June 26, 2009 – Day 183 – Zadar, Croatia

A painfully slow travel day….Eight hours from Dubrovnik and we were the only 2 passengers on board the bus for at least 4 hours (so the driver felt compelled to “take breaks” at least once an hour). Very beautiful views on a very narrow mountain highway that winds back and forth, back and forth til you have nearly lost your head! In Zadar, had trouble finding lodging (just like Izmir). Had to take city bus 3km out of town to the HI hostel (cheap but lame place). Spent evening walking around the beach and throwing rocks in the water while we waited for the sun to set. Lindsey’s brother Morgan will be arriving to meet us tomorrow!

June 8, 2009 – Day 165 – Amman, Jordan

Today we made our way back toward the Dead Sea to the place where John the Baptist worked, the Jordan River, and the widely accepted sight of Jesus’ baptism.

John the Baptist's new church

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May 31,2009 – Day 157 – Nuweiba, Egypt

From 9AM until 5PM, we did nothing. We read, drank tea, played cards, and walked and sat and sighed and grumbled and waited some more. When we played cards in a little cafe-restaurant across from the terminal we amassed a highly curious and involved audience who offered (Arabic) advice on how we should play our cards and intently watchful eyes of all ages, from the 5 year old son of the cafe owner to a scraggly old man of about 60.

Street Goat

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May 30, 2009 – Day 156 – Nuweiba, Egypt

After hiking for nearly 3 hours, we summited Mt Sinai and found a hidden cubby to shield ourselves from the chilling wind until the light of dawn began to peak. And when it did, it was really splendid.

Dawn

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May 18, 2009 – Day 144 – Cairo, Egypt

En route to Giza on a stuffy, sweaty minibus, a man offered us both a Kleenex to wipe the sweat dripping from our faces. It was 105 degrees Fahrenheit and we were wilting in the miserable heat. Saben chatted with the man who, within a matter of 10 minutes, kindly invited us to visit his home before we went to the Pyramids. We gratefully declined since we were running an unfortunately tight schedule today but he would hear none of it. He took us to visit his home, a lovely beautiful and very large Egyptian home, and to meet his family, who were wonderful and endlessly hospitable.

Curls by fire

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Day 116: Lima, Peru

I’ve never met a surfer who was stressed out about anything. Carlos, a lawyer turned surf instructor, was certainly no different. We made our way down to the beach from town to a small tent right on the beach which serves as the Pukana Surfer School (http://www.pukanasurferschool.com). Standing around 5 feet tall with abs of steel and a big smile that never left his lips, Carlos went from being a serious teacher to a fun surfer buddy as he taught Saben the essentials of surfing. Although lessons are an hour($16 including wet suit and board), the first 15 minutes is serious on-land warm-up / practice. Then you get your magnormous long board especially for first timers and it’s time to get wet. Having absolutely no interest in surfing herself, Lin was enlisted as photographer for the day, chronicling Saben’s attempts at surfing.

Saben and his crazy long... long board

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Day 97: Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

“Where`s the mechanic?“ Marco asked, in spanish, to a man walking by the road. “I`m not sure. He`s probably out with the llamas.“ Great, so the one mechanic in a town of 30 people was out tending his llamas?! Thirty minutes after we had set out, we had lost the bolt that holds the back suspension together. After 4 passing jeeps offered nothing but unhelpful stares, useless repair kits with only a wrench and 2 rubber straps,  Marco tied up the suspension (with the said rubber straps) and we headed back to town hoping our jeep wouldn`t rattle to pieces on the bumpiest non-road we`ve ever been on. And now that we made it back, the mechanic was out with his llamas? Well, a minor setback so we did what anyone would`ve done in this situation (right?!)–we went to the small schoolhouse and asked around for the mechanics child and took his daughter out of school!

Our poor broken jeep in the desert

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Day 96: Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

It was a cold morning after a cold night. We got up to go shower and right outside the bathroom was the old hag who runs the place we were staying, giving us an especially evil eye accompanied by a firmly wrinkled grimace. We skirted by her, averting our eyes as we did in case she could project daggers from her eyeballs or maybe breathe fire.

The hotel we stayed at, Hotel Avenida,  was about the cheapest place in town and one of the sorta cleaner ones. But it was more like a HI hostel with tons and tons of ridiculous rules that we posted up every 10 feet. You couldn`t even use the toilet without being accosted by a sign telling you to poop a certain way! We were glad to get out of that place and headed to meet up with our tour group at Red Planet`s office. We were a group of 6 with a spanish speaking driver/guide and his spanish speaking wife and their 2 year old daughter.

First stop was the train graveyard, the final resting place for lots of old dilapidated trains that used to carry minerals down from Potosi`s mines to be shipped out and refined and later sold. Now they lay rusting, serving only as a photo op for tourists and a playground for the local kids.

Rusty the locomotive

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Day 92: Sucre, Bolivia

“Senorita, shoe shine? Shoe shine?“ The first boy, about 9 years old, called my attention as he ran toward Lin. As she looked up, she saw two more boys following him, all scrambling to be the first one to shine my shoes. She couldn`t help but laugh. The proud owner of only 2 pairs of shoes (and one being flip flips), the shoes in question were my trusty Keen hiking shoes. The first two boys gave up pretty easily after a few “No, gracias amigos“ but the third was bound and determined to show me that her shoes were indeed quite dirty and definitely needed a shine. He took his finger and swiped it across the black rubber toe bump and showed it to Lin. “Mira! Mira! Shoe shine?!“ Stiffling a laugh, she shook her head. “No gracias amigo. Esta bien. Ciao,“ hoping to send him on his way to someone with shoes that are actually able to be shined. The little man stood there in utter disbelief that Lin didn`t also think he shoes needed to be shined. After a few more seconds, he moved along to find another customer. Whew, he was a tough one, Lin thought laughing to herself. Read the rest of this entry »

Day 91: Sucre, Bolivia

People are pack animals. Being in groups provides feelings of safety and security for most people. Unfortunately for us, we don`t really like groups of people. It always creates problems like confusion, power struggles, and frustration. Already we had acquired 4 other travelers and during our one bathroom break from the bus last night, we met and picked up two more travelers also destined for Sucre.

This morning, we left the bus station to find lodging for the night and, in a such a large group, there was bound to be some amount of disagreement. And especially when most people carry a Lonely Planet “bible” instead of actually looking at the world around them. Lin had 3-4 addresses for some decent hostels near the center of town and suggested we head there to begin our search. Since no one else was making any suggestions or objections, we hopped a couple taxis and met up again in the center with little hassle. We are so used to finding everything on our own that we just set out as we usually do without a second thought. The others in our group were uneasy about not knowing for sure where we were going or being able to find the hostels we were looking for “in the book” but came along, however hesitantly. Read the rest of this entry »