April 7, 2003 - Brantford, Canada...basement of Ana's parent's house

It has been a week of rotten weather and I have discovered a few new types of snow here in Ontario.  In Saskatchewan we have only three kinds of precipitation; rain (which makes farmers happy), hail (which makes farmers cry), and snow (which makes farmers go to Florida).  In Ontario they are more advanced and have many more varieties.  Freezing rain is when it's quite cold outside but somehow raining.  When rain hits the ground or the surface of anything it instantly freezes which results in a icy covering.  When a car is covered in this you need a piece of something solid to chip the ice away, a regular plastic credit card just won't do as an ice scraper.  Another variety even more interesting is ice pellets.  This is when it is cold outside and raining high up in the atmosphere but instead of the raindrop turning into a lovely artistic little snowflake it instead freezes into an icy bullet.  And when you get hit in the face by these ice pellets it does indeed feel like you've been struck with a shotgun blast.  When these ice pellets start to pile up on the ground they don't turn into fluffy snow, instead you get piles of miniature ice cubes which are not easy to walk or drive on.  The end result of all this is absolute chaos.  I woke up the other morning and the radio stations were listing off all the places which had closed down due to weather and these included many schools, hospitals, government buildings, universities, public transport and highways.  Because of this we had to cancel the driving trip we had planned to take to Ottawa to see my brother and his fiancée.  So instead we rented a bunch of movies and hung around the house eating and drinking and laying on the couch watching the tube.  And we wonder why Canadians put on a little weight during the winter months!

Our job hunt is underway and we have been busy emailing people, making phone calls and surfing the internet.  Ana's mom even did her part and put together a little shrine in the kitchen with some icons of saints and burning candles which is meant to give us divine help.  It's similar to a shrine she had constructed to get us home safely during our big trip which obviously worked so what the hell, it's worth a try!

There hasn't been much else happening.  Oh yeah, Ana tried to kill her mom the other night. We took them out for dinner for John's birthday and went to a local country restaurant.  Ana's mom ordered the prime rib which came with a side bowl of horseradish.  I put a bit on my steak and Ana's mom asked what it was as she had never seen it before.  Ana said it was a Canadian steak sauce and offered her the bowl to try it.  Before Ana could do anything, her mom scooped up a big pile on her fork and dropped it in her mouth and started munching.  For those of you who have experienced a high power horseradish blast you can imagine her reaction.  She blurted, "yahhh!" and the tears started to flow as she was desperately grasping for her water.  Though we felt sorry for her, Ana and I were laughing hysterically by the point until the tears were falling from our eyes as well.  She's used to eating spicy Portuguese hot sauce which is also very spicy but has a rather 'slow burn' which sneaks up on you then lingers around for a while.  The horseradish effect is completely different.  As soon as it hits your mouth it sends a wasabi lightening bolt right up your nose and you can feel smoke coming out of your ears as you are blinded by the tears.  Then, fifteen seconds later it's all gone, almost like it never happened.

That's about all the news for now.  Wish us luck on the job hunt!

Kris

March 26, 2003 - Brantford, Canada...basement of Ana's parent's house

You are probably wondering, 'What the hell happened?'!  It has been two months since our last journal entry which is the result of us being robbed of our laptop on an overnight bus in Chile.  After the required visits to the police station to report the loss we moved on to Argentina....and were robbed again!!  This time the cabin we were renting was ransacked when we were out for dinner.  So, a fair bit of bad luck came our way during that portion of the trip but we did manage to recover and had a splendid time traveling through Argentina and Brazil, especially since we were traveling with our friends Rebecca and Fraser whom we met in Bolivia.

We are now back in Canada and have since replaced our laptop and are finally able to get back online to update our site.  We are going to do some work on the site over the next few days so stay tuned!

Kris

January 19, 2003 - San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

We're back in Chile after our Bolivia expedition.  In short, we were quite disappointed with Bolivia.  We found the people to be much less friendly and competent than Peru and Chile and even rude sometimes.  La Paz was quite an interesting city upon first arrival but once you got into the guts of it, we found it to be just another busy, filthy, noisy city, except with many more aggressive beggars and merchants.  Once good thing was the low price of things, there were a lot of bargains to be had.  I bought a stringed instrument called a charango, which is a beautiful sounding guitar-like beastie used in Bolivian music.  Ana picked up a lovely alpaca sweater.  We also found a great hotel where we did a bit of relaxing.

We booked ourselves on a four day tour to the Uyuni region in the south west part of Bolivia.  We had a bit of trouble getting there and saw some really seedy towns along the way.  But once the tour was underway, we really did have a great time, mostly due to the fantastic group we were with.  We had a Bolivian guide named Emilio and the other people were an Australian/New Zealander couple and a Swiss couple, all of whom were fantastic people with great senses of humour.  The Bolivian countryside we traveled through was nothing short of amazing.  The scenery changed from a gigantic salt lake, to dry desert cactuses, to huge snowy mountains, to lunar dust, to muddy lakes full of flamingos, to red lakes, to mountains of borax and, finally, to a final night's accommodation that was so putrid, so foul, and so disgusting that even Ana was looking for the sweet anesthesia of alcohol.  I don't want to write too much about it, I think there is a good story to come from that trip!

We arrived back in Chile yesterday to a town called San Pedro de Atacama which was described as a lovely frontier town by the guide books but is actually a dusty, overpriced, gringo hole.  The only redeeming features are the selection of nice restaurants with great food and groovy bars.  We had a splendid time last night with a bunch of the people from our tour.  We had dinner and drinks in a restaurant with an open roof in the centre allowing lunar rays to shine in and a crackling wood fire on the ground.  We sat around the fire playing cards and having a good laugh.  We are going to meet up with the Australian/New Zealander couple in a few weeks in Argentina and Brazil which is sure to be a great time.

We will spend the day here tomorrow then in the evening catch a night bus back to Arica where we will have a day then fly back to Santiago.  It seems like it has been ages since we arrived in Chile but it's only been a couple weeks!  Good sign, that means our trip isn't going too fast...

Kris

January 10, 2003 - Puno, Peru

What a year it's been already and it's only the 10th of January.  We needed a second wind for this last half of our adventure and we have certainly gotten it here in South America.  WHAT A PLACE!!!!  Where do I begin...We arrived in Santiago, Chile and spent a day adjusting to the 16 hour time difference.  We then called our friend Alvaro and went for dinner with him in his wife at a great little restaurant in one of the suburbs of the city.  Our first day out and already the place is full of character and amazing sites around every corner....viva los latinos....they are a great bunch!!

We no sooner got to Santiago, when we found cheap flights to the northern border city of Arica.  So off we went to the desert.  This little town emerges out of no where like a mirage.  Not much there but a huge market, miles of sand, a museum with Inca mummies  and  plenty of transport options to Peru.  The border crossing was amazingly straight forward and our driver did everything from fill out forms to stand in line!  What service!  The first major town we arrived in was called Arequipa.  The centre of town is full of beautiful colonial style cathedrals and buildings which are lit up at night!  Although it seems to have much to offer tourists, there didn't seem to be many, and that was perhaps the best part of all.  We also went to a 15th century convent called Convento de Santo Catarina, which is the size of a small town.  

We next decided to go on a  fantastic over night tour to the second deepest canyon in the world called Canon de Colca.  Quite a sight, as were the condors which circled overhead.  One part of that tour that I WILL try and forget is the giant rodent (Guinea Pig) that Kris ate that evening...Ugh!!  They are apparently a local delicacy and Kris insists on trying all local foods.  We had a diverse group of people on the tour; four Peruvians, one American, one Brazilian, one German, one Nicaraguan, one Palestinian, one Irish, one French and us two Canadians.  Quite a group, but to top it all off, we ALL spoke Spanish!!!  

Our next stop was the famous Machu Picchu ruins near the colonial town of Cusco.  Cusco is one of the last inhabited civilizations of the Incas.  It is surrounded by ruins, and has a variety of churches,  and other monuments, later built by the Spaniards which arrived in Peru in the 16th century.  Machu Picchu is the largest  and most well preserved display of Inca ruins in the world, and it was magical.  It took 4 hours by train and another 1/2 hour by bus to get there, but it was worth every minute.  We had a  wonderful guide who described he place, like he had built it with his own two hands.  He was the most passionate and articulate tour guide we've ever had!!  So just when we thought that nothing could top what we'd seen in Peru, we come to Puno, a small unattractive little town on the highest navigable lake in the world called Lake Titicaca.  This afternoon, we went on a boat ride to the a group of  floating islands made entirely of reeds.  On these islands live a community of 800 descendants of a pre-Inca race called the Uros. They build the islands, their homes, boats, all out of these water reeds.  They survive by fishing and then bartering with other floating islands and the people from the mainland.  Such a simple life, but they all had the most magical smiles.....we have so much to learn.

So that has been our first 10 days of 2003.  I only hope the next 355 are as exciting. 

Ana

January 1, 2003 - Auckland, New Zealand

Happy New Year kiddies!!  We had a quite but very nice time last night sitting in a park drinking wine, smoking a cigar, and watching the fireworks shot off the top of Skytower in the centre of Auckland.  We've been exploring the city for the past few days doing plenty of walking and sightseeing.  Yesterday we wandered through the harbour which is the home of the America's Cup sailing race, quite interesting.

Today we are hanging around the hostel waiting for our taxi which is arriving at 2:00pm to take us to the airport.  We fly overnight to Chile, gaining a day in the process, and will arrive in Santiago at noon on New Years Day.  If my calculations are correct we should get another New Year's countdown somewhere over the Pacific!

More to come from Chile....

Kris

December 24, 2002 - Wellington, New Zealand

Merry Christmas!!  We are having an extremely lazy morning here in Wellington.  All the Christmas shopping is done (1 present each) so it should be a very stress-free day.  The biggest challenge will be scouting out a good restaurant to have dinner tonight.  We are staying in a lovely apartment-hotel right in the centre of Wellington and will be here until the 26th when we begin the last leg of our journey up to Auckland.

Our time with Johnny and Carolyn couldn't have been better.  They showed us a fantastic time and it was a real pleasure to see them again after a couple years.  On our last weekend they took us to a place called Hanmer Springs which is a lovely little mountain town a couple hundred kilometers from Christchurch.  They organized a beautiful house with stunning views of the town and mountains and only a short walk from the hot spring pools where we enjoyed a good soaking in the afternoon.  We had the most chilled out night sitting in front of a crackling fire in the fireplace with some great wines, cheeses and music.  Johnny and I learned that it is actually possible to have an enjoyable night together without getting absolutely blind.  But for old times sake, we got the big guns out for our last night in Christchurch which resulted in a magnificent hangover the next morning.  I was happy to wave Johnny bye-bye one last time as he trotted off to work with bloodshot eyes and this alcohol vapour seeping out of him which gave him the appearance of being surrounded by a force field.  He called me from work to report that the staff in the office had taken up a collection to go buy him some breath freshening gum.  Mission accomplished!

Kris

December 17, 2002 - Christchurch, New Zealand

I was born to be a biker, of this I am now sure.  Our Harley ride was spectacular and to make the experience complete, day two was a complete washout and we looked like eels after spending a full ten hours on the bike through torrential rainstorms.  Luckily, we made it back safely and had pure sunshine on our last morning's ride into Christchurch, which was a stunning ride through Allan's Pass which had some incredible views.  We did a total of about 1200 kilometers which isn't too bad considering it was very slow going on many of the mountain roads.  One of the most scenic things was the proliferation of gorgeous yellow and purple wildflowers in the fields around the mountains.  Now all we need to do is settle down somewhere so I can get myself a bike!

We are nearing the end of our visit here in Christchurch.  We leave here on Thursday and will be heading up to Nelson for a few days then we'll take the ferry to the north island and spend Christmas in Wellington.  After that we only have a few days to get back up to Auckland for New Years and the next leg of our journey... to Chile!

Kris