Looking Back, Looking Forward

Not a day goes by when we don't think about our trip.  Many days, we even talk about it.  It helps that we have put up pictures as our computer backgrounds and put up our souvenirs on the walls.  We wear necklaces and bracelets that came from Ecuador, Peru, Chile.  Even in my classroom I have pictures and trinkets up.  I read that it is important to keep these things out and in public view because every time you look at them, you remember the trip.  And even the act of remembering a good experience gives you the same feeling that you had when you were actually on the trip.  Even the days that were "boring," when we didn't do much, we were not doing much in Peru or relaxing in Argentina.  Really, every day, for us, was historic.

We want to continue to share some of those experiences, especially now that we have some videos.  As we figure out how to get those up, we will, we promise.  But we also want to look forward to what is coming next.  We are travel bugs.  A lot of travel we want to do before kids come along, and then when they get older we can take them with us.  We are pretty conscious, though, of places we want to take our kids.  Right now we want to do places that we would not take children.  And so, we look ahead.  Right now, we are in the midst of planning a cruise.

I know, a cruise doesn't really sound in line with our simple life, with our love for the earth and simplicity.  But I did quite a bit of research on cruise lines that would match our needs.  Of course, we need to be in a place that is gay friendly.  In truth, that wasn't hard.  Most cruise lines are finding that a large percentage of travelers are gay because they tend to have the money to do it.  Think about it - two male incomes, no kids.  You can bet they will be traveling.  Even two male incomes with kids.  And gay couples tend to be more prepared for kids, anyway - I mean, it's not like they can accidentally have a kid.  If a gay couple has a kid, it's because they wanted a kid and they planned for a kid.  Typically that means they are financially ready, as well.  Anyway, my point is, travel agencies are all about catering to those with the means to travel, and that includes us.

The big one, though, was the impact on the environment.  You can probably do some of that research yourself, but we did choose our cruise line based on a few articles that we found.  I even made a PowerPoint to show Tanya.

In the end, we decided on Holland America Cruises.  We will visit some of Karis's family in Indiana for a few days over Christmas break (because we have to travel on the school calendar - one of the un-perks of teaching), and then we will head south to go on a 7-day Caribbean cruise.  I think the sunshine in the middle of an Alaska winter will do us some good.

In the meantime, Tanya is working on her stone inlay projects, Karis is starting yoga, and they are loving the late Alaska summer.  For more pictures, you can follow Karis on Instagram @kariskoett.

Reflections on Packing

Life has resumed as normal back at home.  Tanya and Karis are both back at work, although school doesn’t start for the kids until mid August.  But being a teacher means more than just standing in front of 25 middle schoolers.  Fortunately, there is some extra pay that goes with the extra curriculum writing.  Tanya has started up her new hobby right away – wood working.  She was inspired by some of the amazing work we found while abroad.  Karis already has her new running shoes and is back to her horses, as well.  And the dogs are just happy to have their moms home.  We are all trying to hang on to the last bits of Alaska summer.

 

But we haven’t forgotten about our trip.  In fact, we think about it almost every day.  The pile of souvenirs on the kitchen table helps.  It’s been said that you should hang pictures and display items from your vacation because when you look at them, you get the same feeling you had when you were on that trip.  But that’s not the only thing we’re thinking about.  With upcoming travels already in the works, we need to consider some things.  In particular, we need to reflect on what we packed.  What did we need or really want that we didn’t have?  And what did we take that we didn’t need at all?  What are we glad we took?  What are we glad we didn’t bother packing?  Those are the questions we will address in this blog.

We wish we had packed…

Although we anticipated it being cooler than the typical South America sunshine, we did not think that big jackets would be a necessity.  For the most part, we were right.  Ecuador was hot, Galapagos was hot, much of Peru was hot.  But nights were almost always cool, and the majority of our time was spent in places where we needed at minimum a long sleeve shirt.  For a good portion of the trip, Karis wished and wished she had taken her light puffy jacket (the cool yellow one) instead of her blue rain jacket, which got almost no use because it was too big and not that warm.  This may have prompted the purchase of several Peruvian sweaters.

While Karis had five pair of underwear, which was perfect, Tanya only took three Exofficio briefs.  And while they served their purpose very well, laundry day became a problem.  When traveling for more than a week, at least five pair of underwear are necessary, or at least more than three, even of Exofficio.  It makes laundry day much easier and not as often.

We did not need to pack…

Because Tanya is awesome, we stayed in pretty decent hostels and hotels, which meant that there was no need for our silk sleeping liner.  They’re expensive, so we didn’t want to leave them, but they took up a fair amount of space.  We’ll hang on to them for cold camping, but they weren’t necessary for our travels.

We’re always prepared for the worst, I guess.  But we didn’t need so much of a first aid kit.  A few bandaids, maybe a couple travel packs of antibiotic ointment to be safe, but we weren’t camping.  We were going to places with medical care.  And most hostels will give you bandaid if you need it.  Ours just ended up being space takers.  As far as the medicine, we didn’t even use half of what we took.  Karis used up all the Dramamine, and Tanya used some of the Cipro and Diomox.  The Diomox (altitude sickness pills) didn’t help her, though.  The rest was just, again, space takers.  We didn’t need a whole bottle of Ibuprofen, for example.  And although we did use PeptoBismol on occasion, we didn’t need as much as we took.  Sometimes being over-prepared is just being over-prepared.

Within a week of being in South America, we had purchased new shampoo (the liquid kind) and new lotion.  How silly of us to have even packed the bar shampoo and the tiny bottles of lotion.  We weren’t going to the back woods of Mongolia.  Those are things you can buy in a store.  And we were glad we did.  Plus, South America is not nearly as strict about liquids as the U.S.A. is.

While the daypacks we took were nice (this will be in the section of things we are glad we took), Karis did not need to take an extra satchel.  It was a last minute decision, but it served very little purpose, and it didn’t do anything that the daypack couldn’t do, except be a little smaller.  Plus, it’s not like there weren’t cooler ones at the markets anyway (maybe she bought a couple).

Although it sometimes rains most places, it hardly rained at all where we were.  It rained on Easter Island, but only at night, and it rained once in Buenos Aires, but we just stayed in and drank wine that day.  We did not need to take our rain jackets.  They took up a lot of space and they didn’t do us any good.  A better option would have been a water resistant jacket that actually provided warmth (such as the light puffy jacket mentioned earlier).

We are really glad we had…

There were a few things we used every single day, or most days.  One was our bladders and daypacks (which of course had a bladder pocket).  Even though we had to buy all of our drinking water, we poured it into our bladder to make the carrying easier.  This meant not having to reach into our bags every time we needed a sip of water.  We used it whether hiking, biking, or strolling the city streets.

But what else do most Americans use every day?  Computers.  Taking our laptops was not an option.  They’re heavy, and they’re expensive, and we can’t afford to lose them or break them.  So we took tablets.  Karis had a Google Nexus 7, which has a lot of space and connects directly to her Google account.  It was also nice because her camera has wifi, so she was able to send all of her pictures to her tablet, which can easily hold all of her pictures and more.  She also stored several books on the book reader app.  Tanya's is a Samsung Tab 7.0, and the best feature was the SD card slot.  She was able to store all of her photos externally, as well as two SD cards of movies.  And of course this made communication with all of you possible.

You are probably aware by now that we took waterproof cameras.  Planning a trip that included snorkeling in the Galapagos meant that this was an absolute necessity.  Tanya got the Olympus Tough, and Karis had the Panasonic Lumix.  They both had excellent features both in and out of the water.

Along with the cameras, Tanya went ahead and spent the $12 for what has been dubbed the "selfie stick" by other envious travelers.  On one end, we screw on the camera (like a tripod), and then we can stretch out the stick and take pictures of ourselves with the whole background instead of just faces.  And in the good ones, you can't even tell we're taking it ourselves.

Of course, traveling to other countries means that you need a travel adapter.  Karis had one from REI - the different types of plug ins would just pop out of this little box, and there was both a place for the USA plug and a USB.  Tanya's was similar, but a little better.  Not only did it have two USB slots, but there was a light that went off once whatever was charging was finished charging.  It was also firm in every socket.

Although they took up a lot of space, we are really glad we had our own snorkel set.  We ended up leaving them in the Galapagos (it would have cost more to ship them back than they were worth, and we want the dry snorkels so we don't suck in water anymore).  But because we had our own, of course, we didn't have to rent any, and that also meant that we snorkeled for free almost every day we were there.  The cost of getting to various beaches was a taxi ride (averaging at $2) or a simple walk.  We were also really thankful for our rash guards, as the water was cool and the sun was harsh.

We'll probably think of more as time goes on.  In the meantime, stay tuned.  We'll be working on getting videos uploaded and posted.  Also, one last shout out.  An old friend from Indy came to house sit for us for the whole two months.  This was pretty much the best thing, and we are forever grateful.  Anyway, she is now on her own adventure around the world.  You can read about her adventures at willteachfortravel.com.

Santiago, Take 2

We have come full circle. Two months ago, we arrived in Santiago where we stayed in a wonderful hostel called Don Santiago. Now, here we are again. But this time, we are not looking forward to our South American adventures; we are reflecting on them. And, of course, we are still taking advantage of our time here.

We arrived late Wednesday night. On Thursday morning, after another great breakfast, we made our way out of the city by metro (their subway system) to the second largest vineyard in the world. Actually, where we were was only one piece of an international system of vineyards, all owned and run by Concha y Toro. There are wine tours through agencies, but our hostel guy says they are no good because they rip off the tourists. They charge $35.000 pesos per person. But if you go straight to the place, they only charge $9.000 pesos. So that plus a couple metro tickets (which is super cheap) and a $3.000 taxi ride each way, we definitely saved money. Our tour guide was hilarious. We learned a lot about wine, and we got to taste some pretty delicious reds. She gave us a taste of their newest collection, Devil's Collection, which of course it's delicious. One of the wines we tried they sell in Costco, so we'll be taking advantage of that. But it's probably cheaper here. The only downside was that it is winter here, so no grapes to try. Some other time.

For dinner, we were craving pasta, so we went to a highly recommended spot for some delicious lasagna and spaghetti. Yum.

Friday was our last day in Chile. We got up early for our last shower before being home (in 2 days) and to pack our stuff with the wine we bought. After breakfast we headed out to the market for the last time. We didn't find a guitar, but we did get a couple of other things. A friend told us that his biggest regret about his visit to South America was not getting the souvenirs that he wanted. We will not make that mistake. We then headed over to meet our friend Fran for lunch. We ate at a Peruvian place. Delicious food. Tanya and Karis accidentally ate each other's meals, but they still enjoyed it. The pisco sours helped.

In the afternoon we took a cab to the airport where we flew to Lima, then Los Angeles, where we are hanging out for about 7-8 more hours. Our travels for now have come to an end, but our blog will continue. We'll talk about things we learned, stuff we needed and didn't need, and eventually get up all the videos we took but couldn't download on the road. Stay with us!

Buenos Aires, Take 2

We got to our hotel late in the evening. When we got there, we scheduled a trip through our hotel to go to Tigre for the day. After making a plan for the next two days, we went sweetly to sleep.

We woke up to the sound of booming thunder and torrential downpour. We canceled our trip to Tigre and slept in. When we finally got up and moving, we headed to get breakfast. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at a convenience store and for snacks and wine, just to try it. We had planned to go see more of the city, but we got a late start to that because we were drinking wine all day. Argentina wine is delicious, by the way. I don't remember what kind it was, just that it was red and in a cool bottle, which were the only two reasons we chose that particular one.

Anyway, we finally got going. There is one restaurant that we really wanted to try, but we couldn't find it in our first go around in the city. This time, we were determined, and we were successful. Unfortunately, it doesn't open until 8PM, and it was only about 530. We were too late to tour the famous theater. So pretty much we just wandered around the city for a couple of hours. We stopped at one place and got beer and a snack, which killed some time. Finally, we headed over to Chan Chan. We got there at like, 810. It's a pretty small place, but there were already people there. We got a seat, fortunately, because not long after we arrived, the place was full and there was a line out the door. Karis got the duck and Tanya got the rabbit. It is possible that our meals were farm fresh, because it took an hour for our food to come. But it was delicious. Worth the wait. And the best part? In US dollars, our meals together cost a little more than $20. Unbelievable.

The next day, we did go to Tigre. They picked us up from our hotel around 9AM.  We drove around the city getting others, then we were switched to another bus. The tour guide was nice and spoke in very slow Spanish, so even Karis was able to pick up on quite a bit of what she was saying. Tanya, of course, did fine, translating the rest. Everyone keeps complementing her on her Spanish.

Our first stop was a small town called San Isidro. The only thing we did there, really, was shop around at a small market and see their pretty plaza. Then we drove into Tigre, which is a town through which three rivers run. It's really a beautiful place. The water is brown because of all the sedement. We bought our tickets for the ferry and boarded. Basically we just rode up the Rio Tigre and then back. But it was beautiful. There are side rivers and lots of homes. Many rich people have houses on Tigre. It's easy to see why.

When we returned to Buenos Aires, we made sure to stop at the crepe place around the corner. We got a free crepe because we tagged ourselves in a photo for them on Facebook. After enjoying our spoils, we got our bags, and mostly because we didn't know what else to do with all our luggage, we headed to the airport a little early. It turned out to be a lot early, though, as our flight was delayed. Our playing cards have served us well this trip. But we did make it to Santiago. Aerolines Argentina is comfortable with good seats, but both of our flights with them were over an hour later than scheduled. But whatever. Time for wine.