Enjoy...
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Final 2 video clips from Brazil
These were to big to upload until I reached a decent internet connection.
Enjoy...
Enjoy...
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
The city of beaches
Our visit to Rio de Janeiro has come to an end and we are now on our return trip back to St. Louis. So how was Rio, well we just loved it. We were lucky in that my family has Brazilian friends that live in Rio, and we stayed with my dads friend's daughter, Mayra who lives in the awesome beach suburb of Leblon, which is the next beach along from Ipanema Beach. So right off the bat, we were in the coolest part of the city, with the beach, great restaurants and views of Christ the Redeemer overlooking the city below. Our first night at Mayra's apartment we got invited to go out to a Samba School with her, her roommate and some other friends. The Samba School was one of the top 3 in the city and a really cool experience. Basically, the school was practicing for carnival that is coming up in February, which means you get the full ,musical experience and get to see the dancers in their costumes etc. It was packed, and the beat of the music was pumping, and even I was grooving along to the beat :-).
The next day Mayra's dad picked us up and we headed to Copacabana Beach to visit his apartment, pickup the rest of the family and then down to the Copacabana Fort (a personal favorite of my Dads) for breakfast while overlooking the beach. We also drove around the city getting the local must see guide. It was great to see Tony and his family as I have not seen him and Mayra since I was a small boy.
Later Danielle and I headed up the 2 cable cars that take you to the top of the famous Sugarloaf Mountain which offered amazing views of beautiful Rio. The cable car ride itself is quite scary as it runs along a 1400-meter route between the peaks of Pão de Açúcar and Cara de Cão.
We met my Dad when he got off his ship and went to a traditional Brazilian Steak House in Ipanema, the food was amazing, but so much :-). The next morning we met Dad again for breakfast and saw him on his way to the aiport. Then since we were in Copacabana we decided to walk along Copacabana, to Ipanema and then on to Leblon. It was a full days walk, but awesome. We got to see all the locals practicing football, others playing volleyball, surfing, amazing sand castles and much much more. When we got to Leblon we decided to hit the beach ourselves for the remainder of the afternoon.
Finally, yesterday we made the trip up to Christ the Redeemer, on top of Corcovado mountain, one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. This was awesome, the statue itself is huge and the 360 degree view of the city below is incredible.
In in all a great trip, but we are happy to be going home.
PS. When we got to the airport today, LAN airlines could not find our electronic tickets and we spent 2 hours trying to resolve the issue. Finally American Airlines fixed the problem, and then we were told that our flight from Santiago to Dallas was canceled. So another hour an a half later we got ourselves on a flight via Sao Paulo to Dallas and leave shortly... 6 months, 20 countries, 44 flights and this was the first cancellation, not so bad.
Take a look at all the video and pics I have uploaded.
Ryan
Monday, January 26, 2009
Rio is awesome!
Suger Loaf Mountain, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, originally uploaded by fromthevillage.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Never thought I would agree with Vogue Magazine....
Well I am sunburnt and happy to be so. We are on the island of Ilha Grande, south of Rio De Janerio which is a beautiful national park. However for the last 2 days we have had rain on and off, we get the sun, but not long enough to make a trek to one of the many beautiful spots on the island. Its a good thing our Pousuda is a beautiful spot and I can sit in my hammock and enjoy the view or I would be seriously bummed. Well this morning we woke to a beautiful clear blue sky and off we went to the beach, not just any beach, but what the locals say is the best beach in all of Brazil, Lopes Mendes beach. We had to find a boat to take us there as there is only one other way which is via a 5 hour hike.
The Lopes Mendes beach was actually voted one of the World’s 10 Most Beautiful Beaches by Vogue Magazine – its water is clear and shallow for quite a long way, presenting excellent surfing conditions and pristine sands. This meant we got to spend our day watching surfers go for it, doing some body surfing of my own, and just enjoying the visas and sound of crashing waves.
It was an awesome day.
Tomorrow we head back to Rio by boat, taxi, bus and taxi :-)
Ryan
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Argentina... living large in life and death
Picking up where D left off...
After Peru we headed to the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Now I wanted to come here for the meat, D had other reasons :-), but guess what we ate, "STEAKS THE SIZE OF MY ARM". The food is fantastic, and really cheep. Just like in Chile we stayed in a real up and coming neighborhood of the city, far away from hotels and tourists, giving us the real experience of Buenos Aires. Our accommodation was a guesthouse, a just beautiful, multistory home, built around a courtyard. If you are planning a visit, check it out http://www.gardenbuenosaires.com/
So besides enjoying the local restaurants, what did we do? Well, we found a "free walking tour of the city", actually they work for tips, but we knew this. We did 2 of their tours, the first was their evening tour in the aristocratic neighborhoods like Recoleta and Retiro. We were told a little about some of the families that built some of the more incredible buildings, but Danielle being a little bit of a busy body / social historian wanted to learn more. The second tour was in the afternoon and it was of the city center and the political history of Buenos Aires. We walked from the congress building to the Pink House, learning about past protests and other political movements, seeing lots of interesting buildings and statues along the way. (The Pink House is Argentina's version of the white house. Our tour guide even noted what balcony Evita stood at to give her famous speeches) The tours are run by a local brother and sister and were very enjoyable. Danielle and I also made a special trip to Recoleta Cemetery where Eva Perón "Evita" is buried. This place was crazy, a mini city of mausoleums, each one trying to outdo the other, most have have the ground floor room and stairs that descend below ground for more coffins. Really creepy stuff... and to top it all, most have glass doors, so you can peak in and see the coffins. Apparently there is one with glass coffins, but I could not find it :-). We walked the famous Calle Florida for shopping and had a milk shake at cafe Tortoni. The rest of the time we tried to enjoy the surroundings of our little guesthouse.
Our next journey took us north to the boarder with Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, the Port of Iguazu. We traveled all this way to see some of the worlds largest and most impressive waterfalls. We stayed as another local guesthouse which was great, a good thing because on the flight to Iguazu I started to feel ill, and on arrival all I wanted to do was sleep. That night I attempted a nice dinner in town, but 30 mins later was in a cab back to the house and in bed. In the morning I was still not good, so Danielle and a friend of the guesthouse owner took a car and drove to the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls. From what Danielle tells me, they had a great time and given her new friend was local and studying agriculture, D got lots of info on the rain forest. Danielle's words to describe the experience "100 times larger than Niagara, It was so large a panoramic picture still could not capture the whole scene. It was so amazing and the noise was deafening!" At lunch time D stopped back at the guesthouse and I figured, I came all this way I must try to see it, so we ventured to the Argentina side of the falls, and the "Devils Throat", and it was everything D had described, really awesome. The only problem, I was not awesome, the sun and walking was not a good idea and it was back to bed for me.
We spent our last night and day in Argentina at the Buenos Aires guesthouse again and now we are off to Rio (in fact by the time I post this we will be in Rio or maybe even Ilha Grande, an island south of Rio.
Check out the pics and video using the links below...
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ourdreamlist/
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/vanwykrl
9 days until we are back in the States. And one last thing re Buenos Aires, it is also the city of dog walkers, you see them everywhere (which D likes) and plastic surgery (its included in state health care coverage), so you do the math...
Ryan
After Peru we headed to the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Now I wanted to come here for the meat, D had other reasons :-), but guess what we ate, "STEAKS THE SIZE OF MY ARM". The food is fantastic, and really cheep. Just like in Chile we stayed in a real up and coming neighborhood of the city, far away from hotels and tourists, giving us the real experience of Buenos Aires. Our accommodation was a guesthouse, a just beautiful, multistory home, built around a courtyard. If you are planning a visit, check it out http://www.gardenbuenosaires.com/
So besides enjoying the local restaurants, what did we do? Well, we found a "free walking tour of the city", actually they work for tips, but we knew this. We did 2 of their tours, the first was their evening tour in the aristocratic neighborhoods like Recoleta and Retiro. We were told a little about some of the families that built some of the more incredible buildings, but Danielle being a little bit of a busy body / social historian wanted to learn more. The second tour was in the afternoon and it was of the city center and the political history of Buenos Aires. We walked from the congress building to the Pink House, learning about past protests and other political movements, seeing lots of interesting buildings and statues along the way. (The Pink House is Argentina's version of the white house. Our tour guide even noted what balcony Evita stood at to give her famous speeches) The tours are run by a local brother and sister and were very enjoyable. Danielle and I also made a special trip to Recoleta Cemetery where Eva Perón "Evita" is buried. This place was crazy, a mini city of mausoleums, each one trying to outdo the other, most have have the ground floor room and stairs that descend below ground for more coffins. Really creepy stuff... and to top it all, most have glass doors, so you can peak in and see the coffins. Apparently there is one with glass coffins, but I could not find it :-). We walked the famous Calle Florida for shopping and had a milk shake at cafe Tortoni. The rest of the time we tried to enjoy the surroundings of our little guesthouse.
Our next journey took us north to the boarder with Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, the Port of Iguazu. We traveled all this way to see some of the worlds largest and most impressive waterfalls. We stayed as another local guesthouse which was great, a good thing because on the flight to Iguazu I started to feel ill, and on arrival all I wanted to do was sleep. That night I attempted a nice dinner in town, but 30 mins later was in a cab back to the house and in bed. In the morning I was still not good, so Danielle and a friend of the guesthouse owner took a car and drove to the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls. From what Danielle tells me, they had a great time and given her new friend was local and studying agriculture, D got lots of info on the rain forest. Danielle's words to describe the experience "100 times larger than Niagara, It was so large a panoramic picture still could not capture the whole scene. It was so amazing and the noise was deafening!" At lunch time D stopped back at the guesthouse and I figured, I came all this way I must try to see it, so we ventured to the Argentina side of the falls, and the "Devils Throat", and it was everything D had described, really awesome. The only problem, I was not awesome, the sun and walking was not a good idea and it was back to bed for me.
We spent our last night and day in Argentina at the Buenos Aires guesthouse again and now we are off to Rio (in fact by the time I post this we will be in Rio or maybe even Ilha Grande, an island south of Rio.
Check out the pics and video using the links below...
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ourdreamlist/
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/vanwykrl
9 days until we are back in the States. And one last thing re Buenos Aires, it is also the city of dog walkers, you see them everywhere (which D likes) and plastic surgery (its included in state health care coverage), so you do the math...
Ryan
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Good food & a lost city
Hi All,
So... it has been a while since we have posted and some of you might have been wondering what happened. (Dawn ;-) ) Well this last part of journey has been jam packed with little down time. The few moments we had the time, the internet connection was slow, or it was used to upload pictures and video to free up space on the camera's memory. Now finally we are done uploading everything and we are overdo on a few posts: Chile, and Peru. Ryan will hit on Argentina while in the airports today.
Santiago, Chile
We only had two days and nights to explore this city, but it was enough to decide we would like to come back. Arriving at 7 am and feeling completely wrecked from our convoluted flight plans (Sydney to Los Angeles to Santiago with a 6 hr layover at LAX), we took a little nap and explored the neighborhood near our hostel. Bellavista, is a great little area a little like the CWE in St. Louis. An old urban area with quaint 3 to 4 story row houses, surrounded by cafes, restaurants and bars. Admittedly there is not much to do in this area except eat, drink and absorb the local life, but we were not up to much that day anyway. Our schedules being off we had a late dinner starting at 9:30 pm. However similar to Spain, this is just when the locals are starting to get ready to out for dinner, by 11 pm when we had finished there were like three groups of people stalking our outside table. The next day we did our own walking tour of Santiago. We went to the fine art museum, and the Museum Pre Columbo. We walked down a few pedestrian streets lined with local crafts to various plazas, then ventured in a few beautiful churches, and finally climbed two of Santiago's famous "hills," both topped with churches and one with a shrine to the virgin Mary. The Pre Columbo museum was one of our favorite museums. It is filled with artifacts of the various native civilizations that existed before Columbus's "discovery" of the new world. We ended the day with another great meal at an out door restaurant in our neighborhood. We would have liked to visit the sea side community of Valperaiso and a few wine estates, all just a few hours from Santiago, but we ran out of time. So next time we visit these sights are sure to be on our itinerary.
Cusco & Machu Picchu, Peru
So I know there is a lot to see in Peru, i.e. the Nazca Lines, Lake Titicaca, Machu Picchu etc... We would have liked seen it all, but let's face it if you can only fit one place in it would have to be Machu Picchu. We flew into Cusco, after paying a small fortune in airport taxes. (It did not matter that we were just transferring on route to another destination we were herded outside just so we would have to re-enter and pay more airport taxes.) We spent a day in Cusco both before and after leaving for Machu Picchu. Cusco, has the closest airport to Machu Picchu and it used to be the center of the Inca Empire. Most of the Inca city was destroyed by the Spanish but some "new" buildings were built using the remains of the old Inca buildings leaving intact original Inca walls (you can see these walls walking down the street). Other buildings were made out of the Inca ruins, so the same stones that were in Inca temples are in the building that average people use every day. The cathedral in Cusco was built on the sight of an Inca temple and is huge. It is comprised of three churches each with colorful frescos and ornately clothed statues. (Mary, Joseph, and other saint statues are dressed in real miniature clothes... weird) In the main church is the most amazing and beautiful carved wooden choir room. Cusco is Peru's 9th largest city but it seems so undeveloped by western standards. We took the train to Agues Callentes a town that is 10 minutes from the Machu Pichu ruins, we spent 2 days here, so we could explore Machu Picchu at our leisure. Machu Picchu is amazing, the 5 square miles ruins remain hidden in the side of a mountain till the very last moment. The ruins are so complete compared to Athens, Rome or other ancient cities. I could easily imagine daily life by mentally drawing in thatched roofs and crops in the surrounding agricultural terraces. The skill in which the city was created was inspiring. Gigantic boulders were put in place and then single stairwells were carved out of that same stone. All of the buildings were built with out any type of joining compound; just stacks of precision cut stones dry fitted together. Modern buildings today do not have the same craftsmanship. (Our modern buildings need cement to stay put.) On our 2nd day of exploring we were able to get the first bus to the ruins and it was inspiring to zig zag up the mountain road with the morning mist breaking over Machu Picchu. We were also able to secure 2 of the 400 tickets granted to climb Huayna Picchu. Huayna Picchu are small Inca ruins on a neighboring mountain peak that provide an excellent panoramic view of Machu Picchu bellow. The climb took us 2 hours up and about 1.5 hours down. It was steep and wet, since it had started to rain as soon as we were 20 minutes into our climb, but well worth the journey. We were even lucky enough for the rain to stop and the cloud to clear for a few minutes once we were on top so we could enjoy the view and take a few photos. All in all it was an amazing experience. In my opinion Machu Picchu is on the same level and the pyramids and the great wall. It is truly an amazing place.
So that is all for now. We will see you all soon.
Danielle
So... it has been a while since we have posted and some of you might have been wondering what happened. (Dawn ;-) ) Well this last part of journey has been jam packed with little down time. The few moments we had the time, the internet connection was slow, or it was used to upload pictures and video to free up space on the camera's memory. Now finally we are done uploading everything and we are overdo on a few posts: Chile, and Peru. Ryan will hit on Argentina while in the airports today.
Santiago, Chile
We only had two days and nights to explore this city, but it was enough to decide we would like to come back. Arriving at 7 am and feeling completely wrecked from our convoluted flight plans (Sydney to Los Angeles to Santiago with a 6 hr layover at LAX), we took a little nap and explored the neighborhood near our hostel. Bellavista, is a great little area a little like the CWE in St. Louis. An old urban area with quaint 3 to 4 story row houses, surrounded by cafes, restaurants and bars. Admittedly there is not much to do in this area except eat, drink and absorb the local life, but we were not up to much that day anyway. Our schedules being off we had a late dinner starting at 9:30 pm. However similar to Spain, this is just when the locals are starting to get ready to out for dinner, by 11 pm when we had finished there were like three groups of people stalking our outside table. The next day we did our own walking tour of Santiago. We went to the fine art museum, and the Museum Pre Columbo. We walked down a few pedestrian streets lined with local crafts to various plazas, then ventured in a few beautiful churches, and finally climbed two of Santiago's famous "hills," both topped with churches and one with a shrine to the virgin Mary. The Pre Columbo museum was one of our favorite museums. It is filled with artifacts of the various native civilizations that existed before Columbus's "discovery" of the new world. We ended the day with another great meal at an out door restaurant in our neighborhood. We would have liked to visit the sea side community of Valperaiso and a few wine estates, all just a few hours from Santiago, but we ran out of time. So next time we visit these sights are sure to be on our itinerary.
Cusco & Machu Picchu, Peru
So I know there is a lot to see in Peru, i.e. the Nazca Lines, Lake Titicaca, Machu Picchu etc... We would have liked seen it all, but let's face it if you can only fit one place in it would have to be Machu Picchu. We flew into Cusco, after paying a small fortune in airport taxes. (It did not matter that we were just transferring on route to another destination we were herded outside just so we would have to re-enter and pay more airport taxes.) We spent a day in Cusco both before and after leaving for Machu Picchu. Cusco, has the closest airport to Machu Picchu and it used to be the center of the Inca Empire. Most of the Inca city was destroyed by the Spanish but some "new" buildings were built using the remains of the old Inca buildings leaving intact original Inca walls (you can see these walls walking down the street). Other buildings were made out of the Inca ruins, so the same stones that were in Inca temples are in the building that average people use every day. The cathedral in Cusco was built on the sight of an Inca temple and is huge. It is comprised of three churches each with colorful frescos and ornately clothed statues. (Mary, Joseph, and other saint statues are dressed in real miniature clothes... weird) In the main church is the most amazing and beautiful carved wooden choir room. Cusco is Peru's 9th largest city but it seems so undeveloped by western standards. We took the train to Agues Callentes a town that is 10 minutes from the Machu Pichu ruins, we spent 2 days here, so we could explore Machu Picchu at our leisure. Machu Picchu is amazing, the 5 square miles ruins remain hidden in the side of a mountain till the very last moment. The ruins are so complete compared to Athens, Rome or other ancient cities. I could easily imagine daily life by mentally drawing in thatched roofs and crops in the surrounding agricultural terraces. The skill in which the city was created was inspiring. Gigantic boulders were put in place and then single stairwells were carved out of that same stone. All of the buildings were built with out any type of joining compound; just stacks of precision cut stones dry fitted together. Modern buildings today do not have the same craftsmanship. (Our modern buildings need cement to stay put.) On our 2nd day of exploring we were able to get the first bus to the ruins and it was inspiring to zig zag up the mountain road with the morning mist breaking over Machu Picchu. We were also able to secure 2 of the 400 tickets granted to climb Huayna Picchu. Huayna Picchu are small Inca ruins on a neighboring mountain peak that provide an excellent panoramic view of Machu Picchu bellow. The climb took us 2 hours up and about 1.5 hours down. It was steep and wet, since it had started to rain as soon as we were 20 minutes into our climb, but well worth the journey. We were even lucky enough for the rain to stop and the cloud to clear for a few minutes once we were on top so we could enjoy the view and take a few photos. All in all it was an amazing experience. In my opinion Machu Picchu is on the same level and the pyramids and the great wall. It is truly an amazing place.
So that is all for now. We will see you all soon.
Danielle
Friday, January 16, 2009
More YouTube Loving
So I have a wicked internet connection at our guesthouse in Buenos Aires, so here is some more video from our journey...
To see more go to:
http://www.youtube.com/user/vanwykrl
To see more go to:
http://www.youtube.com/user/vanwykrl
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
House keeping
I just uploaded a bunch of pics from Australia onto flickr while in the airport...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ourdreamlist/
We are on our way to Argentina now.
Cheers
Ryan
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ourdreamlist/
We are on our way to Argentina now.
Cheers
Ryan
Friday, January 9, 2009
Video from our 11 dives on the great barrier reef, Cairns, Australia
Part 1 of 3:
Part 2 of 3:
Part 3 of 3:
Bubble ... Bubble ... Bubble
Part 2 of 3:
Part 3 of 3:
Bubble ... Bubble ... Bubble
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Videos
OK, so the 2 videos I just uploaded are too long for youtube, so they have been removed. I will edit them and re-upload as soon as I can.
Cheers
Ryan
Cheers
Ryan
Monday, January 5, 2009
The Rock and the Reef
Hi All,
The Great Barrier Reef
Our trip to Australia would not have been complete with out a trip to Uluru (Ayer's Rock) or the great barrier reef. Uluru is the aboriginal name for Ayer's Rock.
Uluru
We flew into Alice Spring and drove 4.5 hours to our hotel just out side Uluru National Park. We had fun on the drive and the scenery was amazing, the bright oranges and deep reds of the outback contrasted beautifully against the blue sky. (However if you plan to make this trip on your own be sure to secure a rental car with unlimited miles. We could not find one but we know others who had and unfortunately our over milage allowance at the end was quite large.) We arrived in time to see the sunset over the rock and woke early the next day to to see the sun rise. We went back to our back packer hotel where we made our selves breakfast, took a little nap and then went back to the rock for a few hikes. Unfortunately we could not climb the rock because the heat and high winds had caused that hike to close, but we enjoyed the many other hikes around the rock for an up close view of the crevices, water holes and aboriginal rock paintings. We also ventured right next door to the Olgas (I can't remember their aboriginal
name).
This unique sandstone formation, has 22 separate round domes that just just right out of the earth. We did a few hikes here too then headed back to the hotel for a well deserved swim. We loved the natural beauty of the sight. It amazed us how flat everything was yet there out of nowhere, sprang Uluru and the Olgas.
This unique sandstone formation, has 22 separate round domes that just just right out of the earth. We did a few hikes here too then headed back to the hotel for a well deserved swim. We loved the natural beauty of the sight. It amazed us how flat everything was yet there out of nowhere, sprang Uluru and the Olgas.
The Great Barrier Reef
As some of you know Ryan and I like to scuba dive, so as with most scuba divers the great barrier reef is another dream. We spent 3 days and 2 night on a dive boat with about 18 other divers on the outer reef. We did a total 11 dives, two of which were night dives and it was amazing. Living in Missouri we don't get to dive as much as we would like so this was chance to really get into it. After the first few dives Ryan and I were able to perfect our underwater buddy communication and spend a good deal of time under water appreciating the totally different world down bellow. We found Nemo, a lion fish, sharks, turtles, eals and allot of other bright beautiful fishes and coral. It was some of the best diving we have done and we got to meet some great people. Our new friend's Donna and Gary even were nice enough to share their video of the dives with us.
Well that is it for now next we are off to Chile. We will be home soon and I hope to see you all soon.
bye for now,
D
Among the First to Ring in the New Year
Hi All,
It has always been a dream of Ryan's to be in Sydney to celebrate New Years. As child he watched all of the world's cities different celebrations on the TV. Sydney, always being the first was his favorite. Now, I and 1.5 million other people have had the opportunity to share in his dream and it was awesome!!! We had done our research and scouted out the perfect location, Mrs. Mac Guire's Chair, in the Botanical Garden, however everything we had learned indicated we needed to get an early start. Sydney gates off all of the major viewing sites, and only opens them up at certain times so, crowds can be regulated, bags can be checked etc.. We got to our gate at 8:30 am, we knew there would be a line, but we never expected it to be that long so soon. At 10 am our gates opened and we began inching our way to the opening. Finally at 1:30 pm, we made it through the gate. We ran hoping there would still be room for us in the free reserved section along the water front (only 3000 of the 25000 people for our site were allowed in the reserved section). We were lucky enough to be last people to make it!!!! We put down our blanket to insure a view of the city, the opera house and the harbor bridge and then cracked open our cooler to have cold drinks and some lunch. It was a long hot day but we were well rewarded with the best free view of the fireworks.
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