Kirsi & Sami
Our time off - The world is out there!WorldOutThere
September 2005 - April 2006
Finland-Nepal-India-Australia-New Zealand-Chile-Peru-USA-Finland
Travel Blog Posts
March 28th 2006
From Arizona we continued our way to Utah. We visited 4 National parks at Utah and enjoyed mountain biking at Moab, which is said to be the mecca of the mountain biking. It was great and we were really lucky by getting the US National Champion Cameron Chambers to guide us the whole day. We would have like to do more mountain biking, but because of te rainy weather we had to give up and move on. From Moab we drove to Vail, Colorado where we met old friends Rickey, Tony, Niko and Ben. It was extremely nice reunion after 5 years. Sami was studying with the guys in Australia and we hadn't met them after 2001. In Vail we enjoyed skiing, watching movies and documentaries at Vail film festival (especially the document from Bode Miller ... read more
March 14th 2006
From Las Vegas we drove to Grand Canyon. On the way we drove a part of the legendary route 66, now a quiet highway going through small old fashioned towns that don't seem to have changed since the 50s. Old fashioned diners and gas stations create a unique and warm atmosphere. The winter is a bit late this year and it had been snowing a couple of days earlier on the south rim of the Grand Canyon. There was still snow on the ground but fortunately all the roads were dry. Good thing when driving a rental car with summer tires. We had hoped to go backpacking in Grand Canyon for a couple of days but we hadn't booked backcountry permits in advance and there was none left so we couldn't go. Since we didn't know ... read more
March 10th 2006
After San Francisco (we'll do the SF blog once we get pictures on CD) we flew to Las Vegas and spent there couple of days before heading to Grand Canyon. For budget travellers like us Las Vegas is not very cheap place to stay and do stuff. On the other hand we had pretty nice time just walking around the hotels and wondering all the spectacular settings they have created. There are copies of New York, Paris, Venice, Egypt and ancient Rome. Las Vegas is all about entertainment and show business. Each hotel has their own shows and we also wanted to see at least one show. Tickets can be quite expensive, but we got half price tickets to Variety show which was decent show of acrobatics and stand up comedy. Three days went quickly, but ... read more
March 5th 2006
After South America it was nice to get to US to meet some friends. First four days we stayed with Gloria and Andy in Pleasanton. We had great time, visited some wineries and enjoyed the Californian sun and good company. San Francisco is one of our favorite big cities. We had fun even though the weather was colder than what we expected. The wind was freezing, but that's nothing we couldn't handle with :) We visited Alcatraz and walked around the streets and parks of this beautiful city. ... read more
March 2nd 2006
Finally it was the day we were about to meet our sponsor child from Plan (www.plan.fi). We met the Plan workers at the office and they showed us their premises and told us about their work. After that we got a ride to the outskirts of Lima to a poor community where our sponsor child Estanli lives with his family. Once we arrived closer to Estanli´s house we saw him waiting for us at the doorsteps and he greeted us with a hug and kiss. It was so nice to be able to meet the family and talk with them after having sent letters for a couple of years. Estanli was just an adorable little boy, really nice and polite. His mother told us that he is really well behaved and takes good care of his ... read more
February 28th 2006
Huacachina is a small town close to Ica. It is an oasis in the middle of sand dunes, a popular place for backpackers and people usually go there for sandboarding and drives on sand buggies. And that´s what we did as well. It was amazing to see this large scale sand dunes, as there is in Huacachina, in Peru. When you think about Peru sand dunes is probably the last thing you would assume to see. We decided to go to sandboarding and sand buggy drive at the evening, so that we are able to enjoy the sunset. And what a drive we had. Our driver seems to be the most experienced one of the three and although we were going at least 80 kph we felt quite safe. We enjoyed from stomach aching downhills and ... read more
February 27th 2006
Some hundreds years BC the Nazca people created these lines and figures in the desert by removing the stones and revealing the lighter sand underneath. No one knows why. There are tens of drawings scattered in the desert: monkey, dog, condor, humming bird, astronaut, parrot, lizard, hands, tree etc. We took a flight for half an hour to see the lines from the air, since you can't really see anything from the ground. It is difficult to understand how and why Nazca people have created these figures and extremely straight lines, because they haven´t been able to see them from the air. One theory is that they have used ropes to scale up the smaller figures. They probably did them to please the gods during drought. Impressive anyway. ... read more
February 21st 2006
It is completely spoiled by huge amount of tourists but it still is a magnificent structure in an overwhelming location. It is expensive on a South-American price scale and you quite don't feel you get your money's worth but you get to see the Machu Picchu you have seen in photos everywhere for your own eyes. That's what we felt about it. Aquas Caliantes is quite a shitty place that get's all the tourists without any effort. Not worth staying but we had to. The hostal was the worst with paint crumbling from the walls, snail community living in the bathroom ceiling and water floating on the bedroom floor. No need to fix these things since the tourists keep coming anyway. Ofcourse there are nice hotels as well, but the prices are on western level. Because ... read more
February 20th 2006
The sacred valley, about 20km north of Cuzco, is a lush valley of Rio Urubamba surrounded by big green mountains. In the valley is the town of Pisac and on a hilltop next to the town are the ruins of an ancient Inca village. The ruins are overlooking the river valley offering splendid views. From Cuzco it's possible to take a train straight to Machu Picchu, but it would have been quite expensive (65USD) so we decided to take the local buses to Ollantaytambo and the cheaper train from there. From Ollantaytambo to Machu Picchu the train is the only option, there is no road. Or actually you could also walk the Inca trail but that is even more expensive than the train (300USD). Pisac and Ollantaytambo are small towns in the Sacred Valley of Rio ... read more
February 19th 2006
Ofcourse everybody who comes to Peru must come to Cuzco. It is filled with tourists and all the stuff that comes with that: hotels, restaurants, tour agencies, etc. But it's no wonder that it's so popular destination since it's a really nice city. The inca heritage is visible everywhere. We went for a half day's walk on the ruins surrounding Cuzco. The ruins of Tambo Machay, Puca Pucara and Sacsayhuaman were impressive remains of the Inca empire. They really knew how to work the stone and were hard and precise builders. The rest of our time in Cuzco we spent enjoying the beautiful city and good food.... read more
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