Melbourne, Sydney, next stop Delhi

The last time you heard from us we were wandering around paradise. From paradise we flew directly to Melbourne. There, we were warmly taken in by Liz’s Aunt, Pip, and her five cousins. Their home just outside the city felt like an oasis for us after weeks of roughing it around the east coast of Australia, travelling with only our Jansports and eating meals of budget pasta and canned beans. After making certain compromises during our impromptu Aussie tour (not to mention the bites Liz had from our most recent hostel that looked suspiciously like the work of bed bugs!!) we all appreciated feeling at home for a week.

As much as I’d appreciated the natural beauty of the Gold Coast and Cairns, I couldn’t help but feel relieved to be in the middle of people, buildings and urban life again; it’s my nature, I’m from New York! The three of us happily explored the myriad neighborhoods Melbourne has to offer. We visited the Greek quarter, where we stopped form some friendly conversation, spanakopita, and frappethes. We got an even better sense of the prominent Greek population in Melbourne at the Australian Open, where we spent the day watching the Greek Cypriot Bagdhatis play against a Swede (and win, to the excitement of many rowdy Greek fans). We spent a day wandering through the Queen Victoria Market, and each bought a new article of clothing to add to the wardrobes we’re all getting very tired of. To celebrate Australia Day we visited the Immigration Museum on a whim. Not the most Australian way to spend the day but probably the most appropriate given the occasion.

Leaving Melbourne we learned Travelling Lesson #84: ALWAYS verify which airport you’re flying out of before checking in at the wrong one. We failed to do this before arriving at one of Melbourne’s (apparently) two airports an hour before our flight to Sydney; we couldn’t figure out why our boarding passes weren’t printing out at the “easy check-in” station. When the Jetstar employee kindly explained to us that our plane was taking off an hour away from where we were located, at a different airport, we laughed the whole thing off and moved ourselves to a later flight. Ultimately more good than bad came from the blunder: we gained an extra day in Melbourne, learned an important lesson, and I now have the opportunity to share this valuable insight, saving you from making the same mistake.

I can’t remember if this is something I read somewhere, or maybe Liz said it when we were going from one place to the next (or was it my mom?) but Lesson #85 would have to be: Travelling is leaving. We’ve been back in Sydney for over a week now and we’re already leaving for New Delhi (via Abu Dhabi, because it’s on the way) in four days. All I can do is take in what’s left of my time in Australia. The other day we took a trip to the Blue Mountains. I’m convinced you can’t find a similar phenomenon anywhere else in the world. The idea of a blue mountain range seemed to me fantastical at first, like something someone could only dream of or paint or write a poem about. But these mountains are actually blue! I wasn’t thrilled about going to see them at first. The day before the trip I was tired from spending all day at the beach (it’s hard, I know) and waking up the next day at 6 am only to travel three hours on trains only to walk around some mountains all day did not sound appealing. But Liz insisted and luckily I gave in. We saw the “Three Sisters”–an incredible sandstone formation, hiked around the area all day, rode on the Katoomba Scenic Railway (the steepest railway in the world), and admired the greyish-blue tinge the mountains take on from a distance. The unique color has something to do with the oil released from all the eucalyptus trees…but don’t ask me why.

As our time in Aus comes to an end, I’m finding it harder to deny the daunting landmark that lies before us: the halfway point of our gap year. Our perfectly proportioned itinerary of 3-2-3-2 months, with the larger portions of time spent on the more trying parts of the globe, indicates that we have now survived 20 weeks together and have another 20 ahead of us. Liz reminds me everyday, making good use of her cell phone’s “count down” application: 192 days until my birthday, 4 days until India, 83 days until Israel, 201 days before I go to University, 1070 days until the end of the world (according to the Mayan calendar), and, all the more daunting, 144 days until the end of our gap year. I refuse to dwell on the inevitable end of what we believe to be the best year out of our current 18/19 years; the glass is still half full. India here we come!

Sunny Melbourne

Learning Cricket

The Blue Mountains

The Three Sisters

Returning home

From Quito to Geneva and Everything In-Between

Talk about a change of scene.  Going from Ecuador’s rough landscape to the perfectly manicured setting in Switzerland is hardly a smooth transition.  While I looked out the window driving from Geneva to Lausanne I did find one unmistakable common feature: mountains!  Other than that, we’re in completely foreign territory right now.  Everything is clean; the people are quiet and reserved.  How did we get here and what have we been doing since Sophia and Liz last updated you?

I’ll be brief for your sakes.  I’m also anxious to explore the oddly calm, cold streets that have been waiting for me since my landing.  I guess I feel slightly out of place right now because life in Quito (or at least my life in Quito) was so loud and fast-paced.  That’s where Sophia and I spent our last week in Ecuador.  After leaving Sta. Martha, Liz went off to do more traveling in Ecuador (she definitely owes you a post describing her adventures in the Galapagos) while Sophia and I remained stationary and enjoyed the capital city.  And we certainly took advantage of city life after 10 weeks of isolation!  We toured the old city, walked through various neighborhoods, relished taking public transportation and slowly eased back into touch with civilization via unlimited internet access.  We were lucky enough to have great companions (despite the fact that Liz was not with us) and spent time with friends from the project and from Quito.

Now it’s time to make a confession.  The difference between Ecuador and Switzerland is shocking; I don’ think we could have gone to more opposite ends of the spectrum in a shorter span of time.  However, we had more time to adjust and prepare for the latter half of our journey than originally planned.  A little over a month into Ecuador, Liz and Sophia decided they wanted to spend more time in New York before heading off to travel for another 7 months.  Our first plan had been to pass all of 24 hours back home after Ecuador and to take off immediately after.  I eventually agreed our itinerary was unreasonable and a bit too adventurous, so I called Avianca to change our flight into New York for a few days earlier.  Only two people were aware of this change so on a Wednesday morning we secretly flew into JFK (our parents were all under the impression that we were in Banos or on our way to Cuenca).  Thanks to our own organizing from overseas and the cooperation of our accomplices in New York, our two families were in the same restaurant unsuspectingly having lunch when the three of us casually strolled in to say hello after 11 weeks.  The surprise was a complete success.  After the initial confusion and disbelief, everyone was overjoyed.

Crossing three continents in one week has been overwhelming to say the least.  Leaving Quito was heartbreaking; returning home was both comforting and bizarre; now we’re gone again, this time for 7 months, and I can hardly digest the fact that I’m not in Ecuador anymore.  This kind of disorientation is to be expected with an itinerary such as ours.  Liz seems to be struggling the most.  She could barely speak Spanish in Ecuador, but now that she’s in Switzerland she can’t stop saying “Gracias” to the waiters.  By the time we get to Australia I know she’ll be saying “Merci” and “Bonjour” all over the place, but who’s complaining?  This is a very small price to pay for a year-long world tour.

a long overdue hello from ecuador

very quickly, two things:

sorry, for not updating in so long. right now all of you think that what we do here each day is butcher animals and feed them to the lions. liz´s first post from ecuador was indeed incredible, but it doesn´t give a fully accurate description of what life is like here. that is not to say that life here is not incredible, it just involves daily tasks that are much more trivial, such as scrubbing bird cages, cutting grass with machetes, giving water to all the animals, cleaning empty cages, etc. last week i helped build a new swing for the andean bear enclosure and we´re currently working on a new stone path to go around the baby lions´cage. this morning i cleaned out one of the ocelot´s cages. the other volunteers are smart and interesting, so i´m always in good company. the environment is breathtaking–i´m still not used to looking out my window and seeing stretches of green mountains.

also thank you to everyone for reading the few posts we have put up so far with so much enthusiasm. we promise we will put up multimedia soon (believe me, we have some incredible scenic shots, and a video that involves me and a very curious squirrel monkey). we think about all of you everyday (at least i know i do) and even though we are far away having our own adventures it is so nice to hear from all the people we miss.

i know sophia is planning on putting up a more relevant post, focused on what we´ve been doing for the past few weeks. i just thought it was time to say hello from ecuador.

Two hours left.

I am leaving for the airport in two hours and I feel strangely calm. I know Liz and Sophia understand the full weight of what’s happening right now. They’ve expressed feelings of anxiety and nervousness throughout the day. After spending so much time preparing for this trip I’m either finally ready or haven’t realized that I’m leaving for an entire year. I’m pretty sure it’s the latter.

Anyway, my bags are all packed. I’m ready for the heat, the cold , the rainy season…as long as it doesn’t snow I should be fine. The September newsletter for the Rescue Center came out today. They just received many new animals, including a puma and an ocelot (what’s an ocelot???) and there’s a week-old lion cub waiting for us! If you’re interested in more details about what we’re going to be doing check out the newsletter for yourself: http://santamartha-en.blogspot.com/

I have no idea what to expect from an animal reserve in the Andes. I can try to imagine what life will be like these next few months, but for now I can only conclude that it will be something completely different from what I have experienced so far.

Here’s our address in case you’re inspired to send us mail:

Centro de Rescate “Santa Martha”
Panamericana Sur Km 13° y Raimundo Santa Cruz
Estación de Servicio
Guamani de P y S
Quito – Ecuador

The next time we write we’ll be able to tell you what it’s like to feed a jaguar!

Waxed, packed, and almost completely vaccinated.

For the past few days Ariana and Liz (mostly Ariana) have been pestering me to write on “the blog” and my response has always been, “I’ll write when we get to Ecuador…when I have something to say!” Well, I’ve decided to give in mostly because I thought of a really clever title (which is actually entirely true). Today Ariana and I visited the Russians for a couple of leg waxes, which we thought was necessary for the rainy, 60 degree weather we will endure, and we spent the last two hours screaming at each other and with our mom about our suitcase situation. Also, after making some emergency calls to Switzerland and Mount Sinai, our Dad is assured that the three of us would be getting our third and final Rabies vaccine tomorrow.

Soo, we essentially have two days before we leave for Ecuador and I don’t think we could be freaking out more…..the kind of freaking out that’s so overwhelming you don’t actually react at all! (I think it will hit us on the cab ride to JFK) Ariana and I are praying that we won’t be forced to leave our sleeping bags at JFK because we didn’t understand the baggage limitations listed on Avianca’s website…and that the other volunteers don’t think of us as the crazy Americans who completely overpacked..because we completely did.

With five suitcases between the two of us, three months supply of malaria and altitude sickness medication (and a lifetimes supply of claritin for me), as well as matching rain outfits, the three of us will brave the four hour flight to Bogota, the one hour connecting flight to Quito, and the one hour drive to the rescue center with the anticipation and excitement that motivated us to embark on this trip in the first place.

We’ve bought the tickets!

Ahhh!! We’ve finally done it! The tickets have been bought.

As much as I was originally rushing to buy the tickets on Saturday, I’m really glad we took them home and worked out a couple little details, or rather the Collases did and I just agreed to whatever they decided. Nonetheless, here is the new schedule, which now includes a night in New York and a couple days in New Delhi. The leave date, however, remains the same. 29 days to go… am I counting right?

Booking Confirmation

Good news!

Ariana and I just got back from STA. We spent well over two hours creating the perfect itinerary with Ryan, who looked like he had spent quite a significant amount of time perfecting his really-hung-over-and-just-rolled-out-of-bed look. He actually turned out to be a really helpful guy, and, although we couldn’t buy the tickets, we do have confirmed seats on 13 flights over the next 3 months. I’m going to post the itinerary so you (and we!) can keep track of our journey. I’m also going to try to find the thing on the STA website where you can make a map of your trip to put on the blog.

We also got our student ID cards at STA. We realized that we should have gone a few years ago to get $22 fake IDs because we could have provided any information at all and got a nice official looking card. You don’t need to prove anything. You can say you’re from any university at all and give your date of birth as anything over 12 and under 26. I can’t believe more people don’t take advantage of this.. well actually I’m sure many do, I just wish I had found out earlier.

Anyway, the important thing is that we now have seats confirmed and student IDs. We leave September 7th and visit 10 countries over 10 months. The other amazing thing is that the average flight cost is under $300! Under $300 for international flights.. it’s so nice to be a student. Anyway, 34 days until lift off!!