A TRIP TALLEY

Well, after 5 months of traveling,
documented with 112 blog posts through

16 countries and

39 cities visited by traveling on

38 planes including 4 translatlantic flights,

20 boats,

7 long train rides (no trams or subways included),

51 taxis,

36 buses,

with 7 metro system navigated while staying in

54 hotels and 16 campsites being led around by

49 tour guides necessitating

39 ATM withdrawals and 

44 passport stamps resulting in over

16,000 photographs all the while

carrying an average of 51 lbs in our backpacks that led to

a loss of 15 lbs of body weight that was helped by

being sick 5 times (ear infection, altitude sickness, food poisoning, and traveler´s diarrhea twice) requiring 154 Pepto-Bismal tablets and
SPENDING OVER 592 HOURS (24.5 full days) IN TRANSIT...

we have seen a very, very small part of our amazing world! 

Hey, and we almost beat our underwear company's claim!

The Best Place We Have Been To Is...

No one place that we saw can win a title of Best Destination, but each has its own special appeal (or lack of appeal as the case may be).

Most Relaxing - Galapagos
Best Food - China
Worst Food - Argentina (beef just is not a substitute for vegetables)
Best Nature For:
   Wildlife - Serengeti, Tanzania
   Scenery - Torres del Paine, Chile
   Other Worldliness - Bolivian Salt Flats
   Most Intense Nature in One Afternoon - Iguazu Falls, Argentina Side
Most Non-Western Experience - India
Nicest People - Argentina
Best Transportation - Hong Kong
Worst Transportation - Africa
Most Attractive People - Turkey
Best Place to Leave the World Behind In - Amazon Jungle 
Easiest Place to Get Sick - Bolivia or India
Least Expensive Destination - Bolivia
Most Expensive Destination - China (excluding Europe)
Place Most Necessary to Have a Guide - China
Best City Based On:
   Cleanliness - Hong Kong
   Things to See - Rome
   Urban Design - La Paz
   Architecture - Buenos Aires
   Best Markets - Istanbul
   History - Jerusalem
Most Religion - Israel and India
Most Colorful - India
Best Snack Foods - Lima
Three Lifelong Goals Fulfilled - Seeing Galapagos Tortoises, watching flowing lava, and visiting the Amazonian Jungle

But, most telling of all in terms of what we most liked on our trip is a list of future destinations that based on the last five months would excite us most:
Western China and Nepal
Batswana and the Okavanga Delta
The Amazon Jungle (again for longer and going deeper in the jungle)
More time in Cambodia and Thailand
South Georgia Island and the Falkland Islands
More time in Israel

From Sea to Shining Sea and Volcano to Erupting Volcano

    Our last tour stop is the big island of Hawaii, the newest island in the Hawaiian island chain.  The island has been resurfaced by lava eruptions completely over the last 1000 years.  A 27 year-old-eruption continually attracts visitors to the Kileaua crater to watch the earth produce new ground.  This blog post is very simple.  All I have to say is that I saw lava, I watched it gurgle, I watched it sputter, and I was only 10 feet away.  Another lifelong goal fulfilled, and all that I had to do was drive to the end of the road and watch the molten goo meander its way to the ocean.  Michelle and I have been very privileged to travel and experience the world, so thank you to all of those people who have travelled with us, guided us, or just talked with us as locals.  But more importantly, thank you for reading this blog, it has been Michelle and my pleasure to share our visions of the world with you!

For pictures, as always, please feel free to click here or go to www.ethankarp.com!

Happy Travels!

Oh the Place We Will Go, and The Stuff We Will Lose

That is what Dr. Seuss naively forgot to mention in his children´s masterpiece.  No matter how carefully you plan your vacation and what to bring, you lose stuff and break stuff on the way.  So, in the name of your entertainment, here is what has often mysteriously grown legs and wandered away or decided to self destruct at inopportune times during our travels.

1 Amazon Kindle electronic book reader
1 Tilley hat
1 inflatable pillow
1 ipod
2 pairs of pants (growing legs to wander off is a particularly apt analogy for this item)
1 pair of underwear
5 watches (one stolen, 4 broken)
2 wallets including credits cards and IDs
1 fleece
2 pairs of shoes (worn down too far)
2 pairs of flip flops
2 pairs of insoles (also worn to bare threads)

But at least our luggage was never once lost in transit!

This picture was taken when we had to remove all of our stuff from our bags that got wet whilst we tried to get a full 4 hours of sleep in Buenos Aires.

A Complete Travel Experience: Quito Crime

My parents once bought be a model San Francisco trolley car that had a knob at the bottom that, when turned, played the song "I Lost My Heart In San Francisco."  My souvenir from Quito should be a model trole (the name for Quito´s busses) that plays"I Lost My Wallet in Ecuador´s Capital."  After having guarded our wallets all over the world, two days before we were going back to the states, Michelle and I were both pickpocketed and relieved of our credit cards and some cash in a crowded bus.  They had to unzip Michelle´s pocket to get to the wallet.  I had ironically just purchased a new wallet that was sitting empty in my other pocket.  Only the full wallet was taken (these were pros).  When we reported the theft, we had no real hope that we would recover anything (this was confirmed by the not-so-helpful tourist police officer who was the only one in the police office who spoke no English), but we also did not expect that the police officer would know prior to our saying so on what trolley and at what stop our wallets were taken.  Thanks to the Quito police for not warning passengers with helpful signs or, I don´t know, taking one of the million of officers everywhere else and assigning them to this particular station.  Fortunately nothing of huge value was lost, and at least we can roundly say that our travel experience was well rounded :)

But, later in the day, we took a taxi and without a proper wallet, two dollars and my room key had fallen out into the back seat when I left.  The taxi driver got out and ran a block to return BOTH the key and the two dollars.  Then, later that day we met a rabbi in the mall of Quito whose happiness to meet other Jews in Quito ran very deep.  By all accounts, this day was one of great interest!  Things have a strange way of balancing out.

New Year´s Eve Mayhem, Shrek Burns

  While in the Galapagos, we had the chance to see Ecuadorian culture up close when we went ashore to the small 7,000 person town of San Cristobal to celebrate New Year´s eve.  People were all out with their children at 11 pm dressed in their finest.  The girls had dresses that would rival those from prom.  Kids ran around throwing fire crackers at each other and in public bathrooms while the sea lions on the beach burped and bellowed about their disturbed sleep.  A public showing of Shrek was playing in the park while a life size paper mache statue set of all of the main characters lingered nearby.  In fact, all along the street there were dioramas of cartoon characters such as Woody from Toy Story and Hellboy as well as representations of people and events that memorialized the previous year for better or worse. Some mache dolls were of disliked politicians and some were representations of bad fires that had happened in 2010.  Unfortunately, at midnite, all was not going well for Shrek.  For at 12:00 and the New Year, the effigy burning commenced and bonfires lit up of the city streets.  The toxic smell of burning plastic and paint lasted for only as long as it took the youngsters to throw fire crackers in the fire. It was mayhem and picture that I took of the event looked like an enormous riot was taking place.  But, as soon as the innocent Pixar creations were nothing but ash, and the kids tired of putting their limbs on the line for the sake of a loud bang, the sea lions were at peace once again and everyone still dressed as if they were going to a state dinner went out to eat.  The Ecuadorian New Year´s eve.

Effigy burning.

Someone committing Woody to the fire.

It looks just like a crazy riot!  HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Evolution at Play

   Scientifically, the Galapagos is a haven for biologists.  Evolution is literally everywhere. Yes, there are the finches whose beak sizes vary according to what type of seeds they eat, which prompted Darwin to propose Natural Selection (modern researches have even measured how the beaks of the finches change size over generations in response to harsh environmental pressures such as droughts!).  But, each island with its handful of creatures and different micro climates and vegetation has animals that have evolved to adapt to the environment.  For example, the marine iguana on the island with pale stones has become pale over the years.  Unfortunately, evolution today may be caused less by nature and more by the approximately 120,000 visitors to the islands each year and the many introduced species that threaten to eat or out compete the natives for food.  Even on our visit, there were less penguins and no flamingos on the islands that we saw (this could be a cyclical thing, or it might be the gradual destruction of the Galapagos as it currently is).  So, my advice, go soon if you want to see things closer to the way nature caused them to evolve. 

An example of evolution, this is a red-footed boobie.

And this is a blue-footed boobie!

Galapagos Tortoises...My 1st Grade Dream

  Ever since I wrote a report and made a diarama out of a shoebox in 1st grade about the amazing Galapagos Tortoise, I have wanted to meet one.  When I finally had the chance, I relished every moment.  First, Galapagos tortoises are rare. In fact, the giant tortoise of the Galapagos ilk can only be found in one other island across the world, although fossils show that giant tortoises were all over the world millennia ago.  In fact, there were originally 300,000 tortoises on the Galapagos until pirates, whalers, and others stored them alive on their ships for food for months at a time, exploiting the amazing ability of tortoises to go without water and food for a long while.  The tortoise can be over 500 lbs and lives inside a shell that it creates and grows over time (there are even rings on the shell that one can count up until age 40 to determine one´s age).  Scratching a tortoise on its shell is even enjoyed by those tortoises who are acclimated to humans.  Here is the kicker.  How old are the big turtles?  No one knows!  All that we know is that we have seen tortoises live in unnatural conditions for over 175 years! But today these poor endangered animals who might have met Darwin on his visit do not even have a safe enough environment to lay their eggs in.  Introduced rats eat their eggs while goats out compete them for food and generally taunt them (pictures actually show goats standing on tortoises to reach higher food sources).  Here is where people actually help.  A research station goes out and finds eggs of giant tortoises and brings them to an incubator, hatches them, and raises them until them are ¨rat proof¨ in size around age 3.  This process is remarkably successful and is progressing the Galapagos to have new populations of these gorgeous creatures.  And, the great by product of this effort is the ability for tourists to see baby tortoises, all 3 inches of them!  These tiny little guys are very strange in that they look like clones of their burly old parents right after birth.  Benjamin Button would be at home.  Our experience with the tortoises brought us up close, and as long as we made no sudden movements the tortoises would neither hiss nor retract into their shells.  Let's hope that efforts continue to bring back this endangered species!

Tired turtles.

Ethan and turtles!

Yum, vegetables!

Baby turtles!

Michelle turtle.

The Land Before Time 364...Coming To Theaters Near You!

   That´s not true, actually.  The Galapagos are not really going any place any time soon (except perhaps by growing bigger as their volcanoes continue to erupt). But if the beleaguered and venerable Land Before Time cartoon series ever wants to make a live movie, these Ecuadorian islands are the perfect place for them!  The scenery, animals, and remote locale feel Jurasic as much as they look even more so.  Let me paint the scene for you... there are over a dozen different islands some of which are large enough for multiple active volcanoes and a 30,000 person town to inhabit and some are so small that the 500 meter dash would result in a splash ending if the island were hosting.  To get to each island requires anywhere from 3 hours to two days on a boat.  We stayed for 10 days on a boat exploring an island every morning and evening.  Between island visits, we snorkeled in the crystal clear waters with sharks, rays, sea turtles, and tuna.  

A ray underwater, there were sharks around here too (although rays are actually just sharks with enlarged fins).

  What were on these islands that made us want to explore more than one?  Each island either had one or two unique animals on them or a unique environment in which to watch the behavior of the animals up close. I do mean up close, often sea lions (the most abundant creature on the islands) would belly flop on our path or jump in the small boat that ferried us to islands while we were eating a meal on the main ship for an afternoon siesta.  

Sea lion cubs are ADORABLE!

   What are the animals like?  Well, first there are the mini-godzillas. No, I am serious.  Godzilla was modeled after the mug of the marine iguanas who tend to lie on each other´s backs and bob their heads up and down in jerky movements that turn each other on.  

Japan is next for this one!

The iguanas are everywhere.

   Fortunately, they are only about 1 foot long and when our presence bothered them, rather than destroy us with fire, they started sneezing in our general direction spraying us with the salty mucous that was emptied from their salt glands.  Sometimes, beside the marine iguanas, slightly larger and often multi-colored (red, green, beige, black, and orange) land iguanas would wander by eating the yellow flowers of the cacti that dotted the islands.  Birds were also a mainstay of the paths that we walked.  Blue footed boobies performed their mating dance by lifting one of their audacious treads up in the air slowly and then the other.  The only penguin in Northern Hemisphere made an appearance, bravely defying any traditional wisdom that penguins only live in the cold.  Bright red crabs fought each other as they scurried over most rocks while 2 day old sea lions bellowed most pathetically to find their mothers and then proceeded to make the loudest suckling noises on record.  As a side note, sea lion mothers were not always happy to feed their little tikes resulting in some very hilarious tumbling, biting, additional pathetic child bellowing, and even some face slaps with flippers.  

SLAP!

  Just be glad that your two year old is not able to crawl on your face while you are napping. And then there were the turtles.  There were the sea turtles whose bedroom antics we were privy to (the mating process is done in the water and takes forever! 

  The poor female has to have her head underwater the whole time while the male clamps on top...enough said.) but they are common enough in the world.  It is the Galapagos Tortoise whose slow movements, scaly old-man faces, and general out-of-time-and-place aura places them as extras in Jurassic Park (see the next entry).   

Great Recipe for Ecuadorian Hot Sauce

This was the best hot sauce in the world!  A tree tomato is like a normal tomato except fruitier.  Look for them in pulp form in your nearest fru-fru grocery store.

5 units of hot peppers (medium sized between yellow and red as the chef explained it)
2 tree tomatoes
oil
small amount of finely chopped white onion to taste
cilantro to taste OR
perejil (parsley) to taste
300 mL water

Blend the tree tomato and the hot pepper together (I think this is when to add the hot peppers, the original recipe left out any mention of the hot peppers) and boil with the water.
Strain the boiled mixture to remove the seeds.
Blend with a little oil and add the white onion.
Chop the parsley and cilantro and add to the sauce.

Hot sauces from a market.

There are amazing new fruits to taste from the jungle!

Post Office Bay

   Even mailing postcards from around the world provides new travel experiences.  For example, many countries did not have postcards, or if they did, then the postcards were yellowed with age.  Some countries had postcards with pictures worse than your family’s old slides.  And some countries had postcards that were beautiful but cost at least $1.00 per card!  What about stamps?  Well, most places cost about $2.00 to mail abroad per stamp, except India, which cost less than it costs in the United States to send a DOMESTIC letter.  I don’t know who was footing the bill to have that one stamp cover the costs to mail through India, across the world, and then to a doorstep but it was pretty awesome.  Sometimes, stamps had to be purchased at the post office, but normally there were touristy shops where stamps could be procured at a 20% markup.  Ice cream convenience stores in Israel sold stamps, some tobacco shops in Rome, newsstands in China if you were able to speak Chinese to the owner,  and tourist shops in Galapagos sold stamps.  But nowhere had more interesting mail than Post Office Bay in the Galapagos.

  150 years ago, when the Galapagos were even more isolated from mainland South America than they are today, there was a barrel into which your pirate mail could be placed.  Then, any passing ship would pick the mail up and bring it to a harbor nearer to your port of delivery.  Generations and eras have passed, but the barrel still sounds.  Now, tourists write postcards and place them in the box that is located on the beach at Post Office Bay.  When other ships come in, they search for postcards from passengers’ hometown and then, lest the curse of the tortoise be placed upon you, you must HAND deliver the letter to the recipient when you return home.  Sadly, our letters will likely arrive home using this free service FASTER than the cheap service from India.