meghanvesey

We have had an eventful week since our time on the coast! Just to recap, our first week in Ecuador was spent along the pacific coast and week two was spent in the colonial city of Cuenca. For those interested in the history of Cuenca this is the scoop. Cuenca is located in the Andes at a height of 2550 meters. It used to be called “Guapondlics” by the original inhabitants: the “Cañaris”. It was later renamed “Tomebamba” by the Incas as it became an Inca strong hold. Modern day Cuenca was founded by Gil Ramirez Dávalos, a Spaniard, on April 12th 1557. The new city was later baptized by the Spanish as “Santa Ana de Los Rios de Cuenca” named after a city in Spain called Cuenca. For the Spanish to maintain control over the ... read more

We had a couple of days of dreary clouds and drizzle but today is sunshiny! All of a sudden we have a lot more energy. ;-) Those rain boots that Kwesi said we had to bring have come in handy. Meghan: “We are not getting and taking rain boots” Kwesi: “I’m not going without them” Kwesi was right. Thursday and Friday we painted and planted a garden for a community centre in a small town nearby called Puerto Rico. It’s a town of 500 people that come from about 10 families. They have a beautiful church made of bamboo and next door is this community centre. Kwesi helped to paint the first day (white wash) and I got to help choose the plants for the garden. It was interesting choosing plants when you have no idea ... read more

Kwesi and I are here! After way too many flights and way too many airports, Kwesi and I arrived at our hotel in Guayaquil today. I arrived around 1:30pm and Kwesi around 5:30pm. It took us a long time to get to Ecuador... We don't have much time here. We leave tomorrow morning at 8:45am for the coast. It's going to be very interesting though! This afternoon I walked around a bit and saw some interesting sights. There is a river nearby with a nice walking boulevard. I also saw a crazy park full of Iguanas... Yes, Iguanas... The iguanas went missing after dark so it's my guess that they are pets! I don't have any pictures as Kwesi had the camera. We went out as a group for dinner. It was a beautiful evening. It's ... read more

We almost made it! We are on the right continent at least. ;-) Today we missed out connecting flight out of Bogota, Columbia to Ecuador. So, we are in Columbia.... They have been quite nice so far. We are in a hotel not too far from the airport. The hotel stay is free and Air Canada found flights for everyone on to Ecuador on Tuesday. Kwesi and I, however, are not on the same flight out... A bit odd but nothing we can do. My flight leaves at 6am. Kwesi's at 2pm. I fly to Peru then to Ecuador. ;-) Lots of passport stamps without seeing anything! My whole time in Columbia is in the dark... Other than that, nothing interesting to report. Airports are boring. We are still waiting for our luggage... My plan is ... read more

Hello everyone! So, we thought we should revive the ol' blog for our next adventure. Kwesi and I are off to Ecuador on July 5th! It seems a bit surreal still that we are going to get on a plane soon. The bags aren't packed. I don't even have any pants to wear... My plan to wear shorts, well, not going to happen... Time is going to creep up on us and then 6 weeks of bliss! No work. No cell phones. Feel free to follow along on our trip or, if you don't want to receive updates, we can take you off the list. Meghan and Kwesi... read more

Most bizarre and sad tourist attraction: Gas crater in Turkmenistan Things we miss from home: Being clean (wearing only our socks!!) and being able to read Most girls that can ride on bicycle: 16 (everything is possible in China) Most family members on a motorbike: 5 (Iran) Will we do Dragoman again? Probably not..., maybe in South America where there are camp grounds! Most beautiful home gardens: Kyrgyzstan Most picknickers: Iran Longest desert crossing: China (4 nights camping) Although, the 2 weeks in Iran was more or less crossing a big desert... Food we don't want to eat again: kabobs (unless of course it's Alberta Beef with Bulls Eye sauce!) Church that looks like a mosque: Armenian Church, Esphahan, Iran Best food so far: China Best country to buy gifs: Uzbekistan and Iran Kindest people: Iran ... read more

Hello all! Two weeks ago we left Turkmenistan and crossed into İran... Bit of a shock! We hit Tehran fırst and had an interesting tıme gettıng around. We dıd manage to see all sorts of nıce sıtes and then headed off ın the truck. Here are the cıtıes we stayed ın: Tehran Yadz Shıraz Esphahan Bush Camp near Zanjan Tabrız The people of Iran are very frıendly. Everyone wanted to talk to us and ıt was sometımes dıffıcult to keep walkıng! The locals always wanted to know what we thought of Iran. Image seemed to be at the forefront of every dıscussıon. Meghan's experıence wearıng hıjab was not a really pleasant one. Women are certaınly regarded dıfferently and Meghan felt ınvısıble sometımes. Kwesı dıd all the talkıng and all the buyıng. It was HOT to wear ... read more