Mike and Jess

We arrived in Copacobana, a coastal town on Lake Titicaca, happy to have escaped the madness of Carnaval. While the incessant sound of brass bands continued, the fervor of the holiday had passed and I enjoyed the relaxing vibe of this beach town. After a couple satisfying trout dinners and a some good walks about town, Mike and I set out for a two days at Isla del Sol. The island may be reached by a two hour ferry ride from the main bay of Copacobana to the North end of the island or you can walk 10 miles to the end of the peninsula and take a short ferry ride to the South end of the island. Attempting to avoid the crowds we decided to hoof it. Our route took us along a dirt road ... read more

The time has finally arrived to seriously stretch a buck for once. Yes, we have arrived in Bolivia. We have desperately scraped our way here in order to complete this trip without having to enter the cocaine trafficking business. Upon a somewhat hectic entrance at the border crossing we made our way to Tupiza. All the stories are completely accurate; bus systems and roads in Bolivia fall way below the standard we have become accustomed to in Argentina and Chile. Potholes, complete washouts and stiff shocks make reading a chore and travel durations twice what they should be. No sweat, this needs to be accepted as part of indulging in new places and respect that they have roads at all I suppose. Besides a little discomfort the scenery is fantastic. The Southwest of Bolivia is similar ... read more

While the buses in Argentina are plush, their routes tend to dictate your travel path. We decided to rent a car and get off the beaten track for a few days. I enjoyed the freedom and flexibility having our own car allowed us. As we sped south from Mendoza to Malargue I marveled at the beauty of the desert and the tangibility of the landscape from the passenger seat. Malargue has a lot to offer and is famous for having a multitude of volcanoes and other natural wonders. The first night we wanted to get as close to our destination as possible and take advantage of our wheels. We slept on a riverbank under a sweeping tree canopy at the foot of bridge. The view of the river was lovely and we were sheltered from the ... read more

When you are on the road, most travel books and websites recommend travel insurance. I say forget travel insurance and get life insurance. So I had a small incident with the camera while downloading our recent pictures onto the computer...no big deal. Talk about a language barrier! You don't think twice about random dialogue pop-ups when they are in your own language. This lack attitude is a problem when you don´t read Spanish all that well. The look in Jess' eyes when she nearly hurdled the happy hackers, stiff-armed the Skypers and barrelled over busy bloggers as four hundred of our pictures went down the digital drain had me running for the door. I still hold the computer responsible. Fear not, inter-couple communication is back online and we thought of only one way to fix the ... read more

We want to wish you a mer-ry Christ-mas...unless your name is Mike-or-Jess! Well, I didn´t think it would be difficult being away from friends and family on Christmas but they really did put us through the wringer last night. Of course much of our poor luck was directly associated with poor planning, but none the less, I wish we would have been home enjoying some family time in a warm house or gargling some of Lance´s famous Cinnamonstrosity Sangria and stuffing our yule-tide stomachs with his vegan tamales. It all started when we decided to part ways from our farm where we have been volunteering, declining all of their pleading to have us share the Christmas spirit with them, for we wanted to get some time away from work and get a change of pace. Turns ... read more