First Anniversary

We've celebrated special occasions in many different places this past year: A wedding in Canada, Thanksgiving in the Himalayas, Christmas in Kathmandu, and Easter in Tahiti, so I guess it's fitting we should spend our first wedding anniversary here in Buenos Aires. We don't have much planned, dinner out at a parilla, and then maybe some ice cream at a heladeria, I guess a year long honeymoon negates the need for excessive anniversary celebrations. However, I have been reflecting on the past year quite a bit today, and thought that I might share my thoughts.

To say it's been a strange year would be an understatement. A lot has happened, most of it great, some of it difficult, and all of it very different than anything that's gone before. It was an unsettling year of constant change and uncertainty. Colleen and I haven't had a home or, aside from the clothes in our packs, any possessions in over a year. We've experienced sublime beauty as well as horrible ugliness, and have struggled to make sense of it all. While I may figure it out one day, right now, all of it just serves to underscore the one constant in the past year: our relationship. It has not been easy or smooth, a year on the road does not lend itself to easy or smooth, but it has been a fantastic adventure, and I can honestly say that the best part of this past year has been sharing it with Colleen.

So I say thank you to my wife (I'm still not used to saying that word) for an incredible year. I hope that the next 50 are half as good as this past one, although maybe we could do without the long bus rides and dodgy hostels.



Michael 

Buenos Aires



one year ago today



Buenos Aires: Steaks, Wine and Time to Think

33 days. That's how long it took us to decide the trip wasn't quite over yet. Actually, it took us 33 days to leave North America after arriving, we decided to hit the road again way before that. Why? This past year has been a once in a lifetime opportunity for us. We have seen and done so much it is overwhelming, and processing it all while constantly on the go has been a challenge - contemplating the majesty of the Taj Mahal while trying to avoid touts selling you tiger balm and hash just doesn’t work. We thought we might have more time and space to let it all sink in once we got back to North America, but, we quickly found that our reentry was more hectic than anticipated, and time to ourselves was at a premium. The trip started to fade in the face of inevitable realities like careers and where next to live. We decided that the past year was just too big a deal to let go without giving ourselves a chance to really let it sink in. That or we just wanted to put off the real world a little while longer. Either way, a month after getting back, we got our tickets, packed our bags, and headed for La Guardia airport. Next stop, Buenos Aires.


tree lined streets

Why Buenos Aires? We didn’t want to go anywhere we had already been, and we figured North America and Europe would be too expensive. That left South America. We also decided that we were done running around, no matter where we went, we were going to stay in one place. Finally, we decided that we would prefer to be in a city, comfortable and interesting in its own right, that we could explore and get to know. Hmm, and interesting city in South America… It didn’t take us long to agree on Buenos Aires. Colleen loved the idea of spending time in a cosmopolitan South American city and having a chance to practice her Spanish (although I think she really liked the idea of staying in one place the most). As for me, as far back as I can remember, I’ve wanted to see Buenos Aires. I’m not sure where I got it from, but I’ve always had a romantic notion of a sophisticated, cultured city with tree lined avenues, street side cafes and quiet neighbourhoods, a city with a veneer of old world sensibilities over a passionate Latin soul. A city full of beef eating, tango dancing soccer fanatics.

We arrived at Ezeiza airport on a Tuesday. Another airport, another border crossing, and of course more mindless bureaucracy and senseless fees (a whopping 140 dollar “entry fee” this time), but an hour after arriving, we were in a cab heading into the city. It is fall here, so it was a little chilly, and the leaves on the trees had changed colour or were already gone, but the first impression was definitely a good one. The streets are in fact tree lined, and there are cafes everywhere.



steak and wine

We spent our first few nights in a hostel. It was quite nice as far as hostels go, but hopefully it will be our last for a while. Our plan was to rent an apartment for the month so we got to it right away. A quick internet search and a few emails and we had set appointments to view four apartments. The first three were nice, but the fourth was definitely the one for us. It was a little more than we wanted to pay, but we couldn’t pass it up. The location, in the Palermo Alto barrio just outside the centre of town, was perfect. It was bright, lofty, and modern, with a small balcony overlooking a park and some cafes. It was exactly what we were looking for. So Friday (3 nights after arriving), we moved into our new digs and unpacked our bags for the first time in a year. You cannot image how satisfying that was. I never thought the act of putting my underwear in a drawer could be so comforting.



pinkest sunset

We’ve been here two weeks now, and we’ve checked off a few of Buenos Aires’ must sees: The Casa Rosada, Recoleta cemetery, San Telmo antiques fair, Ave. Nueve de Julio, Caminita in Boca, and Palermo Viejo. We’ve also eaten steaks at a parilla (for Colleen’s birthday) and tomorrow we’re going to a soccer game (River Plate vs. Lanus at el Monumental). We’re even taking tango lessons. I’m actually really enjoying it, but Colleen is having a hard time with the concept that I lead. There was also another first: first time being covered by an ash cloud from a volcano. While the eruption of the Puyehue volcano in Chile didn’t really affect us that much (flights out of Buenos Aires were cancelled, but we weren’t flying), it did produce an eerie grey sky and the pinkest sunset I’ve ever seen. If that all sounds like a lot, let me assure you it really isn’t. As a matter of fact, we’ve spent most of our time here on ourselves. Sleeping in, reading, exercise (mostly running), eating steaks (they really are that good here) and drinking wine, lots and lots of delicious wine.

Most of all though, we’ve had a chance to exhale and try to make sense of the past year. We’ve learned so much, and have so much to be thankful for, that we owe it to ourselves to figure out how to incorporate what we’ve experienced into our lives as we go forward. It’s a tall order, but with the help of a great apartment, amazing steaks and lots of wine, I know we can do it.

Saludos,
Michael

Charcas & Bulnes
Palermo Alto

Buenos Aires

Argentina

We're Back...

We’ve been on the road for 260 days, been to 17 countries, and taken 16,113 pictures. We’ve crossed the equator 5 times and the International Date Line once. We’ve travelled 75,000 kilometers on trains, planes, buses, boats, elephants and camels, and we’ve had an amazing nine months. All good things must come to an end though, and so it goes with our adventure, at least this chapter of it.

As some of you may have already figured out, we are back in North America. We’re in Fort Lauderdale now, but will likely be heading north soon. Our plans are a little loose at the moment, but there is a pretty good chance that you’ll be seeing us or hearing from us in the near future…

Colleen and Michael

Fort Lauderdale

Florida

The Long Trip Home: Auckland to Fort Lauderdale through Tahiti and Los Angeles

While we never had a real end date to our trip per se, Colleen was adamant that we get back to the United States in time to attend her brother’s university graduation on the first of May. Not only was it an important family event, but her brother had sat through so many of her graduations (high school, undergraduate, medical school, residency) that she felt she could not in good conscience miss his big day. As the trip progressed, we began to realize that the graduation would end up impacting our return date, so as early as February we started looking into flights home. We asked a travel agent in Philadelphia who has been helping us out throughout our trip to look into it, and she got back to us with a very reasonable flight that went from Auckland to Tahiti, Tahiti to Los Angeles, and Los Angeles to Fort Lauderdale, so we told her to go ahead and get it for us. So that was it, our last leg, the long trip home…. Of course we couldn’t resist one more adventure, so we arranged a 4 day layover in Tahiti and a 12 hour layover in Los Angeles. We would end the trip with a bang not a whimper.

Champagne over the Pacific

We have flown over 20 times on this trip, and I would have to say that the flight from Auckland to Tahiti with Air Tahiti was the best of the lot. Lots of leg room, great meals, good inflight entertainment and the wine and champagne flowed like water. There is something about a champagne toast as you fly over the International Date Line that just screams out sophisticated international traveller. Speaking of the International Date Line, boy did I have a hard time wrapping my head around that. We had been changing times zones throughout the trip, loosing time as we went, and now was time to get it back. Makes sense as a concept, but I just never seemed to be able to get it straight in my head. How could you leave Auckland at 2:15 pm on the 24th of April and arrive in Tahiti at 9:10 pm on the 23rd after a 5 hour flight? It just doesn’t make sense. Colleen took a perverse pleasure in my confusion, teasing me by saying things like “remember tomorrow when we were in Auckland” or “yesterday let’s go out for a drink after dinner”. I was a very confused Costello to her deadpan Abbot.

Sunset in Paradise

Tahiti was pretty special. It was more expensive than anywhere else we’ve been (4 days in Tahiti cost us the same as 4 weeks in Laos), but there is something about being on a small island in the middle of the Pacific, that can’t be beat. Actually, Tahiti is a bit of a misnomer. Tahiti is not a country, it is just the name of the biggest island in French Polynesia, which is a chunk of the Pacific the size of Europe encompassing 130 islands. Our flight landed in Tahiti, but we only spent one night there. The morning after our arrival, we took a ferry to Tahiti’s sister island called Morea, and rented a bungalow on the water at Cook’s Bay. What a beautiful place. Although this trip is technically our honeymoon, it has certainly not been a conventional one. Not many of our adventures to date would qualify as typical honeymoon activities, and not many locations would qualify as typical honeymoon destinations. Cook’s Bay on the other hand had honeymoon written all over it. We spent three days enjoying swaying palm trees, brilliant sunsets, cool ocean breezes, a cozy cabana, great food and each other’s company.

The Honeymooners

Of course we couldn’t resist having a little fun in paradise, so we did get some diving in. Colleen and I did a shallow dive in one of the lagoons inside the island’s barrier reef and were rewarded with the clearest waters I’ve ever been in. Visibility must have been 60 metres, and although we didn’t go deep, the diving was absolutely fantastic. The second dive was definitely the highlight though, my first ever shark dive (needless to say Colleen gave that one a pass). What an experience. The water was chummed with chunks of dead fish and fish blood. We were almost immediately surrounded by hundreds of fish of all makes and sizes, and before long dozens of black tip sharks showed up. Black tips, so called because of the black tips of their fins, are only about a metre long, but they look vicious, like sleek grey torpedoes, and are quite beautiful in their own way. Add to that a massive giant trevally that kept zipping by my head and a spotted ray gracefully swimming by overhead, and the experience would easily have topped any other in my under water experience, but there was more to come. Towards the end of the dive, three lemon sharks showed up and started nosing around. Apparently lemon sharks do not attack people, but it’s hard to be rational about that kind of information when three 2.5 to 3 metre long grey monsters start circling you 25 metres underwater.



Heart attack on a bun

Our flight out of Tahiti was relatively uneventful (we did cross the equator again – 5th time I think), and we arrived in Los Angeles at 11 am on the 27th. We cleared customs before noon, and our redeye flight to Fort Lauderdale left at 11:45 pm. This left us with half a day to kill, so we asked around and found a bus that would take us to a train that would take us into the city. We choose to visit Hollywood. Actually, we choose to visit Pinks, which happens to be in Hollywood. Pinks is LA’s famous hot dog stand, and we figured what says “welcome to the USA” better than a cardiac arrest inducing chili cheese dog and fries. As if that weren’t enough, we found an In and Out (home of the absolute best hamburger in the world) and indulged in a couple of cheese burgers. Stuffed with processed cheese and cholesterol, we made our way back to the airport for our flight to Florida.

So here we are in Fort Lauderdale. We did make it to Colleen’s brother’s graduation, which was nice, but the highlight was the shock on his face when he saw us. We actually never told him we were coming, so we managed to pull off the surprise of the decade. The look on his face as the realization slowly dawned that it was his sister looking back at him over a folded newspaper from across the bar was worth the trip across the pacific and then some.

As for us, I would like to say we’re home, but frankly we don’t have a home, so the adventure continues. We’re leaving for Philadelphia this weekend, then to New Hampshire for a wedding, then to New York. After that who knows, we’re still trying to figure things out, we’ll let you know what we come up with.


Michael
Fort Lauderdale
Florida

New Zealand: We Finally Found It

Colleen has a way of putting things that gets right to the heart of the matter. We had been in New Zealand for three or four days, just long enough to realize how much we enjoyed it, when one night after a gorgeous lamb dinner, we were sipping some wine and Colleen said “you know, it’s kind of like we’ve travelled around the world just to find New Zealand”. She was right, with 8 months on the road, and 17 countries under our belt, I can honestly say New Zealand was by far our favourite place. Why? Well…

Scenic drives

Driving: We rented a car for the three weeks we were in New Zealand, a 12 year old Nissan Pulsar wagon that served us well (the battery died once, but other than that no complaints). After being herded around on public transportation for the past 8 months, it was nice to be in control again. In our usual race to pack everything in, we ended up driving something like 3500 km in our three week visit. Sounds like a lot, but it’s hard to complain when each ride is more beautiful than the next. On any given day our drive would take us past snowcapped mountains, deep blue lakes, barren alpine mountain passes, vineyards, rugged coastline and lush green fields full of sheep (sheep outnumber people 40 to 1 in New Zealand so there was never a shortage). Add to that the fact that our visit coincided with the peak of the autumn foliage colours, and you can see why driving a few hundred kilometers a day was a highlight, not a chore. New Zealand was by far the most beautiful country we’ve been to in all our travels.

Cooking in

Hostels: There is a wide range of accommodation catering to independent travellers in New Zealand. We ended up choosing to stay at hostels because they tended to be reasonably priced, centrally located, and usually had some unique and interesting features (one was a converted jail, another was a converted monastery, and one was right on the ocean with amazing views of the bay). The rooms were simple and clean, and there was always a common room for eating, hanging out, and meeting other travellers. Best of all though, every hostel we stayed at had a fully equipped kitchen. After 8 months of eating whatever was available from dodgy restaurants and road side stalls, it is hard to describe just how happy we were to be able to have control over what we ate again. Fresh vegetables, tuna sandwiches and even something as simple as toast were like long lost delicacies. We also indulged in New Zealand specialties like lamb and mussels. It was great, in the three weeks we were in New Zealand, we only ate in a restaurant twice.

People: Kiwis are friendly people. Not over the top loud and boisterous, just pleasant, polite and helpful. After months on the road in developing countries where language and culture were often a barrier to communication, it was nice to be able to ask for directions or just to have a pleasant chat with someone on the street.

McKinnon pass

Milford Track: The Milford Track is a four day hike through New Zealand’s southern Fiordland. It is touted as one of the world’s greatest walks, and has been on my travel wish list for years. The walk (or tramp as the kiwis call it) starts off in incredibly green, moss covered rainforest laced with crystal clear streams and lakes, climbs above treeline to the awesome panorama of barren snowcapped peaks at McKinnon Pass, then back down again to end up in the fiords of Milford sound. The hiking was strenuous, the lodges we stayed at were cold and uncomfortable, and we had to carry and cook our own food for four days, which was a bit of a nuisance, but it was all worth it. Colleen and I love hiking, and this was a truly great one. The “world’s greatest walk” moniker was actually appropriate and not just a marketing superlative.

Climbing the ice wall

Fox Glacier: Colleen has always wanted to go on a hot air balloon ride, so when we saw one offered over the beautiful lakes and mountains around Queenstown, we decided it would be a nice treat after the Milford Track. What does this have to do with a glacier? Wind. Apparently hot air balloons have a very low threshold for wind, and the morning of our ride it was so windy that the balloon ride was cancelled. Disappointment or hidden opportunity – hidden opportunity of course. Colleen lost no time organizing our next adventure, and within half an hour of finding out our hot air balloon ride was cancelled we were in the car headed north for an ice climbing adventure on Fox Glacier. Just walking on a glacier was amazing, but climbing a 40 metre ice cliff with crampons, ropes, harnesses and ice axes was absolutely incredible. We even got a chance to explore, then climb out of an ice cave.

Dolphins at the boat

Dolphin Encounter: Imaging sliding off the back of a boat into the freezing cold waters of the pacific with nothing but a wetsuit, a mask and a snorkel. Now imagine being surrounded by 200 curious dolphins darting out of the murky waters to check you out. It was just as awesome as it sounds. Some would have a look and move on, but others would stay longer. Hard to say if they were curious, playful, or had some other motive, but they were definitely interested and would swim circles around you while looking you over. Making eye contact with a dolphin in the wild is a pretty special experience. Actually, Colleen had the closest encounter of the day when a dolphin followed her for several minutes as she swam back to the boat, Again, hard to say what the dolphin’s motive was, but it’s fun to think it was some combination of curiosity and playfulness. We’ve had some incredible wildlife encounters on our trip, and this one ranks up there with the best. 



Autumn vines

Marlborough: Marlborough is New Zealand’s premier wine producing region and is famous the world over for producing fine Sauvignon Blanc wines. Colleen and I love visiting wine regions (we love wine too). We’ve been to wine regions in California (Napa and Sonoma), Italy (Tuscany), and New York (Finger Lakes), we even incorporated Quebec’s modest wine region in our wedding. There is something about the beauty of neat rows of vines spreading out over rolling hills bounded by forests or farmland that can’t help but draw you in. Marlborough of course was no exception and we spent a couple of wonderful days visiting vineyards and sampling wines. We even managed to fine the winery that produced the wine we served at our wedding (Hunters).

Christchurch: The events in Japan overshadowed the earthquake in Christchurch, but the city is in no way finished dealing with that disaster. While the suburbs seemed to suffer relatively minor damage, the downtown district was still cordoned off, and from what we could see looked like it had been hit by a bomb with whole city streets reduced to rubble.

Rough seas

Cook Straight: New Zealand is essentially two big islands, and the only way to get from one to the other is via a ferry service across Cook Straight. We had to take this ferry midway through our trip in order to get from the South Island to the North Island, and we had no reason to think this would be anything other than routine. The first sign of trouble was the crew checking all the life boats, then came the announcement to make sure not to flush the seasickness bags down the toilets followed by the captain’s warning to brace ourselves for 10 metre swells and 40 knot winds. I wasn’t brought up in a nautical tradition so swells and wind speeds meant nothing to me (I’m not even sure what a knot is), plus our journey started in the calm sunny waters of Queen Charlotte sound, so there was no hint of the rough seas to come. Come they did though. First the wind picked up, then the boat started swaying with the ever bigger waves until you couldn’t walk the deck in a straight line, and 4 out of 5 passengers were turning different shades of green and puking their guts out. I’ve never been in seas that rough, so it was a pretty incredible experience in its own right, but, just before they closed the outdoor observation decks, Colleen and spotted a group of four dolphins diving out of the face of the towering waves, and watched a massive albatross glide effortlessly over their frothing peaks. The quiet grace of these animals stood in stark contrast to the raging seas around us and is a sight I will never forget.



Mount Doom

Tongariro Alpine Crossing: This was a day hike we did in the North Island. What made it special was that the hike’s path was over an active volcano. The hike itself was beautiful with some stunning views of the surrounding countryside, but the volcano stole the show. Walking through a volcanic crater is a pretty special experience with a surreal and very unique landscape (the volcano was used as Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings Movie). You could actually see wisps of gas coming up from the rock in certain areas and even smell whiffs of sulfur as you walked. To add to the beauty, it had snowed recently, so the views were even more spectacular.

Sandflies: Unfortunately paradise does not exist on this earth, and our utopia was bound to have its flaw – the sandfly. Sandflies infest parts of the island, and while their bites seem innocuous at first, they last for days and are so itchy, there are times when an amputation seemed preferable to the continued suffering

We loved New Zealand. Beautiful landscape, friendly people, lots of things to do and easy travelling, what’s not to like. There is no question in my mind that we will go back for another visit, and I can’t wait for that day.


Michael

Starbucks in Target
Coral Ridge Mall
Fort Lauderdale
Florida