"There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” - Robert Louis Stevenson So many times over this past year we have felt this foreign feeling. Now, being home, broke and jobless... I take the time to reflect on these moments. Number of Continents Visited: 3 Number of Countries Visited: 16 (In chronological order: Mexico, Japan, China (Tibet), Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia, Peru) Number of Cities Visited: 81 Number of Flights Taken: 20 Number of Trains Taken: 7 [View Full Entry]

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Our path to Machu Picchu started back in February while we sat at an internet cafe in New Zealand. We thought it was about time to start thinking about booking the Inca Trail, the famous four day hike to Machu Picchu- the same trail the Incas built in the 15th century that extended from Cusco (the capital of the Incan Empire) to Machu Picchu (the Incas most sacred place.) It was a big scurry at the internet cafe because companies were already sold out of the trail and we were able to find one company left that could take us the [View Full Entry]

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Another overnight bus brought us to Cusco. At least we made it and weren’t postponed more than a day due to the strikes. We were tired and cranky from lack of sleep, but we checked into the hostel and waited for Chris to wake up. I could not take one more free breakfast that consisted of bad coffee, bread and butter so I wanted to hit up McDonald’s for some pancakes. When Chris woke up we decided we were going to switch rooms. He had some loud people in his room for one particular country and we decided that we need [View Full Entry]

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We left Puno on a six hour bus to Arequipa, the second largest city in Peru. Once again the bus was hot, the roads were windy and I was feeling sick. I slept on Jeff’s lap almost the entire bus ride to avoid puking on a local woman in front of me. I don’t know what it is, but I am getting more bus sick lately than I have the entire trip. The fresh air when we arrived in Arequipa immediately made me feel better so we were back in business. We took a cab to Bothy hostel and checked in. [View Full Entry]

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All went well when returning from Rurrenabaque. Our flight left on time, we arrived on time in La Paz, went back to get our big bags from Wild Rover and caught a taxi to catch a bus to Copacabana and Lake Titicaca. All went well until our taxi was caught in one of the many La Paz protests. We sat for about 15 minutes waiting for the people to clear out of the street, but when it didn’t happen our driver took measures into his own hands. Up onto the sidewalk we went, driving maybe 100 feet on the sidewalk, honking [View Full Entry]

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We went back on forth whether or not we were going to come to the jungle... again. We felt we had done so much jungle stuff in Malaysia that we almost skipped this. Then we went in and talked to Rosa Maria in La Paz. She started Madidi travel and founded the Madidi National Park, where all the tourists of Bolivia go to see the Amazon Basin. She was a staunch advocate for saving the rainforest and even had a National Geographic article written about her and the park in 2000. She single handily convinced us to go to the rainforest [View Full Entry]

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After a long overnight bus to La Paz, we checked into Wild Rover hostel. Well... we couldn´t check in until 1pm and it was 7am so we didn´t really check in, we more hung out in the TV room and fell asleep on the couches. I guess it didn´t seem weird because there were still people awake at the hostel. I don´t mean getting up for the morning, I mean still awake from the night before. Immediately, the cocaine culture was present and at times I felt as if I was the only traveler not coked out of my mind. That [View Full Entry]

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After Uyuni, it was off to Potosi. Potosi is the capital of the department of Potosi in Bolivia. It is claimed to be the highest city in the world at a nominal 4,090 m (13,420 feet). Good thing we were acclimated because we were higher on our salt flats tour. Still, this was a pretty high city. I got winded just walking up hill or waking up the stairs to our room. It was founded in 1546 as a mining town, it soon produced fabulous wealth, becoming one of the largest cities in the Americas. So we arrived in Potosi after [View Full Entry]

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We left San Pedro de Atacama at 8am on a bus to the Bolivian border. Chris was still not feeling 100% but we were not able to switch our tour day to the next day to give him a day to feel healthy. So whether he liked it or not, we were off. Both Hadyn and the Kiwi couple (Clint and Shannon) joined us for the trip, so we were set. We arrived at the Bolivian border at 9am and were all ready to get stamped in to Bolivia. Americans have to pay a $135 Visa fee for Bolivia, but we [View Full Entry]

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After leaving Argentina, we spent the next 8 hours on a pretty cramped bus to the northern Chilean border to head to a city called San Pedro de Atacama. For some reason this bus seemed really long and the passport control for Argentina was at some ridiculous height like 4,000 meters, which made us all a little altitude sick. From now on we will be in really high places again, similar to Tibet so we are hoping the altitude will not effect us as much as it did the last time around. We arrived to the Chilean passport control and the [View Full Entry]

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