New York, New York

After a 2 month hiatus, we're back to blogging about our trip, which is odd as we arrived back in New Zealand a couple of weeks ago. We both have secured jobs now and are waiting for the money to start coming in. One of the things that we discovered is that there are very few Internet cafes in North America and when you do find one, they are really expensive (at least $5/hour which was a huge expensive on our small budget), so we didn't do much blogging while we were there.

Getting to New York from Quito was the worst journey of our entire trip, we started by getting up at 2:30am to get to the airport (the requisite) 3 hours before departure. As soon as we arrived we found that our flight was delayed by 1.5 hours and we wouldn't be able to make our connecting flight, so they put us onto a different connecting flight. When we landed in Miami (world's worst airport BTW) at around 1:00pm it took so long to get through customs and immigration we only had 10 minutes to make our flight. Given that this is the US we were moving from an international flight to a domestic one we still had to check in again. Therefore we had to change flights again, to one that wasn't departing until 5:00pm. Once we finally got onto our flight (again delayed an hour) after rechecking our bags etc. and sat ourselves down on the plane the pilot came over the intercom and told that the plane would not be taking off for another 3 hours. We eventually made it to our hostel at 12:30am that evening.

On our first day in New York we spent most of the time wandering around some of the really well known parts including Macy's, Broadway, Fifth Avenue, the Rockafella Centre, Times Square, Tiffany & Co. (Gemma's choice) and had a look out from the top of the Empire State Building.

Times Square

Atlas Statue, Rockafella Centre

On the second day we went back to the Rockfella Centre (also where NBC is located) and went on an art history walking tour. It was one of those odd things that you don't really think about doing ahead of time, but it turns to be really interesting. One of the funniest bits was an engraving made either side of one of the doors. It's intention was to symbolise American industry and agriculture (the Rockafella Centre, when it was built, was a shining beacon of western capitalism), however the artist had taken a few liberties and it was quite obviously the communist representation of the peasant and worker (although the offical guide to the centre said that they were holding a shovel and a short-handled sycthe, we're pretty sure it was a hammer and sicle!) The whole communist vs capitalist thing turned up in a couple of other places too.

Later that day we headed down to the ferry buildings with the intention of going across to see the Statue of Liberty, but when we got down to the pier we were put off by the huge queues and and the fact that we could see an enormous thunderstorm rolling in over the harbour. We decided to go the following day instead, but got drenched anyway.

Storm Over NY Harbour

We spent the afternoon at the Natural History Museum, the highlight being the 37 tonne iron meteorite, whose support structures had to be built right into the foundation of the building.

While walking through Times Square we were stopped and were sold tickets for a show at the comedy club owned by Jerry Seinfeld. We were both sure that it was a have and that we were had just been ripped off but we went down to the club in the evening anyway and were pleasantly surprised that there was actually a show there, which was really good! Although there was a 2 drink minimum and an 18% service charge that pushed the price up a bit - they always get you somewhere!

On the third day we finally got ourselves across to Ellis and Liberty Islands to see the statue and do a tour of the original immigration facility that was housed there. We manage to spend the entire day wandering the islands. On the way back we stopped in at Ground Zero to see the construction of the new Liberty Tower which, incidentally, was stopped the following day due to being massively over budget and behind schedule. It was eery to see what is still a large hole in the ground after all this time, and astonishing that some of the surrounding buildings had not yet been repaired.

Gemma and the Statue

After 3 full, and very exhausting days, in the big apple, we jumped on the Chinatown bus and made our way to Boston...

More Ecuador Photos

The original equator (not quite on the actual equator).


Animal based gargoles on a church in Quito.


The real equator, measured with GPS.


A tucan in Tena


Canyoning in Banos


Getting ready for a ride on the roof of a train in Rio Bamba.






Views from the train.


The main river in Cuenca.


Monkey-face orchid.




Looking down into Quito through the clouds.

More Photos - Galapagos Islands

Here are some more of our South American photos.


A giant tortoise.


On the bow of the boat.


A beach where the turtles land to bury their eggs.


A colourful crab.


A sea lion in the surf.


More boobies.


The blow hole.


Getting close to the sea lions.

More Photos From South America - Peru

We have a few more photos up loaded from our travels around the continent of South America.


The smog over Lima.


The Peruvian coast near Pisco.


A poor attempt at Sandboarding.


Sunset over the sand dunes.


Our breakfast guest.


A maintenance port on an ancient aqueduct.


Columns in the monastery in Arequipa.


More of the monastery and the mountains behind.


Overlooking the Colca Canyon.


Getting close to a cactus.


Another shot of the canyon.


Boat making at the floating islands on Lake Titicaca.


Weaving on the floating islands.


Dinner!!!


Elaborate bow of a reed boat.


Climbing the hill on Isle Amatani.


Why we climbed the hill.


Alpaca.


Market Stall.


Mountain near the Inca trail.


Us at Macchu Pichu.


A couple of Llamas.


Piranha


A river in the Amazon rain forest.

Final Thoughts on South America

Well, it has been a while since our last blog post. We have been a week and a half in the US now (where finding an Internet cafe has been surprisingly difficult), but I thought I would finish blogging about South America first. Our last few destinations included Tena (great white water rafting), Banos (canyoning, an acquired taste), and Cuenca (very pretty). Gemma and I would like to finish up with some final thoughts and general randomness encountered on the Continent that kicked off our trip.

• Once a road has been paved, it never needs to be done again, even if the holes are 3 foot wide and a foot deep. You just drive round them.
• You don't drive on the left or the right, you drive on the side of the road with the least potholes.
• In one of the world's largest producers of coffee it's nearly impossible to get a decent cup of the stuff.
• In one of the world's largest producers of cacao beans it's tough finding chocolate not produced by the Mars corporation in the USA.
• It's normal to have both rice and potatoes in the meal (and lots of them).
• In a flyer for a restaurant in Puno, Peru, some of the benefits advertised: Free drink, heating, anger conditioning. Maybe lots of patrons are unable to control their anger once inside????
• Despite an abundance of cows in the fields there doesn't seem to be a drop of milk that hasn't been powdered or condensed and canned.
• In order to drive correctly, it is necessary to honk your horn incessantly.
• The people suffer from overflowing helpfulness and will continue to talk at you, giving you the benefit of their knowledge, whether you understood anything after the first word or not.
• It is not necessary to bring your bus to a complete stop in order to allow your passengers to get on or off.
• When catching a bus, it is not necessary for passengers to wait in the same place. In fact 10m between each one so the bus constantly breaks and accelerates seems to be the way to do it.
• Overtaking 3 abreast with oncoming traffic on a blind corner is perfectly acceptable.
• When becoming a tour guide in Peru it is necessary to learn how to deliver your knowledge as quickly as humanly possible, in one tone and to tut at your group if they dare to interrupt or ask a question.
• The Amazon rain forest is not always hot and humid.
• The Amazon rain forest is not a David Attenborough documentary.
• Deadly jumping spiders do live in the jungle. It's best not to think about them.
• Don't believe everything you read in the Lonely Planet - Gemma.
• Don't believe anything you read in the Lonely Planet - Mike.
• Standing on a corner with a severed cow's head on cup final night is perfectly normal.
• Wear shoes if you visit a jungle nature reserve - ants bite and it hurts.
• Canyoning is not a 'fun day out' but torture by cold water whilst dangling perilously over cliffs (it's great - Mike).
• Riding on the roof of a train through the Ecuadorian countryside is wonderful.
• Peru and Ecuador do the best pizza we've ever had.
• Ecuadorian people have cast iron bladders, or that's what bus drivers assume on journeys of 4 hours or more with no toilet stops.
• Apparently any type of shoe can be shined, according to shoe shine boys, including strappy sandals and rubber flip flops.
• The Inca theology consists of 3 worlds.
• It was, in fact, Chuck Norris who discovered Macchu Pichu (the Inca trail was cleared by a series of round house kicks).
• Eggs can be balanced on their end - you need 1 egg, 1 nail and 1 equator.
• Guinea Pigs look much cuter prior to being Barbecued.
  
• Hot water is considered a selling point for most hotels, whether they have it or not.
• To be repeated mantra style every 10 feet or so when walking around: "No we do not need a massage, we're not hungry and yes we have booked all of our tours already".
• After walking 25 hours across 4 days to reach Macchu Pichu it's rather humbling to be told someone did it in 3 hours 45 minutes.

It's been great!! Onto the US and Canada now, we'll update you soon.

The Galapagos Islands

Words are completely inadequate to describe the Galapagos Islands so we thought we'd let the photos do the talking. Suffice it to say the Islands were everything that was promised and the animals, whilst not tame were amazingly unperturbed by our presence. Walking within inches of sea lions is unbelievable (if a little smelly!); swimming with them and playing in the surf with the babies even more so. Here's some of the highlights of the 100 or so photos we took:


Our boat 'The Angelique'




It's a Seal's life!


Marine Iguana


Land Iguana


Frigate male desperately seeks...


The majestic Albatross


Dancing Blue Footed Boobie


Us


Ahhh! This one nearly came home with us