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Denver, Colorado, United States

No foolin'!Benjamin Saito BarwigBorn: April 1, 2006 at 1:27amLength: 18.5 inchesWeight: 7 lbs. 10 ouncesJill, Ben and Andy are all doing well. The new family will be home from the hospital on Monday. Stay tuned for more pictures and news about Baby Ben, including his own website.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jill_and_andy/tga04/1107302460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jill_and_andy/tga04/1107302460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jill_and_andy/tga04/1107302460/tpod.html Sun, 12 Jun 2005 13:22:55 -0400 Jill and Andy's great adventure: Our year-long honeymoon traveling around the world

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Denver, Colorado, United States

The tan lines have faded, the matching black backpacks have been stored away, and the foreign currencies that used to jingle in our pockets have been replaced by various cards -- driver's license, insurance, credit, and one frequent sipper card from the coffee shop down the street. Our six months of readjustment after a year of traveling is very nearly complete.We apologize it's taken six months to send out this latest travelogue, which we promised would be the end-all, say-all synopsis of the highs and lows of our trip. We had a few matters to attend to first, such as where we were going to live (we bought an old brick bungalow in north Denver), how we were going to make a living (more about this later), and how we were going to get around (determined to get by with one car, Andy is learning the bus routes so Jill can tool around in the Toyota Corolla we leased). The good news is we're feeling happily settled in Denver, Colorado. Our life adventures continue to thrill and challenge us, except now our friends and families come in handier than our quick-dry underwear (hence the title of this travelogue).We've had some time to appreciate what an incredible experience it was to take a year-long honeymoon and reflect back on how much we saw and did over the course of last year. We've condensed many of our stories into "bite-sized" versions that can be retold at a cocktail party or to the incredulous person who asks: "How did you pack for one year?" Truth is, the whole of our experiences could never be completely retold -- each day we learn more about how we've changed or a memory of a split-second experience will bubble up and put a smile on our faces. But we hope our travelogues gave you a taste of what it was like.Many of you have already heard what our favorite place was (Jill's was Italy and Andy's was Vietnam), so we thought you might like to learn more about some of the unexpected surprises from our travels. We would also like to pass along some of our pearls of wisdom about traveling in hopes that our experiences inspire some of you to dust off the ol' passport (or get a new one) and plan an international excursion. Top experiences (in no particular order):Motorcyle trip in Vietnam, Volunteering on the farm in Italy, Tracking mountain gorillas in the Congo, Hiking the Himalayas in Nepal, Teaching in Italy, Glacier trekking in Patagonia, Exploring the temples of Angkor Wat. Countries visited: 23Longest stay in a country: Italy (7.5 weeks)Shortest stay in a country: Lesotho (4 hours)Cheapest country: LaosMost expensive country: Great BritainHardest language: VietnameseEasiest language: SpanishBest city: Rome (Italy)Worst city: Bombay (India)Best church: La Sangrada Familia (Barcelona)Best museum: Haus der Musik (Vienna)Best beach: Railay (Thailand)Best castle: Prague (Czech Republic)Best beer: Pilsner (Czech Republic)Best temple: Bantay Srei (Angkor Wat)Best view: Gokyo Ri (Nepal)Best mountain: Cerro Torre (Argentina)Best wildlife: Gorillas (Congo)Best party: Songkran (Thailand)Best waterfall: Kuangi Si (Laos)Best bike ride: Hell's Gate Park (Kenya)Best city park: Luxembourg Gardens (Paris)Best looking women: Rio de Janiero (Brazil)Best looking men: Rome (Italy)Best lunch spot: Quiberon (France)Best meat: Bife de Chorizo (Argentina)Best breakfast: Pousada Santa Clara (Brazil)Best cheese: Tome d'Pyranees (France)Best chocolate: Mamushka's (Argentina)Best coffee: Italy and Vietnam (tie)Best smell: Town of Ravello (Italy)Best sandwich: Kebab (Poland)Best haircut: Saigon (Andy), Chiang Mai (Jill)Best shopping mall: Pretoria (South Africa)Where we want to go next:1) Bali, Indonesia2) Dalmatian Coast, Croatia3) Oaxaca, Mexico4) Kyoto, Japan5) Lalibela, EthiopiaTravel tips:1) The more we liked a country tended to correlate with how long we stayed there. Staying in a country for a month or more allowed us to learn the basics of the language, become comfortable, find favorite eateries, and meet locals.2) Traveling can be tiring. In retrospect, we're grateful that we peppered in times of non-travel into our itinerary. The times we stayed in one city for two weeks or more to study, volunteer or work gave us time to rejuvenate.3) Items we couldn't live without: a digital camera, PacSafe money belt, travel laundry kit, sunglasses, an emergency stash of US cash, and wrinkle-free, quick-dry T-shirts.4) Items we took but didn't really need: walking shoes (sandals and hiking boots were all we needed), mosquito net (most hostels had them) and jeans (too heavy for hot weather and hard to pack).5) Don't let language keep you from traveling to a country. English has amazingly become the international language. Most folks in the travel industry (hotels, restaurants, train stations, airports) speak English. And if you're in a pickle (like being left at a bus stop at 1 a.m. in the middle of Brazil), there'll most likely be someone who speaks enough English to assist you.6) Southeast Asia was the best region for the budget traveler and a great place to start a round-the-world journey. The people are friendly, the food is world-class, the cost of living is minimal, and there are some great tourist facilities. It helped break us in to traveling.7) Mix it up so you don't get worn down or start losing your sense of awe. Don't go to one big crowded city after another. Likewise, don't try to see all the museums or beautiful churches in one day. Spread it out and you'll appreciate the attractions more. 8) Do it yourself. Believe it or not, you do not need to book all of your hotels, transportation and tours before you leave. You end up paying a lot of money to travel agents and middle men, and you can easily get locked into an itinerary you later regret. You'll appreciate the flexibility and unexpected surprises that come with independent travel.9) Keep an open mind and be patient. America may be the birthplace of fast food and convenience stores but many foreign cultures resent our harried lifestyle. You will undoubtedly experience delays, cancellations or other logistical snafus while traveling. Take a deep breath, relax and make the best out of it.10) Just do it! Anyone can think of a million excuses not to travel. Bottom line: life is short and the world is a very large place. There is something for everyone out there. It was hard to readjust to normal life but we feel we have made impressive strides. As we mentioned, we bought a new home back in April and have been trying hard to become good homeowners. Jill fixed a broken faucet and Andy successfully used our new charcoal grill. Most importantly, we've taken care of Jill's niece and nephew on several occasions without any ER visits (knock on wood), so we may be ready for our own kids in the near future. That may be our biggest adventure of all!Still infected by the travel bug, we have also taken a few shorter trips this year. Earlier in the spring, we went to Oklahoma City for a friend's wedding and stopped in Santa Fe on the drive back to Denver. Last month, we took off on a road trip to several of southern Colorado's national parks -- Black Canyon of the Gunnison, the Great Sand Dunes, and Mesa Verde. The beautiful scenery reaffirmed our decision to move back to Colorado.As for this summer, there is much in store. Andy was accepted into the Ph.D. program in international studies at the University of Denver and begins classes next week while working part-time as a research assistant at the National Conference of State Legislatures. He will also teach international conflict resolution again this summer for six weeks in Argentina. Jill will be telecommunting from home, working on a high school reform project for the non-profit organization she worked for in Santa Cruz.We hope to stay in touch with all of you as we begin this new chapter in our lives. The past year and a half have been a dream come true, and we hope our good karma remains with us. (In a year of travel, neither of us got seriously ill, lost anything important, or had anything stolen.) If you'd like help planning your next overseas trip, feel free to contact Andy. He's always looking for an excuse to read travel guides, and planning any trip gives him a high for weeks. He's weird that way. Jill's also available to discuss immunizations, insurance, and visa requirements.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jill_and_andy/tga04/1103822700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jill_and_andy/tga04/1103822700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jill_and_andy/tga04/1103822700/tpod.html Mon, 03 Jan 2005 20:12:09 -0500 Jill and Andy's great adventure: Our year-long honeymoon traveling around the world

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Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis

The island of St. Kitts is a mere speck on our world globe. You'd be hard pressed to find it on some maps. We'd never even heard of this small Caribbean island until our friend Renetta moved there last February as a Peace Corps volunteer. But we couldn't resist a stop on a tropical island to visit a friend, so we included St. Kitts as the last stop on our round-the-world itinerary.Unlike its more well-known neighbors such as Antigua and St. Lucia, St. Kitts has all the beauty and serenity of a Caribbean island without being overrun by casinos and corporate hotels. Sugar remains its number one industry, with a growing tourism industry a close second. But it's still easy to find a palm-tree lined beach of white sand where the only others around are a few free-roaming cows and goats. Everyone on the island of 35,000 souls seems to know when the cruise ships dock and unload their passengers of pasty white Americans. The handicraft market opens up and the taxi drivers make their way to the dock. But the cruise-goers are gone by nightfall and the island returns to being a sleepy backwater.Renetta and a friend named Bigga picked us up at the small airport in the country's Ministry of Tourism van. Renetta has a knack for getting to know people who can help her out in a jam, which has been a very useful skill as a Peace Corps volunteer since she's prohibited from driving a car or even riding a bicycle during her two-year assignment. We soon met some of her other friends including Mr. Pinchon and Venetta who were more than happy to show us around the island.Our visit coincided with the start of St. Kitts' Carnival celebration. Our first night on the island, we tagged along with Renetta to her steel pan practice session. Her band was competing in the upcoming Jouvert show, which parades through the streets of St. Kitts at 4 a.m. the day after Christmas rousing everyone out of bed. The steel pan is a drum instrument made out of the bottom of oil barrels. We heard plenty of steel pan music during our stay in St. Kitts. Music always seemed to be in the air coming from people's cars, stores, homes and restaurants. Our second night, we attended a Calypso competition. We learned that Calypso is more about the message than the music. While the Calypso beat is fun and rhythmic, the messages were often serious ones about peace, poverty or government corruption. Actual singing ability is not as important. A popular Calypso song during our stay was by local Calypso singer Socrates. His hit "Before You Put on the Ring-Ring, You Better Check Out the Ting-Ting" (the title may not be entirely accurate) was being played over and over on radio stations. We were surprised when Socrates turned out to be another one of Renetta's friends and a local taxi driver. He picked us up for our first trip to the beach. But we knew the island was really small when a local alerted Renetta at work that outside her apartment on the clothesline Jill's purple sarong had snagged on a fence and needed to be moved. It was the perfect example of how everyone knows everyone and everyone's business in St. Kitts.We actually drove around the entire circumference of the island (23 miles long by 6.5 miles wide) one night. It was dark, so we didn't see much but we got a sense for the island's small size and close-knit community. The drive was needed after we gorged ourselves on baby back ribs and the biggest lobster tails we'd ever eaten. Despite being served on a paper plate with a plastic knife and fork, it was the best lobster dinner of our lives. Renetta made sure we fit in all of the island's must-see tourist destinations. St. Kitts has had a tumultous history since Columbus sighted the island on his second voyage to the New World in 1493. St. Kitts became a hub for the transatlantic slave trade and the town center of Basseterre used to be where the slaves destined for the sugarcane fields were auctioned. A source of pride on the island is its Brimstone Hill fort, a remnant from when the island was fiercely contested between English and French colonialists. The well-preserved fort is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is situated on a hill to give you a beautiful view of the ocean and island's coast. We also visited two beaches where the clear water made for good snorkeling. Rum is another St. Kitts product, and we became smitten with the drink of pineapple juice and coconut rum. We tried other local cuisine including goat water (a goat meat stew with a few bones mixed in) and salt fish and downed the local brew, Carib.To celebrate our one-year wedding anniversary, we splurged on a one-night stay at an inn on the neighboring island of Nevis. Nevis was named for the Spanish word "nieve" (snow) because the frequent clouds shrouding the mountain on the island resembled a snow-capped peak. Nevis is even smaller than St. Kitts with 10,000 inhabitants. Many of its old sugar plantations have been converted into romantic inns. We stayed at The Golden Rock, which butted up against the rainforest and had a stunning view of the ocean from its perch on a mountainside. Our cottage looked out onto the ocean, as did the pool and tennis court. We took advantage of every amenity the inn had to offer, including bumper pool. We figured we'd get our money's worth. The other two couples staying at the inn were Americans. They were a bit older and classier than us, so we donned our best quick-dry clothes for dinner and tried to behave ourselves with good manners and witty small talk.We're so glad to have visited St. Kitts when we did. It wants to stake its ground in the profitable tourism industry and is well-positioned to do so. A new Marriott just opened and Sandals Resorts has purchased some land where the locals now go to hang out on the beach. But we'll always remember St. Kitts as the small dot on the globe that rings no bells for most people but reminds us of white sand, blue water and genuine Caribbean hospitality.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jill_and_andy/tga04/1103053680/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jill_and_andy/tga04/1103053680/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jill_and_andy/tga04/1103053680/tpod.html Thu, 23 Dec 2004 12:28:08 -0500 Jill and Andy's great adventure: Our year-long honeymoon traveling around the world

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Salvador, Brazil

Feliz Natal! Is it really mid-December? With the sun shining, the beach not far away and everyone around us wearing flip-flops, it´s hard to tell. The Santa at the crowded mall looked a tad uncomfortable in his jolly red suit, but at least it was a reminder that indeed the holidays are upon us. As an early Christmas present, Brazil made the sun shine for most of our stay here and steered our feet toward great eats, meats and other treats.We wish we could say that we´ve had the best of the best here in Brazil, but it´s too hard to say. The country is massive, and we´ve seen only a speck. Brazil is bigger than the United States if you exclude Alaska. Our trip is equivalent to a Brazilian flying to New York City for a few days (in our case Rio de Janeiro) and then traveling around Texas for three weeks (in our case the state of Bahia). We utilized every mode of transportation, sometimes in one day. Jill learned her first Portuguese word, "Calma," when she came out of the restroom at a rest stop at 4 a.m. to see that the bus we were on, and which a peacefully sleeping Andy was still on, had left. She calmed down and stopped jabbering away in English only after she heard the words "calma" and "petrol." We´ve seen so much that a blow-by-blow account would try anyone´s patience, so we´ve decided instead to give you our Ten Things to Love About Brazil (kindly borrowed from our fellow world-traveling friends Gail and Sean who inspired us earlier with their Ten Reasons to Fall in Love with Bali travelogue):10) Sliding down the Ribeirao waterslide- This waterslide was unlike anything you'll find at your local swim club. Our water slide was a huge slab of red rock covered in a slick layer of algae with a river to propel you down fifty feet on your butt into a large pool of water. The Ribeirao waterslide was one of the major attractions of the Chapada Diamantina, a huge national park several hundred miles inland. We stayed in the nearby town of Lencois and enjoyed the natural wonders of the park. We also rock-hopped up the river to the beautiful Sossego waterfall and climbed to the top of Pai Ignacio for a beautiful view of the tabletop mountains of the park. 9) Partying in Pelourinho- Pelourinho is the historic center and main tourist attraction of Salvador, the vibrant capital of the state of Bahia. Ornate colonial style churches line cobblestone streets. There always seemed to be something going on with Tuesday nights really drawing out the crowds. We sat outside that night and listened to live Samba music. Brazilians love to dance and on another night we went to a folklore show featuring many different types of dance from Bahia. For the show's finale, a dancer pulled Andy onto stage front and center. He must have worn his lead shoes that night, because he barely moved a muscle-- and definitely not to the beat. Jill was well positioned to snap a few incriminating pictures of Andy's futile attempt at dancing.8) Watching capoeira in Salvador- Another form of dance we saw in Salvador is capoeira. African slaves in Brazil originally developed capoeira as a martial art form to fight their colonial masters. It was turned into an acrobatic dance form so the slaves could practice. It was banned for most of the past century until it gradually became recognized as a form of artistic expression. We saw a capoeira demonstration at a school in Pelourinho. The dancers form a semi-circle in which rotating pairs spar in a non-contact display of kicks and evasive maneuvers accompanied by a rhythmic playing of drums. 7) Getting a bowl of açai for a late-night snack -- Brazil is the mecca for cheap and delicious exotic fruit. Many fruit do not have an English name, for example acai (pronounced ah-sah-ee), which has a gritty forest berry taste and deep purple color. However, when blended frozen with guarana juice (another Amazonian fruit) and bananas, it makes an icy sweet treat. Acai is grown in the Amazon and then sent throughout Brazil. Without knowing what it was, Andy decided to try acai on one of our beach days. He had been won over by the many "Temos Acai" signs we'd seen at snack shops. After our first bowl, we were hooked. It's served cold with granola and fruit on top. It makes the perfect snack in the middle of a hot afternoon or at the end of the day for a late-night dessert.6) Laying on the beach of Morro do Sao Paulo -- Morro do Sao Paolo is an island off the coast of Bahia. You can either take a slow boat from the town of Valenca or a fast boat from Salvador to get there. We have especially fond memories of the island because our first day there was our first day of sunshine after 10 straight days of rain. We were also there on Thanksgiving when we gave thanks the sun continued to shine upon us. Morro do Sao Paolo offers some fantastic beaches with a beautiful island setting. Although the area has become extremely popular and developed, there still aren't any cars or paved roads on the island. "Taxis" on the island were wheelbarrows skillfully driven by muscular men who would tote guests' bags from the pier to the various beachfront guesthouses.5) Eating fresh clams at Maria´s in Boipeba- On the small island of Boipeba, near where the small boats unload their cargo, is a shack with one long table and a few plastic chairs inside and tables and chairs outside. If an American we met hadn't told us about it, it would have been another of the many shacks we would walk past and not thought twice about. But inside this shack, a woman named Maria runs a restaurant where you can order a dozen clams for 2 reals (about 60 cents). Given the price, we were expecting small clams and were surprised when she served us a dozen of the meatiest clams we had ever seen. Maria served them with a delicious broth, slices of lime and a spicy sauce. We slurped down clams and tossed the shells a few yards away into the water while watching the sun set over the coconut trees. 4) Looking forward to cafe da manha -- When it comes to breakfast (cafe da manha), Brazilians don't mess around. We don't know if they eat huge breakfasts regularly, but most of the guesthouses we stayed at had a wonderful spread of fresh fruit, cakes, coffee and juices awaiting us when we awoke. Pousada Santa Clara in Boipeba won our prize for "Best Breakfast." Each morning, they served us a different spread. We ate homemade breads, watermelon juice, pineapple, cakes, mangoes, tapioca, empanadas and other goodies. Sometimes we looked forward to falling asleep because we know we'd get to eat breakfast the next morning!3) Attending a candomble ceremony- In the state of Bahia, it is possible to witness a candomble ceremony, a practice of an African cult brought over to Brazil by slaves. It is one example of how African culture has influenced Brazilian culture. We went to a candomble ceremony in our second night in Salvador. We wore pants and light colors as recommended. When we arrived at 8pm, the hall was almost empty except for a few elderly ladies who made sure men and women sat on opposite sides of the room. The square room was simply decorated with streamers draped across the ceiling. In the middle of the room was a wooden structure with ornate wooden chairs surrounding it facing out toward the people. The ceremony began about two hours after we had arrived. A group of men began pounding out a rhythm on drums and out walked about 20 women, mostly older, elaborately dressed in hoop skirts and white lace shirts. They danced slowly around the room for what seemed like hours until one of the women fell into a trance. She started to shake and then continued to dance with the other women with her eyes half-closed. Whenever she passed, the people would bow their heads and hold their palms up to her. Soon other women fell into trances as well. We left without seeing how the ceremony ended. We opted not to hire a guide, so many aspects of the ceremony left us confused. However, we enjoyed watching first hand an ancient practice close to the Bahian people.2) Getting the thumbs-up from a Brazilian -- Another reason to love Brazil is the friendly and fun-loving people. We could sense their easy-going, laid-back attitude from the minute we first stepped off the plane. We also noticed that they always seem to be giving the thumbs-up sign. While in some countries the thumbs-up is an obscene gesture, in Brazil it seems to convey just about every possible message. You place an order. Thumbs-up. You see someone on the street. Thumbs-up. By the end of our month in Brazil, we too were giving everyone the thumbs up. Maybe we'll bring it home to the states and start a new trend. It sure does beat the indifferent American nod!1) Hanggliding over the Atlantic Ocean and Rio de Janiero- All year we had been looking forward to Rio de Janeiro for the chance to see how it feels to fly. Rio is a world famous hanggliding locale, particularly off the 510 meter Pedra Bonita on Pepino Beach. Even Jill, who you would be hard pressed to describe as an adrenaline junkie, was looking forward to it. Unfortunately, rain and clouds nixed our chances of hanggliding during our four days in Rio when we arrived in Brazil. We had one more shot the morning before our flight to Miami on our way to St. Kitts. A few clouds hung over Pedra Bonita, but the sky over the beach was clear. Jill went first tandem with our pilot Chico. One moment, she was strapping on a helmet and it seemed like the next moment she was running down a short runway into the clouds. Suddenly nothing was below her feet, the clouds were behind her and down below she could see trees, beach and an endless stretch of blue ocean. The journey was smooth as we coasted over the treetops that looked like broccoli, the tall apartment buildings and then over the water. For a few seconds, Chico stopped the hangglider to experience a free fall. The stomach-in-throat feeling was similar to riding a rollercoaster, but knowing you're not attached to anything mechanical on the ground gave the thrill a new dimension. Andy flew second and enjoyed the sensation of floating and the peacefulness of gliding in air. The anticipation and thrill of takeoff were worth the wait. After our flights, Chico treated us to cold coconut water and acai. He said hanggliding was our "golden key" to end our stay in Brazil.There are so many reasons to love Brazil, we could probably keep going. Hopefully we'll bring you another 10 reasons on our next trip to the country. We'd love to visit again and see Iguazu Falls in the south, the Amazon and the beaches in the north. But first, we need to learn some more Portuguese and meet some Brazilians who can show us around. Until then, eating churrascaria at a Brazilian rodizio in our hometown will suffice!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jill_and_andy/tga04/1100374800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jill_and_andy/tga04/1100374800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jill_and_andy/tga04/1100374800/tpod.html Mon, 15 Nov 2004 14:42:46 -0500 Jill and Andy's great adventure: Our year-long honeymoon traveling around the world

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Torres del Paine, Chile

November marks the beginning of the high tourist season in Patagonia. Good weather is anything but guaranteed, but we left Bariloche on October 31 with high hopes and fingers crossed.Good karma stayed on our side, and we had beautiful weather during our two-week trip to Patagonia. The sunny weather amidst melting glaciers did worry us a wee bit having just seen ¨The Day After Tomorrow.¨ While we still worry the movie was more premonition than fiction, global warming did provide us with ideal trekking weather and good photo opportunities.Before leaving Bariloche, our friend Randy, a studly man from Iowa, took us on a day hike near the mighty Tronador Mountain. The hike reminded our legs, which had been happily dormant on buses and in restaurants for the past few months, that long walks were part of the adventure. We also saw our first glacier, piled high above a sheer mountain cliff. Occasionally, we would hear a loud rumble and see chunks of ice and snow fall to the valley below. They say (OK, only we say) that you never forget your first glacier, and for us that´s certainly been the case. While we´d see plenty more and bigger icy landscapes, the glacier at Tronador remains one of our favorites.We flew from Bariloche to Calafate so we could spend more time hiking rather than going overland on hundreds of miles of bumpy gravel roads. Andy had been cooped up for too long studying Lonely Planet guidebooks (one of his favorite pastimes) because within an hour of arriving, he had already made arrangements for a whirlwind tour of the region´s major attractions. Jill didn't mind the 5-hour bus ride that night as much as finding out that the next morning´s ice trekking tour would cover 30km (18 miles) over 12 hours. We went to bed wondering what we had gotten ourselves into. As penance, he carried our backpack, crampons and all, during the trek. The long, arduous trek made us feel as though we´d earned the privilege of seeing the jagged Cerro Torre up close and the glaciers that wrap around it and blanket the mountain´s base. On the way there, we had to cross an icy river not via a bridge but a rope pulley attached to a harness around our waists. Two hours were spent trekking on the glacier. Ice trekking gave us a surreal feeling knowing only ice and not land was underfoot. In some of the crevices, the light turned the ice a brilliant blue. Jill tried ice climbing for the photo opportunity, but she won´t be taking it up as a weekend hobby.The next day, we took it easy and only did a short trek to see Fitz Roy, another peak like Cerro Torre in Patagonia famous for its shar edges and almost out-of-place appearance in the mountain range. Although we kept physical exercise to a minimum that day, Andy´s heart was still beating a mile a minute because this sunny day in Patagonia was also election day in the States. We pinned a Kerry for President pin to our daypack and hoped our fellow countrymen would elect a new president. We leaped off the bus when it arrived in Calafate to find a TV with CNN. We stayed up past 3 a.m. watching Americans vote for the wrong guy and fit it only a few hours of sleep before awaking at 6:30 a.m. for our tour of Perito Moreno Glacier.The glacier was huge and tall, but arriving there in a tour bus and not after a long hike seemed lackluster compared to our previous glacier experiences. A wooden walkway allowed tourists to safely meander close, but not too close, to the icy behemoth. The most enjoyable part was listening to the thunderous cracks and crashes as pieces of the glacier tumbled into the water. A boat tour brought us even closer, but the motor drowned out the auditory thrill of the seeing a glacier so close.The next day, we crossed the Argentina-Chile border, sadly saying goodbye to steaks and Mamuschka chocolate and a jolly hello to centolla, the king crab famous in this southern Chilean region. Our first Chilean adventure was hiking in Torres del Paine. We hiked the popular "W" Circuit, which meant following the same people from refugio to refugio each day. (Refugios are the bare-minimum lodges in the park that provide a bunk bed, a roof over your head and the opportunity to buy an outrageously expensive hot meal.) Luckily, our fellow hikers were friendly and harmless, although Jill on occasion wanted to inflict pain on some unnaturally loud snorers.This was the first time we´d had to carry our backpacks fully loaded for an extended period, four to seven hours each day. It took awhile to get used to the extra weight, and Jill rejoiced everytime we ate a meal we brought along because it made her pack a few ounces lighter.We lack the writing ability to describe the beauty of Torres del Paine. We just hope that our photos will do it some justice. The best would be for you to see it for yourself, as everyone should see the milky blue-green color of a glacier lake, scramble over a mountain of rocks to get a view of the Towers ablaze in morning light, feel bowled over by the strong winds high in the French Valley, and drink the purest water you´ll ever taste from a glacier stream (even Jill, the hypochondriac, couldn´t resist). The trek rivaled Nepal in its beauty and was definitely a highlight in our 10-months of traveling so far.After the trek, we went to Punto Arenas, which is even further south in this skinny country. Andy was looking forward to ordering a platter piled high with crab legs he´d have to crack open with a nutcracker and be able to suck the juices out of the crab claws. He was disappointed to discover Chileans prefer to do the hard work for you and serve the crab legs already shelled and neatly arranged on a bed of cool lettuce. We ate centolla two nights in a row, and we filled our guts both times.Between crab feedings, we went to see Punto Arenas´main attraction -- Magellan penguins. About an hour from the city is a Penguinera, where tourists can walk along a path close to the shore and see the penguins in their natural habitat. At sunset, they´re out in force. Jill counted 60 penguins hanging out in one section of the beach. We enjoyed watching them waddle about, bark to each other and pose for photos. Like the gorillas, the penguins seemed unbothered by our presence.We´ve now put our sweaters, hats and thick socks in the very bottom of our backpacks as we´ve traveled to a warmer climate. We spent one rainy day in Santiago, Chile´s capital city, and we are now wearing shorts and sandals on the beaches in Rio de Janeiro.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jill_and_andy/tga04/1099074420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jill_and_andy/tga04/1099074420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jill_and_andy/tga04/1099074420/tpod.html Fri, 29 Oct 2004 17:10:01 -0400 Jill and Andy's great adventure: Our year-long honeymoon traveling around the world

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Bariloche, Argentina

*Burp*Ah, excuse us. We just finished polishing off a plate of juicy steak at Alberto´s here in Bariloche before we walked across the street to the internet cafe. As we carved into our bife de chorizo, we reminisced about our days in Asia when we ate healthy stir frys and had nice toned, tanned bodies. After nearly a month here in Argentina, we´ve noticed our clothes are much tighter after too many meals of steaks, empanadas, and milanesa (a thin cut of beef that´s breaded, fried and often covered in cheese). At least the cold weather has given us a reason to wear bulky sweaters and pants. The steak in Argentina deserves all the praise it´s given. We did plenty of research to make sure the first steak we had in Buenos Aires wasn´t just a fluke but that indeed great steak can be found throughout the country. But we could fill pages about the food here in Argentina. So before we get carried away, we´ll take you back to the beginning.Our port of entry into Argentina was the bustling city of Buenos Aires. The first thing we noticed was how European everything (and everyone for that matter) looked. Buenos Aires could be any city in Europe. The exception is that one can travel in Argentina at a fraction of the cost. For many years, the value of the Argentine peso was pegged to the U.S. dollar. The artificial rate was sustained until the end of 2001 when a severe economic crisis caused the peso to plunge. Argentina had been off-limits to budget travelers before this, but suddenly everything including food, transportation and accommodation became quite affordable -- and even downright cheap. Of course, Argentinians are the ones bearing the heavy burden from the economic collapse, but one positive side effect has been the country has opened to tourism like never before.We only spent three days in Buenos Aires, but it was enough to get a sample of the rich culture of this vibrant South American city. On our first day, we explored the Recoleta Cemetery where many of the country´s elite lie in ornate tombs. Perhaps the most visited tomb by foreigners and Argentines alike is that of Evita Peron, a president´s wife and champion of the country´s poor working class. Andrew Lloyd Weber told her story on Broadway. Madonna crooned her story in the film. Thanks to both of them, Jill hummed ¨Don´t Cry for Me, Argentina¨ repeatedly in her head. Later that day, we toured the ornate Colon Theatre, which hosts concerts, ballets and operas. We were so taken by the beautiful theater that we went straight from the tour to the box office and bought tickets to that evening´s performance of the city´s symphony orchestra (for less than $20 total). We felt a bit self-conscious with only tired-looking travel gear to wear, but we didn´t stand out too much sitting way up in the rafters.The next day, we walked around the colorful neighborhood of Boca. Once home to Buenos Aires´ European immigrant population that had come to work in the ports, it´s now home to mostly tourist-oriented restaurants and shops. We browsed through tacky Tango T-shirts and magnets but walked away empty-handed. That night, we went out to see Tango dancing for ourselves at a club close to our hostel in San Telmo. The first few acts were Tango singers with no dancers, and we couldn´t stay up late enough to see if dancing would come later. In Argentina, dinnertime doesn´t start until 9 p.m. or later, and going home before 3 a.m. on the weekends is considered early.The highlight of our last day in Buenos Aires was seeing the Argentina versus Uruguay futbol game in a World Cup 2006 qualifying match. Andy loves to see soccer games in foreign countries and soccer is like religion in South America. On this day, God was on Argentina´s side and the home team´s fans went home happy. The crowd was relatively sedate, but the police were there in riot gear just in case. We went straight from the stadium to the bus station for our 17-hour bus ride southwest to Bariloche.We traveled in comfort on a Via Bariloche coche cama. It was like riding first-class on an airplane -- the seats reclined almost all the way back and a steward came by every few hours with food and drinks. Except for showing a bad Ben Affleck movie (which one, might you ask), they had excellent service.Andy´s long-time friend Randy picked us up at the Bariloche bus station. Randy, a nice boy from Iowa, has been living in Bariloche for over 3 years. His self-employed slacker lifestyle (by his own definition, not ours) meant plenty of time for him to take us on drives through the surrounding mountains and on a tour of the city´s eateries and chocolate shops. Bariloche is surrounded by beautiful lakes and the beginnings of the Patagonia mountains. It´s a popular tourist destination with plenty of hiking, fishing, skiing, etc. It also has a curious reputation for being the place to go for young adolescent Argentines. For old farts like us, the town seemed like a good place to settle in for awhile, so we were glad that we had signed up for a couple weeks of Spanish classes. The school, La Montana, arranged a homestay for us, which is how we came to live for three weeks with Mara and her two teenagers, Martin and Paola.Each day, we´d wake up around 8 a.m. and eat breakfast with Mara. Mara was so much like a mother to us that she even woke us up on two occasions when we had overslept. Argentina´s answer to peanut butter is dulce de leche, a spreadable caramel concoction that is eaten on almost everything. Jill became addicted to her morning dose of dulce de leche on toast. We´d then attend class for three to four hours in the morning. School would be followed by lunch in a local eatery and a hike in the mountains or a walk around town weather permitting. Dinner at Mara´s would be around 9:30 p.m. At first, our stomachs weren´t used to waiting so late to eat dinner. Now we just use it as an excuse to eat a bigger lunch!We´d like to say ¨Muchas Gracias!¨ to the entire town of Bariloche for suffering through our horrendous (but progressively less horrendous) Spanish, especially our teachers Gloria, Nadina and Irupe; Mara; Randy; and all of Randy´s friends. Jill´s peak of Spanish-speaking ability was being able to explain to Irupe the rules of American football and the differences between Republicans and Democrats. Andy has had conversations with Mara about everything from political apathy in Argentina to Monday Night Football (we were very embarrassed that her first exposure to the Denver Broncos was a defeat to the lowly Cincinnati Bengals).Having Randy, our own local adviser, driver and tour guide, has been invaluable. Everyone should have a Randy when they travel. He introduced us to the Milanesa at La Fonda del Tio, the chocolate cake at Casa de Paola, and friends that have cooked us delicious meals of trout and pasta. Randy has also driven us to see cascades, a forest of sculptured trees, and beautiful National Geographic-worthy vistas. He´s generously shared his homemade beer and helped us find thermal underwear for our travels further south. The only downside to our three-week stay in Bariloche has been the many days of cold, rainy and windy weather. On Sunday, we fly to Calafate, which is near the Tierra del Fuego at the southernmost tip of South America. We´ll be there on election night where we might watch the end of the world from the end of the world. From there, we´ll have two more weeks of cold weather before we fly to Santiago and then Brazil, where we´ll struggle with a new language and struggle to fit into our swimsuits again. Doh!Ciao, chicos!!!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jill_and_andy/tga04/1097605260/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jill_and_andy/tga04/1097605260/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jill_and_andy/tga04/1097605260/tpod.html Fri, 29 Oct 2004 14:39:38 -0400 Jill and Andy's great adventure: Our year-long honeymoon traveling around the world

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Pretoria, South Africa

If we´d clicked our ruby slippers and wished to be somewhere ¨like home,¨ South Africa would be pretty close. After our overland expedition in East Africa, our two week stay in South Africa was just what we needed to unwind, recuperate and rejuvenate. One of the main reasons South Africa made it onto our itinerary was because we had some friends from DC who were living and working in the country. We were most fortunate that they happened to be in Pretoria, the capital city, so we decided to visit them before exploring other parts of South Africa. For the first few days, we led a decadent life staying at our friend John´s home in the posh Menlo Park neighborhood. By day, we did laundry, caught up on email and lounged outside by John´s pool. We also spent an afternoon in the second-largest shopping mall in the southern hemisphere. South Africans take particular pride in their shopping malls. At night, we ate out at nice restaurants enjoying a few South African specialities (kudu and kingklip) and some other food (sushi) we miss from back home. Jill even made a Mexican dinner one night despite having to stomach the $6 price tag for a small packet of tortillas. We also met up with our friends Terri and Ric, neighbors from DC who are serving as Peace Corps volunteers in the rural hinterland. They´re working as capacity builders in schools with very limited resources. While it was easy for us as tourists to enjoy the country´s modern comforts and conveniences, their stories illustrated for us how out of reach good food, shelter, education and jobs are for the many South Africans who still live in hardship. They shared some of their many experiences and we learned a great deal about the country´s recent history and the scars that still fester from the apartheid system.Our stay in Pretoria also coincided with Jill´s birthday. Jill probably never imagined spending her 30th birthday in South Africa but Andy did his best to make it a memorable one. Jill´s birthday started with a morning tour of the DeWildt Cheetah and Wildlife Reserve, about an hour´s drive from Pretoria. Other than the cheetahs, Jill thought it was a strange collection of ugly animals -- wild dogs, hyenas, vultures, ostriches and honey badgers. The tour was informative, and we got to see the cheetahs up close. In the afternoon we drove with John and some other friends into Johannesburg to see the Apartheid Museum, an excellent museum that deals with a difficult subject candidly, honestly and clearly. The museum begins with a film that traces the history of apartheid back to prehistory, so you can tell they went through great pains to tell the entire story. After cramming so much sightseeing into one day, Jill was wondering if she would get to overeat, a birthday tradition. We ended the day by gorging ourselves at a trendy pan-Asian restaurant in Johannesburg.With some reluctance, we left the comforts of John´s home and caught a bus south. South Africa doesn´t cater too much to the independent budget traveler but we eventually made it to the Sani Pass Lodge, which is nestled amongst the picturesque Drakensberg mountain range. We went for a magnficient day hike and also took a 4-wheel drive tour over a stunning pass into the mountain kingdom of Lesotho. Our guide pointed out that there were exactly 28 hairpin turns to the top of the pass, which is about 10,000 feet above sea level. Lesotho is completely surrounded by South Africa but retains an independent culture, language and government. We visited one of the small, round huts inhabited by the shepherds during the warmer months. Our guide, a Drakensberg enthusiast, told us the geohistory of the land and how volcanic activity created some of the jagged, rocky cliffs. We ate lunch with a view of a barren but beautiful landscape which still had some patches of snow from a storm three weeks prior.Our next stop was Durban, a large city on the eastern coast which is a melting pot of Indian and African culture. Durban is South Africa´s entertainment capital but we spent just one day shopping and watching some surfers from the beach. The staff at our hostel, Hippo Hide Lodge, helped us rent a car and reserve lodging in St. Lucia, almost 3 hours drive from Durban. Perhaps Andy´s greatest adventure of the trip was driving on the ¨other¨ side of the road.St. Lucia is a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its diverse ecosystem. The area contains coastal land as well as seawater and freshwater lakes. There are birds and animals that exist only in the St. Lucia sanctuary. Unfortunately, the weather decided we didn´t need to see much wildlife as it was windy most of our stay. We signed up for a snorkeling tour but were only able to snorkel in rock ponds because the waves were too high and rough in the ocean. In retrospect, we didn´t give ourselves nearly enough time to visit South Africa. However, seeing friends from home has revitalized us for the last stage of our journey. John was the most generous of hosts (Thanks, John!) and Terri and Ric were kind enough to share some hard-to-find American treats (Jelly Bellys, good coffee, handiwipes, magazines...). And we can say that we survived South Africa without ever being mugged, robbed or pickpocketed. (We certainly won´t miss all the barbed wire and security guards that blanket the cities.)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jill_and_andy/tga04/1095777900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jill_and_andy/tga04/1095777900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jill_and_andy/tga04/1095777900/tpod.html Thu, 23 Sep 2004 05:14:06 -0400 Jill and Andy's great adventure: Our year-long honeymoon traveling around the world

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Nairobi, Kenya

Whenever Jill loses track of Andy at any zoo, she can always find him hanging out with the gorillas. He can spend hours watching them. He's fascinated by them. Not sure why, something about their behaviors being so human-like. So, to see them in the wild was something not to be missed on our journey through Africa. We went to great lengths and considerable expense for this once-in-a-lifetime experience.We signed up for the 21-day "Gorillas and Gameparks" expedition offered by African Trails, one of a few overland tour companies operating in Africa. On day one, Milo (our driver/leader) told us, "It's not a holiday, it's an expedition." What this meant was instead of traveling in a posh safari Land Cruiser, we traveled with 27 other tourists in the back of a huge "truck" (if you called it a bus, you owed Milo a beer), we slept in tents at backpacker campgrounds, we ate off the truck instead of restaurants, and we had chores galore from cleaning the dishes in lake water to mopping down the truck everyday. But more about our traveling lifestyle later...The expedition began on August 30 and it took us four days to drive from Nairobi to the southwest corner of Uganda. Along the way, we were informed that instead of seeing the gorillas in Uganda, we'd be entering the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo. The borders that separate Uganda, Rwanda and Congo run through the three mountains where the gorillas live. The gorillas pay no heed to borders or political instability, but it did make the whole group a little edgy about going into the Congo. We only spent a day in the Congo, but what we saw was a bounty of friendly people, beautiful scenery and, of course, a few of the remaining 600 mountain gorillas. We tracked the gorillas in groups of six to eight, not including our guide, two armed guards and three expert trackers. In the morning we walked up and down green terraced hills. Local people were busy tending to their crops but would always smile and greet us with a resounding "Jambo!" (hello in Swahili) when we passed them. Before we knew it we had walked for over 4 hours and our legs were growing weary. We were beginning to lose hope of seeing the gorillas that day when our guide suddenly pointed out some broken branches where the gorillas had been just a few minutes prior. We took a few more steps through the dense jungle forest and the guide told us to get our cameras ready. We came into a small clearing and low and behold we were just a few feet from a gorilla family. The male silverback gorilla was looking at us with his head resting on his fist as though he had been waiting for us all day. He looked like the way a child would lie on the floor watching TV. A baby gorilla played on the silverback's backside while two females stood closeby watching vigilantly. At one moment the curious baby started to approach our group when suddenly the mother lept up and swiftly lifted the baby onto her back. For the rest of the hour we spent with the family, the females and baby stayed aloof in the dense foilage. However, the silverback tolerated our presence and we watched him forage and snack on bamboo shoots. We were amazed by how he could tear down branches with his powerful arms but also methodically strip the bark with his nimble fingers. Andy found this out the hard way when the silverback pulled on a vine that brought a huge branch down on his head. The adrenaline must have been flowing because Andy was fine after receiving the blow. It's a good thing because we couldn't imagine trying to make an insurance claim on being head-hammered by a 400-pound mountain gorilla in the Congo! While mountain gorillas can be extremely dangerous when threatened, we found them to be docile and almost oblivious to our presence (at one point, the silverback actually brushed by Andy as he walked past). The silverback snorted a few times at us when we first arrived in the clearing but our guide explained that the gorilla was merely inquiring if we were a "friend or foe". Our guide promptly snorted back "friend".Simply put, the experience was amazing-- almost magical. We were up close and personal with beautiful, highly intelligent animals in their natural setting. It will surely be on our list of favorite experiences from the year of travel. But that's not all! We also saw abundant wildlife in other parts of East Africa.Our first game drive was in Lake Nakuru National Park in Kenya. We saw thousands of pink flamingoes, the rare white rhinoceros, a hippo grazing out of the water, baboons, impala, monkeys, gazelles, waterbuck, buffalo, and our first sightings of zebras and giraffes. The only animal to elude us was the leopard.A few days later, we bicycled into Hell's Gate, the only gamepark where you don't need to be in an enclosed vehicle. The scenery at Hell's Gate reminded us of southern Colorado with its high reddish cliffs breaking up the plains. We hiked down a gorge where we could wash our hands in a natural hot springs. On bicycle, we could get closer to the camera-shy zebras and giraffes than in a truck, but they still remained more than arm's length away. However, a week later we were able to actually feed a hungry giraffe named Daisy at the Langata Giraffe Center outside Nairobi.These were only teasers to our best wildlife viewing day in the Masai Mara, a 15,000-square-kilometer nature reserve that blends into the Serengeti in neighboring Tanzania. Milo hired a Masai tribesman as a spotter. He could not only spot a lion a mile away, he could tell it was a pregnant female and its age. We had to wake up at 4:45 a.m. to be at the park gate when it opened at 6 a.m. The best game viewing is at sunrise and sunset. Within an hour, we saw two female lions climbing a hill as a herd of white safari vans surrounded it from below. By the end of the day, we saw more than 15 lions. We didn't have a high-powered camera lens, but none was needed most of the time since we got so close to the animals. We saw two lions with bloated stomachs napping after feeding on a wildebeest. We watched another lion snack on a zebra as we snapped pictures. We were able to see so many feeds in part because we were there for the tail-end of the wildebeest migration (an all-you-can-eat buffet for the predators). At high noon, we spotted two cheetahs lying in the shade of a bush. They, like most of the animals, were lethargic and inactive during the hot afternoon. We saw wild elephants from a distance, a hyena who seemed lost and looking for his pack, and more hippos, zebras, giraffes, gazelles, and buffaloes than we did in previous gameparks. We also learned a little about African life in the various villages we passed through. We stopped at a Masai village, where they still live as their ancestors did hundreds of years ago. The image of a Masai warrior draped in red cloth and beaded jewelry is a popular Kenyan image. The men and women performed separate welcome dances for our group and then let us enter their circle of cow-dung homes. Inside, a group of young men performed a jumping dance. They could jump two feet in the air from a standing position. This helps them scare off lions and other predators when they live alone in the bush, as every male does for two years between adolescence and manhood. And what do women have to look forward to? Female circumcision, building cow-dung huts and sharing her husband with many wives. (Given a choice, Jill would rather live alone in the bush.) The entire village moves every 15 years, apparently because that's about when the cow dung starts to fall apart.In Jinja, near the source of the Nile at Lake Victoria, we did a village walk. We stopped at the primary school, where 800 students were being taught by 14 teachers. The Ugandan government provides free primary education, but it doesn't have the resources to support its policy. In one classroom, more than 60 children were crammed into a small schoolroom. According to our guide, each family has on average eight children. She knows there are 4,000 adults in her village, but the children are too numerous to count. (She was dumbfounded that Andy was an only child.) The next day, we volunteered with an organization called SoftPower, which recruits tourists on overland trips like ours to help out for a day and donate to their efforts at renovating local schools. We painted a classroom, which we hope helps to make the school day more enjoyable. But we know that our financial donation will probably do the most good. Through all this, we were with our group of 27 mostly Aussies, Kiwis and Brits. There were also four Irish medical students, a Mexican, a Scot, and us. Everyone spoke English, but we weren't accustomed to so many different accents and idioms.An overheard conversation might go something like this:"G'Day, Mate. You reckon it's going to piss down?""Looks like it. Hope it doesn't piss down like last night. I'm knackered.""You're knackered because you were pissed last night, not because of the rain.""Ah, piss off. Stop taking the piss out of me.""Bloody hell! Someone nicked my knapsack by the rubbish can while I went to the loo. I had my jumper and torch in it.""Ah, no one nicked it. You left it by the barbee.""Well, bugger all. Cheers, mate!""No worries, mate.""Are you keen on getting pissed again tonight? It'll be grand.""All right. I'll bring the crisps and fags.""Cheers, mate.""Cheers."Drinking was a favored pasttime among our fellow travelers. We tended to turn in early and preserve our livers. But they were a fun group to get to know for three weeks. We certainly won't miss living off a truck with 25 other people though. Many of them are continuing on the expedition all the way to South Africa. The idea of spending another seven weeks on the road makes us glad we decided to catch a flight from Nairobi to Johannesburg. Andy likes to think that he will return to East Africa to see the gorillas in Rwanda. Jill reminds him that it was supposed to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jill_and_andy/tga04/1093684680/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jill_and_andy/tga04/1093684680/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jill_and_andy/tga04/1093684680/tpod.html Tue, 21 Sep 2004 10:43:47 -0400 Jill and Andy's great adventure: Our year-long honeymoon traveling around the world

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Paris, France

One of the golden rules of traveling is to never pass up an opportunity to let a local show you around. We were fortunate to have two such experiences in France and discovered that the country has much more to offer than the Eiffel Tower and overpriced crepes in Paris.As you may remember from our last entry, we had befriended a number of French people during our volunteer experience at La Sabranenque and had planned a reunion in Paris the following week. Remarkably, six people's schedules coincided and we all met for dinner and drinks in the chic Latin Quarter. We reminisced about our days hauling stones at La Sabranenque and shared stories from the past week.One of our friends, Babeth (pronounced like Babette), had also graciously invited us to spend a few days with her at her parents' home on Carnac Beach. Carnac is located in Brittany along the Atlantic Coast and is three hours from Paris by high-speed train. The train was packed with Parisians also heading to the beach for holiday.We were greeted at the train station by her father, a high-spirited man who was 8 years old living in Normandy during the D-Day invasion. He remembers seeing paratroopers in the sky on that day. At the house, Babeth's mother greeted us with a homemade chocolate cake specially made for our arrival. The house, Le Escale, was the traditional white with black roof and blue shutters seen throughout the region. The patio looked out onto the sea, which we could see, hear and smell as we sipped apertifs before dinner. Although the family lived in Africa during Babeth's childhood, they spent their summers in Carnac. She and her sister, Florence, showed us their favorite spots as we toured first on bicycles and then in the car. We drove up and down and the coast and stopped in small villages to step into stone churches. One of our all-time favorite memories will be eating fresh raw oysters and steamed mussels on a restaurant patio on the Cote Sauvage (Wild Coast). As we slurped down oysters and white wine, we could hear the waves crashing against the rocks about 100 yards away. The seagulls circled above, perhaps hoping for some leftovers. We left none. Although you'd think we were living the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, the bill was actually quite reasonable.Babeth loves good food as much as we do, so she was happy to introduce us to the region's best. Her mother and sister cooked us two incredible three-course meals where we got to sample more French cheeses, wine, salads, quiche, cakes, and even an African dish from Reunion. We ate dinner at a creperie, a speciality of this region. They use a brown flour instead of white and fill the crepes with everything imaginable. Jill's crepe had smoked salmon and a bechamel sauce. Andy's had gruyere cheese, ham and mushrooms. We could go on and on about the food, but it's making us hungry.Earlier in our Tour de France, we were also spoiled by warm hospitality, but this time further south in the Perigord Region to the east of Bordeaux. We rented a car in Bordeaux and drove 2.5 hours to Beynac where Christy and Blaine, Jill's friends from California, were staying with Blaine's parents, who live half the year in France. Having a car gave us a freedom unknown to us thus far in our journey. On our first day, we followed the family on a road trip through the hills near the Dordogne River. We could see castles perched on hilltops, walled-in medieval towns, and beautiful views of the valley. We attended two fetes, parties thrown by French towns during the summer. The evening fete had a Spanish theme, and we enjoyed paella that tasted just as good (Jill thinks better) than the paella we ate in Barcelona. The next day, we explored the area on our own. We went to Lascaux II, an exact reproduction of a nearby cave found in 1940 with 17,000-year-old prehistoric cave paintings. We toured Chateaux Milandes where the entertainer Josephine Baker lived in the '40s to '60s. A tour through the house also gave you a tour of her amazing life. Born poor in St. Louis, she rose to fame in France as a dancer and singer. She was involved in the French Resistance movement during World War II and adopted 12 children from around the world. We ate lunch in Sarlat and tried a regional specialty, foie gras (fattened duck liver.) We returned to the house for dinner, which started with a champagne toast. They served another regional specialty, breast of duck. Unfortunately, we knew not a soul when we arrived in Barcelona for three days. We stayed near Las Ramblas, a bustling street through town known for its street performers and nightlife. Most of the other tourists seemed to be young European 20-somethings there to party and sit on the beach. We felt old retiring at midnight when everyone else was just getting their night started.Barcelona was home to many modern artists including Picasso, Dali, and Gaudi. This love of modern and abstract art can be seen throughout the city in its architecture, museums and even churches. Gaudi's unfinished cathedral, La Sagrada Familia, was unlike any we'd seen thus far (and believe us, we've seen many, many, many churches and cathedrals this summer). We want to return in 20 years to see the final product. We saw Picasso's progression as an artist from childhood to his final years in the Picasso Museum. Jill rather preferred his early stuff and still can't understand why his pottery is "brimming over with brilliance" as the museum placard stated most matter-of-factly. We did take one afternoon to relax on the beach. We felt overdressed in our one-piece swimsuit and baggy bermuda shorts next to the bare-breasts, speedos and even one man in a gold G-string. (Andy was OK with this given his traumatic experience in a French public swimming pool near St. Victor la Coste where tight speedos on men were mandatory and he had to go in the tightest underwear he could find.) We spent one full day in Paris. Babeth had given us a one-day whirlwind itinerary to see all the highlights down to her favorite chocolate shop. We took a short cat nap in the park at the foot of the Eiffel Tower and walked the span of the Champs Elysees from the Louvre to the Arc de Triomphe. We both thought the Sacre Coeur Basilica was more stunning than the Notre Dame, especially at night with a view of the Paris lights. We spent even less time in London where we decided to see what we could on a two-hour double-decker bus tour. The tour guide was a little baffled as to why we weren't taking advantage of their hop-on hop-off policy. He was really hoping we'd hop off when we were the only two left on the bus and he had to give his tongue-in-cheek narrative anyway. The very best part of London was the birthday present Andy's parents had given us -- a night in the tres chic Le Meridien Hotel in Piccadilly. Ooh la la! In the past, Jill would be jittery about walking into such a nice place just to ask directions. We were deliriously happy to have nice sheets, a smell-free room, an endless supply of hot water, real towels, and even Q-tips to clean our ears. All of this in the heart of the city! This indulgence was well-timed as it was our last night in Europe before leaving for Africa. We're now in Nairobi and will begin our 21-day safari tomorrow. No nice sheets, just a sleeping bag and tent. But we're sure to see some amazing wildlife and scenery. Andy has been giddy ever since getting on the plane yesterday. Jill's still worrying whether we got the right visa at the airport. If you'd like to see our safari itinerary, go to http://www.africantrails.co.uk/trip_pages/G&G%20Dossier.htm
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jill_and_andy/tga04/1092496980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jill_and_andy/tga04/1092496980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jill_and_andy/tga04/1092496980/tpod.html Sat, 14 Aug 2004 12:59:30 -0400 Jill and Andy's great adventure: Our year-long honeymoon traveling around the world

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Avignon, France

Sometime in the 13th century, the powerful Count of Sabran sought to strengthen control over his territory in southern France by fortifying the castle atop the hill overlooking the village of Saint Victor la Coste. For example, stone walls were built along the path that zigzagged up the hill to the castle complex. While the improved defenses deterred crusader armies from invading the surrounding area, the passing of almost 800 years was not so kind to the castle walls of Saint Victor la Coste. Our job for the past two weeks was to restore these walls, stone by stone, using indigenous materials and methods of construction.Of course, it wasn't just us who were responsible for restoring this historic French castle. Since 1969 a French organization called La Sabranenque has been working to preserve traditional architecture in the village and actual castle of Saint Victor la Coste. La Sabranenque, which is named after the Count of Sabran, coordinates restoration projects with a group of local experts and volunteers from all over the world in a region of France rich in history and culture.Incidentally, we first heard about La Sabranenque during our volunteer stint in Thailand earlier this year. Based on one person's rave reviews of the experience (and food), we decided we would sign up and include La Sabranenque in our round-the-world itinerary. We were not disappointed!Saint Victor la Coste is located approximately 15 miles north of Avignon in the Rhone valley. We slept in a room of a three-story stone house constructed by volunteers in years past, worked up a good sweat each morning hauling large rocks (hence the title of this entry), feasted on delicious French country cuisine, had afternoons free to read, rest or stroll about town and spent the nights talking and playing games with other volunteers. After two weeks of intensive sightseeing and long train rides in Eastern Europe, we were most relieved to unpack our backpacks and have a place to call home. St. Victor La Coste is a tiny town surrounded by vineyards. The area is known for its Cote de Rhone wine. The town had one small grocery store, one payphone, a tabac shop, a post office, and two bars known to us as the one on the right and the one on the left. We rarely had the need to go into town as all of our needs were provided by the kind Sabraneque staff, including the most delicious chocolate cake Jill has ever tasted and a plate of French cheeses after each meal and a carafe of wine at dinner.The work was hard but gave us a better appreciation for medieval architecture and the painstaking process of constructing a stone wall. We can't say that we graduated or even received a passing grade in the art of stonemasonry, but it was an interesting experience nonetheless. For all those people who complain about sitting in front of a computer all day and want a workout outside their local health club, La Sabranenque may be the ticket for you. Other volunteers from Europe and the States came to La Sabranenque for such reasons and left feeling more refreshed and muscular.Some of the highlights from our experience included a day trip one Saturday to the town of Arles. Arles is best known as the old stomping grounds of Vincent Van Gogh. The idyllic city and surrounding countryside served as inspiration for many of his works of art and the city boasts a walking tour of the "Van Gogh trail." We were also lucky to be in rural France during a midsummer meteor shower. We spent several nights lying on top of a stone rampart watching the falling stars. What probably made the experience, however, were the other volunteers. We met all kinds of interesting people and plans are already in the works for a La Sabranque class of August '04 reunion next weekend in Paris. We can't wait to see everyone again. We will undoubtedly have plenty of stories for our next travelogue!
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