The Honeymooners

After 1 day and night in Pariacoto we continued north in Peru, stopped a few days at the surf beach town of Mancora, and then took a bus to Guayaquil to spend the last few weeks of our trip in Ecuador the 29^th country of our trip.

Our main reason for going to Ecuador was to visit the Galapagos Islands and two weeks there more than lived up to the expectations. There really isn’t anything like it we’ve experienced anything in the world. There are so many fascinating and colorful birds and animals on land, in the air, and in the water. The sea lions, especially the young ones, are incredibly playful and love having people in the ocean with them. We snorkeled through schools of reef sharks and even got within a few feet of a large hammerhead sharks on a mind-blowing scuba dive. And we were really fortunate to get booked on two great tour boats with other neat tourists. If you ever get the chance to visit the Galapagos Islands we highly recommend you do so, and do it soon in case it loses any of its uniqueness.

For our final stop, we spent a week in Quito and though we took half a day to see the colonial old town and another half day to visit the official “middle of the world” (with all sorts of fun science experiments you can do to prove it), for the most part we just spent our final days hanging out and reliving all the memorable experiences we were so fortunate to have had in the past year.

– Anthony

Our next stop was Pariacoto, a very small town in the middle of nowhere Peru that none of my Peruvian cousins have ever even heard of and that no one would have any reason to go to but was very moving for me. This is where my dad was stationed with the Peace Corps in early 70’s and that is where he met my mom. If there was no Pariacoto it is likely there would be no Anthony so to me it’s quite a special place.

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10 of our friends from the USA and our German friend from Munich whom we first met in Vietnam flew in to go with us on the 4 day 3 night Inca Trail trek. It was spectacular. The scenary was amazing as we changed elevations often and experienced or at least saw several different sides of both the Andes and the Amazon. And we had a great trek company and fun group so everyone had a good time together. We highly recommend the trek company Peru Treks, www.perutreks.com, as they provided excellent service at a great price and seemed to do a very good job of looking out for the welfare of their porters, guides, and other staff

We all came back to Lima exhausted, and some a bit sick suffering from Inca’s Revenge (Peruvian version of Montazuma’s Revenge), but still managed to eat lots of great traditional food at my aunt’s house for my birthday party. Our German friend stayed an extra week which gave us a great excuse to go out and enjoy some of Lima’s best nightlife and restaurants and just as he left 2 other good friends from the USA came to celebrate my aunt’s 80^th birthday with many family and friends at a resort in the large sand dunes in the middle of Peru. Back in Lima again, Shan decided to work on improving her Spanish so she hired a tutor to help her for a couple weeks and my mother was around so we got to spend some good family time with her and my relatives.

-Anthony

We arrived at my cousin’s apartment in Lima, Peru more traveled out than any previous point in our trip and probably more than any point in my life. If he didn’t have such a comfortable guest bedroom with cable TV where we were able to lock ourselves up and completely vegetate for a few days we’re not sure if we would have been able to continue our trip. But it was the perfect remedy for our traveled out bodies and minds, and after a few great meals with my relatives in Lima we were back on a bus again for Arequipa, the “White City” high up in the mountains in the south of Peru. We were very well taken care of by the mother of a Peruvian friend from Iowa and enjoyed this picturesque and historically fascinating town with a distinct cuisine from anywhere else in Peru we had been before.

Next we took an overnight bus across the border to the Bolivian capital of La Paz and got wacked by altitude sickness due to being in the highest capital city in the world around 12,000 feet. After a couple easy days and some of the cheapest food we’ve had anywhere in the world (half a fried chicken with fries cost about a dollar), it was back on a bus and then a train to get to the stunning enormous salares (salt flats) of Bolivia were we did a 3 day 2 night tour in a 4 by 4 with other backpackers. We literally drove miles and miles on sheets of salt several feet thick, one of the most mind-boggling and visually unique experiences we had all trip.

Our next stop was Potosi, said to be the highest city in the world at over 13,500 feet and to have been one of the wealthiest cities in the world in the late 1600’s because of the abundant silver and other mines. We took a walking (and crawling) tour deep into one of the mines and got a chance to see some miners hard at work after offering them some coca cola and coca leaves. We politely declined when they asked if we wanted to take a turn at drilling into the rock and then placing live dynamite inside.

Our overnight bus trip back to La Paz was delayed a day because of roadblocks set up by striking laborers and when we left the next night there still were a few roadblocks where a striker would come on to the bus, ask everyone for money to get around the roadblock, and then instruct the driver how to navigate around the other demonstrators. Very interesting (and lucrative) form of political action.

From La Paz we caught a quick flight to Rurrenabaque, a steamy hot village deep in the Amazon with a grass field for a runway and a hut for an airport, to take a 3 day motorized canoe trip up the Beni River to see crocodiles, anacondas, monkeys, various birds, and fish for piranhas – Shan caught several and they were pretty tasty deep fried.

We flew back to La Paz, caught a bus back across the border and to the Peruvian town of Puno on Lake Titicaca, and then did a 2 day 1 night trip to visit some of the indigenous groups that still live in mostly traditional ways on the islands of Lake Titicaca including the Uros (also called “reed people”) as they live on small islands made of reeds, make their huts from reeds, and move around in canoes that they make from…… you guessed it. We stayed overnight on a large (non-reed) island with a local family who dressed us in traditional clothes for the traditional dance they took us to with other locals and their tourist guests and fed us some enjoyable really hearty foods. We made our way back to Lima and finalized preparations for the penultimate last big bang of our trip – hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.

– Anthony

From Porto we hopped on an overnight train across the Iberian penninsula to the Catalan city of Reus to visit a neat young couple we became friends with while spending a few days together in Wadi Rum desert in Jordan. Reus is famous for being the birthplace of the architect Gaudi, though the nearby small village of Riudoms also claims Guadi. Fortunately for us our female friend is from Reus and her boyfriend is from Riudoms so we got to hear both sides of the story told in a lively competitive manner. Again we were overwhelmed with Spanish hospitality as we ate fantastic rabbit paella, tomato rubbed breads, and lots of fresh seafood and roasted vegetables. They took us to some neat hiking spots, swimming streams, beaches, and even a day at a nearby amusement park.

Next we made a quick 1 night trip to Figueres to take in a special evening tour of the Dali Theatre-Museum complete with a Cava tasting under the stars in the courtyard. Then it was on to Barcelona to pick up the keys for an apartment that an MIT friend and her husband would be renting for the next 3 months. They needed someone to get the keys for them since their flight was arriving after the rental office closed; we needed a place to sleep and relax for a couple days; everyone was a winner. Other than taking an updated look at Segrada Familia we didn’t venture out to see many tourist sights but instead just enjoyed relaxing at outdoor cafes and catching up on much needed vegging out in front of a TV.

Our friends arrived just in time to enjoy some tapas near Las Ramblas and the next day we left in our rental car to pick up Shan’s friend from NYC who came to travel with us for a week. We made a quick stop near Sitges to visit friends we had made at a wedding in Colombia a couple years back and then drove to Valencia where we stayed a few nights. Valencia gave us a great chance to relax on the beach, eat lots of its famous paella and prepare ourselves for our next big adventure – tomatina!

We had to get up early (by Spanish standards) at 7am to make the drive to the small nearby town of Bunol to get a good spot for the annual tomato throwing bacchanal. It was absolutely wild as for 1 hour a few thousand people packed the tiny main street of this little town and dumped, threw, kicked, and literally swam in countless bushels of tomatoes. We rarely laughed so hard our entire trip and couldn’t believe the places in our clothes (and our bodies) from where we were still picking out tomato bits the next day.

After a relaxing time in Valencia we drove to Madrid, picked up Shan’s parents who decided to chaperone another 2 weeks of our honeymoon, and then headed straight for Sevilla to enjoy some time in Andalucia. We toured the sights, took in the architecture, and most of all gorged ourselves on the incredible Andalucian cuisine. We said goodbye to Shan’s friend and then continued on to Granada, Cordoba, Al Jerez, and then back to Madrid. Every day was pretty much the same: some sightseeing, lots of food, some more sightseeing, even more food, catch a flamengo performance or some other entertainment; then repeat. It was great.

Shan’s parents left to head back home and then it was time for us to fly to Peru for the last continent of our trip – South America.

– Anthony

It’s interesting to think that people have been walking the Appalachian Trail in the Eastern USA for ten’s of years; it’s mind-boggling to think that people have been walking the ‘Camino de Santiago Apostella’ (Walk of St. James) in Southwestern France and northern Spain for hundred’s of years. We too wanted to take part in this experience but because we were pressed for time we did it the modern wimpy way, by bus, as our next stop was the city of Santiago de Compostella in Spain’s northwestern Gallicia region.

Everything moves at a slower pace in Santiago than the rest of Spain including how people talk, walk, and eat, which made it another nice relaxing place to stay for a few days. It has a very strong spiritual vibe with gorgeous large churches towering over and around the main square and countless “pilgrims” wandering everywhere with their traditional walking stick and conch shell necklace proudly displaying that they’ve finished the Camino. A tour guide told us that it’s only a fairly recent phenomena that so many people do some or all of this ancient religious walk across Spain as a priest rekindled enthusiasm for it a few years back with more of a goal of stimulating economic development than spiritual development. It seems to have done both so I guess sometimes you can have your tapas and eat it too.

We wrapped up our time along the western coast of the Iberian peninsula with a 3 day stop in Porto, Portugal which made it on to our “definitely must visit again someday” list. We thoroughly enjoyed eating surprisingly tasty Portuguese cuisine, especially sardines cooked all sorts of ways, listening to Fado, and drinking ‘vino verde’ and of course lots of port.

We met two really fun Italian guys at dinner the first night and met up with them for port tasting the next day and had a blast wandering around the many port lodges close together just a short walk across the river from downtown Porto. I’ve been to Lisbon before and loved it but Porto is even more special, as there’s nothing quite like strolling through cobblestone streets with laundry hanging from the iron balconies of pastel colored well-aged houses to make you feel like you have really discovered Portugal.

-Anthony

While it was great fun to sleep in a rather small rental car off and on for 2 weeks while driving all around the West and Southwest of France and Andorra, in the end we were pretty exhausted and really looking forward to a few relaxing days of going to the beach and stuffing ourselves with seafood tapas in San Sebastian, Spain. It did not let us down. I was shocked at how much more expensive everything is compared to when I was there just 6 years ago – a massage at a spa on the beach now costs twice as much as before – but San Sebastian still retains the same relaxed charm and lively tapas-driven evening routine. Our favorite pastime was strolling from bar to bar and stuffing ourselves with squid and shrimp tapas and washing it down with young red wines served cold.

With our mojo back, we next decided to make an unscheduled detour for one of the least expected and most enjoyable surprises I’ve enjoyed in my entire life – the town of Lodosa. If you’ve never heard of Lodosa, Spain you’re not alone. Most Spaniards probably haven’t heard of it either. A small town in the middle of nowhere close to the border between Navarra and La Rioja, the main (and only) attraction for us was visiting a group of friends I made when I went to the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona in 2001.

I went to the Running by myself intending to meet some American friends who were there but we missed each other the first night. As I was wandering around by myself, a group of locals my age took me under their wing and showed me a wild and fun time including some incredible parties that only locals get to experience. We’ve kept in touch ever since and knowing that we were traveling in Spain they invited us to come see them for a night.

It was incredible, the kind of reunion you see in movies. After only having spent 1 day together 6 years ago and having never met Shan, they welcomed us with a feast that would have made the prodigal son envious. They grilled fresh lamb and locally made spicy sausages over wood branches from nearby vineyards and they served them with local enormous, sweet, and juicy red peppers. And given that one of our hosts works at a winery in La Rioja our cups overflowed with delicious wine. I’ve heard people say that the Spanish can sometimes be hard to get to know but that once you make a Spanish friend he will treat you like family the rest of your life. I’m not so sure I agree with the first part but I wholeheartedly agree with the second.

Fully stuffed and happy, we took a bus a few hours back up north to Bilbao to visit the famous Guggenheim Museum. It was as breathtaking for me to visit as it was when I went shortly after it opened in 1998 and a helpful audio guide we rented allowed me to learn even more about it and enjoy it even more. As a student of urban planning, I’m fascinated by how the museum has become quite famous not only for its innovative/futuristic architecture but for being a major catalyst in the economic and cultural redevelopment of Bilbao overall. Everywhere you go Bilbao looks cleaner and brighter exuding a confidence about itself it didn’t have 9 years ago. Unfortunately, it’s ‘casco viejo’ (old center) has lost a good bit of it’s traditional charm as many of the old-school rowdy bars that I once staggered in and out of have been replaced by hip New York style lounges where you go to look cool instead of looking for fun. But Bilbao looks like it’s in better shape and there are more job opportunities for people there now so I’d like to think the change has been for the better.

-Anthony

We made our way down the W. coast of France in our little hatchback rental car; our first time driving on this trip, making pit stops along the way. We visited our friend Roman, hiked the largest sand dune in Europe, drank Sauternes to our heart’s content, and partied it up in Basque country at Les Fetes de Bayonne. [read on]