Hey, back from the Galapagos Islands and we must say it was the best trip we´ve had so far. We hadn´t done much previous research on the islands since we didn´t decide to go until a few days before we left...it was the best impulse buy ever. We were on a 14 passenger boat called the Beluga, which toured most of the islands for eight days straight. Nick thinks he´s just about to get his sea legs any time now, while Sarah keeps complaining that the land is rocking. Two things we didn´t think about before we left: that the islands [View Full Entry]

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Hi All, This has been quite a packed week, including an overnight trip to the spa town of Baños, the packing up and leaving our home in Riobamba, heading up to Quito and an overnight trip to Otavalo. We´re in Quito at the moment, and will be basing ourselves here for the rest of our time in Ecuador (until the 15th). Last weekend, we took a trip from Riobamba to Baños for some much needed spa activities. But, since nothing in this country occurs without some sort of adventure, we must tell you of our journey. To begin with, there are [View Full Entry]

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Hi All, Sorry for our lack of blogging as of late...things always seem to get in the way (like when Nick forgets the camera at home). This entry begins last Friday night, as the household went out to the local Riobamba disco "The Tentadero" for some drinking and dancing (in that order). While the beer is only okay, the $1.50 rum and cokes (here called "Cuba Libres") are phenomenal. We´re pretty sure the coke is just for colour. After one or two of those things we were out on the floor in full force (Nick never knew Sarah could dance like [View Full Entry]

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Yo! It´s Tuesday night and we´re back at the archaeology sites for the last week...this past weekend was full of adventure. Saturday we all took a quick trip to the town of Sicalpa (home of the arch sites and also the hole Sarah fell into) to visit one of our worker friends for lunch. He had promised to have us over in order to show us how to make Aji (a-hee....a hot salsa) and the peanut sauce which they put over potatoes. The Aji was made by pounding or grinding chilies and tree tomatoes together in a mortar (man, we really [View Full Entry]

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Whew! We have been suitably chastised by a number of you for not writing often enough...and the year has just begun. What a week. The first Friday of work was a blast...apparently the town we are working in has a week-long fiesta celebrating the independence of the area - "The Fiesta De Colta". This fiesta just ended on August 2nd after 10-14 days of havoc. That friday (the 20th) we finished work with the field crew and decided to share some beers with everyone....well, 30 beers later we exited the site feeling refreshed, and managed to literally walk into a very [View Full Entry]

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Hola Amigos! We arrived at Quito around 11 pm on the 15th, and were promptly met by our archaeologist friends - this was a good thing because as you step out of the airport EVERYONE´s whole family is there to greet them...this creates a bizarre scene of crowds yelling and cheering on both sides. We didn´t do much that night, but the next day (Saturday) we walked around the "new town" aka the "gringo district" and saw the local market. Quito is a very beautiful city which is surrounded by mountains and low rolling hills. In fact, it seemed at first [View Full Entry]

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Happy Canada Day to everyone. Once again we were lucky enough to spend Canada with Sarah's family at the beautiful Casa Melville nestled in the heart of the Okanagan Valley. Now that Casa Melville is officially finished it was time for George and Sylvia to welcome the world in the warm and inviting way they do. Canada day began with a flurry of decoration and organization. In the afternoon people began to arrive on the beach to partake in hotdogs (served up by the iron chef Mark Melville -- YAY MAIRK!!!) and fun Canada Day games. The waterfront was a swarm [View Full Entry]

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The weather held up this afternoon as we took off on a little drive throughout Essex County, taking all the back county roads and looking at all the farmhouses along the way. The best part: Nick finally silenced Sarah's EXTREME skepticism by showing her that there is, indeed, a very large tomato information centre in the town of Leamington, which is also home to the Heinz tomato factory. Well it IS the tomato capital of Canada after all...Needless to say, the big tomato took Sarah's breath away and she absolutely HAD to get a picture in front of it (see pic). [View Full Entry]

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As soon as we got in to Windsor, we made the quick jump from cool Vancouver weather (@14 degrees C) to (drum roll please) typical Windsor summer heat and humidity at about 30 degrees. After being outside for two minutes, Sarah was drenched with sweat and NEEDED to jump in the pool, where she stayed for one full day. We attended Nick's sister Julia's graduation (Bachelor of Commerce) at the University on Sunday and had a big family BBQ later that day - it was nice to see everyone! On Monday we decided to become tourists and visited Jackson Park to [View Full Entry]

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Welcome to our new travel blog....we've been waiting to set this up for a few weeks and thought, hey, we're doing a little traveling BEFORE we go on our world trip, so why not share the domestic adventures first? It'll give everyone a little heads up on where we come from. We're currently living at Sarah's parents' place in Vancouver, having given up our basement suite, and packed and stored all our stuff for 15 months or so. We're hoping to sell the little Mazda in the next few days or so before we head to Windsor, but if not we [View Full Entry]

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