It's been some time, and I know you are all itching to see some more videos from our travels, so here are 5 quick videos from our trip to Fiji and New Zealand. This is Why We Love Life.
Fijian Fire Dancing - Taken at the Sunset Waya Resort, on Waya Island in the Yasawas.
Bula (hello) from Fiji. Julie and I are on the main island of Viti Levu. We arrived yesterday after a quick 10 day tour of the US: Houston, West Palm Beach, New York City, and Long Beach/LA.
We'd like to apologize for our lack of communication the last couple of weeks, as we've been frantically moving across continents. I promise to post our pictures from our quick visit home, but right now I should get back to relaxing on the beach!
In the meantime, here are some videos from Brazil and Chile, that are much overdue.
We hit the highlights of Patagonia during the second week of our two-week tour. Unfortunately, we had to skip the majestic FitzRoy mountains and could only stay for a short time in El Calafate, El Bolson, and Bariloche. But when Jared's sister Rachel got us two free tickets back to the states, we jumped at the chance to head home for a bit. (I was becoming more homesick by the day. When Jared vetoed Domino's pizza in Rio, I almost burst into tears.) Besides, after five months in South America, we were both ready for something new.
After leaving Torres del Paine, we crossed into Argentina for the fourth and final time. Just outside the Argentine border office was a huge sign that said "Las Malvinas son Argentinas," or "The Falkland Islands belong to Argentina." I had learned about the Falkland Islands War in school, but I was surprised to learn that Argentina still claims the tiny islands off the coast of Tierra del Fuego. The islands even grace the back of Argentina's brand new two peso coin. Apparently Great Britain is well aware of Argentina's claim on the islands, but it was certainly news to us.
No trip to Patagonia (even a whirlwind one) is complete without a visit to the majestic Perito Moreno glacier. At 180 feet tall, the glacier is a field of jagged blue ice that reminded me of planet Krypton in the Superman movies. Jared has hiked across several glaciers, but even he kept saying he'd never seen anything like this. Even small pebbles of ice echoed as they fell into the lake below. Imagine the thundering crash that sounded when a giant sheet of ice plunged from the glacier; the awesome noise sounded like an avalanche. The crash happened too quickly for us to get it on film; we could only stand and stare, completely in awe of the power of nature. Check out our video and photos of the glacier.
Aside from the glacier, there is not much going on in El Calafate, so we soon moved on to the tranquil town of El Bolson. In a rare treat, we flew from El Calafate to the city of Esquel, and then took a bus two hours from Esquel to El Bolson. (Interestingly, we flew on LADE, the airline of Argentina's air force.)
El Bolson is a sleepy little town in the shadow of the Andes. We met a cool American guy named Michael in our hostel; he and Jared went biking in the foothills of the mountains. We skipped the surprisingly pricey restaurants in town and instead Jared cooked us a feast of fresh trout. If you are in the area, don't miss El Bolson's artisan market, one of the best in the country. I gorged on homemade alfajores (like Argentine moon pies... yum) and Jared bought some microbrews while we stocked up on handmade gifts for our families.
From El Bolson we moved onto Bariloche in the Lakes District. I had heard so much about Bariloche, but I must say I was underwhelmed. We only had 24 hours in town, so maybe we just needed more time to take advantage of the national park that surrounds the city. Instead we went to the tiny Swiss Colony (Colonia Suiza), an hour outside of town. The trip to the Swiss Colony was worth it for the stunning lake views we saw on the bus, plus I scored a gorgeous pair of handmade earrings for $1 at the craft market. Before we left Bariloche, we made a pilgrimage to one of the town's most famous chocolate shops.
Next on our agenda was Mendoza, the capital of the Argentine wine industry. Several of our friends told us we would love Mendoza, and they were right. We instantly started plotting a way to move there. Maybe it was the leafy trees that shielded us from the desert sun. Maybe it was the proximity to the famous vineyards. Maybe it was that Mendoza was a smaller, cleaner, more manageable version of Buenos Aires. Whatever it was that made us love Mendoza, we wished we could have stayed longer than four days. Take a look at our photos of Bariloche and Mendoza.
Fortunately, we made the most of our brief time in Mendoza. Jared and I both took the plunge and went paragliding. We even managed to get our flightson video.
Once Jared and I were back on solid ground, we rented bikes to explore Mendoza's wineries. Though we had a great time riding crookedly from one winery to the next, we both agreed that we prefer the wineries of Cafayate. (Cafayate, we both agree, is one of our favorite places in South America.) Whereas Mendoza's bodegas are an hour out of town, there are several within walking distance of Cafayate's quaint town square. If you are going to be in the Northwest part of Argentina, take a bus three hours from Salta to Cafayate and sip on their famous Torrontes wine.
We took our last overnight bus from Mendoza to Buenos Aires and caught an overnight flight from Buenos Aires to Houston. More details on our North American leg are coming up soon. Until then, safe travels.
We thought it would be fun to add a new video installment titled Why we love life. We´ve been taking some great footage of places, and our experiences, that we want to share with you. Here are some highlights of Argentina. If you are receiving this as an email subscription without the videos, go to our web page.
Quebrada de Cafayate (Canyon of Cafayate): This was taken in a beautiful canyon outside the wine region of Cafayate. There was a guy playing music, and it was completely surreal. We could have spent hours here.
Tango in Buenos Aires: This video is from the club La Viruta, where instructors are showing off their moves before the lessons begin. We had so much fun, and will try and continue lessons when we can.
My First Polo Lesson: Here I am at the La Tuna Polo ranch, about 40 minutes outside of Buenos Aires. I was in pain the next day, and now I know why cowboys strut the way they do. Mom and Dad, thanks for the horse riding lessons when I was young, I guess they paid off.
We just left Buenos Aires, and arrived today at Iguazu Falls. Tomorrow we will tour the famous falls that rival those of Niagara, and then head across the border to Brazil for a three week tour. Hopefully we´ll have some new videos to post shortly, but we wish you could be here to see it in person.
When I first heard there was a salt desert and flamingos in Southern Bolivia, I was dumbfounded. How on earth a can there be a desert made of salt? And at 12,000 feet? Here are two videos of our three day jeep tour through the famous Salar de Uyuni, that should hopefully paint a picture of this place. The sound on the first one has some wind noise, but it cuts out quickly.
If that´s not enough for you, then here are our photos of the tour. Not only did we see the salt desert, but we drove through sand and rocks, saw tons of wildlife, geysers, colored lakes, and cacti, and even slept in a salt hotel!
Wishing everyone a happy holidays from Northern Argentina.
We wanted to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving, and let you know that we are thankful to have you as our friends and family. While we travel, it´s your emails and photos that keep away our bouts of homesickness.
As many of you have requested, here is our very first video post. We apologize for the low quality, but we've been having difficulty uploading large videos from internet cafes. If you are receiving this message as an email subscriber, please click on the title of the post, or go to http://www.globestompers.com/.
After nearly a week in Quito, Jared and I were itching for a change of scenery, so we booked a trip to the Cuyabeno Reserve in the Amazon Basin of Ecuador. While Ecuador no longer has access to the actual Amazon river, the Cuyabeno River and Aguarico River flow into the Rio Amazonas.
During our six days in the rain forest, we saw monkeys in the trees, swam with pink river dolphins, and were bitten by countless mosquitoes and sand fleas. But our whole jungle experience can be summed up in one word: anaconda.
Our guide had seen an anaconda on his last trip, so our group spent two rainy afternoons in a motorized canoe looking for the giant snake. We pulled up to every large hollow tree in the Laguna Grande, but saw nothing. The more we looked, the more obssessed we all became with finding the mythical anaconda, but the rain was making things difficult.
The sun finally came out after we visited an indigenous shaman. The shaman brought us luck, because an hour after we left his village, our new friend Barna yelled "Anaconda!" and the boat quickly doubled back. There it was, curled up on the shore, taking a nap in the sun. Our boat pulled up next to it, and suddenly I was barely five feet away from a 17-foot long anaconda.
The anaconda was sleeping, and our guide assured us it wasn´t going to wake up anytime soon. Barna and Margot, a girl from Australia, were crazy enough to get out of the boat and stand next to the snake. (Barna took the above photo.) It was all going fine until a twig snapped and the anaconda woke up and flew into the water beneath our boat. I didn´t know that something so big could move so quickly, and my pulse is racing just thinking about it.
Round-trip ticket from JFK to Quito: $500 Six-day jungle tour: $270 Standing five feet from an anaconda: Priceless
UPDATE: Thanks to our new friend Dan, we now have a video of the anaconda. Watch it with the sound on.
