Istanbul

Our first day in Istanbul we went to visit the Blue Mosque. On our way we stopped for juice. We had fresh orange and pomegranate juice. As we were getting up to leave a seagull pooped right on my dad’s head and then splattered on the rest of us. I hope it is good luck to get pooped on by a seagull, but I have my doubts.

We went to the Hagia Sophia, a church turned mosque that is a thousand years older than the Blue Mosque. It now no longer functions as a mosque and is only a museum. The ceiling used to be made up by a lot of mosaics, but after being restored much of it is painted. The big dome has been restored with mosaics, but it is constantly being worked on. When we visited there was a giant block of scaffolding going from the floor to the top of the dome. One really interesting thing for me was the ramp to the second floor. The ramp that we went up was made of slick stone, but the ramp that we went down had ridges on the stones. When we were in Jaipur, India we visited the Amber Fort. The Maharaja that lived there had many wives. The robes that the wives wore were so beaded and heavy that they had to use wheelchairs to get around. The ramps that they used were slick to go up and had ridges to go down. The ramps in these two places were very similar in shape also.

We also went to see the basilica cistern. They were first discovered when people said that they were getting water and fish out of holes in their basements. The underground reservoir was used to store water for the palace. Now you can go to visit and walk on elevated ground inside the cistern. We saw all kinds of little fish swimming in the shallow water.

So far Istanbul has been a magical city. I’m sorry to say that after our first lunch we struck out with food, but then again we aren’t willing to pay some prices. We leave this evening on an overnight bus to Cappadocia. Did you know that you can’t go to youtube in Turkey because someone posted something not nice about Ataturk (the founder of modern day Turkey), but for some reason I can still get it on my ipod. Go figure!

Flight of the Gibbon

The 45 minute mini bus ride and the non-English speaking welcome committee/driver did not make the Flight of the Gibbon seem very good at first. When we got dropped off at the trail head for what was supposed to be an hour and a half hike without a guide, we thought, “Way to welcome us!” Finally, we went to the little hut where they suited us up for our zip lining adventure.

Our first platform was on a very steep hill so we could walk on to it, but zip off the other side. The zip lining was incredible! There were 13 zip lines, 2 walking wooden bridges, and 3 ropes where you get lowered straight down. I found the bridges a little boring because all you do is walk across, nothing exciting. The ropes were fun, but all that you do is get lowered down and it took a long time to get all 8 people down. My favorite part was the actual zipping. I loved going backward upside down. The guide would help you by holding your harness while you “sit down”, then they let go. You grab your harness and pull yourself upside down. Then you can look at the people at the other platform while you are zipping.

All in all, the experience was incredible, and I would definitely do it again.

Cambodia at Second Glance

We took a bus yesterday from Phnom Penh. For the first time in my life I saw water buffalo. Being here reminds me a little bit of Ecuador, but then again, what could be more different?

Here they eat fried tarantulas, and when we made a brief stop on our bus a woman selling them tried to scare Eliot into buying one. My question is, how do you scare someone into eating something? Anyway, she thought she might have a little fun by putting a live tarantula on Eliot. He remained perfectly calm, and when we said that we did not want to buy a tarantula, fried or alive she took it off of him. Well, when we tried to walk away she tossed it on Eliot’s neck. That was when Eliot started to look at my mom like, “What is this woman doing to me?” We finally got away from the tarantula woman and back on the bus where we had to tell my dad the whole story.

The 6 hour bus ride was not that bad. It helped that my dad chose the air-conditioned bus, but my mom says that it wasn’t even an option. All for now.

Cambodia at First Glance

We arrived in Cambodia on an airline named Dragon Air, everything right now seems to have something involving a dragon. We got picked up by a man with a sign that said: John St. Clair to: Fancy G. H. Yes, our hotel or whatever you want to call it is called, The Fancy Guest House.

Our first impression was driving out of the airport parking lot. Now this is a small airport, so the parking lot is not so grande (big). We counted a total of 15 lizards, at night, driving out to the airport parking lot, in the car!

What more, it turns out that Elton John has stayed at The FGH. That’s not a big surprise, we are used to staying places where famous people have stayed. Hey, Caroline Kennedy and family stayed at our estancia in Argentina and so did Jimmy Buffet.

That’s it for now!

Glacier Perito Moreno: Way colder than the coast

When I heard that we were going to see a glacier I was thinking, “cool, a glacier, I’ve never seen one before, I bet it’s huge!” Apparently I had no idea how huge. After driving 45 minutes on a straight but thankfully paved road that turned into a curvy and then dirt-curvy road we got our first views of the glacier. We went to the main touristy area with all of the miradors and short little walks. They had recently built a new walkway that was nice. At the mirador itself the view was incredible! The glacier looked so tiny below me though I knew that it was huge. The face of the glacier averages 50 meters tall. I know, Huge. That has nothing to say to the 130 meters that sit below the water. Because it had been warm the day before the glacier was especially active. Every couple of minutes you could see a huge chunk fall and hit the water, and then a couple seconds later you could hear the big boom. I would have never imagined that a glacier could be that loud.

At 1:30 we were rushing a little to get to the port to catch our boats. It was time for Jack, my mom and me to take our boat out to hike on the glacier. Eliot, because he is 7, was not able to hike on the glacier. Instead he was going with my dad on a boat tour. He was really bummed even though we assured him that he was going to have fun too. My mom, Jack and I took our boat to a small little port next to the glacier. We did a little hiking to get closer to the glacier. We were divided into groups of who speaks English and who speaks Spanish. Everyone else in the English group except for us was from Holland. They eventually moved a family from Madrid to our group though because the Spanish group was too big.

We got crampons at little racks up next to the glacier. They worked, but they were not very nice ones. It was just a rectangular outline with spikes. I could not help thinking how much it would hurt if someone stepped on your foot wearing a pair of crampons. They were also incredibly heavy.

The first step on the glacier felt really cool. In truth it did not feel much different than the ground, but to think that I was walking on the glacier was really cool. The walk was not too hard and Jack and I got to walk in the front with the two twin 13 year olds from Madrid. We got to fill our water bottles up at glacial springs. At the end we had alfajores and whiskey on glacial ice (for kids glacial water on glacial ice). After that hike we were all really cold (my hand could barely take off my crampons).

We took a boat back to a disappointed Eliot who was cheered up a little bit by bottle of glacier water and the front seat of our no airbag car. Because the day had really started at about 12:00 it could not be considered long, but by the end of the day everyone felt like they had been on the road since 7:00. Jack fell asleep on my lap, Eliot on my shoulder and me on my shoulder. We slept all the way back to the hostel.

Argentina plays Uruguay, Americans watch in awe

If you are going to go to a soccer game in Argentina other than Boca vs. River, this is a good one to go to. We started off by taking the Sub-te or subway to the end of the blue line. Then we followed the sea of people the 10 or so blocks to the River Plate stadium. In the US if you had gone to a professional soccer game you would have to walk through a run down old neighborhood, but here you walk through the high class neighborhood with the brick walls that have electric wiring on the top.

Once we got to the game we had enough trouble finding our seats as well as where we had to go in to get to them. They had a gate for the Uruguay fans and a gate for the Argentina fans. It was totally segregated probably because people get in fights and then the policia get involved and yeah, if you can at all prevent that why not?

The game itself was incredibly exciting. Within the first ten minutes Argentina scored. It was a nasty game with a lot of yellow cards. So many in fact that I was surprised that no person got two. The final score was 2-1 Argentina which was a lot more exciting than the 0-0 in Quito.

If you have ever been to a baseball game in the US you know that the food you eat while you are at the game is almost as good as the game itself. At this game hardly anybody ate a single thing. They were too busy chanting and yelling.

Overall our money was well spent on great seats with an incredible view of the field. On the way home the Sub-te was packed. It was not even funny how many people were there cramming into the cars. everyone slept well after that.

Food in the Rain Forest

The Rain Forest was really nice, partly because we could play all day and then go eat lunch, without having to worry about where we were going to eat. Once we got to the table we did not have to worry about what we were going to eat, because we ate whatever they served.

Lunch and dinner usually consisted of soup, rice, meat or fish, some type of vegetable, a small salad, and a piece of yucca. The soup at lunch was always yucca soup, and the soup at dinner was normally banana soup, but one night we had a noodle soup.

Breakfast was usually some sort of fried banana with egg, more banana, maybe pancake or a banana fritter. There was also hot tea and coffee. There was also some sort of fruit at each meal.

Other than meals, we did eat some things. Along the trail Luis, our guide, would pick up a random fruit and have us try it. One day we were hiking and we came across a fallen termite nest. Luis started to scratch at it, and ended up with a handful of termites. They are not like the American termites, because they are really tiny. Luis just took one out of his hand and popped it into his mouth. Then, everyone but my mom, tried the termite, and yes Peter, I tried it first. The termite was so small, that it did not really taste like anything.

On our hike out of the Rain Forest Luis with his owl eyes, spotted a log that had been eaten by beetle larvae. He used his hands to dig out all he wood pulp from the middle. He came out with a couple grub like larvae. He then took one of the larvae and ate up to the head and then threw the head into the woods. All the kids then ate the beatle, but only after Luis killed it by biting its neck and opened its body up so we didn’t have to eat the outside. Like I thought it tasted like poop.

Ciao for now!

Ainsley

Ecuador day 1

We got up at 5:00 am Thursday morning to catch the 7:45 plane to Quito. We were flying on a 767 which is a plane with two aisles and personal TV’s. I watched the new Narnia movie Prince Caspian. If you ever fly into Quito be sure you get a window seat. It’s worth whatever trouble it takes to get. The view is breathtaking! You can see the green mountains and the city of Quito.

We are staying at Hostal el Arupo. We have a room with 5 beds and internet access, how much better could it get? Tomorrow we are going to go up the TeleferiQo which is a sky tram that takes you up the side of Volcan Pichincha.

Not so Hectic

My family is leaving in two days and it seems less hectic than I thought it would. I am excited and it feels like there is not much left to do. We are going to be in Ecuador for about a month. We will be staying at a house in Cuenca, Ecuador that is about 2 blocks from a professional soccer stadium.

Guinea Pig is a delicacy in Ecuador, and (apparently) tastes like chicken. I look forward to trying it.

-Ainsley