Overnight train to Tbilisi $26 Since we had been so busy yesterday, we took things slowly this morning. We met an Australian woman staying at our hotel who had recently come from Tbilisi, and she recommended a hotel. After breakfast at the bakery down the street we left our laundry with the lady at the hotel. We only had one other sight we had wanted to see, the Fire Temple in nearby Suraxani. We went by the station again to check on the local train, but weren't able to find one, so we hopped in a cab again. Suraxani is located east of Baku, about halfway to the airport. The only attraction is the Zoroastrian Fire Temple, still in use by worshippers. The natural flames have been replaced with piped in gas these days. There were ... read more

Hotel: Velotrek Hotel (Baku, Azerbaijan) $30 Visa on arrival: $40 $1 USD = 4700 Azeri Manat We decided to head to the airport early this morning for our 10:30 AM flight to Baku. We hailed a cab from the hotel, but we were only able to talk him down to 1200 roubles (the books say 900 is best). This seemed a bit excessive as we were already on the road to the airport, but all 4 of us crammed into the LADA as it was raining and we didn't feel like walking to Beloruskaya station to take the metro+bus option. The flight to Baku left from SVO-2, the international terminal. There are checkin desks at both sides of the terminal; we went to the wrong side initially before finding the correct checkin desk for Baku. Once ... read more

Hotel: Steppe Nomads Camp (Mongolia) Our new guide greeted us this morning. His name was Baggy and would be our guide for the next few days, it would just be my wife and I so we ended up with a private tour! We would be going out to one of the tourist ger camps for a few days to get the feel of traditional Mongolian life. On the way out of town we stopped at Gandan Monastery, one of the few to remain open during the communist era. This is still a functioning monastery with yellow and red-robed monks chanting prayers. The camp was a few hours drive east of the capital. The roads were in excellent condition (newly paved by the Japanese), and once we left town the barren landscape of treeless grassy hills continued ... read more

Post Office - Floreana Puerto Ayora - Santa Cruz Our last full day in the Galapagos. The morning excursion had us visiting the island of Floreana at Post Office bay; this is where whalers used to leave messages for home in a barrel. Anyone passing by heading in that direction would pick up the letters and deliver them personally. This tradition continues today. The mailbox itself now is covered with bumper stickers, graffiti, and messages scratched on driftwood, it's quite an amazing sight. We shuffled through the postcards, and actually found one for Austin that had been left just that morning! Since we would be home in two days, it would probably get there earlier had it been sent via the regular mail. Several other passengers picked up postcards and left their own (ours STILL hasn't ... read more

Las Bachas - Santa Cruz Bartolome - San Salvador This morning was one of the few opportunities to go scuba diving, I opted to do this instead of swimming on Las Bachas beach. One of the local dive companies came out to meet the boat, there were 5 passengers diving today. It was quite expensive at $120 for a two-tank dive. The water in the Galapagos is also surprisingly cold for it being on the equator, 50 to 60 degrees is normal! They provided full 5mil suits with hood and gloves. We would be diving off of Daphne islet, a wall dive with an opportunity to see hammerheads. I had never used a hood before, and had problems with my mask leaking once underwater, so my first dive was spent mainly clearing my mask! The second ... read more