January 2006 (Lost in the World) Sean: We're on the road again! But before we settle back into telling you about our adventures we thought we would answer some of the various questions we've received in the last few months, and especially those we were asked a lot during Christmas. First, we had quite a few requests from friends and family to know more about what we're packing around on our backs. The previous couple of months were an ideal situation in that we were able to refine the contents of our backpacks and, while in the States for Christmas, decide [View Full Entry]

---

---

December 2, 2005 (Buenos Aires, Argentina) Sean: Well we made it out of Bolivia, which is more than we can say for Ernesto “Che” Guevara as he met his demise at the hands of the Bolivian Army while training the people there for a Cuban style revolution. Unfortunately for him, the climate wasn’t as amenable to his tactics and the pesky CIA lent their skills to the Bolivian government. The fight was not only lost for the cause but Ernesto suffered an unpleasant fate. (Note from Shannon on leaving La Paz: I don’t remember if we mentioned it in our las [View Full Entry]

---

---

November 26, 2005 (Puno, Peru) Sean: After visiting Machu Picchu we spent the day wandering around Aguas Calientes, just bumming around after our long day trekking up and down the stone steps and alleyways (the Incas must’ve had great leg muscles). Even with our previous night’s refreshing slumber, we didn’t dally about until the wee hours and went straight to bed. The next day it was up early and out the door to catch the train and head back to Cuzco. After a fairly uneventful 2 hour train ride we managed to catch a cheap ride for the final two hour [View Full Entry]

---

---

November 24, 2005 (Cuzco, Peru) Sean: From Pisco we hopped in another Royal Class bus to head to Nazca to see the world famous Nazca Lines. These are mysterious figures etched into the brown desert by unknown ancient peoples for an unknown purpose. Curiously the only way to view them is from a high altitude so theories abound about their purpose - from deity worship to astronomical calculations to extra terrestrial communication. The town offers plenty of plane rides and all manner of ways to get you to see them (the touts were unrelenting again). We chose the more mundane route [View Full Entry]

---

---

November 18, 2005 (Lima, Peru) Shannon: Greetings from Lima! Sean and I arrived here in Peru on Tuesday and we’ve spent the last 4 days exploring all that Lima has to offer. We are staying in the Miraflores district of the city, which is a somewhat “upscale” area that was probably once a separate city altogether but has since been swallowed up in the sprawl of Lima. The immediate thing that hit us upon arrival was the change in weather - it is so much cooler here than in Panama that it was disorienting at first. Whereas Panama was HOT (I [View Full Entry]

---

---

November 8, 2005 (Panama City, Panama) Shannon: Sean and I have been in Panama for about a week now and have settled into something of a routine. We are using Panama City for our base of operations, making day trips to sights around the city (or overnight, as was the case this weekend when we ventured to Isla Taboga). It’s nice to stay somewhere long enough that you begin to have somewhat of a comfort level with the surroundings - we now consider Casco Viejo “our” neighborhood. We get our breakfast from “our” local breadshop and “our” loca [View Full Entry]

---

---

November 3, 2005 (Miraflores Locks, Panama) Sean: Today we went to Miraflores Locks, the first (from the Pacific side) in a series of three sets of locks that enable ships to bypass sailing around South America in order to get commerce from the Pacific to the Atlantic (and vice versa). At Miraflores there are two locks and just a short distance away at Pedro Miguel is another lock. These three together raise the ships up to the level of Gatun Lake where they travel to the other side of the country to be lowered again through three locks at the Gatun [View Full Entry]

---

---

November 1, 2005 (Panama City, Panama) Sean: I’ve wanted to come to this country ever since I first heard Van Halen sing that refrain. I never understood the connection between the lyrics and the chorus though. But they were Capital B-I-G Rock and Roll stars and I was some punk kid listening to my cool, older brother’s cassette tapes, so who was I to question these powerful and all knowing gods? It must’ve meant something otherwise why would anyone listen to a bunch of grown men innocuously stringing words together and then periodically - for still no obvious [View Full Entry]

---

---

Sean: Words are almost inadequate to describe the feeling yesterday as we finally reached the top of one of the tallest temples in the Mayan Kingdom and glimpsed the view from above the jungle canopy. Staring out over the dense growth we saw two thousand years worth of history in the other temples of Tikal poking through. Along with the cacophony of monkeys and birds hollering back and forth it truly gives the place an ancient feel. We were definitely not in Kansas anymore. We had such an amazing day. We left Flores at the crack of dawn so that we [View Full Entry]

---

---

Monday, October 17, 2005 (Antigua, Guatemala) Shannon: Sean and I started our Spanish language classes today and it was…well, we’ll see… The biggest problem is that my teacher doesn’t speak any English - and I don’t speak any Spanish, obviously. You don’t have to look very far to see the problem in this one. It was pretty disappointing, since it appears that the other teachers do speak English and mine is the only one who doesn’t. (When we interviewed with the director of the school we were really clear about my language [View Full Entry]

---

---