Today is my last day in Quito. Endings are bittersweet . . . I've had an incredible time traveling, but I am looking forward to being back in the US and seeing my family and friends for the holidays. This last week has been especially good since I am more comfortable with Quito and have really seen it come alive during the fiesta. We went to a soccer match and, despite rain and other logistical difficulties, the Quitenos spirits were as passionate as ever. Coming from the US, it seemed that there was an "anything goes" attitude . . vendors sell [View Full Entry]

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I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving! While I did not celebrate it here, I was able to watch Texas defeat Texas A&M, courtesy of the cable TV in the gym!! Hook 'em, Horns! Surprisingly, I only have a week remaining in my travels. What have I been up to? My second weekend, we went to the equator, know as Mitad del Mundo, or middle of the world. There's a sizeable monument erected by the French to mark the equator, but the French got it wrong. The actual equator as indicated by GPS is about 200 metres north of the monument. [View Full Entry]

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Hola! After a fabulous week being a house bum in Los Angeles, courtesy of my friends Emily and Gene, I left for Quito, Ecuador, where I am attempting to learn Spanish. I chose Ecuador because it was relatively safe (i.e., I might have my money stolen, but no one is kidnapping me to gain the US government's attention), but would not provide me with the comforts of a first world country. Weather was also a factor - a country on the equator can't be cold . . . Quito being 9,000 feet above sea level provides a cooling effect as it [View Full Entry]

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(I've added photos to the previous entry, which is probably more interesting that the photos here, so check those out first!) We set off on our four day tramp with the sun shining and a clear blue sky. After six hours of walking, half of it around a lake and half of it uphill, we arrived at Luxmoor Hut. I'm slow as Christmas going uphill, especially with 20 pounds or so on my back, so I was relieved to have reached our peak (1,085 metres) for the day. It's always a terrific feeling to see snow-capped mountains at eye level. The [View Full Entry]

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Hi! Unfortunately, no place in Te Anau will allow me to upload photos, so this blog will be missing the visuals until I return to Auckland. But here's how my last 10 days or so have been. Originally, my plan was to stay in Auckland for a week and lay low, conserve money and all that, but then I decided to get out for a couple days. I'd heard from other travellers that Taupo was the place for adventure sports, so I made my way there in the hopes of skydiving (tandem, of course!). Bad weather prohibited me from doing the [View Full Entry]

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Back in Auckland now! I made the 3 day journey from Sydney to Perth two weekends ago on the Indian Pacific train. It was quite remarkable to see the various landscapes across the southern portion of Australia. We stopped in Broken Hill (ghost town - previously busy mining town), Adelaide (charming city - great parks and botanical gardens - I went for a run and skirted around a number of lovely outdoor weddings, one of which had the bride and groom leaving on motorcycles!), and Kalgoorlie (once famous for the Australian gold rush). We passed through the Nullarbor Plain, which was [View Full Entry]

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Hi from Cairns! I finished up my week in Sydney, visiting the Blue Mountains, the Featherdale Wildlife Sanctuary, and the Sydney Opera House to see a couple of shows. The Blue Mountains run close to the east coast of Australia . . .the most famous landmark is the Three Sisters rock formation (originally, seven sisters but erosion has offed four of them). Featherdale is also just west of Sydney . . . you can hold some of the animals and view them interacting with other species. The koalas get manhandled the most, of course, and I felt bad for them, being [View Full Entry]

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Greetings from Sydney!! I have been traveling for a week now, spending the first half in Auckland, New Zealand and the latter half in Sydney. Both are beautiful port cities that also do a spectacular job of maintaining green space within the cities. I visited the Auckland Museum, which houses a great Maori exhibit and has performances of Maori dances. It's interesting to see how another country handles a minority community displaced by colonization. Most Maori children attend regular public schools, but a quarter of them remain in traditional Maori schools and begin to learn English at a l [View Full Entry]

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The Shahs go to Yellowstone . . . over 2 million acres of protected land. We headed out the first day to see the famous geysers and, within 15 minutes of driving, had our first wildlife sighting - a bison on the side of the road. We actually passed it, turned the car around to slowly creep up next to it, and started photographing from different angles to capture the moment. By the end of 3 days, bison sightings were so common that I became disinterested. . . herds of them can be seen at waterholes, on hilltops, in valleys, along [View Full Entry]

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Taking everyone's advice, I went out to Seattle since that's supposedly where I'm meant to be. I did my standard morning runs to explore the area and tried the food (I had my first crumpet!) and the beer . . . all of which exceeded my expectations. Seattle was unusually sunny (note glare in the pictures), but that doesn't make it warm. For a girl who's lived in the South all of my life, it's odd to want a sweatshirt in August. I hit up one of Tom Douglas' restaurants (the one at 5th and Lenora), Wild Ginger, Zoe's, Pike Place [View Full Entry]

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