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Travel
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Spain
(Spring '09) |
New
Zealand (Spring '02) |
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This
was a very quick trip for us to remember what it was like before
responsibilities (Thanks to Ada's parents who took care of Anika
and Stefan's parents who took care of Fritz!). We had a wonderful time and had the whole beach to ourselves-- unfortunately it was quite the effort to find food! Ah, the small troubles of solitude. We slowly made our way back to San Juan and stayed overnight in Fajardo to complete a night paddle in las croabas, a bioluminescent bay close by. Highly recommended!
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Andreas and Shadi are hitched! They couldn't have picked a better spot to get married. Anika was also very pleased that she got to go out of country at 8 months old. Congrats again Andreas and Shadi!
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| We started our trip in Melbourne and drove up the great ocean road to the 12 apostles, er, maybe 10 apostles as a few have toppled over. The views were quite stunning. | |
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| Thanks to good old uncle Jeff (right), we had good room and board at his place in Melbourne. He also provided us with his car. Quite generous, given our lack of experience driving in Australia! Other folks in our impromptu travel group included Zain (Left) and Teri (next to Zain). | |
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| We left Melbourne for Tasmania by ferry and ended up on the Northwest coast at Stanley (shown above). Given that we are pretty far south, it was windy and cold, but we couldn't pass up the the opportunity to climb the Nut (big round thing also shown above). | |
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After a short jaunt to the West Coast, we went to Cradle Mountain in the center of Tasmania. The scenery was excellent and included a lot of wildlife that jumped out of nowhere-- Wallabies, Wombats, etc. We climbed to the summit of Cradle mountain (shown on left) on a rare sunny day. |
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Here is a snapshot of our climb up. It was a 7 hour trek with some rock-hopping exercise! |
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Close to the top we took time out to go jump on a rock balanced on two outcroppings. Ada did more daredevil climbing up higher, but the pictures didn't do it justice. |
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Outside of Jeff's house and our final destination in Sydney, we pretty much roughed it staying at backpackers and in tents. |
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One thing about Australia is their liberal, if not comical use of roadsigns. |
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Since we were traveling in late spring, it seemed that every wallaby, koala bear, and fruit bat we saw had a baby in tow. |
| It was also very odd to see all the Christmas stuff while getting close to summer (In Sydney, it topped 100 degrees while the Christmas music was playing). Nothing like good old Santa on a Roo! |
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| At last, we spot Tasmanian Devils! Unfortunately, many are getting sick with some disease and are decreasing in numbers in the wild. We did see one in the wild. This photo was taken in one of the nature reserves that we visited. |
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| After heading to Hobart, back to Melbourne, then by train to Sydney, we decided to do the bridge climb in Sydney. It was a bit pricey, but when are you going to find yourself at the top of a bridge at such a fine location! Sydney turned out to be a wonderful place to visit. (Travis, thanks for setting us up with the mighty fine hotel!) | |
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Our final day was spent at Bondi beach. This was a great place to end the trip and catch some rays. Next time we'd love to spend a little more time here. There will definitely be a next time. |
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What a great trip to see relatives, to spend time in resort areas around Puerto Vallarta, and to check out small towns up and down the coast. Below are just a few picks of bronze statues in downtown Peurto Vallarta, sunset in Sayulita (a most excellent place), and Stefan with Ada's uncle Mauricio, aunt Esperanza, and cousin Adriana. Yes, Stefan and Ada do feel a bit fall in Mexico! |
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Monica-
Thank you so much for inviting us to your home and country. We had
a wonderful time!
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After getting
a few old and new friends together, we booked our tickets to Buenos Aires
and then on to Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego. From there we had no set plans.
We just spent our days hiking, camping, and soaking up the beauty at the
tip of South America.
Below are a few pictures. Imagine hearing the constant rush of water, wind, avalanches, and glacier calving. This is an amazing place.
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Here is a smattering of pictures from our trip. Enjoy!
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Upon
arrival to Antigua, our first stop after Guatemala City,
we noticed several things... |
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There
are volcanos out every window.
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Everyone
uses their head.
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Standard
gringo hangouts
have significant firepower. |
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Street
food was better, much cheaper,
and didn't cause us to lose weight |
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The
Guatemala bus system has style.
(Including a "spiderman" to throw your bags on top during their rolling stops) |
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Our
first day trip was to Panajachel and Lake Atitlan where we bargained
to get a boat ride to the cities of Santiago and San Pedro.
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Another
day trip from Antigua included a visit to Volcan Picaya, an active
volcano. Here was the last chance to run before we started seeing
crosses along the trail for several unlucky tourists.
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The
$5 day tour, which included guide/security person and transportation,
was a good workout..
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Here
we are at the top.
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After
the Antigua area, we headed over to the Peten region to see Tikal.
It turned out to be quite a mystical and amazing place.
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At
dusk they want you out of the park. Here we are heading out with
a security guard in tow.
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After
Tikal we headed over to the Belize border via public transport.
(17 people in a VW van). The trip had some moments, including racing
a horse at 45 MPH, passing through a Guatemalan Military area, and
coming across a freshly crashed/overturned dump truck. We (and our
bags on top of the van) made it OK.
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After
crossing the border, we traded our Spanish for a different kind
of language.
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In
Belize we tented at a former archeologist camp sight near Actun
Tunichil Muknal, a cave that was discovered in 1989.
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We
were living quite large and even had open air toilets (although
you had to watch out for the scorpions in the roof)
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On our first day of caving, we went to several dry caves. Dry sounds nice, except that there are more bats and bugs including the assassin beetle (or kissing beetle) that spreads Chagas' disease. Note: in this tunnel there was a spider 8 inches from leg to leg waiting on the wall for Ada. :o) |
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Inside
Uayazba Kab--Handprint Cave, you guessed it, there were handprints
of Maya. Quite amazing to think that these prints lasted for so
long.
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The
first day of hiking and caving included a visit from 15 of our tick
friends. These babies were so small we didn't see them until we
got back to our camp and looked closely. By just glancing, they
looked like freckles.
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Our
night of camping included a lunar eclipse, which luckily could been
seen through a break in the forest canopy.
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The
next day we repelled into Actun Tunichil Muknal. You can swim in
and out of the cave, but this was more fun.
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In
the cave, most artifacts were left untouched by archaeologist (roughly
1400 of them). The Pottery was damaged intentionally by the Maya
to "kill" it for sacrifice. There were so many artifacts,
it was hard not to step on something-- a big concern of ours since
the cave will be opened up to more (and likely larger) tour outfits
in June. Our tour included just ourselves and our ex-British military
guide who worked with the archaeologist.
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It
was amazing to see the baby and adult skeletons left untouched in
the caves for thousands of years.
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OK, out of the caves near San Ignacio Belize and into heaven (Caye
Caulker). Heaven = blue sky + blue water + ocean view + hammock
+ cheap hotel rate ($25 a night). Life is good.
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Here
we are sitting, eating, and drinking and not doing too much else.
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We
took a snorkeling trip to Hol Chan Park and Shark Ray Alley. Pretty
standard stuff, but standard is pretty nice.
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Here
is a little shark that swam by. When we jumped off the boat there
were several large ones circling, but evidently we scared them more
than they scared us.
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Here
is Wish Willey's restaurant on Caye Caulker. He'll cook you up about
anything for $5 or less. There was no menu.
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Our
last full day around Caye Caulker we putzed around and sailed a
small dinghy. This day we both forgot about our normal lives and
then came to the rude awaking that vacation was coming to an end.
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After
returning to Antigua prior to our flight home, Stefan underwent
serious negotiations with a vendor at Chichicastenango for souvenirs.
It was a tough match, but we included the photo op in the final
price.
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Our last picture here just reminds us: as far away as you can get, you are still way too close to home. We hope to never take a McTour. That's All! Cheers, |
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Good old Uncle Jeff from Melbourne tramps in the Kaimanawas once a year, so we decided to join him this time to see what it is like. Needless to say, he is in better tramping shape than we thought-- he kept us on our toes for 6 to 10 hours a day! |
| The first thing you notice here is that everything is green! The Kaimanawas are not touristy, so it is rather peaceful. We did run across a few fisherman and hunters on our trip that were helicoptered in, but that was about it. |  |
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Evidently a few of the trails were downgraded from "trail" status to "route" status due to their difficulty and lack of maintenance. They were a lot of fun, but it took quite a bit of energy to get over trees, water, and muck. |
| Here is Ada stopping for a break. Notice Ada's happy feet. For a few days of our trip we used Tevas instead of hiking boots since we were in water most of the day. Jeff thought we were nuts and just tramped on through. |  |
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We camped out some nights while others we stayed in huts with coal burning stoves. Here is a sample of one of the huts. |
| At the Oamaru hut, the view was excellent, although the bugs liked the spot as well. Be sure and ask Ada about her bug story. |  |
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In a few places along the trip, Jeff stepped first and looked second. Here is Jeff stuck up to his knees in muck. |
| On our 6th day, when leaving Boyd hut on our return, the fog was hanging pretty low. |  |
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We planned our drop off to get into the Kaimanawas, but unfortunately we didn't plan exactly how to get out. On our 7th and final tramping day, here is Jeff in the cold rain, with pipe and raincoat, waiting for our ride out . |
| After booking a hotel and getting back into Taupo, we decided on a jet boat ride the next day. A bit touristy, but mighty fun. Notice the stoic "excitement" on Jeff's face. |  |
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We then had a very relaxing afternoon sail on Lake Taupo. |
| After saying goodbye to Jeff and renting a car, we headed off to Tongariro Crossing for some more tramping (like we needed more punishment!). It is quite amazing how the landscape changes suddenly in New Zealand. |  |
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Here is Stefan climbing with more of the lunar landscape... |
| We then headed to Wellington, which is a bit reminiscent of San Francisco. |  |
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After taking a ferry to Picton, we drove down and caught the Marlborough Wine Festival. The wine was not too bad. Ada really enjoyed the Ostrich. |
| Before our Kayaking trip we settled in at a Backpacker called "Annies". This place was inexpensive, comfortable, and a great place to meet other tourists. |  |
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We then went to Kayak Abel Tasman with Ocean River Kayaks. Although our trip was cut a day short due to the weather, our guide, Mark Walters, was great... We did a lot of kayaking in one day. |
| We then flew down to Queenstown and headed for Milford Sound (which is actually a fjord). |  |
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Here is one of many sites... |
| ... And here is one of those "postcard" shots. |  |
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Back in Queenstown, Ada wanted to do something more adventurous, so we went paragliding. |
| So if Ada did it, Stefan had to do it. This was all tandem, so we just had to sit back and relax! |  |
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Prior to heading off to Gustavus and Glacier Bay, we wanted to give our kayaks a test at Mendenhall Glacier. Thanks to Alaska Airlines, our kayaks made it from San Francisco without a hitch. |
| Here is our first iceberg encounter. If you look on top of the berg, there is a little white dot of a bald eagle. |  |
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Nothing like 35 degree water rushing towards the earth. |
| Ada
and I outside of our kayaks by a glacier where it was relatively
safe. |
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We
took a ferry to Gustavus and put together our kayaks to head into
glacier bay. We had to work pretty quickly to beat the tides and
shallow water to get to our first night's campsite. Our feathercrafts
were great, and they saved us a lot of money on rental, taxi,
and ferry fees. We purchased our kayaks from Peter at Western
Folding Kayak Center in 1999. If you are folding kayak fanatic,
Peter's center is a Mecca.
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All
Ready to go!
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Luckily on our second day out the wind was coming from the South. We put our kayaks together like a trimaran and sailed North through the Beardslee islands. |
| For our second and third nights out, we set up base camp on the North side of the Beardslees and took day trips. We were visited by a moose, a black bear, and a coyote. They all seemed pretty friendly. |  |
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We paddled from the Beardslees to around South Marble Island. It was quite a paddle. The water was like glass and you could hear wildlife from miles away. We were in luck again as a North wind kicked up in the late afternoon, which sailed us back home. |
| Here are the three of us on our third night in Glacier Bay (Teri, Ada, and Stefan). Thanks, Teri, for letting us use your apartment and all of your local discounts, we must repay you some day! |  |
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Back
into "civilization" near Juneau we went to see some whales
that we missed on our Glacier Bay trip-- too bad that they were
too far North in the bay. |
| On our trip to the Tracy Arm South of Juneau, we saw one heck of a calving glacier |  |
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This house-sized chunk of ice popped up unexpectantly to a height of about 35 feet and caused a 4 foot wave. Pretty impressive. |
| A lot of seals hang by the glaciers because they think killer whales are driven off by all of the noise. Nothing like a savory water sausage for the free Willy. |  |
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Well, that is all for now! Cheers, Stefan
and Ada
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This most excellent trip included paddling and camping around the US and British Virgin Islands. The kayak camping tour was provided by Arawak Expeditions. Highly Recommended! Ask us about those crazy hermit crabs! |
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Stefan had been to the "resort" Mexico, but not to the real Mexico. Going to Guadalajara and meeting Ada's relatives was a great experience. |
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Excellent trip! We camped in Amazon Jungle, Trekked on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, and completed the trip with the best of company: Zain, Nicole, and Andreas. |
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Great to see Macau before it was turned over to china. Portuguese and Chinese is a strange combo. This was a trip to soak up the culture and attractions, although I think most kids at the Guangzhou Zoo thought we were the attraction. |
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This was Ada and Stefan's first trip to Europe and first trip together. (We'll get back there again soon!). We bought a Eurail pass that took us through Germany to Switzerland, Italy, and France. This trip was especially great as Stefan got to meet family around Munich and got to lose decidedly in drinking and eating contests. Thanks to all who gave us room, board, and great hospitality. |
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This trip was Stefan's second Solo trip that included both Singapore and the West Coast of Malaysia past Kuala Lumpur. This included caving and visiting temples and mosques among just soaking up the local culture. This would not have been as excellent if it wasn't for Calvin Chan being a great tour guide by getting me off the tourist trail. Calvin, if you read this, send me an email! |
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Finally, a big trip! Unfortunately not a whole lot of pictures, but a great time that included wine tasting and hanging around southern Aussie and diving and spending time around the barrier reef. Thanks Melbourne-based uncle Jeff! This was the first big trip that got the travel bug flowing! |