http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Lauren-Shoestring-Levy/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Lauren Shoestring Levy en-us Wed, 30 Dec 2009 04:36:45 +0000 Wed, 30 Dec 2009 04:36:45 +0000 My last few days in Turkey were really nice. I headed north to see the ancient city of Ephesus and that was really cool. You are allowed to wander around and there are tons of really beautiful well carved things all over. Its a pretty trippy place...you can picture people living there a few thousand years ago and imagine a little what their lives were like. From Ephesus I headed back to Istanb http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/blog-452386.html I really liked Eastern Turkey...but was f305nd305ng 305t hard to meet other travelers s305nce 305t was off season. I have dec305ded to come back and explore that part of Turkey w305th a fr305end at a later date....but for th305s tr305p I dec305ded 305t was t305me to head West back to where wear305ng a tsh305rt wasnt mak305ng a scene and be305ng http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/blog-451192.html Turkey 305n p305ctures. I am st305ll hav305ng a really n305ce t305me and have been see305ng some cool stuff having lots of good food and meeting wonderful people. http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/blog-448988.html Turkey is pretty awesome. I dont think I have ever met a friendlier group of people. They are so welcoming and its pretty hard to get use to. I am use to thinking people are trying to rip me off all the time...but many of the people I met here just want to talk to you and have a tea. Istanbul was cool...but not as exotic or cheap as I thought it would be. Maybe that is because I spent most of http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/blog-448852.html Highlights of Sweden and EnglandHave been enjoying the last month visiting friends in Sweden and traveling around England and having minireunions with the English friends from the overlanding trip. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/blog-441815.html Headed to Puerto Lopez...a night bus away. We made it to the beach and enjoyed http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/blog-417813.html The jungle was awesome. I had gone before with the Oasis group and had loved it but this was so different from the first time that I went. We saw tons of big animals sloths monkeys camin lots of birds and it seemed like we were much deeper in the jungle. The highlights... seeing 4 different types of monkeys on our first boat ride. seeing sloths our guide jumping on a camins back..li http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/blog-417528.html The last week in the hostel we helped with the garden and getting the new bathroom ready. The original hostel that we were suppose to work at said they needed help with a big group so we headed over to them for a night and got to see what we could have been doing. Jen and I peeled potatoes chopped heads and scales off of fish and were waitresses. We had a great time and the women in charge ga http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/blog-417517.html Working at the hostel Adventures of the last few weeks. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/blog-412985.html Banos is a really cool city in southern Ecuador that has a great view of a volcano lots of thermal baths and very cool waterfalls. Everyone we have met so far has been telling us how green Ecuador ishellipand they were right. Within minutes of crossing the Peruvian border things got much greener. In Banos we were able to do a little hike to the Devilrsquos Cauldron waterfall and I felt li http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/blog-407492.html After being in Lima a very busy city and spending weeks at altitudehellipwe were all excited to head to the beach in Northern Peru and take it easy for a few days. We spent 4 days camping on the beach and relaxing. Unfortunately some horrible stomach epidemic swept through our truck. The staff at the camping site had to work so hard restocking the toilet paper. I was pretty lucky compared http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/blog-407184.html After our beach bush camp we headed to the Nazca Lines. Basically its an airport surrounded by a few toursity shops in the middle of nowhere. We had to wait a little while in the airport and we were watching the same Nazca video over and over. What I learned from the video was that they dont know why the lines are there and they dont know who made them. While we were walking out to board the p http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/blog-406835.html Chivay is this little city that is the base to Colca Canyon. Colca Canyon is argued to be the deepest canyon in the world. I wanted to do a few day hike in the canyon and while I was drinking a smoothie I met a tour guide that runs the exact tour I want to do. Good smoothie karma. I headed out early in the morning and we drove to the canyon. Condors just sit along the side of the canyon and w http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/blog-406321.html Cuzco was a pretty cool cityhellip.a really nice square and nice markets and the best lomo saltado I have had so far. French fries seem to be in everything in Peru. Lomo saltado is basically onions beef and French fries stir fried. The soup that comes with lomo saltado usually includes some French fires in it toohellippretty fancy all for a dollar This city is where people start and end http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/blog-404341.html Potosi was our first stop in Peru. And this was our first easy border crossing We had a day in Potosi before heading out to Lake Titicaca. I spent my time wandering around the markets and finding good smoothie places. Time well spent. Peru seems really coolhellipstill lots of traditional dress and cheap places to eathellipbut people seem to enjoy having their picture taken here very dif http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/blog-397832.html On our way from the salt flats we were driving on some pretty bad roads and our truck got stuck. I was actually glad it happenedhellipthe Oasis brochure says lsquoyou might be asked to dig you truck outrsquo and we were. We were getting everything we promised. So that was a fun start to our day.Potosi is a big city with a lot going onhellipand lots of poverty. I havenrsquot seen much http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/blog-396905.html So I thought we would be done with the slow border crossings...but I was wrong. We got to the ArgentinaBolivia border and spent nearly three hours there. People kept cutting in front of us in the line until our driver acted as a bouncer. This was also one of the first days that we were at altitude and some people were feeling bad. Luckily I was feeling finehellipI was keeping hydratedhell http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/blog-395968.html After leaving Chile we headed back to Argentina. The borders between Chile and Argetina are kinda a painhellipthey make us take our bags out and get them scanned and everythinghellipso we were quite happy that this would be the last strict border that we would be dealing with. The first stop was Mendoza. I was imagining it to be a little cute city but it turned out to be a relatively big a http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/blog-394113.html Santiago turned out to be a really cool city. I think a lot of people compare it to Buenos Aires and like it a lot less...but I think its just really different and I really enjoyed it.The first day I was here we wandered around and found the markets ate seafood and I got my haircut. We decided to make our own sushi so the next day we got up early and went to the fish markets and bought really http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/blog-394048.html Pucon is a small little townhellipand its main attraction is Villarrica Volcano. There is a volcano alert system and volcano warning charts all around townhellipkinda entertaining and luckily not needed while I was there. The main thing tourist do is climb to the top of Villarica volcano and eat ice cream. I managed to do both.It took us about 5 hours to hike up the volcano. Luckily it wa http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/blog-391456.html