Check out our first round of pictures up under Pictures 1. A blog will be up soon about the Badlands, Blacks Hills, and Denver. Enjoy!
Jess
September 1, 2008
August 29, 2008
Boston-Chicago
Friday morning Justin and I left Boston and headed to Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. We had a great time the previous night in Boston saying bye to a bunch of our friends. We had a lot of fun but were sad to say good bye for a little while to everyone. We drove through a fair amount of traffic, stopped at a good used bookstore and restaurant soon after passing into Connecticut, and arrived at Mike and Mindy’s house, friends of Justin’s parents. They were very gracious hosts and we spent the evening and night in their backyard and at a nearby restaurant.
The next morning we said good bye to them and headed not far to Newark to pick up my brother Cody who had taken the train to meet us from Brooklyn and is joining us for the rest of the road trip. We loaded up Justin’s Volvo and drove to DC to meet Fran, Matt, and Noah, high school friends of mine who live in DC, as well as Jay who was in town visiting as well. We explored a bit of Columbia Heights, Fran’s neighborhood, and then headed to Chinatown for dinner. DC’s clean and informative metro system was a nice change from Boston’s. We caught up over dinner and headed to RFD, Regional Food and Drink, which had an extensive beer list while Cody checked out the monuments lit up at night. We spent the rest of the night on Fran’s rooftop deck.
The next morning we headed downtown and saw the Smithsonian Air and Space museum. It was very interesting and my favorite parts included pictures from the Hubble, weather pattern aerial photos, a video featuring Scott Hamilton skating around the solar system with Monty Python’s Eric Idle singing along, and seeing the various planes and satellites. After a couple hours of that we met the crew at Eastern Market for lunch and then got back on the road once again, this time just a few hours down the road to Charlottesville, VA. Here we met up with our friend Pailes from college. He showed us UVA, a gorgeous campus with a lot of tradition. He was doing really well in the graduate structural engineering program. We were a week short of seeing the first football game of the season that everyone was excited for. That evening he brought us to a bbq at a friends’ place where we met a bunch of other grad students
The following morning we got a late start, had breakfast at a popular bagel place on the main strip of town, and headed to Columbus, Ohio, which we had chosen as a stopping point on the way to Chicago. Cody and I had been introduced to couchsurfing.com, a site where you can find people to stay with or meet up with while traveling. I was a little skeptical at first but was impressed with the importance of user references on the website. We asked a guy in a suburban area of Columbus to stay with him and he agreed. He asked us to meet him at a bar where he was playing volleyball that evening and I was a little confused at first. It turned out to be a large restaurant/bar with a an outdoor patio in a strip mall area surrounded by sand volleyball courts. It was impressive and looked like it was about the only entertainment to be had in the nearby area. Justin and I had a draink with him and talked about traveling and his experiences with couchsurfing that he’d had, mainly while traveling Europe. After jumpstarting his car that had ran out of gas on the way to his game, we went to sleep at his place in preparation for another day in the car.
We arose on Tuesday morning and made the drive to Chicago. We were headed to Jack’s place, a high school friend of Justin’s. Before meeting up with him after he was finished work we explored his area, I believe the East Village, we explored the neighborhood. It was very nice with lots of shops and restaurants and we sat for one of them for awhile as well. Once we met up with Jack he and friends showed us around the Wrigleyville area where we had dinner, saw an improv show, and walked around the outside of the Cubs stadium.
On Wednesday we explored Chicago more and were thoroughly impressed. Cody had seen it in the winter and said that it was a totally different place then. We walked around downtown and the major parks there, including Millenium park. From downtown we walked through the shopping district to the Hancock tower where we had drinks and admired the view from the 96th floor. While not as tall as the Sears tower, we were told that the views were better from the Hancock tower. It was really nice to walk around for a day instead of sitting in the car, which we’d done for the past two days. Tired, we went back to Jack’s and rearranged our plans a bit. Instead of having a leisurely day on Thursday we decided to make it all the way to the badlands in the following day, 13 hours of driving. That evening we ate at the only certified organic restaurant in the Midwest as our host Jack told us, a pizza and salad place owned by one of the members of Wilco and across from Jack’s apartment. We had some local beers and good food, and explored a bit more of the area with Jack, who was a great host to be in the city with.
More updates to come soon and check out the Pictures 1 which will be updated soon.
-Jess
The next morning we said good bye to them and headed not far to Newark to pick up my brother Cody who had taken the train to meet us from Brooklyn and is joining us for the rest of the road trip. We loaded up Justin’s Volvo and drove to DC to meet Fran, Matt, and Noah, high school friends of mine who live in DC, as well as Jay who was in town visiting as well. We explored a bit of Columbia Heights, Fran’s neighborhood, and then headed to Chinatown for dinner. DC’s clean and informative metro system was a nice change from Boston’s. We caught up over dinner and headed to RFD, Regional Food and Drink, which had an extensive beer list while Cody checked out the monuments lit up at night. We spent the rest of the night on Fran’s rooftop deck.
The next morning we headed downtown and saw the Smithsonian Air and Space museum. It was very interesting and my favorite parts included pictures from the Hubble, weather pattern aerial photos, a video featuring Scott Hamilton skating around the solar system with Monty Python’s Eric Idle singing along, and seeing the various planes and satellites. After a couple hours of that we met the crew at Eastern Market for lunch and then got back on the road once again, this time just a few hours down the road to Charlottesville, VA. Here we met up with our friend Pailes from college. He showed us UVA, a gorgeous campus with a lot of tradition. He was doing really well in the graduate structural engineering program. We were a week short of seeing the first football game of the season that everyone was excited for. That evening he brought us to a bbq at a friends’ place where we met a bunch of other grad students
The following morning we got a late start, had breakfast at a popular bagel place on the main strip of town, and headed to Columbus, Ohio, which we had chosen as a stopping point on the way to Chicago. Cody and I had been introduced to couchsurfing.com, a site where you can find people to stay with or meet up with while traveling. I was a little skeptical at first but was impressed with the importance of user references on the website. We asked a guy in a suburban area of Columbus to stay with him and he agreed. He asked us to meet him at a bar where he was playing volleyball that evening and I was a little confused at first. It turned out to be a large restaurant/bar with a an outdoor patio in a strip mall area surrounded by sand volleyball courts. It was impressive and looked like it was about the only entertainment to be had in the nearby area. Justin and I had a draink with him and talked about traveling and his experiences with couchsurfing that he’d had, mainly while traveling Europe. After jumpstarting his car that had ran out of gas on the way to his game, we went to sleep at his place in preparation for another day in the car.
We arose on Tuesday morning and made the drive to Chicago. We were headed to Jack’s place, a high school friend of Justin’s. Before meeting up with him after he was finished work we explored his area, I believe the East Village, we explored the neighborhood. It was very nice with lots of shops and restaurants and we sat for one of them for awhile as well. Once we met up with Jack he and friends showed us around the Wrigleyville area where we had dinner, saw an improv show, and walked around the outside of the Cubs stadium.
On Wednesday we explored Chicago more and were thoroughly impressed. Cody had seen it in the winter and said that it was a totally different place then. We walked around downtown and the major parks there, including Millenium park. From downtown we walked through the shopping district to the Hancock tower where we had drinks and admired the view from the 96th floor. While not as tall as the Sears tower, we were told that the views were better from the Hancock tower. It was really nice to walk around for a day instead of sitting in the car, which we’d done for the past two days. Tired, we went back to Jack’s and rearranged our plans a bit. Instead of having a leisurely day on Thursday we decided to make it all the way to the badlands in the following day, 13 hours of driving. That evening we ate at the only certified organic restaurant in the Midwest as our host Jack told us, a pizza and salad place owned by one of the members of Wilco and across from Jack’s apartment. We had some local beers and good food, and explored a bit more of the area with Jack, who was a great host to be in the city with.
More updates to come soon and check out the Pictures 1 which will be updated soon.
-Jess
January 15, 2008
Made it Across
Coro, Venezuela
Sorry about the time between our last post. Internet wasnt as plentiful in Colombia as we had hoped, and were a bit lazy too. First of all Colombia was great. We flew into Bogota and met up with our friend Dan who will be joining us for the remainder of the trip. Bogota was suprisingly modern city with a ton of bike paths running throughout the whole place. We only stayed there a night and headed out to the Zona Cafetera or Coffee District. We knew traveling right after christmas could have been an issue because of the holidays and tons of Colombians were traveling. At the bus station we were first told there were no tickets to go to Salento or any nearby city... They were simply all sold out. After hanging around for a little while a guy came up to us and said he had three seats on his bus that was leaving right then. So in typical south american fasion we were whisked away from Bogota on our way to Salento.
In Salento we stayed at a good backpackers hostel run by an english guy Tim, the Plantation House. This hostel had more typical backpackers than the hostal in Bogota who seem to be the 2 or 3 week long vacationers vs the typical long haul backpacker of 3 to 12 months. First day in Salento we toured a small organic coffee farm where got to learn the ins and outs of coffee. The owner was very proud of his farm and his coffee beans and since his beans were organic he could sell them for US dollars in the market vs Colombian Pesos, which he was very happy to report. There was no coffee in season right then so we bought some passion fruit and called it a day. Next day we went for a hike in the National Park. All the short range transportation (less and 2 hours) is by a old army jeeps where they pile in as many as 14 people. Need less to say this is perfectly safe because at anytime i could have out ran the jeep. The hike ended up being a good day hike in the mud with finishing up at a hummingbird sanctuary. The Colombians in the highlands are back breakingly nice and also want to talk. On our trek up the mountain i think we stopped and chatted to about 3 different families.
The next day we headed back was New Years day were we headed back to Bogota for the New Years celebration or lack there of. It started good with dinner at the hostal but once we took to the street we notice that there was was no one out. Infact most of the bars and clubs were closed too. Not till later did we learn that New Years is a family holiday and people dont celebrate it in bar. We did end up finding a bar just as the ball dropped and celebrated the New Year listening to Salsa music. Not really my cup of tea but as they say... When in Rome.
Next we pushed North to National Parque Igauque which was a nice camp ground which supported a day hike. We actually thought there was more to do there but there wasnt so we had to blow out of there early and head to Jess´parents´ friend Theo´s friend Nico´s friend Christina (i know thats difficult to understand). She owns a nice resort in the hills where we camped out for 3 days and explored the area, and caught up on some reading time. We also learned that our next 20 hour bus coming up was only a little cheaper than a flight, and in my book 1 hour flights beat 20 hour bus rides anydays of the week. So we backtracked to Bogota to hopped our flight to Cartagena.
Cartagena is the oldest city in Colombia used by the spanish to hold their gold. After it had been sacked a half dozen times in the 16th century they erected massive walls around the whole thing to make in an impentrable fortress. Now it make for a nice tourist area, and where we spent most of our time. After 3 days we headed out to National Parque Tayrona which is where we camped on the beach for 3 nights. This is beatuful place where we had to hike in a 45 minutes to a camp ground with extra full packs but it was well worth it. Here we set up our tent just 100m from the ocean and enjoyed ourselves in the sun for 3 days. There were endless number of coves with beaches at each one, the further you walk the less the people (and clothing being worn).
Crossing the border was interesting to say the least, and is not done by any travelers besides backpackers (although we didnt even run into any other backpackers). We couldn´t get on the bus that ran allong the coast of Colombia straight to Caracas, so we had to catch a bus at the border and take it across. The bus itself was nothing more than a short school bus that had been painted and decaled in the typical South American fashion. It turns out all Colombians need a visa to cross in Venezuela except most do not get them, hence why this is an interesting bus ride. On this bus of 20 people we had about 10 people with passports and legitimate papers, 9 no visa'ers, and 1 straight up illegal crossing the border. People that elect not to get the visa just pay "a fee" to bus workers to make sure they and their bags dont get checked. The only problem is "the fee" only covers the border check and maybe 1 or 2 extra check points. So after 7 checks people were a little upset when the workers were coming around for more money. This story does thicken and if you buy any of the three of us a beer im sure we be more than happy to tell the whole thing. All and all the 5 hours ride went fine and i felt like everyone in the bus was in it together.
Now were in Coro Venezuela another old colonial town. We´ll post pictures soon but now i need to head out to the beach. Enjoy the snow!!!
Best
Justin
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