We are in a place called Comuna Las Tunas. The eco-lodge is called: Azuluna. Their website: www.azuluna-ecuador.com It's close to Puerto Lopez. It’s a very cool place. Both in the meaning “hip” and “cool”! Kwesi and I have our own beach house complete with hammock. That’s where Kwesi is right now… He is trying to write his journal. ;-) We can see the Pacific Ocean from our door. It’s a grey and drizzling day today. Yesterday was beautiful. I would guess it’s only about 20C outside. Kind of odd for being around the equator at sea level! We didn’t expect that. I think it’s because the cold water from the artic comes up here. Apparently we have a good chance of seeing some whales on Sunday during a boating trip. I can’t wait. Yesterday we had ... 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

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! Minor Internet difficulties have kept us from updating our blog.... But, here we are in Tehran with a reasonable computer and Internet connection! Here's what we have been up to since Kyrgyzstan: Uzbekistan Farghana Tashkent Samarkand Yurt Camp Bukhara Khiva We really enjoyed Uzbekistan. All of the monuments (mosques, madrasases etc) were all covered in beautiful blue tiles. Meghan, especially, loved every second! Uzbekistan could not be captured on a postcard and Kwesi's wide angle lens was not wide enough. The best buildings to see were in the three old cities we visited: Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva. Uzbekistan was stunning. And, as an added bonus, they had beautiful things for sale! Amazing embroidery could be found on every street corner. We also found f... read more

We are in Dunhuang tonight. This will be our third night in the hotel. It's been very restfull! We had a rough, long desert drive to get here. Here are out latest stats: 14 hotels 2 different campsites almost 1 month away from home Dunhuang is famous for the Mogao Grottoes. The caves are full of Buddhist paintings and sculptures. (No photos were allowed). Since we are getting closer to central Asia, the influence from India and Europe can be seen in the pictures. There are some Indian Budhhas and some Chinese ones too. You can even see the cross as Christianity was introduced from Europe. The caves were started in about 400AD. Here's the wikipedia site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mogao_Caves The other cool thing we saw was Jaiuyguan fort. The fort was at the very end of the ... read more