soup: hot, lumpy and not very pleasant to look at. We assumed it would have a lot of history around town but all we found was grafitti and ugly, boring block buildings. We thought Athens was going to be like Rome with so much to see and do so we booked 4 nights at a Marriott (using Troy's points, of course). After our first day there, we realized it was 2 nights too many. Don't get us wrong, the Acropolis and Parthenon was one of the most beautiful and amazing things we have ever seen but we quickly found out that besides these monuments, there is not much else to see. We did a stupid bus tour around the city and knew it was a boring city by how much sleep we got on the tour bus. By 4:30 on our first day there, we both looked at each other and said "What do you want to do now?"

Like I said, the Parthenon was amazing but extensive restoration work is going on right now so there was no way to get a photo angle without some sort of scaffolding (or tourists... those damn tourists) getting in the way. Comparing the Parthenon in postcards to the Parthenon we saw, we could tell that at least 25% of the columns are gone right now for the restoration work.

There were also a lot of tourists. I mean alot. The most annoying thing about the Acropolis were the "Acropolis Police" for lack of a better term. These are people that are either volunteers or are employed by the city to help protect the Acropolis area. I call them police because they were constantly blowing their whistles at people to stop doing things they were not suppose to be doing. Wether it was someone who stopped to take a picture and was blocking the flow of traffic or if someone stood on the wrong thing to have a photo taken. It really took away from whole experience (or what was leftover after the tourists were done with it). I felt like we were in second grade with the school yard attendant yelling at kids. "Billy, get down from there!" "Cindy, stop throwing rocks at that 3rd century BC statue!" But yet, tourists can sometimes act like second graders. I completely understand and agree with why they're there but they need a little more etiquette with their whistles.

Right near the Acropolis is a small hill at about the same elevation as the Parthenon that has this tiny little monument on top that is actually quite old (sorry, I forget how old). To get away from the crowds Troy and I went up there and found the most amazing view of the Parthenon and the surrounding city. The best part about it was there were 4 other people there. We found a back way up to this hill that bypassed the main gate and one evening we went up there to see what the city and the Partnenon looked like at night. This was probably the best part of Athens and the one thing we liked the most.

Speaking of the thing we liked the most... the thing we found the least intrigueing were the people. We found them to be either hot or cold, nice or rude. There was either the guy at the cafe buying us a beer for no reason or the guy at the newstand who would ignore me when I would ask a question about the bus stop nearby. We couldn't decide if we loved them or disliked them alot.

After 4 days in Athens (we decided to stick it out) we took a ferry to Santorini Island. Santorini Island is basically the side of the top of a volcano that sticks out of the ocean. Most of the hotels and buildings are either located along the beaches (which were not that nice because they were black gravel, not black sand as they were advertised to be) or the buildings are located on the side of the caldera of the volcano which plunges steeply down to the ocean. This is where we chose to stay. We can stay at a beach anytime, gravel or no gravel, but the uniqueness and the incredible views from the side of the caldera were very cool. But besides the beaches and the caldera view, the rest of the island was dry and very bland.

On the tip of the island is a village called Oia. This village claims to have the the worlds best sunsets. We witnessed every single sunset and even though they were beautiful, we both agreed we had seen better sunsets in Mexico and in Colorado over the Rocky Mountains. I think what took away from the WOW of it is that we were having to share the sunset with... ok, people like us. About a half hour before sunset, everyone staked out their spot to get the best picture. So at sunset, all the rooftops and sidewalks were packed with people. When we were in Costa Rica we came across this amazing black sand (not gravel) beach with the roaring ocean on one side and the rain forest on the other side. It is by far our favorite beach we have ever come across. We both agreed if we had to share this beach with 100's of other people it would not be so special. So for us, that is why Oia was not so special for sunsets.

We are back in Italy now and took the long ferry ride back from Greece. This time it was a 20 hour ferry ride since our destination was farther north then where we originally departed from Italy. We dreaded this boat ride since our one to Greece was so pleasant with our first class airplane seats. But this was a different boat and we were given the option of sleeping in dorms.
Even though they were male/female dorms and Troy and I would be sleeping apart, we jumped at the chance knowing we would sleep. This ferry was empty. It was maybe 25% full, which meant that my dorm that could sleep 30 people, only had me and 2 other women. Troy's dorm was just as empty.

We have found that we love the Italian people. They are such a nice break after the Greeks. But in defence of the Greeks, we have come to realize that their behavior is not purposely to be rude, that is just how they are. Now of course there are the instances when they blantantly turn away from you when you ask a question, and then of course there was our lovely hostess in Santorini, but for the most part they are just being Greeks.

Romans Do So Many Violent Things Naked

2007-07-02T03:57:00.000-06:00

Go to our Rome photo album at our photo sight to see more photos.

On our tour through Rome, we were amazed at the beautiful and complex sculptures around the city. Every time we turned the corner we were met with another beautiful creation. The one common theme we kept coming across though was how often the Romans were portrayed doing really violent things naked. Whether they were battling a vicious lion using a sword or trying to keep from falling off a horse while chopping the head off his enemy, they were always portrayed naked. (Ok, so this sculpture is a calm, clothed angel, but you get the idea.) Can you imagine how the modern guy would have lived in those times? Today they can barely get through the day without getting their thing caught in their zipper.

Rome was truly amazing. Although I thought I would be awed when I saw historical monuments such as the Colosseum, the Roman Forum or the Vatican, I wasn't. I think it was because I was having to share the moment with thousands of other tourists (Troy here...I was awed but not by each thing as much as by the volume of history and amazing architecture). Even though we are tourists, we hate ourselves for being one of them. Don't get me wrong, we fully enjoyed Rome and all it had to offer to the fullest extent, but those tourists......

We did luck out when it came to avoiding the long lines at St. Peters Basilica in the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel. The lines to both were so short that for quite some time we thought we were trying to get into the wrong place. Somehow we arrived just ahead of the massive quantity of tour buses and their occupants.

St. Peters was stunning. The amount of time and effort that went into building this phenomenal church is extraordinary. The detail in the sculptures, paintings, craftsmanship was beyond belief. We saw a lot of beautiful churches and basilicas around Rome, in fact there are over 1200 churches in Rome. Some were plain and boring on the outside, but were astonishing inside and had massive interiors and housed priceless paintings.

As a side note here, I need to take the time out to piss off a few Catholics(what's new, right?). As we're looking at all these extraordinarily beautiful Catholic churches there was a thought that was continuously going through my mind: Why does the Catholic church feel they have to spend so much time and energy and money and resources to worship? It is absolutely unbelievable the amount of... everything that has gone into creating these churches. Our friend Christiaan in Hong Kong is a pastor. His church is a small room in a mall with a 3 piece band. He does not have marble sculptures, 6' tall gold crosses, elaborate robes or a 100 member choir accompanied by a grand organ. It's just a plain jane church. Does the Catholic church think all this "everything" will give them a better chance to get into Heaven or maybe get them to the front of the line at the Pearly Gates? I wouldn't doubt it if the amount of money involved in the Catholic church could probably make a good dent in world poverty. Ok, I had my say.

We stayed at a bed and breakfast which was actually just an extra bedroom in a lady's 2 story apartment. She was a sweet old lady but she was a talker. She knew just enough English to talk to us about the weather and her sons cat and how much she loved it but when it wakes her at 4am she wants to strangle and kick it and make it into soup with a side of potatoes. Oh, so lovely.

Before we left the US, Troy got information from his grandma about relatives they had in Italy. Ends up that in Rome is a relative named Nicolai Luciani who is a heart surgeon and Troy's grandma is his great aunt. Troy was able to contact him and we met up with him and his wife, Annamarie, for dinner one night. We also were invited to their home for dinner where we met their two older children, Julia and Marco and Annamarie's mother who was an incredibly sweet little Italian woman. Nicolai showed Troy pictures of where Troy's great-grandfather grew up in Italy. We are going to try and stop and visit the small village after we leave Greece. It was a great pleasure meeting them and getting to know them.

After 4 days in Rome we headed to Greece. (We're meeting my aunt and uncle in Switzerland so we will finish up with Italy after Greece.) We knew from our rail schedule book that the ferry from southeast Italy to the west coast of Greece would be about 16 hours. But my idea of a ferry was not even close to what kind of boat we ended up traveling on. I thought we would be on a double hull, catamaran style ferry that would hold about 300 people on 2 decks with a lower deck holding some luggage on cargo (which would suck for 16 hours). Our ferry ended up being a piece of shit cruise boat complete with 3 restaurants, casino, pool, boutique and a few bars. There were also 2 decks at the very bottom where about 50 semi trucks parked. I couldn't stop laughing for the first 2 hours because it caught me completely by surprise.

The boat also had 3 classes for passengers: Super duper class passengers got cabins with real beds and showers. First class, which is what we were in, had "aircraft style" seats. These seats occupied a large room, with the seats on one half (which sat about 70 people) and the other half of the room was empty (which I will explain why in a moment). The second class passengers had no seat. They were given the outside deck, whatever floor space they could find - hence the empty floor space in 1st class- and whatever chairs and couches they could snag. About 4am I got up and found people sprawled out everywhere on floors, in the lobby and in the saloon. This is something I would expect in Egypt of Asia, not Europe. I guarantee this does not happen on Carnival Cruises. About 5am, the boat made a stop and around 25% of the passengers got off. Troy was up wandering around and found several cabins doors open from when the passengers left. He quickly came and grabbed me, we ducked into one of these used cabins and got about 3 hours of sleep, afterwards using their shower. That was one of the best ideas Troy had in a long time. Unfortunately we have to take the same boat back, but this time we will have inside info and might be able to get a better nights sleep.

From living in Hong Kong to our travels now, we have realized one thing: we have never met an authentic Italian. Troy's relatives said the Italians don't travel. They would rather stay home, work and stay with family. So this was the first time we were immersed in their language. Every time we were on the bus or in a local cafe, I couldn't help feeling we were in a bad mafia movie. They are also the first country we have come across that actually use hand signals to try to communicate instead of blabbering away saying completely incomprehensible things.

Kalimotxos and Pintxos in Spain

2007-06-25T06:55:00.000-06:00

Go to our Spain photo album at our photo site to see more photos.

Troy and I were introduced to some fabulous things and not so fabulous things during our travels in Spain. They both involved food and drink. The best thing was Pintxos (pronounced pintchos) which are appetizers on steroids. We found about these in a small town in north Spain called San Sebastian. Around 5pm or so, all the bars lay out this glamorous buffet table (ok, it's just the bar top) with these amazing plates of pintxos. We found the best thing is to go from bar to bar to bar to try to see who had the best pitxos. The only thing we (ok, I) didn't like about this "happy hour" is that the drinks are only half pours. We couldn't understand why the bartender just couldn't put in that little bit of extra effort to pull the beer tap one more time.

There were actually two bad things we found in Spain. One was a drink called Kalimotxo (pronounced kalimotcho) which is a 50/50 mix of bad red wine (has to be bad) and cola. It was definitely as bad as it sounds. Troy said it was refreshing.... whatever, dude! What made it even worse was that the locals order it by the liter. The second bad thing was another drink called Leija which was beer and lemonade. This was just as bad as a Kalimotxo, but at least it was not drank by the liter.

Basque Country

When we originally planned our trip to Spain, we were going to spend several days in Madrid, visit that area then make our way to Barcelona. But on our Costa Rica dive trip, our cruise director invited us to visit him in Basque Country in north Spain. Since it sounded just as fun, we canceled our Madrid hotel and booked a train north. Our first stop was Bilbao which is home to the Guggenheim Museum. This is an amazing piece of architecture right in the heart of the city. Troy and I are not really museum goers, but we both really enjoyed this museum.

One evening our friend, Javier, picked us up and showed us around to some of his local watering holes right on the Mediterranean Sea. These were definitely out of the way places we would have never have found, especially since one was right on the edge of a nudist beach - thanks Javi!!! These are not so bad until you have to witness two guys play ping pong. "Whoops, sorry, wrong ball!"

San Sebastian

Our next stop in Spain was San Sebastian which I mentioned is home to the famous Pintxos. This was a beautiful city right on the beach that had some amazing churches and small back alleyways where all the bars are located.

One thing that Troy and I absolutely have to get used to in Europe is the different business hours. Places open about 9am or so, close at 1pm then open again at 4pm. They take their siestas here seriously. Most people also don't eat dinner until 10pm which does not make my belly happy at all. It has revolted on me a few times and demanded to be fed with sweets and ice cream. No one wants an angry belly, so I had to meet it's demands! Troy on the other hand is keeping his belly happy all the time by feeding it endless supplies of gelato.

Tarragano

Next after San Sebastian was Tarragano which was a city built on Roman ruins from way back in the day. Around the city are old remnants of an amphitheater, arches, Roman circus, etc. This city also had great little back alleyways that we could wind our way around. We are so off schedule with the locals that most often Troy and I were the only ones in a restaurant having a drink or an early evening appetizer.

Montserrat

From Tarragano we did a day trip to Montserrat which is home to the Benedictine Monastery which is located on the side of a 3500' bulbous, stone mountain. This monastery was established when a wooden statue of the Virgin Mary was found in 1025. This place is actually quite cool because the colors of the buildings blend in with the mountain and there is nothing else around the monastery so from a distance it is difficult to see. One thing I found a little bizarre was in the cafeteria where the tourists ate, beer on tap was served. Call me silly but when I think of priests and nuns and monasteries my mind does not automatically jump to beer! Maybe I'm missing something.

Barcelona

Our last day in Spain was spent doing a whirlwind tour of Barcelona. We only had one day so we had to zip through it real fast. So of course we did the tourist thing and hopped on one of those tourist buses with no top that you can get on and off whenever you want. The most fascinating thing of Barcelona was a church called the Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia designed by Antoni Gaudi. The construction of this started in 1882 and over 100 years later is still under construction. This is definitely the center piece of the city because not only is it the tallest building (I think) but there is nothing else like it in the city or even on the planet. It is only 50% completed and when done it will stand over 500 feet tall. I thought we would spend 30 minutes there, but 2 hours later, we were still exploring this monstrosity.

At the end of the day, Troy and I were looking forward to our hotel at a Marriott near the airport for our flight in the morning to Rome. Luckily we were able to use points to pay for this $275 a night hotel. Upon arrival at 9pm our evening and good mood came crashing down when we found out that the airport we were near was not the airport we needed the next day. It was over an hour away by bus. Can you say "%&%$$%?&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;%$£&%&?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Lucky for us the concierge was still there so he helped us figure out how to get to the other airport. Some of you are probably reading this thinking "How could you get the wrong airport?" This is how: We are in Barcelona, we are at the airport in Barcelona, our itinerary says Barcelona airport. When we booked the hotel and airfare, how were we suppose to second guess which airport to leave from? It's kind of like leaving from the Denver International Airport, but it's located in Colorado Springs. I did get the kudos for the day since I was the one to think of asking the hotel receptionist if we were at the right airport. It would have sucked even worse if we had got to the wrong airport in the morning and couldn't find our airline.

But all is good, we are in Rome now and I am sitting next to a guy at an internet cafe surfing for porn. He is surfing for porn, not me, just so there is no misunderstanding!

Detour Through Panama

2007-06-15T09:39:00.001-06:00

When Troy and I started our travels, we were both open to advice and suggestions from locals and fellow travellers of what cities and towns to visit that we originally had not planned on. That was kind of the point of our travels...to not have a plan. But the one thing we both agreed we would not do is visit a country that was not in our itinerary. Well, that just got thrown out the window last week when we took a detour from Costa Rica through Panama.

We wanted to get from the south Pacific coast of CR to the south Caribbean coast of CR. We thought we would have to back track all the way up to San Jose then back down south. But we met several people that said don't do that, go through Panama. So after getting a few tips of the route we needed to take and what scams to watch for at the border we headed off to Panama. We knew the border crossing was going to be a little tricky because we're suppose to have a return bus ticket out of Panama. We didn't have one and didn't want to buy one because we knew they only wanted extra money. So we played "Stupid Gringo." Everytime the immigration man kept saying "Bus Ticket" Troy kept saying "No, taxi." Troy kept this up for a good 10 minutes letting the line behind us get longer and longer. Troy's persistence held out. The immigration man finally stamped our passports and off we went.

Panama was just like CR, except for two big differences: Their currency is the USD and their roads are beautiful!!! Unlike the horrible, horrible roads of CR. Our destination was a group of islands on the northwest Caribbean coast called Bocas del Toro. We quickly found out this was a total surfer town and there were just as many westerners as locals. We didn't do much here, other then rent some bikes (which after 1 hour Troys chain broke and 2 minuts later I got a flat tire) take a tour around the islands and hang out on the beach.

It's funny. The reason we chose to go through Panama was to get to the Caribbean coast of CR. But after spending a few days in Caribbean Panama, we knew it was going to be just like Caribbean CR with very minor differences. So we decided to skip CR and head in land after leaving Panama. Our exit from Panama was much less stressful then our entry. The most interesting thing about leaving Panama was the border crossing into CR. We had to walk across this old, cranky, skinny bridge that was suspended above a river. The bridge itself wasn't scary. What was scary was when a huge 18 wheeler was coming at you on this skinny bridge. It is so narrow there is literally no room for pedestrians as the truck passes. So here we are halfway across the bridge with our big backpacks and here comes the next truck. We quickly found out how fast we are able to run with our heavy packs on!

Rafting Rio Pacuare

Our next and last stop was Turrialba. This is where everyone heads to raft the Rio Pacuare. This river is one of the best in Central America for white water rafting and is also known as one of the most beautiful rivers in the world. Rafting the Rio Pacuare was a blast! It didn't have quite the huge rapids as the Arkansas River in Colorado, but the rapids were much more consistent, more fun and quite hairy at times. The guide was a lot more adventuresome then we are used to in Colorado. He would try to back surf into the surge or take us backwards down rapids. We had so much fun, we actually did it twice. Near the end of the trek we rafted under an old railroad bridge where we had the chance to jump from it into the river. Troy was up for it but I said hell no! It was way too high. Troy was all for it until he got to the top and realized it was a lot higher then it looked from the river. He toughed it out though and did the 45 foot (yikes!!) leap into the river.

Costa Rica has been a blast and is probably one of the most beautiful countries we have ever seen. Next we are off to Spain and southern Europe for 2 months. Not sure how much we will be able to blog from Europe since it won't be cheap.

If you are interested, Troy has posted more photos from our Cocos Island trip, plus there are more from our last week or two from Costa Rica.

La Bus El Broken O Down O

2007-06-08T16:54:00.001-06:00

As I said in a previous blog there is a mode of transportation in Costa Rica called the Collectivo. Remember, it's that 1983 broken down thing that sometimes passes for a truck? Anyways, for Troy and I to get back to the town we started from, we had to take the Collectivo again. This time we were not as fortunate as our last Collectivo ride and got the wooden plank seats instead of the cushy padded seats. The wooden planks ended up being the least of our problems.

Troy and I were the only passengers the morning we left which also ended up not being a good thing. After Ricardo (I have no idea what our drivers name is, but Ricardo works) finished his leisurely breakfast, he roll started the truck and off we went. Roll starting his truck was another sign things were not going to go well. The road we are on is about as crappy as they come. So our friend, Ricardo, is taking his slow sweet time going over the potholes. So slow that he stalled. As we all know, this is normally not a problem. Just restart the car and off you go. But since he had to roll start the car originally we knew this was not going to be so easy since the road we were on is as flat as they come. Up to this point all we cared about was getting to Puerto Jiminez to catch the noon ferry.

What does Ricardo do when the truck stalled? Nothing. Literally nothing. He sat there, draped his hands over the steering wheel and did nothing. We didn't know if he thought Puff the Magic Dragon was going to come along and save the day or what (another Troy quote of the day). After a few minutes of nothing, Troy says "Amigo, you going to start the car?" Reluctantly he gets out, opens the hood and does the obligatory poke and prod of the engine to make it look like he is doing something. Troy steps up beside him and sees that the battery cable is corroded and is causing the problem. Troy twists the cable on tighter and tells Ricardo to try again. Ricardo says no. What a stupid man. Troy says ¨Try again!¨ Reluctantly Ricardo does a few times and the engine tries to start but still not enough power.

What do we do next? We push the truck along the flat, dirt road to try to push start it. This does not work after several attempts. What does Ricardo do next? He walks off. He doesn´t even say anything to us (not like we would understand him anyways). We figured he was going to walk around the corner where we couldn't see him and sit and do more nothing. So Troy and I are left with this broken down piece of shit in the middle of nowhere Costa Rica. About 10 minutes later, Troy tries the ignition again and lo and behold, the car starts. Whoo hoo!! Troy says "What do we do?" I said "Let's go. Let's go find our driver!" So Troy jumps in the driver seat and off we go. I'm still in the "passenger section" scanning the forest around us trying to find Ricardo. We drive for about 5 minutes with Troy honking the whole way and eventually come across a lady who had not seen a guy walking along the road. She is looking at us like "Why do these 2 gringos have the Collectivo?" This is not a good sign. We're thinking he took a shortcut path and we totally missed him. So we look at each other and say "What do we do now?" Do we keep keep looking for Ricardo, do we hi-jack his truck and try to make our noon ferry? We eventually decided to keep looking because we thought it would bring us bad karma to steal the dudes truck.

We shortly came across a turn-off to a lodge. I waited with the truck while Troy walked to the lodge. Half-way there, here comes Ricardo. So off we go again. About 20 minutes later we pick up two more locals and the truck is doing well. But, 15 minutes later, the truck starts freaking out again. It doesn't stall but starts doing this bucking bronco kind of lurch. Kind of like when a 15 year old is learning how to drive a stick shift. It is jerking so hard that we are flying around the back of the truck and I am laughing so hard I am crying. The truck doesn't stall on the flat part of the road but decides to stall on the downhill of a very muddy, slippery part of the road. Since we can´t use the gears to down-shift and slow down, we are slipping and sliding precariously close to the edge of the ravine. By this time, my tears are not from laughter anymore.

We safely get to the bottom of the hill and because he didn´t make the most of the downhill opportunity to roll start again we are dead in the water. What happens next? We start walking... with 19km to go to get to town. The driver and the 2 other passengers turn off at the first sign of a beer (which sounded like a good idea at the time) but Troy and I forged on. 10 minutes later at our first water crossing I realize I have lost one of my beloved flip flops. Troy was not happy with me. Luckily we found it half-way back to the truck and we continued on with our journey.

It is hot and humid with very little shade and we knew things were starting to take an even worse turn when vultures started circling above us. About an hour later only 3 cars have passed us, all who were unable for various reasons to give us a ride. Ahead of us Troy sees a car pull onto the road. He is able to whistle and flag it down. By the time we caught up to it another car had pulled up behind us. Inside this second car is our driver, Ricardo, and the 2 other passengers. I am looking at them in this car and we are both thinking ¨There is no way we are leaving this spot with out a ride of some sort! Even if it means we pull Ricardo´s ass from the car he is in and make him walk.¨

We got a ride with a very nice man who took us all the way back to Puerto Jiminez where Troy promptly got our money back. Needless to say, we missed our noon ferry ride. Ricardo needs to do a serious overhaul of his Collectivo.

Costa Rica: Land of Rice and Beans and Ticos

2007-06-07T15:52:00.001-06:00

Go to our Costa Rica photo album at our photo site to see more photos.

Outside of diving Coco's Island, Costa Rica has been amazing. Everyday, Troy and I are greeted with phenomenal views, stunning landscapes and incredibly lush rain forests. So often we say "Wow, look at that! That is gorgeous!" We still have 8 more days here but we wanted to share a bit about our land experiences.

La Fortuna

We flew into San Jose which is a place you want to get out of as soon as you arrive, stayed the night then hopped on a bus to La Fortuna which is known as the Gateway to Arenal Volcano. This is the most active volcano in Central America right now although I'm not really sure if that is saying much. We were hoping to see lava flowing down the mountainside, but the top half of the mountain was covered in clouds our entire time there. We talked to several people that were there a day after we left and sat and watched the lava flow for hours. Bummer. We did an awesome hike to Cerro Chato which is a crater lake on the side of the volcano. On our way down from the top it started pouring rain like we have never seen before. Our trail literally became a gushing river and was gooey with mud. We kept telling each other to not fall and get hurt because it was a long way back to help.

After we arrived back on the main dirt road from the hike and were heading back to town, we saw a cow running down the middle of the road towards us with a man running after it. We (ok, Troy) quickly figured out that the man was trying to get his cow back. I was just wondering why a man was chasing a cow. Troy says "Shelly, don't let the cow pass you!" What? Are you insane? Who do you think I am? He says, "Make some noise, scare it." So I start clapping my hands and jumping up and down and yelling "Hey, cow, stop!" thinking I'm going to stop it. Instead it runs around me and keeps going. What do I do? I start running after it! Troy says "Shelly, you can't outrun it!" Oh, yeah, I guess I can't. We eventually somehow got him turned around. Oh, wait, I think the farmer did that. But we did help the farmer get the cow back into his pen.

Monteverde

Our next stop was Monteverde. After arriving there from a really gnarly, bumpy van ride, we were quickly caught off guard by the dense number of backpacking tourists in this little tiny triangle of a town. And yes, we are backpacking tourists as well, but we're different, we're better :) We quickly found a hotel off the town center because it was just way too noisy with the locals and their dirt bikes. The area around Monteverde is known as the Cloud Forest because of it's elevation (roughly 3500') and because it is always raining, the town is always in the clouds. It was actually a little cold here which didn't help when we would get absolutely soaked walking back from dinner. While in Monteverde we did the Costa Rican famous Zip Line! You don't go to CR and not do one. These are just a kick in the pants. We did one that had 18 lines that totaled over 3km in length. At one point we reached a speed of 40 mph. (We know this because of a friends sophisticated GPS.) There was also a Tarzan Swing which is exactly what the title implies. There is something to be said about an activity that makes a grown man scream! And no, I'm not referring to sex.

From Monteverde we headed to Puntarenas to catch our diving liveaboard. While on the boat, we met an incredibly smart and geeky guy from San Francisco that gave us a ride down to the southern peninsula of Osa. He could give professional off-roaders some serious driving tips. There was one stretch of nasty dirty road that literally everyone said it would take at least 3 hours to cover. Our friend did it in 1 hour! Days later and we still haven't recovered.

Osa Peninsula

Once in Osa we gathered tidbits of information from the locals to find out what we should do next. Early on a Tuesday morning, we packed an overnight bag and headed out to the "town" of Carate. I put town in " " because even though it is on the map, all Carate consists of is a building (what is inside, we have no idea) a grass runway for two tiny single prop airplanes to land and a couple of wooden plank tables under a blue tarp with a coffee urn in the middle. "Can I get a double shot, skinny latte to go, por favor?" You may ask "Why the hell did you go to Carate?" I'll get to that in a moment. Our transportation of choice is locally called a Collectivo. A Collectivo is a 1983 Nissan truck, beat up to hell, then in the bed are placed two long benches for the passengers to sit in. If you are lucky to get the deluxe Collectivo, you get the padded seats. The ride there was non-eventful. (I will post a separate blog about our return trip. It was eventful enough to earn it's own blog posting.) By now, Troy and I are used to the swiss cheese dirt roads. Our destination was not Carate, but the La Leona Tent Camp right on the edge of the Corcovado National Park. To get there, we had to walk 3.5 km along a black sand beach that is also lined by rainforest. Remember earlier when I said we are greeted everyday by CR beauty?

We were the only guests at La Leona which was kind of cool. So even though it was shared bathrooms, we had them to ourselves, even though it kind of sucked walking to them in the early morning when you had to pee. Troy took the shortcut and just peed off the front porch. National Geographic has called the Corcovado National Park "the most densely bio-diverse area in the world." We did a few hikes and saw 2 species of monkies, several types of frogs, snakes (yuck), Peccari (wild boar), Coati (member of the Racoon family) and tons of bugs and spiders. Every so often we would stop and go "WOW! Look at that tree" Take a few more steps "Wow, look at THAT tree!" Take a few more steps... you get the idea. I have found out that I am a pansy when it comes to night hikes (who wouldn't be) and I think I also have a new found fear of frogs. I don't know if it's because they jump on me and cling to my jacket or the fat f**kers run after me and my light. You can only guess how much shit Troy gives me now.

We have found the CR people are really nice. They are very patient with Troy when he is trying to speak his high school Spanish. He was doing really well until he called a lady's son a chicken. Even with my limited Spanish I know pollo is chicken not son! We have found that CR is slowly getting overtaken by Americans. We went to Osa because we were told a lot of tourists don't go there because it is too hard to get to. We're trying to get away from them. But we get there and the hotel we had reservations at is owned by an American couple from DC. The best internet cafe in town is (you guessed it) owned by an American couple. On the plus side, since they do speak Spanish, they can help us make other reservations or find out the ferry schedule for us. So they are useful!

Tomorrow we head out to the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica where we have absolutely nothing planned so it will be one of those "by the seat of our pants" destinations! Stay tuned.

Hammerheads Here, Hammerheads There, Hammerheads Everywhere!

2007-06-04T10:51:00.001-06:00

Go to our Coco's Island photo album at our photo site to see more photos (sorry the pictures need a little cleaning up but that wont happen until we are back).

Troy and I just finished an absolutely, incredibly, adrenaline filled week of diving Cocos Island, Costa Rica. Most people have never heard of Cocos Islands including a lot of Costa Ricans. It is located about 350 miles in the Pacific off the west coast of Costa Rica. You might ask yourself "How long does it take to cover 350 miles by boat?" Well, I'll tell ya... 32 hours. Most people didn't have their sea legs going out so there were some sick people, but most were better on the way back. Which was good because the water was much worse. The swells were so bad at times that during lunch drinks, food and people were flying all over the dining room!

The second question you might ask yourself is "What made the diving at Cocos Island so great?" Well, I'll tell ya... hammerheads, hammerheads, hammerheads!!!!!!!!!!!! You ever watch one of those Discovery Channel shows about sharks and in one sequence they show hundreds of hammerhead sharks swimming above being silhouetted by the sun? Been there, done that! (Troy has pictures to prove it and no, they are not stock photos from the internet!)

After conquering the delightful boat ride over, our first dive in the water started out great right away. Cocos Island is known as a "truck stop" in the Pacific for all type of large pelagics so there were sharks on every dive. Our first encounter with sharks were with White Tip Reef Sharks. These are nothing compared to Hammerheads. They actually got to be quite annoying, because they were everywhere. They sleep during the day so it is easy to approach them to get photos but at night is a different story. We did a night dive with them and at night they are awake and huuunnnggggrrrry! They swarmed around en masse, bumping into you, your camera, pushing you out of their way. Think about what a packed fish tank looks like, put about 100 sharks in there along with a few divers, give it a good shake and there you have our night dive. It was actually quite freaky not knowing if at any minute they might get impatient trying to find a fish to eat and choose to see what you tasted like instead. Talk about adrenaline!

We came across several other species of sharks including Galapagos, Silky, Silver Tip, and Black Tip. The Galapagos, Silky and Silver Tip were monsters! They individually measured 9-10' long. They were not afraid of you either (which is a good thing???). They would get quite close to you trying to figure out what you were. We heard stories about divers having to use their camera to push these giants away from them. It was very exhilarating to hang out and watch them slowly circle around.

Ok... the hammerheads! They were everywhere! These guys got spooked a little more easily then the other sharks, so you had to really control your movement and breathing when they got close. We're controlling these movements not to hide but to get them closer. And yes, believe it or not, we wanted them close. The closer the better! They were amazing. They averaged about 6-8' in length and at times their schools numbered in the 100's. We were always looking around us full circle because they would be above, below, behind and in front of us. Talk about getting dizzy. The most spectacular thing was looking up and seeing these massive schools slowly swim by. I can't imagine what else on our future dive travels will compare to this encounter. But by no means are we calling it quits to our travels just because we just experienced thee dive of all dives!

Of course, sharks is not all we saw. We saw a ton of rays - marble rays, sting rays, spotted eagle rays. In past dive trips, we were excited to see 1 ray out of 15 dives. In Cocos, we were seeing anywhere from 1-8 rays on each dive. Eels, turtles, huge schools of fish and lobsters. On one dive there were more lobsters then at Red Lobster during Lobsterfest. (That was Troy's quote of the day!)

We were able to do a short land excursion to the island one day. The island is a mere 24 square km and the only people who live on it are park rangers. Not many people have visited the island, but Captain Morgan did make a landing here in 1843. There is a rock with carvings of past visitors and his name is among the carvings. The island gets about 24' (that's feet not inches) of rain a year so you can imagine how green and lush it is. Because of it's remote location there are hundreds of species of birds, insects and mammals that are indigenous to the island

We are back on land in Costa Rica planning our next few days. We have found we only have the ability to do a few days of planning at a time. More then that and we go into information overload. I know I have yet to say anything about CR, but let me just say it is stunningly gorgeous here. I will post another blog in a week or two before we head to Spain!!

First stop....Aruuuuuuuuuuuba!

2007-05-15T10:39:00.001-06:00

Go to our Aruba photo album at our photo site to see more photos.

Troy and I decided to ease our way into our world trip by trading our timeshare and heading for Aruba for 2 weeks. Talk about ease, Troy feels like he has not even started our trip since he feels like he is in Miami. I told him "That's great, since we've never been to Miami before!"

Aruba is where you go to to do really touristy things: snorkel trips, sunset dinner cruises, tube rides, gambling trips and the Arubian famous Kuku Kunukuu Party Bus. The Kuku Kunukuu is a school bus that has all the windows knocked out, painted dangerously garish colors then loaded with several loud stereo speakers. Tourists are packed in, handed a few maracas, music turned up all the way then hauled off to drive around town in this attention grabbing bus while sporadially stopping at local bars where we were all encouraged to drink, drink, drink. This was by far the most embaresssing thing Troy and I have ever done as tourists. I don't know if it was the bus pulling into parking lots and doing backwards donuts making us feel as if we're back in high school; everyone leaning out the windows and screaming at the pedestrians while shaking our maracas; or singing at the top of our lungs to Bon Jovi while driving down main street. I personally vote for all of the above. I can only imagine that as we're driving through town and taking several turns around the roundabouts while screaming to AC/DC, the locals are probably looking at us thinkng "There goes that f**king bus again!" As embaressing as it was, it was equaly fun though. I wonder if they have anything like this in Egypt? Maybe they'll have party buses that do donuts around the pyramids while blasting Arabian music. We'll let you know.

My sister and her husband, Mandy and Ryun, were able to join us for our first week there. We spent a few days scuba diving with them; shared the memorable experience of the Kuku Kunukuu bus with them; divided a few six-packs; split the task of telling Ryun to not talk so loud (and boy, does he talk loud); even drove around the island in their rented jeep trying to find the very well hidden natural pool on the north side of the island - which we were not supposed to take the Jeep to :-). As a late Christmas gift they treated us to a very nice dinner one night. Troy and I savored every bite because we figure it will probably be the nicest meal we'll have for the next year.

We spent quite a bit of time diving since that is what this trip is mostly about. The diving was ok, nothing to write home about. Oh wait, I guess that is what I'm doing right now. Probably the most memorable thing about it is the number of bad divers kicking the reef and the newbie divers who got excited at every little sea urchin they saw (yes, I'm talking about you, Ryun!). Another tourist thing that Aruba offers is to take paying customers in a submarine ride to see the reefs at about 50´. On our last day of diving, the submarine passed us by (which is quite creepy while diving). As the passengers waved at us from inside, Troy swam right up to the window so they could get an up close picture of him. I wonder how many slide shows Troy will be in after that?
I do remember one remarkable thing about the diving is we did see the biggest Green Moray Eel ever!!!! Even though he was in a wreck, we could still see his head and about half of his body. Our dive guide said he is about 7-8' long, which is just enormous, and his head is probably the size of Troy's. Unless we come across an eel just as big in our dive travels to come, I will be able to say that I will always remember Aruba for the biggest eel I ever saw (as well as for doing the most embaressing tourist thing).

On our last day in Aruba, Troy and I tried our hand at windsurfing. I personally have to say that I kicked ass at it. Troy was not so bad himself, although I was out of the water more then him :) He says I wasn´t, but whatever!

Next stop... one month in Costa Rica, including 9 days on a liveaboard diving the Cocos Islands!

And For Our Next Trick...

2007-04-20T15:19:00.000-06:00

Since we have left Hong Kong, everyone keeps asking us "What are you going to do now? What's your plan? Where are you going to live? Where are you going to work? Are you moving back to the US? Are you going back to Colorado?" We're kind of getting a little overwhelmed because so many people are on us wanting to know what our next plan is. We're not even going to mention the people who don't like what our answer is to all these questions.

So in response to to "What are we going to do now?" Troy and I are going to take a year off and travel the world. We saw a lot while in Hong Kong but it's a big world out there and we haven't even made a dent in it yet, (although we did a pretty good job while in HK!)

Then the next obvious question we get is "Where are you going?" For some reason people are not satisfied when we say "all over" or "everywhere". We are literally going all over. We have mainly chosen great scuba diving destinations with a little bit of Europe thrown in there for shits and giggles.

This is our plan: (Open Map in new window)
(This will obviously change depending on if someplace is more expensive then we anticipate, diving is crap, if we piss off local authorities. You know, normal stuff!)

You can click on the blue map pins to see the destination name. You can also drag (see different areas of) the map by clicking on the map and moving your mouse. You can also zoom in and out by clicking on the + and - in the scale in the upper left of the map. Finally, you can go straight to a destination by clicking on it in the left window. Or you can just say, "Screw you, I don't care where you are going...I am jealous as hell!" and click "Close Map".

View Larger Map

Depart Denver on May 4th and head to:

Aruba (2 weeks) - meeting Shelly's sister and brother-in-law for a week!
Costa Rica (1 month) with a week of diving off the Cocos Islands
South Europe - Spain, Greece, Italy, Switzerland, France (2 months). We are going to meet Shelly's aunt and uncle in Switzerland!
Egypt (1 month)
Malaysia (2 weeks)
Indonesia (1 month)
Back to Malaysia for Sipidan (2 weeks)
Chuuk (2 weeks)
Yap (2 weeks)
Palau (3 weeks)
Australia/Great Barrier Reef (3 weeks)
Papua New Guinnea (2 weeks)
Fiji (3 weeks)
Vanuatu (3 weeks)

Who knows, maybe somewhere along the way I'll get a job as a Hooter's girl and Troy can pick grapes to help supplement our budget and we can stay longer. Who wants to place bets that Troy will make more money picking grapes then I will as a Hooters girl (not that I have small boobs or anything). Or maybe in some great dive location, a local dive shop will hire us as dive masters and we'll stay there for 6 months. The great thing about all of this (besides being on vacation for a year) is we have no plan for when we get back. So if some great opportunity comes up while on the road, we can take advantage of it.

Anyone and everyone is welcome to join us on any part of this trip. My sister and her husband is going to join us in Aruba and we are going to meet my aunt and uncle in Switzerland for a few weeks. So come one, come all, it will be a blast.

Of course we will continue with our blogs. Not sure if they will be quite as good as they have been since we will be at the mercy of internet cafes and slow connections. But we'll do the best we can.

Wish us safe travels. I'm sure that is probably about the most we can expect from everyone right now. We know some people are quite jealous of us doing this, but you know what? Life is just too f**king short to not do this. You have to make life happen. No Excuses!!!

Camels, cows, colors and turbans!

2007-03-19T14:17:00.000-06:00

Click for more fabulous photos of India and the Hindu Wedding.

On our way back to the US from living in Hong Kong, Troy and I stopped in north India for 2 weeks. Troy had been to India for work but I never had a chance to join him. I honestly had not heard a lot of good about India but still wanted to go. It was a great trip but I don't know if I would recommend it for a vacation destination unless you're a little more of a worn traveller and want something off the beaten path. There is an immense amount of filth, trash and poverty. Your eyes actually long for structure and order in the landscape. But like I said, it was great, so enough of the negativity.

Finally in India

After a horribly delayed flight that routed us to Mumbai instead of Delhi, we finally made it to Delhi almost 24 hours later then we should have. Upon arrival we immediately hit the road with our driver, Mr. Singh, who would be with us for 2 weeks. Our first destination was Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. We've been pretty jaded to different ways of life with our travels, but India was on a whole new level. Gotta love stopping to pay entrance fees to the next state when a old, craggly, toothless man walks up to the car window holding a disgusting snake, with it's belly pressed up to the window and the old man wants 10 Rupees (.25) for you to take a picture of it!

Agra and the Taj

The next morning upon arriving in Agra was our visit to the Taj Mahal. After paying 10 Rupees to the guy who held open our car door (another example of the Indian way of life), we were off to visit the world famous mausoleum. The Taj was unbelievably beautiful. It is perfectly balanced in it's design and has incredible contrast with the surrounding green grass, blue sky and opposing red clay mosques. The whole thing is built from marble and the Koran is written upon the building as black inlaid marble. The Taj was built by the Emperor in the mid 1600's for his favorite wife who died during childbirth of their 14th child. It took 16 years to complete. Sadly, the emperor never saw the completion because his son wanted to be king so he overthrew his father and had him imprisoned.

Side note here to Hoyt and Shellie: the Taj we saw didn't have 6 wheels, a mini bar and haul our asses up and down the west coast of North America !

Jaipur and "Holi"

Our next destination was Jaipur. We were informed along our drive that the following day was a religious holiday for Hindus which is the majority of Indians. It was their Festival of Holi or otherwise known as the Festival of Colors where they literally throw color on each other in celebration. Mr. Singh said there would be no sightseeing since all of the palaces and forts would be closed for the day. We were further instructed that foreigners (us) were not to leave the hotel and the hotel would provide activities for the day. Troy and I were not happy about this. For one, we don't want to sit at a hotel all day. Second, it's a huge holiday for the Hindus and we wanted to see what it was all about. The next morning - the day of the festival - we talked to several other guests at the hotel and found out everyone was told the same thing. "Don't go out, it is dangerous for foreigners, there will be no police out to help you, you will get hurt, etc, etc." Even liberal guide books like Lonely Planet discouraged foreigners from leaving the sanctuary of their hotel. Well...Troy and I thought about it... and the next thing we knew, after being promised by our rickshaw driver we would be safe, we were in a motorcycle rickshaw off to the see how the locals celebrate Happy Holi. The entire time we're thinking "What are we doing?"

It was all good. Nothing bad happened to us, we were safe the entire time, the streets were relatively empty and everyone was out drunk and having a great time. We had to get into the spirit of things and got "Holied" ourselves. A man approached us with bags full of color powder and politely asked us if he could "holi" us upon which we said yes. Next thing I know we have green, blue, purple and yellow powder all over us, in our hair, down our shirts and in our ears! It was actually very cool, especially how the locals reacted to us after seeing that we took part in their holiday.

The next day, we quickly took in the sights we missed from the previous day then were on our way to Khimsar. We ended the day at our 500 year old fort hotel and watched the sunset over the small town of Khimsar while enjoying a few beers. The next day we were to start our camel safari and wanted a little relaxation since we didn't know how rough the next few days would be.

Osian and the Camels

The following morning was a quick drive to Osian where we met up with our camels and guides. The camel safari ended up being the best part of our trip. My camel was named Tela and Troy's was Rata. Their personalities and demeanor was very interesting especially since we have never been around camels before. As soon as they saw another camel, they started to gurgle, blurble, bubble, foam, roar, fart and grind their teeth. They basically became a mess with the foaming at the mouth and them pissing and pooping and their tail flicking this nastiness around to mark their territory. Troy's was especially moody when it came to other camels. He wasn't happy when they came and he wasn't happy when they were gone. He was a big boy too (the camel, not Troy) so we didn't dare get around him when he was acting up (I don't dare get around Troy when he is acting up, either!). Good thing he was Troy's camel and not mine.

One of the things that amazed us on the camel safari was lunch. We thought we would stop for 20 minutes, eat some gross sandwiches then be on our way. It was actually a 3 hour lunch with everything, including the chipati bread, made from scratch. First we started out with Indian Chai tea made with fresh ingredients including goats milk that was squirted from the goat who happened to be passing by our lunch spot. The guides proceeded to make vegetarian curry, spicy dhal soup and chipati from scratch. In between all this cooking, the guides would have to run off approaching stray camels that were trying to get near our camels. I suppose Troy and I could have done that for the guides but most likely the camels would have come chasing after us instead of the other way around - which, now that I think of it, would have made a good story!

The camel safari was really amazing. Gemar started his business - HaCRA - to help bring tourism revenue to his part of the desert. He is a gifted entrepreneur and we would very highly recommend his services if you are ever planning on visiting India. Check out the HaCRA website!

The Surprise Hindu Wedding

As our day was ending, our guide, Gemar, asked us if we "would mind" going to a wedding with him. His distant uncles cousin was getting married and it was to be a very important occasion with very important people and he wanted to go and was hoping we would go with him. Troy and I jumped at the chance to attend a traditional Hindu Indian wedding in the middle of the desert. Let me tell you, this was something of an experience. The only building structure at the wedding was the brides parents small home. Tents, generators and cots were trucked in for the 100's of guests that were attending. As soon as we got out of the car, we were surrounded by people wanting to see who we were. Right away I noticed that people wouldn't talk to me, only Troy. I found out later that in the Indian culture, it is rude to talk to the female without the males permission. So while Troy is getting bombarded from every direction with people wanting to say hi, shake his hand or practice their English, I am in my own little world with no one talking to me and actually giving me a 3' space around me. People were very welcoming to us but it was overwhelming.

The Hindu ceremony is a very serious ceremony for the couple but is just a mish mash, hodge podge of activity with all the guests. There was no rhyme or reason for what was going on. Of course since we didn't understand what was going on with the ceremony it was even more chaotic to us. One of the funny things I will always remember is shortly after we entered the courtyard where the elaborately dressed groom is sitting. There are two cameramen with bright lights filming the groom. Somehow they found out we were there. They immediately whipped around and turned the cameras and lights on us. Talk about two deer’s in headlights. I can only imagine what the bride and groom will think afterwards seeing this film. "Who the hell are those white people???"

During part of the ceremony, the groom entered the house to join the bride. The bride never leaves the house and the only people who see her are her immediate family. Even when the groom enters she is covered head to toe by her bridal Saree (Indian dress) and he can't see her face. Of course, we were dragged - not kicking and screaming - into this part of the ceremony which we thought was strange since only family was allowed in, never mind two white people who clearly don't belong there. The most uncomfortable point was when we were placed against a wall directly across from the groom who is maybe 10' from us. He looks directly at us and you can only imagine what is going through his mind! Troy and I tried are hardest to blend in to the locals but somehow we just couldn't!

After 45 minutes of this, we decided to get something to eat. Big mistake. There are probably 5 tables then tarps on the ground for people to sit and eat. With our guide, we get a plate of food all the while looking at it thinking, "We will be sick tomorrow!". The only place to sit was on the ground, so as soon as the three of us sit, we are surrounded by about 20 men, standing, watching us eat. We tried to ignore them but we just couldn't with all these men towering over us while we ate. We immediately found a table where the same group followed us and stood around the table. It was shortly after that when we told Gemar that we had enough. But we must thank Gemar for a great experience!

Driving home, we gave a ride to some of Gemar's neighbors. So about 12 people piled into this little Toyota Land Cruiser. I felt like I was back in high school on my way to a kegger party on Friday night. Although my friends in high school didn't have thick moustaches, wear turbans and speak Hindi.

The next day we finished our camel safari then headed to Phalodi where the local Indian boys called the dogs Indian Donkeys. After a night in Phalodi we stopped in Keechan Village to watch the early morning arrival of thousands and thousands of Demoisell Cranes come to feed. These cranes have been coming for over 150 years and the villageers feel the cranes bring them good karma.

The Golden City of Jaisalmer

We then headed to Jaisalmer. Jaisalmer is known as the golden city since most buildings are carved from yellow sandstone. At this point we are a mere 40 miles from the Pakistan Border so throughout Jaisalmer are Security Border Force camps. Our hotel was across the street from the Indian Air Force base so every morning and evening we could hear the jet fighters leave and return to their base. Our second evening in Jaisalmer, we went to a desert dinner where we were only 25 miles from the Pakistan border (oh the things we do to give our parents heart attacks)! After 2 days in Jaisalmer we went to Jodphur then our last stop was Udaipur.

The Trip Has to End

There were so many things we saw on a constant basis that still amazed us every time we saw it: Little boys and girls on the side of the road pooping and waving hello as you pass; Men sleeping anywhere and everywhere; Cows anywhere and everywhere - Hindus believe in 1000's of Gods and they believe that cows are the homes to the Gods so cows are very sacred. We were constantly getting stuck between a cart and a cow, getting slimed by cow boogers, walking down a dark street and nearly tripping on one. Not being able to get into a store because a big cow is laying on the doorstep. At any given time throughout our trip we were dodging dogs, sheeps, cows, goats, monkeys, peacocks, camels, elephants, and pigs. I also couldn't believe we didn't get poopy sick. We ate at some very dodgy places with rats in the ceiling, little boys on their hands and knees scrubbing the floor, flies everywhere (there are nicer places, but what fun is that?). Hong Kong must have toughened up our stomachs.

One of the most amazing things to see amongst all the filth, poverty and trash were these Indian women in their fantastically bright colored Sarees. Doesn't matter if their getting water from the well, doing road construction, working the field. These dresses are what they wear every single day. It was such a contrast to the brown, drab surroundings. Another thing that took us by surprise was when we stopped on the side of the road for tea and were offered opium by the tea guy. We didn't know what was in the little bag until he started handing out small spoons and our driver told us what it was. We immediately handed back our spoons, a little freaked out. Of course everyone laughed at us. They're probably thinking "Stupid white people, don't know when they're being offered free drugs!"

So sad to say goodbye.

2007-02-15T02:35:00.001-07:00

Well…our time in Hong Kong has come to an end. It has been a tremendous experience and we leave here with a lifetime of memories. There is so much about this place we won’t forget but on the other hand there are a lot of things that we can’t wait to forget such as men (and sometimes women) with 5” long hairs growing out of their moles.

Without further ado here are the top ten things we will and won’t miss.

Things we will miss:

1. Public transportation
2. Hiking with friends
3. Shelly having clothes made
4. Friends from around the world
5. Dim Sum
6. Lan Kwai Fong on Saturday night
7. Warm weather in December
8. Chinese babies
9. Drinking and not having to worry about who is driving
10. A fabulous view of Hong Kong from our flat

Things we won’t miss:

Pollution
Cobras and pythons on hikes
People pushing and shoving and line cutting - total lack of personal space
Freezing movie theaters
Sweating like a mother f***er in the gym and on hikes
Expensive Mexican food
Our washing machine and hanging clothes outside
Paying $10 for a gallon of milk
Disgusting things hanging up in the wet market
Troy’s Blackberry

It’s incredible the things we have become very tolerant of: cockroaches in restaurants; rats in the wet market where we buy our produce; hair in our food... Don’t get me wrong, Hong Kong is a clean city for its population density but these things are a part of everyday life that you can’t get away from. You just grin and bear it.

I personally have become very tolerant of the Starbucks girl, Sue, who has an enormous crush on Troy. She will find any excuse to talk to him. “Troy, what is this picture in the newspaper? Ohhhh, you so smart and funny and clever! Will you be here tomorrow? Oh, you so goo’ looking!” I only poke fun at this because she has a great sense of humor and even though she would be embarassed she would find this very funny. She is an incredibly sweet girl who we find quite interesting to talk to whenever we are at Starbucks.

We have enormously loved meeting people from all over the world. We have learned so much from our friends from different countries. One of the things we have learned from them is different slang and use of language. I love the look of absolute grossness on my British friends face when I talk about how much I miss biscuits and gravy. To them, a biscuit is a cookie. So yeah, cookies and gravy is gross. I’ve also picked up a few slang words myself such as wanker which has a similar definition as asshole depending who you ask. I have been trying to clean up my potty mouth by using that word more often. Now, if I can only stop calling them f**king wankers!

We have also found a perverse pleasure in shoving past people. “F**king wanker, get out of the way!” Whether it is getting off the subway and people just won’t get out of your way or stepping out of the elevator with both hands full of groceries. Young, old – doesn’t matter, we push them out of the way all the same. I know some of you are thinking what horrible people we are for that. But you come and live in HK for 2 years, before you know it, you’ll be shoving and pushing just like us.

Speaking of people from around the world , Troy and I have made some amazing friends while in Hong Kong. I personally never thought I would hang out with 50 year olds on a weekly basis and who would become such close friends of mine. Ok, so some are only 48, but they are still really, really old! (To those "old" HK friends of mine who I just offended – you know I had to get one last jab at you!)

A few weeks before we left Hong Kong, our very good friend, Judi organized a late afternoon hike. It was followed by dinner at a Thai restaurant in a little beach village for us and all our friends. It was to be our farewell gathering and drinkfest. The husbands grumbled because no golf was involved but they reluctantly went along because they knew there would be tons of alcohol at the end. The hike was beautiful, weather was perfect, food was fabulous, drinks were endlessly flowing and best of all we had a incredible time with everyone. To top the evening off, there is nothing better then all of us riding home in the public mini bus and singing at the top of our lungs to a familiar song on the radio and the bus driver and Chinese passengers singing and clapping along with us! Sometimes us foreigners can be quite entertaining to the locals when we want to be.

Troy and I are extremely sad to go but with all great things, there must be an ending. We will never forget HK and everything we have learned here. Most of all we will never forget our friends we have come to love. Each and every person has taught us an immense amount. Both of us will leave Hong Kong better people just by knowing these very special people.

Troy here...We will truly miss all of you we have come to know in Hong Kong and all over the world and hope that you will stay in touch. I will also probably be re-starting up my What's That? Who Cares! blog [subscribe here] and that at times can be interesting and/or entertaining.

As for what happens after Hong Kong, we will be heading to India for 2 weeks then onto Colorado. We will only be in the US for 6 weeks because we still have more adventures to come, and it does not include new jobs. Our blog is not done yet so stay tuned...

Christmas in Hanoi, Vietnam

2006-12-29T20:45:00.000-07:00

Click for more photos of Hanoi and Halong Bay.

Since we are staying in HK another 2 months (which Troy is sooo excited about – yeah, right) we decided to go somewhere for Christmas. In addition, all of our friends have gone back home to their respective countries for the holidays so we had no one to celebrate Christmas with. Plus the idea of having Peking duck and pork dumplings with a roomful of loud Chinese for our Christmas dinner just didn’t sound appealing this year. So we headed to Hanoi, Vietnam. Hanoi is definitely not what comes to mind when you think of a “Christmas destination” but it was loads of fun none the less.

Hanoi was a crazy little city. It has been a while since we have been to a place where things were constantly amazing us and catching us off guard. Every few minutes it was like “Holy cow, Troy, did you see that??? That’s just nuts!” Such things include how the Vietnamese know how to utilize the space on their tiny little motorcycles. Hanoi had prime examples of how they do that. There was the motorcycle driver delivering five, 3 foot tall porcelain vases strapped haphazardly to his bike; 3 rather large pigs lashed to the back of another motorcycle; or an entire calf roped to the luggage rack with his head and legs flopping around every time the motorcycle rode over bumps (hence the “holy cow" remark). Did we manage to get pictures of any of these? Of course not. They came and went before we could get our cameras out.

You could find almost anything you wanted in Hanoi, you just had to know which street to go to. There was shoe street, vodka street, zipper street, motorcycle part street, gullible tourist souvenir street, beer street, etc. etc. There were also no stop signs or street lights, so crossing a street was a challenge. Not only were you dodging the cars and motorcycles, but as you walked you had to make sure you didn’t run into the food vendors with their long wooden poles balanced on their shoulders. One of those things could poke your eye out.

One of the places we managed to stop and see was the Hanoi Hilton. In response to Troy’s question “Was this ever a Hilton hotel?” The answer is no. This was the infamous Hoa Lo prison during the Vietnam War that was renamed the Hanoi Hilton by the American prisoners. This was also where Senator John McCain was kept. The prison which is now a museum even had on display McCain’s flight gear, parachute, boots and helmet that he wore when he was captured. There were many sad things about this place. They had a room that was filled with items that were shown to the outside world at the time of the war to explain that the prisoners were being treated well. Whether it was clean uniforms, new shoes or a pamphlet that had various pictures of the prisoners showing what they did inside. “Oh look, it’s Christmas time again. What fun we are having.” “We’re learning how to cook together” “Yeah, let’s all play a game of volleyball”. When what was actually happening on the inside was a million times different.

About a 3 hour drive east of Hanoi is an area called Halong Bay. This place was absolutely stunning. It reminded us a lot of Yangshuo, China with the karst mountains but Halong Bay had the mountains protruding from the sea as opposed to land. I had booked us on a boat for 3 days/2 nights and we had no idea what we were in for. Are there going to have actual cabins to sleep in or will it be a big slumber party with strangers? Will there be toilets or is it “find a hole and squat”? Is this going to be one of those boats that is also used to transport pigs and cows to other places? To much relief it all turned out good. Cabins were comfy, bathrooms clean and the food wasn’t half bad.

The boat was called Jewell of the Bay and was one of dozens of boats that took tourists around Halong Bay. The boat slept about 18 people and we lucked out and got a triple cabin (well, Troy cheated and saw the number of the key in the "random key draw") so we had lots of room to spread out instead of being cramped into a small 10x10 room. Only one crew member spoke English so everything else involved a lot of pointing and hand gestures. Even though the Vietnamese really don’t celebrate Christmas, they did manage to have a very pathetic Christmas tree on the boat as well as a CD that had Jingle Bells in Vietnamese. The song was fun at first but then got real old after about the second hour of continuous play. We did luck out with some fun fellow passengers. A few Canadians, Germans, Indians and even a French guy who was actually very cool! Christmas Eve the crew had a “gala” planned for the guests. It wasn’t much but we all appreciated the thought and effort behind being served platters of fruit, cake, candies, some very, very bad purple champagne (yes, purple champagne) and even receiving a gift of a small wooden Vietnamese doll. This miniature spread was then followed by dancing with the crew and other passengers to more Vietnamese music. Or rather I danced and Troy laughed - he is always laughing at me.

Halong Bay was very relaxing. It was a little colder then we expected so neither of us wanted to swim. We didn’t do much other then kayak to secluded lagoons you can only get to through caves, see how the local floating villages and their residents live, bargain with the floating market lady to try to get cheap beers and explore some nearby caves that were gigantic.

We spent our last night (Christmas day) in Hanoi. It was very difficult to get into the Christmas spirit because outside of some very sparse Christmas decorations, some Santa earmuffs and the occasional Willy Nelson Christmas carol you would have never guessed it was Christmas.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

2006-12-18T01:36:00.000-07:00

Click for More pictures of Kuala Lumpur

Troy and I have managed to tackle a lot of Asian cities, but one that we had yet to visit was Kuala Lumpur. The most recognizable landmark that defines KL is the Petronas Towers. These are the world’s tallest twin towers and second tallest building behind Taiwan's Taipei 101 tower. We didn't know what to expect of KL. We certainly didn't have our hopes up. We expected it to have a pinch of cultural diversification, a heaping spoonful of Muslims and a huge dollop of boring right out of a big jar of Singapore. We were very wrong. We actually liked it so much that we decided we could live there if it wasn't for such bad traffic and it being bloody hot all year long. (Did I just say "bloody hot"? Good grief, I've been hanging out with my British friends too much.)

KL only has 2 million people. Yes, only 2 million. I know that sounds like a lot, but compared to HK, it's not. I was amazed at how quickly you could escape the city to get to the incredibly gorgeous jungle. The other thing Troy and I liked about KL is that since it has space to expand, there were a lot of outdoor eating and entertaining areas. HK has like two. Seriously, HK is so packed for space that it is very difficult to find outdoor restaurants. Now if you are a shopaholic KL is the place to be. Troy and I...not so much the shopaholics. Although while hanging out in the mall I did find myself fascinated by the Muslim woman at Starbucks who was wearing the traditional black robe and a full face veil (or niqab) - btw, in KL most Muslim women only where a hijab covering their hair and neck. I wanted to know how she drank her coffee without taking off her veil in public. After subtly staring at her (is there such a thing?) I found she doesn't take it off. I would sure like to watch her eat BBQ ribs though. Oh wait, that's pork - that's a no no.

Being in KL around the holidays was a little strange. Outside of the fact that it was 90 degrees in mid December, it was astonishing that a city that is predominately Muslim actually participates in Christmas activities. I don't know if it was the surprise of seeing manger scenes in public areas, Middle East sheiks standing in front of a Christmas tree, or the fake falling snow made out of soap (actually looked pretty real). I don't know who I felt sadder for: the Muslim city residents that have to tolerate this holiday or the poor bastard that has to continuously mop up the soap snow from the mall floor.

We did struggle to find things to do outside of shopping. One place we did get to visit was an elephant sanctuary. At the moment they have 11 elephants here. Some are working elephants that are used to help relocate elephants that cause problems on farmers’ land, while the young ones are being rehabilitated to hopefully return to the wild. They had a baby elephant that was a month old. They only had her a week and she was very skinny because her mother abandoned her. Luckily the sanctuary found her before poachers did. She was so tiny but made an enormous amount of noise. Troy was able to get close enough to her in her cage where she proceeded to suck his thumb. One activity visitors could participate in was bathing the elephants. Sounds straight forward enough, right? What actually happened wasn't even close to giving an elephant a bath. We stood on a wooden platform next to a river while the elephant that is in the water walked close enough for you to climb on him. He then walked into the river a few yards and dumped you! It was quite fun as long as you managed to not get stuck under the elephant as he went down. We met two guys from Atlanta who were the definitive embarrassing Americans (we have come across some real winners "Scuse me! Do you speak American?") - they insisted on wearing red Santa hats for their "bath" with the elephant.

We also visited the Batu Caves which is the holiest Hindu site in Malaysia. Once a year over a million Hindus attend a festival here called Thaipusan. Hindus from all over the world make the pilgrimage here for the event. During the festival, Hindus follow a route to the caves while engaging in various acts of devotion. Some acts are as simple as carrying a pot of milk while others go to the extreme of piercing their skin, checks and tongues with skewers. Even though this would be an amazing festival to witness, I don't think I could handle being in the midst of a million very smelly Hindu Indians.

How many Maldivians does it take to find a night dive site?

2006-10-27T04:01:00.000-06:00

Since November is our 10 year wedding anniversary Troy and I decided to treat ourselves to something nice for a change. After all we have done zilch, gone nowhere and experienced nothing in the past 2 years. Oh wait, that was a previous life! Anyway... for our anniversary we went to the Maldives for a week of diving on a liveaboard boat. For those geography freaks and people that like meaningless facts floating around their head, the Maldives is an island nation made up of 26 atolls located off the southwest tip of India. It is directly west of Sri Lanka. An atoll is a ring shaped coral reef or a string of closely spaced coral islands enclosing a shallow lagoon. The Maldives is an absolutely beautiful place. It holds the world record for being the flattest place on earth with the highest elevation of 10'. We have read several articles that have said if global warming keeps at it's current rate, all of Maldives will be under water in 10 years. I guess it's a good thing we got there when we did.

The islands of the Maldives are tiny, tiny, tiny. It is one of those places where there is not much to do but dive, sleep, spa, snorkel, walk around a tiny island in 7 minutes and drink (of course). There is no hiking, renting a car and exploring the island or going to the local market for shopping. So being on a liveaboard was the best way to experience the place because we were not stuck on one tiny island the whole time.

Troy and I both agreed this is probably some of the best diving we have ever done. Since there are strict fishing regulations and most of the area is a marine protected environment, there were just tons of fish on most of our dives. There were some dives that we would be right on the edge of a huge school that consisted of thousands and thousands of 4-7" long fish. Something would spook them and they would suddenly swim left then right then left again and it was like "ZOOM, ZOOM, ZOOM!!!!!" You could feel and even hear the sudden rush of their movements. It left you thinking "What the hell was that?" It was quite freaky and is one of those things that can't be described very well.

Our last diving trip to Myanmar was our first experience with Manta Rays. We were so excited to see 2 Mantas is 30' visibility of water. But the Maldives proved to be better then that. One day our boat was in an area where we were surrounded by them. Troy, me and another guy jumped in our dinghy (a dinghy is a small boat, not a ditzy girl) and had a crew member take us to where there were 10 Mantas slowly circling on the surface. We snorkeled with them for about 20 minutes before the Manta's took off. This was very exciting because they were right on the surface so the visibility was amazing. Because we were snorkeling instead of diving Troy could actually growl at me me to "Stop touching them!" instead of making menacing sounds through his regulator while diving.

We also finally saw whale sharks as well! We actually took these photos as opposed to past blogs where we used someone else's pictures. Whale sharks are the largest fish in the ocean (whales are mammals) and can measure over 30' in length and weigh several tons. They feed on plankton so they are completely harmless to people. As we're heading to a dive site our guide saw one a short distance from the boat. We all scrambled for our fins and snorkels and jumped in. We were able to snorkel with it for about a minute or two before it dropped to deeper water. An Italian guy in our group didn't see it and me, being the polite person I am, said (actually yelled) "You didn't see it? How did you not see it? It was right there!" (I'm such a kind person.) We came across another whale shark a few days later and the Italian saw it so lucky for him I didn't have to yell at him again.

About the only disappointing thing on this trip was we were only allowed to do 3 dives a day. For most liveaboards, divers have the option of doing up to 5 dives a day. We thought it was a regulation but we quickly found out that it is just the choice the dive boats make. So needless to say, we had a lot of downtime on the boat. Because we could only do 3 dives we were given the option of only one night dive. Even though it was just one night dive, it was by far the best night dive we have ever done and actually had our adrenaline cranked up a few notches. But before it could get good, it had to be frustrating first. Meaning that our dive guides couldn't find the dive sight. It's pitch black, way past sunset and after searching for 20 minutes for the dive site, our guides realize the batteries in the GPS are dead. So they proceeded to search for the reef with a flashlight. It's kind of like searching for a needle in a haystack... at night!

We finally found the sight and was very excited to see all the animals were out feeding. Sharks, eels and the biggest Barracuda we have ever seen. They normally measure about 2-3', but this one was about 6'. Fellow divers, I know you think I'm lying but I swear he was huge!!! Baracuda's are scary enough as it is, but to do a night dive with a 6' mother is something else. Troy and I came across an area in the coral wall where 3 eels were feeding. Normally they are tucked away and all you see is their head. These guys were out swimming around and trying to grab fish. We have never seen anything like this so we hung out to watch how they feed as well as watching the occasional reef shark swim by. As we're watching, one eel lightning quick grabbed a fish but was not able to get the whole thing in his mouth so there is this mangled fish just hanging out. All of a sudden here comes this shark, excited by the smell of blood. He starts swimming these frantic circles around us and the dead fish trying to find the source of blood. I refused to leave Troy's side and had a death grip on his arm. In the meantime there goes the 6' Barracuda wondering what all the commotion is about. We were both a little freaked out, not knowing what was going to be coming at us from which angle.

The Maldives is mainly Muslim and while we were there it was during Ramadan which is a time for the Muslims to concentrate on their faith and to fast for a month. A few nights Troy and I slept on the top deck of the boat for a few reasons: the lounge cushions were more comfortable then our bed, the constant noise of the boat generator was annoying and the Maldives have about a gajillion stars whereas Hong Kong has six! It was very nice and relaxing until 4am came and we could hear the call to prayer that was being blasted from a speaker on a nearby island.

Click on the link below for more photos.
http://tspadventures.fotki.com/maldives/

My flag pole is bigger then your flag pole!

2006-09-19T20:35:00.000-06:00

One of the downsides to living in HK, is that our friends are in constant rotation. The half-life of an expat here is about 1 year. As soon as we make friends with someone, they move onto a new city. This past weekend I went to Seoul, Korea to visit one of these rotated friends, Jill.

Seoul was a little quirky and a little on the boring side. It's sprawled out so it didn't have an exciting skyline. It's also horribly expensive. A Starbucks coffee is about 3x what you would pay in the states and a small can of deodorant (because I forgot mine) was $8. They're food tastes all the same because they put chili paste in everything but they have the biggest dumplings I have ever seen. They also use the word "fucking" when naming their stores.

A few strange things I saw while wandering around the city was a Barbie exhibit at the Korean War Memorial Museum. What's up with that?!? I don't remember "soldier" being one of her multiple personalities. Another strange thing is hospitals allow their patients to wander off the property while recovering. It's a little weird going into a bakery and standing next to you is a guy dressed in his hospital jammies and slippers while carrying his IV bottle.

There have been things that Troy and I have come across while traveling around Asia that would never, ever be allowed in the US because everyone is afraid of being sued. For instance, being allowed off hospital property while recooperating. Other examples include wandering around a factory at your own free will with no safety zone to follow, firing AK-47's and going to a closed ended canyon with un-caged, un-leashed tigers is just to name a few.

The coolest thing I did while in Seoul was go to the demilitarized zone between South and North Korea. This is the most heavily fortified border in the world. There is a buffer zone between the two countries that extends for 2km on both sides of the border. This is called the DMZ. For the tour, which was led by US army personnel, the rules were very strict regarding dress code, our conduct and the fact that we could not point, gesture or try to communicate in any way with the North Koreans. I don't now how many times that was told to us. They were serious about the pointing too. On Jill's last trip up, one of the tourists kept pointing until an army soldier threw his ass into the bus. There were areas we were not allowed to photograph and at some places if we wanted to take pictures we had to stand within a "zone" to take the photos. One girl stood outside of the zone and took a picture and a soldier immediately deleted the photos from her camera. This building is in North Korea and the brick line in the rock is the dividing line between two countries.

After arriving at Camp Bonnifis and getting an overview of the Korean War and the DMZ we then signed our life away because we were in an area where "military action could take place at any moment". Camp Bonnifis is a United Nations Command Center and mainly has US and Korean soldiers based here. The ROK (Republic of Korea) soldiers were very serious and a little intimidating. Part of their required uniform is very dark sunglasses which is meant for intimidation (which clearly worked). The ROK soldiers based here are considered the best of the best of the Korean Army and are all Tae Kwan Do masters. There was clearly a distinct difference between the attitudes of the ROK and the US army soldiers that was leading the tour. ROK's attitude was basically "Don't f***k with me" while the army guys were like "Hey dude, what's going on!"

When we got to the border, we got out of our buses, walked into a building then out the other side where we then looked straight at North Korea. Opposite us is a similar NK building. Standing on the top step is a NK soldier standing at attention and is wearing what looks like something a general would wear. Behind him is a panel of windows with one panel removed. Behind this removed window you could see a guy sitting there with binoculars watching us. This was where we could not point, gesture or try to communicate in any way with the North Koreans. It was a little weird looking over to them and knowing they are watching our every move. They also had several cameras pointed at us the entire time.

Several buildings straddle the border between the two countries with there also being a distinct line seperating the sides. The main building we went into is where negotiations take place. Two ROK soldiers were stationed in there while we looked around. One blocked the door that leads to NK soil, and the other was stationed at the head of the negotiation table to protect the UN flag. Their stance they took was called a modified Tae Kwan Do stance. Even though they are the good guys, they were still very scary.

Outside of the buildings were 3 more ROK guards. One basically patrolled and watched over everything, while two more were stationed on the corner of the buildings facing NK. They stood half concealed by the building so as to make a smaller target. It is also meant to be more intimidating to NK. They just have that whole intimidation thing down to a science!

The North Koreans are funny, actually I guess it's the government that is funny. Several years ago, SK built a flag pole that was the height of a regular flag pole. NK had to out do it so they built a taller one. Of course SK didn't like this so they built an even taller one. So on and so forth. SK finally said screw this, you can have the biggest flag pole. So now NK has a flag pole that is almost 500' tall and flies a flag that weighs 600 pounds and is over 90' long. Talk about going overboard.

This flag is also in a village named Propaganda village. A few years ago, NK had huge speakers that blared propaganda messages all day and night. This is where the name of the village came from. After SK installed their own speakers blaring their own recordings the two sides came to an agreement and they no longer play the messages anymore. The most interesting thing about this village is that no one lives there. NK built it so that when people visited the DMZ from the south, they would see this village and think that NK was prosperous and that their citizens had nice places to live. When in fact this is no where near the truth. Only a few dozen people maintain the buildings and raise and lower the flag in heavy wind.

Jill is going to Pyongyang (capital of NK) in a few weeks and is going to do the same DMZ tour but from the NK side. I can't wait to hear about it. She said NK has very, very strict rules regarding their behavior there. Such as, whenever they come across a statue of Kim Il Sung (Kim Jong Il's father) they have to bow. She said there are over 25,000 statues of him so they could be doing a lot of bowing while there.

Hua Hin, Thailand

2006-09-05T00:55:00.000-06:00

Once again Troy had to go to Bangkok for work and since I am the definitive expat wife, I was able to join him for a weekend at a beach resort called Hua Hin. We stayed at a place about 30 minutes from the city of Hua Hin so it was very quiet and peaceful around the resort. We only had two days here which was the right amount of time for me. Any longer and I would have been bored. I know, I know... oh boo hoo, I'm on a beach resort in Thailand and I'm complaining about being bored!!!!!

Outside of taking walks, hanging out on the beach and swimming with jellyfish we jumped on the hotel's bicycles and rode around the area. Troy had his new handy, dandy GPS watch with him but it wasn't being very handy since it was not working very well and we were very close to being lost at one point. He says he always knew where we were so I would nod my head and say "Ok, honey!" While riding our bikes we got chased by vicious Thai dogs, got rained on, saw cows with the biggest ears imaginable and got yelled at by an old nun because we were trespassing on her property.

One night at dinner we sat near an American couple who was staying at a resort down the road from our hotel. During our conversation with them we came to find out they live in Bangkok and she works as a teacher at the same school that Mark Karr (dumbass who claimed to kill Jon Benet Ramsey) worked at when he was arrested. She said he was very creepy. She also said at one of the teacher meetings each teacher had to volunteer to head up a club or sport involving the students. Mark Karr wanted to create a swimming club for 6-8 year olds. Nice. That whole incident with him made the front page of the HK newspaper. I think the only reason why is because he was arrested in Bangkok. I think if he had been arrested in Idaho we would have never found out about it.

Our last night in Bangkok was spent shopping and having dinner at an open air market down the road from our hotel. Gotta love beer, pizza and a Thai rock group singing Barry Manilow cover tunes on the stage!

Holy cow, is that a big snake or what???

2006-08-28T21:19:00.000-06:00

If you are faithful blog readers, you would have read the blog I posted a few weeks back regarding the Burmese Python that killed a Husky dog while out hiking with it's owner (the dog was hiking, not the snake.)

Troy and I were hiking last weekend with our friends when we walked around a corner and came upon a Chinese man who had stopped and was taking pictures of something next to the path. He immediately motioned for us to stop and to be quiet. He then pointed to what he was taking pictures of. At first we couldn't tell what he was showing us but then we saw it... it was a 8' python snake with the head as big as a a man's hand!!!!! No one was actually willing to put their hand next to the snake to get a size comparison, but it was huge! I can't imagine it was the same snake that killed the dog because we were at least 20 miles from where that happened (remember we said it had never been scientifically proven that snakes can actually move). So it makes me wonder how many of these pythons are in HK.

After half of us peed our pants we then calmed down enough to get a closer look. His head was right next to the path and the front part of him was coiled up so we didn't dare walk past him. I don't know if pythons strike like rattlesnakes but none of us were willing to find out.

The Chinese man in his broken English then told us he wanted a phone to call the police.
"You, have phone, I call police. They come. Help us. They take snake." (Don't you love my Chinese accent?)
He then called the police and had a long, extensive conversation with them. When he was done, he gave the phone back and said:
"Police come, you wait here, you no pass. Other hikers come, busy Saturday. You stop them, very dangerous. Wait here, 10, 20 minute. I come, police. Here take, protect you, very dangerous!" as he hands us a rusted, dull machete that he had found somewhere along the path. He then ran off to the village we had just walked through to meet the police.

So we're standing there trying to figure out why the snake is not moving. Is it sick? Did it fall from a tree and is hurt? Did it just eat a small child and is now digesting it? Why is his body shaped so funny? Is that a head protruding from his stomach? A few of us got braver and moved in closer. Believe it or not, I was one of the brave ones until it started to move causing me scream like the girl I am. We just couldn't figure out why it wasn't moving with 8 of us hovering around it. One of the guys with us finally lifted the bush covering the back part of his body to see how big he was. That was when the snake decided he had enough of us and moved off.

I can imagine the Chinese man was very disappointed when he came back and the snake was gone. Hopefully the police wouldn't arrest him and throw him in jail on charges that he made up the story (they've done crazier things).

Karst Mountains in Yangshuo, China

2006-08-01T01:38:00.000-06:00

Troy and I have traveled to many places in China while living in HK. Whereas most cities are interesting in their own unique way, I would never say they are beautiful. Yangshuo, China is one of the most beautiful places we have ever seen. It actually compares on the same scale as New Zealand and the Rocky Mountains in Canada and Colorado. This was also the only place in China that you could honestly stay for a full week with things to see and do everyday. Shanghai and Beijing... you're bored after three days unless you’re a shopper. What make’s Yangshuo so exceptional is the limestone karst mountains and all the caves and underground rivers within the mountains. If you have ever seen Chinese paintings showing ranges of pointed mountains, they were painted in Yangshuo.

Our first day was spent on a ferry down the Li River. We thought there would be four or five ferries. Oh no... there was like 30 or 40 of them. They would float down the river in a line while every once in a while a ferry would overtake another one to give their passengers better photo opportunities. I know it sounds like it was crowded, but it wasn't. The only time when you had any idea how many ferries there were was after the passengers were dropped off at the end and the ferries turned around to head back up the river. That was when we could see how many ferries there were as they all passed us.

The Chinese have definitely learned how to cash in on the uniqueness of their land. Not only are there dozens and dozens of tour operators offering everything from bike tours to raft rides down the river to mud baths in limestone caves, but they have the souvenir thing down. The drop off point from the ferries for the tourists is inundated by stand after stand selling every type of Chinese trinket you can think of. The worst part is you can't even pick up something to look at it. If you don't buy it they yell and cuss at you in Chinese.

That evening we watched a Chinese traditional way of fishing with Cormorant birds. As soon as it was dark, we headed out on the river in a small motor boat where we met up with an old man on a long bamboo raft. Tied to his raft were about 7 or 8 Cormorant birds with a string tied around their neck and another string tied around one of their feet. The string tied around the neck kept the bird from swallowing the fish it was catching. After bright lights were turned on to attract the fish the old man would push the birds into the river where they proceeded to dive down and catch the fish. When a bird was looking "full", using a long bamboo pole, the man would grab the string attached to the bird’s leg and pull it in. The fisherman would make the bird regurgitate it's caught fish then throw it back in the water to keep fishing. They obviously no longer fish like this, it is a novelty now for the tourists. At the end of it the man would take the strings off the birds neck and allow them to eat the fish they had caught. It was a very interesting thing to see. And to think the Chinese actually used to fish like this.

The next day Troy and I hired a guide to take us on a bike ride. The previous day we had tried to find our own bike route but ended up in old villages or on busy streets. Hiring the guide was well worth it because she took us to view some of the most amazing scenery there is. First we had to get past a group of 50 Chinese tourists on bikes. They were following a guide on a small motor bike with a huge flag attached to the back so the bikers knew who to follow. I swear, if the Chinese didn't have a flag to follow they would ride straight into the river. On our bike ride we came across farmers plowing their rice fields using oxen, saw how peanuts are grown (did you know they are a root) and got charged twice as much for an .18 cent bottle of water (the cashier girl thought she was sly for ripping us off).

There was one thing about Yangshuo that we were not sure if we liked or not: There were a lot of westerners.
We didn't like it because:
1) There were a lot of westerners (duh)
2) There was not much of a Chinese feel to the place
But we liked that there were a lot of westerners because:
1) Most everyone spoke English in the hotels and restaurants
2) There were a lot of western restaurants, coffee shops, bars and cafes to choose from.

Some smart foreigner at one point must have told a restaurant owner to serve Mexican food because everywhere we turned were burritos, enchiladas and fajitas (mmm… fajitas). This may not sound like a weird thing but trust me when I say Mexican food and China does not go together. We did make the mistake of eating at a restaurant that served steamed rat, grilled snake and fried dog. I kept telling myself "This is beef in my burrito, this is beef in my burrito!"

True or False? (and some other things)

2006-07-11T02:06:00.000-06:00

On Saturday, you read in the newspaper about a 13' Burmese Python snake strangeling and killing a 60 pound Husky dog while hiking with it's owner on a popular Hong Kong trail.
True or False?
On Monday, you and your hiking buddies decide to go hiking in the same exact spot where the snake killed the dog.

If you're smart, the answer would be false. If you're not so smart (like me and my hiking friends) the answer would be true! We still hiked in the area on Monday but chose a different starting point. We argued that it has never been scientifically proven that snakes actually move around and there is no way possible it could end up in a different part of the hiking trail. Like I said, we're not so smart!

I swear this actually happened in Hong Kong this past weekend in an area called Sai Kung that has a ton of hiking trails. The owner was hiking with 6 dogs, 4 that were off leash, when her Husky ran ahead of her on the trail. By the time she caught up to the Husky, the python was completely wrapped around the dog and was suffocating it.

I refuse to be the person leading a hike because I don't want to be the one to come across the snake first. That still doesn't mean when Troy and I are hiking he will yell "bike" (with my mind hearing "bite" which is the exact same thing as "snake") causing me to scream, jump and then fall down on my ass as six mountain bikers pass by!!!!

Anyways...since it is nice and hot and steamy here, the pollution has somehow disappeared for the time being. I know in past blogs I have bitched about the pollution, but when it is clear here, it is absolutely beautiful!!! I wanted to pass along some pictures of what Hong Kong can look like without the pollution.

Troy and I also thought we have seen all there is to see in HK, but we actually found a temple this past weekend that was quite interesting. It is called the Wong Tai Sin Temple and is incredibly popular with the Chinese because the resident deity is able to grant wishes...wishes that revolve around money. And when it comes to the Chinese, money is what it is all about!!!!!

At these temples, worshippers bring offerings to the deity to make him happy with the hope that if he is happy, he will make their wishes come true. Most offerings include oranges, bananas, tea, cakes and if a worshipper is really desperate, they'll leave a whole smoked pig. Parents tell their children to finish their dinner because there are people starving in Ethiopia. Ethiopia would love to get this smoked pig that is being left for some dude that isn't even real.

Surrounding the temple are fortune tellers or what they call soothsayers. For about $40USD you can have your palm or your face read. Most Chinese use them to interpret their "chim" sticks. These are flat bamboo sticks about 8" long with a different number on each stick. They put 100 of these sticks in a container then write down a question such as "Will I get a job promotion?" They carefully shake out a stick then write down the number on the stick. They continue doing this for all their questions. Afterwards they take the numbers they have written down to the soothsayer to have him answer the questions. I honestly can't imagine the fortune teller saying straight out "Yes, you will get the promotion" or "No, you won't." I think it is more on the level of "Ahhh... Confucius says... ahhh... hmmm... the moon will be bright tomorrow... hmmm.... he says wait patiently... very bright moon...hmm… very auspicious… let's see… hmm" In the mean time the Chinese worshipper has paid out big bucks to get this run around!

I just love Hong Kong. It will never cease to amaze me.