After a year and a half living in a Volkswagen van, we are in desperate need of some new music.  Ana has been attempting to keep me entertained by singing her Romanian car trip songs, but they are only bits and pieces of what she can remember from childhood.  Help me!  If you have some favorite MP3s, please send them our way.  We like just about anything.  You can attach them to an email (10.0 Mb or less) and forward them to the address below.  Our tastes are pretty eclectic, so don’t hold back - send us whatever you’re listening to and like.  It doesn’t matter if it’s old or new - we’d love to hear it.  Thanks.  Here are a few songs we like that we started listening to here.  They may take a few minutes to load once you click on them.

Mana - Manda Una Seña

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Manu Chao - Radio Bemba

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Manu Chao - Bienvenida a Tijuana

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Manu Chao - Clandestino

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Manu Chao - Mr. Bobby

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Manu Chao - Raining in Paradise

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Green Day - 21 Guns

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Hi everybody!  Sorry it’s been such a long time since our last post!  We’re still on the road and doing well.  We are currently in El Calafate, Argentina.  Mango is cruising along as dutifully as ever.  We spent 3 weeks driving from Chaiten, Chile south on the Carretera Austral (Chile’s southern highway) to Villa O’Higgins.  Chaiten was the site of a destructive volcano eruption a year ago.  The town is still struggling to recover, and is in a battle-of-wills between the remaining citizens and the government that wants to relocate them.  Aside from the destruction of Chaiten, the scenery along the mostly unpaved Carretera Austral was absolutely spectacular and we met a ton of great people.

The Carretera Austral is a bit isolated, so we enjoyed the company of several hitchhikers along the way.  A lot of the hitchhikers here are from Israel.  Most of them are in their early twenties and just finished their mandatory three years of military service.  They scatter to all corners of the world for a few months of adventure before heading back to Israel to look for jobs.  We met Max, Kobi, Adan, and Gil from Israel, Stefano from Italy, and Olivia, Thomas, and Mary from Alaska.  Ana was getting worried because previous to our new company, I was apparently getting lonely and starting to talk to Mango like a crazy man!  We also enjoyed a great New Year’s with a wonderful family in Villa O’ Higgins, Chile.  Thanks to Audina and Omar for their hospitality and for including us in their family’s holiday celebrations.  Thanks also to our hitchhiking visitors for the company and good times over the last few weeks. 

Here’s some recent photos.  We’ll try to post more after we visit the Perito Moreno glacier tomorrow.  It’s one of the only glaciers in the world still growing instead of shrinking.  We hope you can make it here to southern Argentina while it’s still around!

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We recently added three new photo galleries.  You can click on any of the photos below to view the galleries or you can always access them by clicking the Photos tab in the upper right corner of the website. 

The first gallery is from our time in Neuquen with the Casas Family, Guillermo and Gladys.  In Neuquen we visited a couple dinosaur museums as this area of South America is famous for dinosaur fossils.  It was here that the largest carnivorous dinosaur was discovered, the Giganotosaurus Carolini.  We also enjoyed going to a BBQ or Asado as it is called here in Argentina.  We met the Casas family camping last year at San Martin de los Andes.  It was a nice reunion with them.

The second gallery is of our time in Esquel.  Esquel is where we left our car Mango at the Gonzalez home for the last 6 months.  The Gonzalez family, dad Alfredo, mom Jeni, daughter Veronica and puppy Wester, kindly hosted us for several days at their house.

The third gallery is at Parque Nacional Los Alerces.   This was our first true camping after leaving Esquel.  We had great weather and enjoyed a couple days in the park

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Today we simultaneously rode the coolest and scariest ferry I’ve ever been on. The plan for the day was to drive from Copacabana, Bolivia, to the capitol city of La Paz. By taking the ferry at Ancoamaya, the distance between cities is relatively short, only 95 miles. The other way to get to La Paz from Copacabana is to drive back across the border into Peru at the nearby town of Yunguyo. We would then need to backtrack through Peru for about 2 hours, and then reenter Bolivia at the southern edge of Lake Titicaca, at the border town of Desaguadero. This second route involves a lot more distance, time, and all the hassles that two border crossings usually entail. So, hearing from other travelers that the ferry ride at Ancoamaya would be an experience to remember, off we went! The pictures below pretty much sum up the trip!  You can click on the map or any of the pictures below to make them bigger, once the full webpage loads.

To see additional pictures from our trip on the ferry, click here Sketchy Ferry Pictures.

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Lake Titikaka or Titicaca as it is spelled in Bolivia is the largest lake in South America.  It is surrounded by enormous mountains and sits at an elevation of 12,500 feet.  It is very clean, a crystal blue that reaches 144 miles long and 60 miles wide. The lake and specifically the Island of the Sun, Isla del Sol, are thought to be the birthplace of the sun as well as birthplace of the first Incas in the Inca religion. We took a boat tour out to Isla del Sol and walked along the ridge from its north end to the south where the boat picked us up again.

Along the way we saw some ruins. We saw the ruins of the rooms where beautiful virgin women were housed before being sacrificed as offerings to mother earth and the sun. The pre-Inca culture sacrificed women, cutting out their hearts, holding up the beating heart as an offering to the sun and the body was sunk in the lake as an offering to mother earth. When the Incas arrived on the lake, they changed this tradition of sacrificing female virgins to sacrificing llamas instead. After seeing the remains of the chamber walls, like a labyrinth of rooms, we saw the stone sacrificial table with stone chairs set all around it. All these ruins were located on the north end of the island. From here we walked on top of the ridge looking out on both sides at the blue waters surrounding us. The island was dry with little vegetation although in some parts people were cultivating the land. We saw more typical animals of the area such as llamas, sheep and donkeys. Chad describes the scenery as similar to the Greek islands.

Back in Copacabana, the same celebration for the Virgin of Candelabra that was taking place in Puno, was also taking place in Copacabana. But in Copacabana, people were dressed differently, less colorful, men wore suits and women dresses. The women seemed to partake in the celebration and drinking more than they did in Peru. People were dancing in the streets and several different bands were located in different parts of town, playing different music for people to gather and dance. I personally liked the music and celebration on the Bolivian side better than that in Puno, Peru.

In Copacabana we found a great camping spot at Hotel Gloria just one block away from the lake on the main street. It only cost us 30 bolivianos ($4) for the night and we had hot showers and WiFi.

To see additional pictures from our time in Copacabana, Bolivia click here Copacabana, Bolivia Pictures.

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I realize we are missing many posts between February and now, but I’m just going to forward to the present because realistically, it may be a while before we fill in the gaps. So, here we are, back in the great USA. I will recap just briefly to explain our brisk return home. About 3 monts ago, we were winding our way south in Argentina. We had just finished visiting the lakes region of Argentina which includes towns like San Martin de los Andes, La Angostura and San Carlos de Bariloche when we got some very bad news from home. My mother was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. It is terminal they say, but we are set to prove them all wrong. Anyway, with this tragic bit of news in our pockets, we decided to take a break from traveling and come home for a while. We parked Mango in the back yard of a friend, boarded a bus for the 24 hour bus ride to Buenos Aires where we tangoed for one night before we boarded a plane that brought us home. Now that was a long sentance, but that’s how I roll sometimes.

Chad flew home to Seattle for a couple weeks before he came out to Colorado to visit with my family. After 10 brilliant, wonderful days here in Colorado, sadly, he flew back to Seattle for a couple more weeks. He flew back to South America in June and is currently in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. He will have to give you the details on his travels as they unfold.

I have been staying with my parents since May, here in Colorado Springs. I am quite comfortable and enjoy their company. The month of May flew by as we concluded radiation treatments and had a lot of visitors for two weeks. Like I mentioned above, Chad flew in for 10 days and my brother, Dan, his wife, Margy and new daughter, Peri, flew in from New Hampshire for two weeks. We had a full house, full of love and activity. Peri is super. It was the first time all of us got to meet her and at 3.5 months, what can I say, I’m a proud aunt. I was also great seeing my brother and Margy, it had been a very long time since I saw them last. So, May was good. I was surrounded by family and mom seems to be doing better.

In June, mom started chemotherapy. It has been tough but she has been doing very well with it. She has had four chemotherapy sessions so far and is scheduled for two more. But before the next chemo session she will have a CAT scan to check her progress and determine the remainder of the treatment.

During my time at home, I have been primarily focusing on spending quality time with mom and dad. Mom is teaching me to cook and we do various crafting projects together. Dad and I spend time playing tennis, hiking and biking. I have to thank my friends here in town for supporting me during this time and welcoming me home. I have rejoined the volleyball community and enjoyed playing doubles in a few tournaments and on a team in a league. Also, I joined an ultimate frisbee team to get me running, which isn’t one of my strengths.

To keep up my Spanish language skills, I have found a Spanish conversation group that I attend on a weekly basis. And lastly, I am studying to get my Project Management Professional certification. All said and done, I’m keeping pretty busy and enjoying my time at home. BUT, I do miss my wonderful husband who is a trooper during this time apart and is supporting me from half way around the world. Chad, I love you!

To view more photos from our time at home in the USA click here: 2009 Summer in Colorado

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