Jake and Leslie

We have mustered up the energy to write a final blog about our round-the-world trip (Jake took the lead on this one). Sorry we've been so late with this update, but we are now so deeply entrenched in our suburban lifestyle (e.g. watching TV, shopping at evil Walmart and playing with hedge trimmers) that our trip seems like a distant memory! The Best Deals (Per day spending, including lodging, food, transportation & activities) 1) Cambodia: $33/day Cambodia is home to the cheapest beach towns that we encountered on our trip. You can stay in a bungalow on the beach for next to nothing in Sihanoukville. If you overlook the piles of garbage on the beach, the touts at every corner, and the armless, legless beggars, then it's paradise. 2) Laos: $35/day Really rustic but also really ... read more

We had a fun 3 weeks in Colombia, with the highlight being the 5-day Ciudad Perdida trek out of Taganga. We'll have to save that for a secong blog, since we have so many pictures to upload! Bogota Bogota is among our least favorite cities in South America. It´s dirty, expensive, has mediocre food, drizzly wet weather and is home to a substantial population of irate local stewbumbs that constantly shout at us because we are foreigners. One hobo grabbed Jake's arm and another accused us of discriminating against the indigenous people for not giving him money. Lots of 'colorful' characters here, especially in the Candelaria neighborhood. We chose to stay in Bogota only one night after entering the country and one night before our outbound flight. That was plenty of time to get a sense ... read more

We had a great time during the 3 weeks we spent in Peru. Outside of Machu Picchu, this is a very inexpensive country... we actually got by one day spending only US$8 each (for food, lodging and transportation)! In smaller towns, the going rate for a room with private bath in a small posada is S-20 ('S' is for Nuevos Soles), which is about US$7. The food is also very cheap, with set meals in non-touristy restaurants costing US$1.00-3.00 (usually including soup, an entree and a refresco-- a homemade Tang-style drink that we passed on, since we weren't sure about the water supply). However, the dishes were not very tasty and we had tummy troubles for the entire trip. Our ultimate splurge was Snickers, which cost S-3.50 and up (about US $1.20)... that's more than a ... read more

UPDATE: WE BOUGHT A MEMORY CARD READER HERE IN PERU AND WERE FINALLY ABLE TO UPLOAD THE PICS! ________________________________ We continued on our road trip through Salta and Jujuy provinces in Argentina, where we saw amazing scenery. It was a highlight of our 3 months in South America. After turning in our rental car, we went back to the backpacker life of long-distance buses, and crossed into Chile over the Andes. Read on for details of our journey... Salta city, the Bangkok of Northwest Argentina From Cafayate, we continued on Route 68 towards Salta; this is a very scenic road which took us through the Quebrada de Cafayate, an amazing mountain range with great photo ops right off of the highway. This is a popular tourist attraction that many backpackers see with an organized tour, and ... read more

As you may have noticed, we are VERY behind on the blog! We're now in Arequipa, Peru, after having passed through northern Argentina and Chile. The internet connections are annoyingly slow in the past few weeks, so it's been impossible to even access the blog. We're making up for lost time, so expect to see several updates in the next few days. Tucuman. Why?! We stepped off of the overnight bus in Tucuman with no plans or hotel in mind; it just seemed like a good stopping point on the way to Chile. We hadn't found much info on Tucuman in the Lonely Planet or online, since it isn't a main stop on the backpacker trail. Fortunately, we spoke to an extremely helpful and enthusiastic man named Pablo at the tourist information desk at the bus. ... read more