Cuzco - Our Spectacular Home for a Week

Cusco, the capital of the Incas and the longest continuously inhabited city in South America, became our home for the week. We booked a room in an apartment-hotel on the hillside of San Blas reachable only on foot via an unending set of stairs. You would not think stairs would matter to our athletic Colorado family, but Cusco is at 11,000 feet.  We soon became accustomed to the elevation and settled in our new home.

We all attended 4 hours of class a day at Amauta Spanish School.  Jay and Christy took classes together and the boys each had their private instructors. The teachers were wonderful and they also had several who were great at teaching kids. They played games, did drawings and went on field trips to the chocolate and cultural museums.  We still butcher the language, but know enough to get around.  We will be in Spanish speaking countries for 2 months and hope to take another week of Spanish in Chile. This is the way to learn a language!

Cusco is a vibrant travelers paradise and reminds us of Nepal. It is an old city with narrow cobblestone streets, splendid churches, Inca ruins and centuries of history.  Not  to mention that it is the "Navel of the World", according to Incan beliefs.  Most of the buildings appear decrepit from the outside with clay walls and tin roofs, but inside are quite lovely. Because of its elevation, it is chilly and the buildings are only heated with space heaters (because of the clays walls).  Even though it is summer in Cusco everyone lives in their alpaca sweaters, scarfs, hats, mittens and socks.

Cusco caters to the trekkers and visitors headed to Machu Picchu.  Diverse restaurants abound that serve the local drink of Pisco Sours, which taste like a margarita but is made from grapes. Shops line the streets and alleyways selling everything from junky trinkets to high end baby alpaca wool clothing. 

Our days in Cusco were spent in Spanish class until 12:30, followed by excellent lunches and exploration of ruins, churches and museums or just relaxing in the apartment. A highlight was our climb to Sacsaywaman (pronounced like sexy woman!) above Cusco.  This immense ruin was once a religious and military base for the Incan people. Their building techniques were impressive as they assembled large rocks together without mortar and in a way that withstands the frequent earthquakes. Luke and Ryan enjoyed exploring some dark caves and a natural slide of polished rock at the ruins.

Departure and Lima - A Wonderful Starting Point

We set out on our big adventure early on a Thursday morning.  Thanks to Dunbar for getting up VERY early to get us there.  In contrast to our last departure from DIA, we felt like we didn't have any luggage.  Since we will be traveling from country to country without a home base we tried to pack as lightly as possible.  In the end, we managed to get our luggage down to a daypack and a suitcase each.  3 of the suitcases are carry-ons (European-sized!) and the last one is slightly larger than carry on (since we have to check one with toiletries)!

We arrived in Lima expecting a big city that we could not wait to get out of.  Instead, we fell in love with Lima's people, food and seaside parks. Lima skyrocketed to our favorite city in South America and is a place we would be happy to live (not that we are leaving Boulder).

Peru's people are warm and welcoming and have been making sure we understand their culture and have the best experience in their country. They are even patient with our limited Spanish, which is quickly improving due to daily opportunities to practice (if we want to eat or get anywhere)!

Most restaurants are run by a passionate owners who attend to our every need. If we have not tried one of the Peruvian specials, they bring us out samples. So far we haven't convinced ourselves to try cuy, which are guinea pigs and the local delicacy.  It is hard for the kids to eat their class pet, but the alpacas have not been so lucky.

We found the best food and restaurants in the world in Lima.  The food is a fusion of flavors from many cultures and the Peruvians take advantage of all their different climates to grow fresh "everything."  For example they have 3,000 different types of potatoes.  Our favorite restaurants were La Mar, which took service to a whole new level with their use of iPhone technology, and Huaca Pucllana Restaurant that overlooks illuminated pre-Incan ruins.

We stayed in Miraflores, a suburb of Lima, which has a beautiful park system that runs along the ocean for miles. We strolled along the pathways stopping for the kids to join in a game of soccer and to have an early dinner at a restaurant on an a ocean dock that over looks the surfers playing in the sea.  Hang gliders soared above, except for the one that crashed by the beach making us glad we did not pay to take a ride.  Lima was a pleasure to stop in and we even look forward to visiting again as we leave Peru for Chile at the beginning of February.  Next stop: Cusco (and Machu Picchu)!

Boulder - Finally, Really Home!

We have come home to Boulder for 3 weeks to enjoy the holidays and regroup before heading out again on our own for 4+ months.  It was a joyous occasion to walk into our house and be greeted enthusiastically by our golden retriever, Evie, and our cat, Sierra.  Our friends Julia and Dunbar are staying at our home and have done an amazing job of caring for it and our furry girls. After the ship and the various hotel rooms we had stayed in, our house feels like a palace. 

It is wonderful to have our own space and to be able to easily escape into nature on walks, hikes and bike rides.  We love traveling, and although it is very broadening, it is also oddly confining – especially on a ship. 

Luke & Ryan returned to school for 3 days before the winter break and were able to reconnect with friends and experience all the structure that they missed (and we missed!) over the semester.  Luke celebrated his 10^th birthday at our house with 16 kids – who all participated in a nerf gun battle.  So much for peace and quiet!

After laying low for the holidays and escaping into the mountains for some snowshoeing at the ranch, we are beginning to look at the next phase of our journey.  

Jay has become a master of “around the world” airline tickets and we have our next destinations mapped out.  After a dip in travel enthusiasm as we became comfortable at home again, we have now been re-energized by the possibilities of our upcoming destinations.   We never imagined we could experience such a variety of places and cultures in the short four months ahead.  On January 10th, we will hit the road again to visit these amazing places:

·      Peru (Machu Picchu) & Bolivia (1 month)

·      Chile & Argentina’s Patagonia (1 month)

·      Easter Island (3 days)

·      Tahiti & Bora Bora (sorry honeymooners - 8 days)

·      New Zealand – Queenstown (1 week)

·      Australia, Melbourne & Tasmania (1 week)

·      Singapore (1 week visiting friends)

·      Thailand (1 month to explore Northern Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Bangladesh and hopefully Bhutan…a huge wish list)

·      Sri Lanka (6 days)

·      Jordan (5 days)

·      Turkey (1 week)

·      Denver – home sweet home on May 20

    We look forward to reuniting with all of you on our return.  Until then, follow us on here.  You can sign up to receive email alerts when we post. Look for the "Follow by email" field on the left side of this page! 

Ship Life - It's a VOYAGE, not a cruise!!

Both times we’ve returned from our Semester at Sea (SAS) adventures, friends ask us what our favorite place was.  After struggling to choose just one place, we have realized that the ship itself is among the most memorable places on Semester at Sea, although it seldom gets the attention the ports get.  We spend over ½ of our time aboard our floating home surrounded by the students, faculty, staff and families that have become our lifelong friends. 

Study Hall!

People often think of SAS as a cruise and it is almost hard to convey just how different it is from a cruise.  In fact, the word “cruise”, along with “boat”, are dirty words on board – it’s a “voyage” and a “ship”!  On the ship, we immerse ourselves into campus life and integrating into the close-knit community.  The ship was not only our floating bedroom, it was also our classroom, our exercise room, our dining room, our social life, our tranquility and basically - our community & town.   Some of our favorite times on the journey were during the long stretches on the ship.  From Cape Town to Buenos Aires we sailed for 12 days without seeing land, and from Rio to Manaus we sailed for 9 days along Brazil’s coast and far up the Amazon River. 

Wine on our balcony with Matt and Andrea

On the ship we learned and socialized with passionate professors, negotiators that helped end Apartheid and even the US Ambassador to Brazil.  Not to mention the time we get to spend in and out of class with the amazing students on board – there is a lot of inspiration to be found in the college students on board.  We learned by listening and studying on the ship, and following that with opportunities to experience first-hand what we learned in class by doing things like staying in townships in Cape Town or in hammocks in the Amazon jungle.  Travel Rule #4 from our Global Studies professor was: “The more you know, the more interesting it is” and it is certainly true in international travel.  He also suggests that your age should never exceed the number of countries that you have visited – a luxury for sure but a worthy goal.  And you can always shift the focus to states or cities or concerts or whatever is your passion.  The point is to get out and experience things.

80th birthday on board!

Our experience was so much improved by developing relationships and sharing time with our fellow voyagers - students, faculty, staff and crew who are now part of our extended family.  And our learning was broadened so much by seeing the journey through others’ eyes – whether that came through class discussions, post port reflections or cocktails while watching the sunset.  We’d like to thank all of our shipmates for making our time with you a rich, rewarding experience. 

Pictures speak a thousand words.  We have thousands of photos we would like to share with you, but here are just a few. 

We crossed 0°, 0°!  It makes us Emerald Shellbacks!!

Leprechaun!  Halloween in the Atlantic!

Small Kids!

Big Kids!

Alumni Ball

Every once in a while it just seems like a cruise!

This takes getting used to every night!  OK, maybe not!

Guatemala - A Great Finale to 4 Months of Travel

After finishing our Semester at Sea voyage, we sandwiched in 10 days in Guatemala before heading back to Boulder over the holidays.  Guatemala was the “bonus addition” to the first half of our year of travel, but it turned out to be one of our favorite countries.  One of our goals for Guatemala was to jumpstart learning Spanish (after too many years of French), since we can use it at home in Colorado and during our future travels in South America.  To help reach our goal, we enrolled in a weeklong Spanish course in the town of San Pedro along Lake Atitlan. 

We had an adventurous start to our time in Guatemala.  Our driver met us at “Arrivals” and took us out to his tiny, beat-up car for the trip to San Pedro.  It was so small that, despite traveling light, we had to strap our bags on the roof rack and cram ourselves into the car.  It was so beat-up that we only made it about a mile before the car died and left us stranded in a roundabout.  Armed guards joined us in the dark on the curb as we waited for a solution.  After about 1 hour, our tour operator convinced a taxi driver to take us the “four hours” to San Pedro.   He had a bigger and more durable looking taxi, but it was not a 4-wheel drive, which we would later learn is recommended. 

The three of us in the back seat appreciated our newfound space until the driver asked if his wife and daughter could join us so he would have company during the drive home.  We were so bewildered that at first we didn’t even understand his question since every seat was taken.  We suggested that it might not work out and averted having another two people join us (we still don’t know where they would have sat!). 

In the end, our 4-hour journey took 7½ hours and we arrived at our destination at 1:30 am after bottoming out over every speed bump (the speeds bumps weren’t high, the taxi was that low) and even crashing off the road at a hairpin turn.   Our kind host family welcomed us (yes – we were doing a home stay) and showed us to our room.  We thought we were staying at a room in their home, but their home was a converted hostel.  Our neighbors, who arrived back from the bars just as we were settling in a little after 2AM, were four twenty-year-old-guys whose rooms looked like they had been there a long time.  We crawled into our questionably clean beds and awoke a few hours later, cold and fully clothed, to one of the most striking landscapes we have ever seen.

Lake Atitlan is stunningly beautiful and the town of San Pedro lures you into blissful peace.  We moved to a hotel with rooms right on the lake and decided we could stay there for months.  The lake’s ducks and other birds played a symphony all day as we lounged in hammocks (not overnight – see our blog post for Manaus!) and studied Spanish in our room.  San Pedro is the perfect travelers’ mecca.  It has some of the best food in the world and is populated by some of the kindest people you’ll meet anywhere.  

Three volcanoes tower above the lake and numerous other peaks surround the lake.  One afternoon, we naively decided to climb a neighboring peak called Indian Nose (or Nostro Maya).  The whole way up, Ryan kept asking us why we hated him so much and made him do the hike.  (What is hiking in Peru and Bhutan going to be like with our kids!?).  Turns out we climbed 2,000 feet in less than two hours so maybe Ryan was partially right to be concerned!

We took classes at the San Pedro Spanish Institute where, for $100/week each, we had individual tutors for four hours each day.  Jay was the prize student and learned more Spanish than the rest of us.  Ryan had the most fun since he was too active to sit down and got to learn by roaming the town and playing soccer with his tutor.  Christy learned the most about Guatemala by talking to her tutor for hours about the civil war and the plight of the people today.  Luke managed to partake in a little of all of the above.

We pried ourselves away from San Pedro to see a few more towns before we returned to the US.  We took a boat across the lake to Panajachel, a shopping mecca, before heading to Antigua, Guatemala’s former capital.  We enjoyed the old city by strolling the cobble stone streets, eating wonderful food and learning how to make chocolate!

Fort Lauderdale - "Home" for a day!

The last few days at sea were filled with activity.  We had the alumni ball and a series of reflection sessions to allow people to look back at all they had seen and experienced over the last few months.  Hallways and common areas were full with people exchanging contact information, trading maps that took the place of yearbooks for writing personal notes and huddling for hugs.  Not to mention all the packing that everyone had to do!





As we awoke to watch our approach into our final port, Fort Lauderdale, competing emotions swirled within us.  The decks were filled with students.  New friends hugging and sharing promises to stay in touch, tears falling as the reality of leaving this remarkable community became more concrete.  Meanwhile, parents waited anxiously for their children on the pier.  There is no doubt they would be confused by the sadness mixed with joy on their child’s face but they would soon figure it out as they heard more about the remarkable friendships that had been formed during the voyage.  Fort Lauderdale marked the end of the trip, the end of the adventure, the beginning of reintegration back into normal life…for the rest of the passengers.

Not for us yet…first we had one more country to visit.  We were heading to Guatemala for 10 days to see another culture and study Spanish before returning to Boulder.  We hugged our friends goodbye and lugged our boxes and bags from the terminal to the UPS man to send home as much of our luggage as possible.  With only a few suitcases and backpacks, we enjoyed one evening in the US before catching our flight to Guatemala.