we like to move it move it

Home Sweet America

2010-05-12T08:05:00.000-07:00

The Meesh and I have officially been home for a little over a week. Upon arrival at the Minneapolis airport, my brother and his beautiful family greeted us with a beautiful bag of Chipotle. So many beautiful elements coming together.

So now to back track a little...

We met up with my parents in Christchurch on the South Island on our second day in NZ. Our first day included two failed attempts to land in Christchurch and being re-routed to Wellington, having a generous allowance from Jet Star to feast, staying at a trucker stop and playing pool with some locals, and then hitchhiking to the airport. The locals taught us a lot of interesting things like, you can't sue people in New Zealand, and that there are 12x as many sheep as there are people.

After connecting with my parentals, who from here on out we'll refer to as Bar and T-Ho (Barbara and Thomas), we set off to dominate New Zealand. Boy did we ever.

South Island:
We started our trek in Christchurch which was a nice little quaint town, and then made our way to the Aoraki Peninsula where we went on a boat ride to see hector dolphins (the smallest and rarest of all dolphins). Thus began an amazing time of seeing absolutely beautiful wildlife in NZ, that included but isn't limited to Alba Tross, Yellow-eyed penguins, blue penguins, dolphins, seal pups, big horned sheep, and sting rays. The dolphins swam along with our boat and took turns jumping out of the water. There was even a little baby dolphin. We also saw a couple gangs of seals (who appeared to be doing yoga poses on the rocks), as well as a couple of blue penguins. Enjoy this picture of a dolphin and the fam:

In all honesty, I don't remember or know the names of a lot of the places we visited and saw. For one, the names were long and confusing. Two, T-Ho was the chief planner. As a whole, the South Island was spectacular. The scenery, the lack of people, the color of the water... Lakes in New Zealand are an emerald, turquoise, see-through color. They are amazingly beautiful. As our the sunrises, as seen from this lovely Holiday Park.

There are also sheep everywhere. For those of you who do not know my mom, she is a sheep lover/fanatic. She would chase sheep through fields, valleys, and mountains. The sheep were certainly given a run for their money, pun. If I remember correctly, there are 60 million sheep in New Zealand (only 4 million people). Much to Michelle's joy, there were also lots of border collies to chase the sheep around when Bar wasn't present. One day, we went to a sheep show where we witnessed the shearing of a sheep, as well as the border collies running around and jumping all over the sheep. At one point, one of the dogs laid down on top of the sheep and started kissing its face. Our hearts melted like warm butter. Here are some sheep glam shots as well as Meesh with a statue of a dog and my Mom being selected as a volunteer to feed a baby sheep:

Some other highlights in the South Island included going to see Mt. Cook, Fjordland National Park, Doubtful Sound, Milford Sound, and the Moeraki Boulders. We also went on a wine tour where we not only sampled various wines from the region, but Michelle also got to budge in front a 5 year old to feed a baby llama. It was really funny, much to the child's chagrin.

In Nelson (the sunniest city in NZ, and also home to the beautiful Abel Tasman National Park), we went skydiving! It was a bit of an impromptu decision, but what an amazing decision it was. Unbeknownst to us, T-Ho has always wanted to go skydiving and Bar being the champ she is, stepped right up as well. We already posted some pictures, so give those a looksy if you'd like. We also have a video of each of us jumping that is pretty funny as well. T-Ho was cool as a cucumber. Bar was giving lots of thumbs up. Meesh was licking her lips and blinking furiously. I couldn't close my mustachioed mouth.

North Island:
In the North, we continued our adventure with white water rafting and sledging. For those of you who do not know what sledging is, you essentially go white water rafting but by yourself and on a small sled with handles. It proved to be a lot more invigorating and terrifying than any of us expected. Bar, true to form again, conquered both rafting and sledging, which for someone who doesn't like to be in water, is pretty incredible. Here are some pictures including the 7 meter (22 foot) waterfall that we rafted down!

Other highlights on the North Island included seeing glow worm caves (yes, like on Planet Earth), seeing the "clearest" water in the world (PuPu Springs, pronounced poo-poo. The visibility is 65 feet), seeing Mordor (not as evil as expected, Michelle is taking a cookie from it and I'm sitting on it), and going to a traditional Maori dinner and show. Here are photos of the aforementioned activities.

We concluded our time with Bar and T-Ho at Cathedral Cove, where they filmed part of the Narnia movies. The beach is absolutely beautiful. Michelle wanted to do a little photo shoot, so I decided to sass it up a bit. You may want to shield your eyes, dim your screen, or leave the room. You were warned.

After having an amazing 3 weeks with my parents, we bid them farewell and told them to warm up America for us. We only had one more week on the North Island before we too would make the long journey home. We decided to park ourselves on Waiheke Island, just 35 minutes from Auckland. The island was beautiful and mostly devoid of any people, save for senior citizens. They thankfully welcomed us with open arms. We spent most of our time there eating boxes of Cocoa Krispies, playing lots of two person Euchre (thanks Yuji), and picking up shells from the beach. It was the perfect way to conclude our 6 month adventure.

So now we're home and it's a bit of a surreal feeling. It's hard to believe the past 6 months happened. They were easily the best of my life and I am beyond grateful for all of the experiences, and to have shared them with the Meesh. We likely won't be embarking on another 6 month trip, but we certainly still have the travel itch. Hopefully it can be scratched sometime early 2011?

As a quick shameless plug, we'll be posting more of the photography to our site as we continue to get through all of the images (http://www.jonathanhoffnerphotography.com). It's a family friendly site and should provide a few minutes of solid entertainment.

Before we sign off, here are some very memorable father son photos. T-Ho agreed to shave his beard to the highly regarded fu-manchu mustache. It was a bonding moment for the two of us.

Also, here is a photo of Michelle eating Dominos pizza in bed on the last night of our trip as well as a picture of her holding a street sign of her former last name, current middle name. Thank you for following along and for all of the love over the past few months. Much love from the Hoffners.

13,000 feet...

2010-04-16T04:04:00.000-07:00

I have never been more proud of my parents, or the Meesh (more details to come later)...

Cambodia!

2010-04-04T04:36:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter to you, our beautiful friends and family. A couple of days ago, Michelle and I reached our final destination, New Zealand! We spent far too long in airports as our flights were continually delayed or rerouted from the South Island to the North. This did mean lots of complimentary food vouchers, which are always welcome in this household.

Phnom Penh:
We ended up spending more time in Cambodia than we previously expected. As a country, it was the most humbling, sobering, and shaming place we’ve visited. In Phnom Penh (the capital), we stayed with some friends of a friend, but they are now our friends of a friend and friends. Friends. They welcomed us in with amazing hospitality and informed us about so much of the current political and social climate in Cambodia.

Just before arriving, the Cambodian government burned down over 50 homes in a slum that sits over a river containing mostly human waste. The government simply didn’t like the way the slum looked in their city, so they displaced hundreds of people, who had to swim through the sewage to collect scraps of metal and wood. The government took no responsibility. There are also more Lexus suvs in Cambodia than anywhere I’ve ever been. All of the government officials and businessman own one, two, or three of them at a cost of $150,000, new. 8 years used, $50,000. Mind you, they also place huge vinyl stickers across the door panels stating that it is a lexus (think fast and the furious), as if driving a $150,000 car through a bunch of motorcycles and tuk tuks isn’t obvious enough. Sick.

But I digress. Our friends in Phnom Penh run an orphanage and a home for families with aids. Some of the kids have (formerly) treatable physical disabilities because their parents made more money if their child was begging and crippled. Some have aids. Aids is incredibly common in Cambodia largely thanks to rampant prostitution and brothel attendance. Some of the children never knew their parents, some of them are still mourning recent losses. In spite of all this, the kids were so joyful. Some of them are aptly nicknamed, “Smiley” and “Giggly”. We spent some time playing games with them, meeting the staff, and seeing the facilities, which also includes a farm, garden, and school. Watching the kids in school was so sweet as well. Hearing them pronounce square, “squee-ar”, was too cute.

Our last day in Phnom Penh, we went on a tuk tuk tour of the city. One of our first stops was at S-21, a school that was turned into a prison under Pol Pot’s (leader of the Khmer Rouge) regime. S-21 was where the Khmer Rouge (the people responsible for the killing of over 3 million Cambodians) tortured and killed all of the academics and intellectuals in Cambodia: students, doctors, professors, lawyers, scientists, etc. Mind you, this was a little over 30 years ago.

After S-21, we visited the actual Killing Fields. The Khmer Rouge told the people of Phnom Penh that the US was set to bomb the city, causing everyone to evacuate into the country, where they would soon be killed. Upon entering the fields, there is a 7 story tower that is filled with the skulls and bones excavated from the mass graves. Many of the skulls have bullet holes straight through the cranium. I could go into much greater detail of the stories, accounts, and facts of the Killing Fields, but 1.) I don’t want to freak out our nieces and nephews who have our blog read to them, and 2.) It might be worth doing some personal research, as I for one, was previously completely ignorant of these events. One last bit: the Khmer Rouge was recognized as a legitimate government by the UN and held a seat until the early ‘90s.
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Siem Reap:
Siem Reap is an awesome city. It is the home of Angkor Wat. There are tons of cheap, good restaurants. Our hotel had a pool. And we met an awesome Canadian couple to boot. Michelle and I took a more relaxed approach to Siem Reap thanks to our pool and the ridiculously sweltering Cambodian weather. We did spend 3 days at the temples of Angkor Wat with our awesome tuk tuk driver, Sinh. The first day, we saw the most famous temple, Angkor Wat, as well as many of the surrounding temples (there are hundreds in total). As we were leaving Tah Prohm (the temples with the trees growing over them), a line of Buddhist monks dressed in their bright orange wraps, came strolling in. I quickly rushed back in order to get the ever sought after photo: brightly clad monks with the temple trees. This proved to be much more difficult than I had anticipated as all of the monks were constantly holding out their digital cameras or handicams to take pictures of each other or the temple. One even snuck a video of Michelle over his friend’s shoulder. Silly globalization.

Our last day in Angkor Wat, we drove far out into the country to visit a temple built by women, hike up a mountain to see the ruins of the king’s temple, and then finally to visit the landmine museum. The landmine museum was again incredibly haunting and disturbing, especially as an American. We were directly responsible for the deaths of over 600,000 Cambodians thanks to 60,000 bombs we dropped on Cambodia, trying to kill the Vietcong. We also dropped thousands more of unexploded rockets in Cambodia that are still killing farmers and children every year. Last year, a van of people were killed by a landmine only minutes from the museum, yet America remains 1 of 6 six other countries who refuse to sign the anti-landmine treaty, alongside Russia, Pakistan, and Iran, to name a few. It’s estimated that over 5 million landmines remain uncovered in Cambodia and what are we doing to help? On a lighter note, someone at our hotel saw Jude Law at one of the temples right after we visited. Michelle was jealous. I was more jealous.

Perhaps more so than any other place we’ve visited, I’m really thankful for our time in Cambodia. The people are amazing. The history is recent albeit ridiculously disturbing. The culture is unlike anything I’ve ever seen, seeing as ¼ of the population was wiped out so recently, and that the majority of Cambodians are under the ager of 35. If you are thinking of traveling in the near future, Cambodia comes highly recommended from the Hoffner camp.

I know this was a long and somewhat preachy blog, so I will end with a picture of me bathing in a “waterfall” and Michelle looking super fresh.

In a few hours, we will head over to the airport to meet my parents! Then it’s 3 weeks with Bar and T-Ho, cruising through New Zealand, catching Hobbits and chasing sheep.

Phi Phi and Phuket.

2010-03-22T07:54:00.000-07:00

After a couple long, exhausting days of travel (all day in a car through the mountains, the next day all day on a bus, we still missed our flight to Bangkok by 30 mins and then got stuck in the airport till 4am!!), Jonny and I finally arrived in Bangkok late on the 11th. Our friend Yuji had arranged a beautiful hotel for us to stay in, and we had planned on meeting his childhood friend Ruthie and her husband Peter the following day. At around 1:00 in the morning, there was a knock on our door. We both had fallen asleep watching a National Geographic special on space and were a bit startled by the knocking. We opened that sucker up, and Yuji and Kara were standing right in the hallway! All of us started hugging, crying, and jumping around. Turns out this "Ruthie and Peter" (the childhood friends) who we had been in contact with over email for about a month, were actually fictitious characters made up by Yuji and Kara so that they could keep tabs on our whereabouts! Earlier in the evening, I thought our situation couldn't get any better. There was a pool on the roof of our hotel and there was a 7-11 next door. Boy, was I mistaken.

Soon after surprising us, Yuji announced that we would be on a plane in a few hours to Phuket. Thus began 5 of the most fun, incredible days of our trip.

Day 1 and 2:
We flew down to Phuket early in the morning, and then took a ferry to Phi Phi Island. The water at Phi Phi (pronounced pee pee) Island is unlike anything I've ever seen. It is aqua and crystal clear. Our awesome pool villa looked out over "our" beach (there was pretty much no one else there!). We snorkeled, swam, played cards on the porch, slept like kings and queens, and stuffed ourselves with pad thai, fresh fish, etc.

Day 3:
We boated over to Maya Bay, an uninhabited island where the Beach (featuring good ol' Leonardo DiCaprio) was filmed. It was an overnight excursion where we ate delicious food, watched fire twirlers, swam, snorkeled, and slept under the stars in sleeping bags right on the sand. It was perfect. It was so fun just talking and catching up in the most beautiful scenery you can imagine!

Day 4 and 5:
Phuket. This might have been the best yet. Best swimming pool, more like an underwater city with alleys, and coves, and water jet beds. Kara and I were able to have tons of girl time, which was much appreciated and needed, and Jonny and Yuji were able to golf their little hearts out and have some man time as well. Kara and I also enjoyed a luxurious day at the spa:) We got a floral foot bath and massage, a mineral bath, a FULL body aromatherapy massage, and then a facial to boot! We were both jello like afterward.

Night 5:
Back in Bangkok. It was our last night with our dear friends:( We went to the night market and around town a bit, and then called it a night. Yuji and Kara had to leave for the airport at 3 am, so we tried to all stay awake until then...ya that didn't happen. But it was fun nonetheless.

THANK YOU SO MUCH KARA AND YUJI! Seriously you refreshed us and gave us some extra strength for the last leg of our trip. We miss you both and love yall lots!

We are in Cambodia now and loving it! An update on our time here is on the horizon. Only have 9 days until we leave for New Zealand!

A Gypsy House Boat

2010-03-10T14:26:00.001-08:00

Greetings wonderful family and friends. We are supposed to be in Bangkok right now, but after dealing with many confused bus drivers, taxis, and other personnel, we missed our flight and are still in India. Who would've thought that an 8 hour bus, we were told would be 10, would actually take 15 hours? Anywho, our good friend from Wheaton, Yuji, has arranged amazing accommodations for us in Bangkok, and is connecting us with friends of his there so we are really excited to be on our way tomorrow afternoon!

Now for the India recap...

Mumbai:
We arrived in Mumbai late in the afternoon about 2 weeks ago. Nothing too notable happened, except that I must have eaten something that did a doozy to my insides. We only had around 24 hours in Mumbai and we spent most of the time at a cafe eating toast and drinking juice. It was noticeable right away how different India is. The colors are brighter and more vibrant. The sounds are louder. The traffic is even crazier and there are even more people everywhere.

Jaipur:
We boarded our train to Jaipur (about 17 hours away from Mumbai), and were blessed to find ourselves in the same cart as Praydeep and his wife Kumkum. They are originally from India, but have lived in the states for over 40 years. They took incredible care of us. They gave us medicine, got us ice cream, shared their snacks with us, and invited us to stay with their sister upon arriving in Jaipur. I was still in pretty rough shape, and our hotel reservation for Jaipur had fallen through, so we could not have been more thankful for Praydeep and Kumkum's hospitality. They were a beautiful example of the Lords provision.

While in Jaipur, we stayed in their guesthouse where their servants brought us 3 meals a day, tea, and coffee. Again, a huge answer to prayer. Michelle ate like a queen and I ate toast and bananas like they were going out of style. All in all, they nursed me back to health just in time for two very notable celebrations. Here's a picture Michelle took of my bedridden self.

First, the elephant festival. Praydeep's sister got us v.i.p. passes to the annual elephant festival, where over 90 elephants are paraded through an open air stadium, painted tusk to toe and adorned with all sorts of glam. Praydeep even talked security into having us be "media" for the day, so we were out on the field with the elephants in the midst of all the action. There were awards for the best painted elephant, and lots of funny games that mostly involved tourists carrying buckets of paint on their heads that would break at the slightest misstep. The elephants even "played" soccer which mostly consisted of them stomping their way around and popping the beach balls. Not the most delicate or nimble of creatures.

The next day, March 1st was the Holi Festival, or the Celebration of Colour. It is celebrated all throughout India in honor of the coming Spring. People everywhere "play" Holi by tossing colored dye onto one another and dancing in the streets. Our rickshaw driver invited us to celebrate with his family, and we happily accepted. We had only planned on being bystanders, but 5 minutes into it, we looked like deranged, oompa-loompas. At one point, Michelle was called out to a mini-dance party going on, where she proceeded to unleash the Meesh. It wasn't long before a local noted that Michelle, "Dances like Shakira!". Take that Shakira.

Agra:
After a quick jaunt on the "luxury deluxe" bus from Jaipur, we found ourselves in Agra, home of the Taj Majal. The Taj Majal was spectacular, but otherwise there wasn't much notable there. We met a really nice Austrian fellow named Bernhard, and spent our time in Agra primarily hanging out with him. One funny note was that while visiting a fort, lots of people wanted pictures of us or with us. One family even started pushing all of their kids towards us for a multi-cultural family photo. It was pretty funny to be on the other end of things. At dinner, the waiter also would give us a slingshot to ward off the monkeys nearby. No ammo. The mere presence of the slingshot was enough. Here we are doing the standard no smile pic.

Delhi:
The main bazaar in Delhi is the reason why we now have another carry on. Scarves, gypsy pants, and jewelry like we have never seen. Our hotel looked out over the market so it was ripe for the picking. Most of our time in Delhi was spent walking up and down side streets and turning away fake Rayban vendors. Our hotel did have a nice rooftop restaurant where we feasted on tandoori, lassi (yogurt juice), and cheese naan.

From Delhi, we had planned on catching a train to Amritsar to see the floating Golden Temple. We caught a rickshaw (tuk tuk) and went to a nearby travel agency. Rather than leaving with train tickets to Amritsar, we found ourselves with plane tickets to Srinigar, (way up in the Himalayas) on a houseboat for 3 nights. I guess that's what happens when you are not very organized or planned.

Srinigar/Kashmir:
The flight into Srinigar was stunning. The Himalayas look entirely fake and go on for as far as you can see. It is much colder here, which we learned very quickly after discovering that our houseboat: a.) doesn't have heat, b.) doesn't have hot water, c.) isn't insulated, and d.) has cracks/leaks all over the walls and roof. It rained the whole first night and neither of us were very happy. It turned out that the houseboat rarely even got electricity. Here's the beauty:

Things got better though as the next day we took a trek into the mountains. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we drove for a couple of hours through gypsy towns before reaching the beginning of the trail. The trail is normally a road, but because of all of the snow, the few people that we saw were either on sleds or cross country skis. Our guide was a much faster walker than us, but we trucked along in our wool cloak/panchos as best as we could. Walking behind Michelle was especially funny as most of the time it was easy to stay on the top layer of snow, but occasionally she would sink waist deep, sometimes multiple steps in a row. She wasn't as amused.

On Monday, we were up at 5 and on a small wooden boat to see the floating vegetable market. Every morning, people from all over paddle to a designated area and trade/sell flowers and vegetables wholesale. It was a pretty amazing sight to have the sun rising over the himalayas while a bunch of old men sold carrots while perched on their waterlogged boats. A lot of people tried to sell us, "groovy flowers" but we gratefully declined.

The houseboat was a bit of a mixed experience. The mountains are absolutely beautiful but because we were the only tourists, vendors regularly paddled up to our porch and tried to sell us anything and everything. It's not so bad to be haggled in markets, but it's much more annoying to have people at your back door with cases of tiny painted jars. With that said, it is pretty cool that in order to reach us, they had to paddle their boats up to our front porch. The gypsy family that owns the houseboat was for the most part very sweet, but after trying to sell us dozens of items and us declining, I think they were ready for us to go.

It is only 3 weeks now before we arrive in New Zealand and meet up with my parents! We are so excited to see family as we enter this home stretch.

Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers, and we can't wait to be stateside in 7 weeks, Chipotle in hand.

Lots of Gyros

2010-02-23T01:13:00.000-08:00

A Happy Belated Valentine's and President's Day to you.

Michelle and I have been in Greece now for about 2 weeks and are off to India tomorrow! Tomorrow is also our 4 month anniversary of traveling. We're already 2/3 of the way done which is nuts.

Random news, we received a comment on our blog the other day from a fellow at a Turkish travel site. In short, one of our posts is now featured on their site. Give it a looksy here:

Ephesus:
To backtrack a bit, our last stop in Turkey was Selcuk (the home of Ephesus). Selcuk is a delightfully small town, and because it is the off season there, we basically had the town to ourselves. We had a few, very uneventful days there, but really enjoyed seeing the ruins, giving a mini-sermon in the amphi-theatre, and going on some bike rides. Below are some photos of us enjoying the ruins and a brief preaching moment.

Oh and this last picture is of us trying out the public latrines, that were sometimes visited by up to 50 Ephesians at a time. We're not 50 men, but we made our presence felt.

We also forgot to upload this lovely little video from when we went exploring in an underground city in Cappadocia.

Athens:
Our first few days in Greece were spent wandering around the streets of Plaka, the Acropolis, and sitting upon Mars Hill. We also began a marathon of eating anything and everything wrapped in a pita. This mostly included gyros. Pork, lamb, chicken, you name it. Plaka is a really quaint neighborhood, that is lined with tons of beautiful old homes, shops, cafes, and hoards of gypsies with their gypsy children. Greece also has lots of great doughnuts and other pastry goods. Not to mention two new flavors of Fanta never before experienced: Lemonade and Mandarin.

Nafplio:
For Valentine's Day, we took a jaunt over to the ancient capital of Greece, Nafplio. Unbeknownst to us, it was also Carnival. This was a nice surprise for us as we got to enjoy parades, concerts, and masked Greeks. We also enjoyed a gigantic crepe that was covered in chocolate, honey, and almonds. My oh my was it delicious. We were only in Napflio for a short time, but it was a short time filled with lots of memories and smiles.

Santorini:
After Nafplio, we boarded a ferry for one of the Greek isles, Santorini. The island itself is the remnants of an old volcano, which makes the geography absolutely stunning. Santorini is also home to the famous blue domes, white-washed homes, and towns built into the cliffside. From a distance, you'd think the mountains/cliffs were snowcapped. Alas, they were small, peaceful towns.

While in Santorini, we celebrated my birthday, and my was it a fun one. We rented a snazzy Kia Picanto to cruise around the island, and spent most of the day eating or napping. Aside from gyros, we took a liking to chocolate filled croissants. Thankfully our neighborhood grocery store provided them in packets of 3, for only 1 euro. Beautiful. Michelle also gifted me with various acrostic poems, and drawings. It was certainly a birthday for the memory books. Here's a highlight video of all of the food we ate, as well as some photos of the black beach, red beach, and Santorini in all its glory.

So tomorrow we are off to Mumbai. The plan for India is to travel north to catch the Elephant Festival on February 28th (elephants playing soccer, elephants in a tug of war with humans), and then the Holi Festival/Festival of Color on March 1st and 2nd.

Our internet may be a bit sparse, but we love hearing from you back home when you have the time.

We love you all and God Speed.

Cappadocia, Turkey

2010-02-10T08:26:00.000-08:00

Our last week in Turkey has been spent in the land of fairy chimneys...Cappadocia.

Cappadocia:
Day 1: This region is made up of a few small towns that are fairly easy to get to by say...scooter. So, even though it was FREEZING cold outside, Jonny and I decided on our first day to ride around "dumb and dumber" style to a little town called Avanos, which is famous for their pottery. We stopped at a shop where the owner gave us apple tea and a live demonstration of pottery making on a old fashioned kick wheel! His work was quite beautiful. Jonny then got up and gave it a whirl, literally, and created quite a lovely clay pot as well. We then continued on our way to explore a couple different valleys that were filled with the infamous fairy chimneys.

Day 2: The town we were staying in, Goerme, has a highly recommended open air museum, filled with caves and fairy chimneys that are carved out into churches and houses. We strolled through, and then made our way to another little town, Urgup, by bus, which is known for their winerys. We stopped in one for a free wine taste (not the best wine, but a lovely experience). We then stopped at a local restaurant where the owner's wife cooked us up some bean stew, in their traditional clay pots, fresh bread, and lots of baklava! We LOVE Baklava.

On this particular evening, we went to a local bar/cafe for some good ole turkish sheesha, live music (which was one man on a keyboard), and a drink. If we only knew what this night would become...
The place was packed, we were the only english speaking people, and our table was quickly overtaken by a group of about 7 Turks. The jolly woman sitting next to me, quickly began trying to set me up with several of the men that she was with. After she realized I was married, she settled with me doing a dance for the whole restaurant! She kept trying to make me move my stomach up and down like she was doing...I had no idea how to do this, so i tried to satisfy her requests with some spinning...it went over well i think. Soon after, Jonny jumped up to challenge some Turkish men to a dance off. Apparently men dancing with other men is quite a commonplace, so Jonny fit right in. After dancing, our new friends kept telling us with motions that we needed to eat more to look like them. So they started spoon feeding us cucumber salad and bread soaked in meat sauce. Although we were stuffed and tried to decline, they insisted quite forcefully. They were new friends after all, so we obliged. They also made us try the local liquor called Rakki, which tastes like black licorice (it was nasty!) After hours of dancing and eating, the night ended with every person in the restaurant, even people we hadn't talked to, wanting an individual picture with Jonny and me. I think the videos and pictures will give a better idea of the "night at North star."

Day 3: Our last day, we visited the underground city of Kaymakli, which has 8 stories below ground (only 4 are open to the public). Many Christian refugees fled to this region back in the day, and expanded some of these underground caves because the rock is easy to carve into when wet. Jonny and I found some hidden tunnels and caves that were not marked and pitch black, so we explored them a little until we got scared and then we'd run back towards the ligh. It was fun...it felt like we were explorers about to discover either hidden treasure or a lurking monster. After a day of exploring, we settled in the kitchen/"restaurant" of a Turk who fed us delicious Tavuk shish and let us play with his dogs:) o happy day.

Stay tuned for updates on Ephesus and Greece!

Turkey

2010-02-04T14:01:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends and Family,

We've been in Turkey for a little over a week now and have a lot to catch up on!

Istanbul:
We arrived in Istanbul and were greeted with a bounty of snow. Our hopes and plans of escaping winter were quickly thwarted by this Eurasian land. Which leads me to a quick trivia point. Half of Istanbul is in Europe, while the other half sits in Asia. So technically we visited 3 continents in one day (we left from Cairo), which is definitely going into the scrap book. Aside from being quite cold, Istanbul is an absolutely beautiful city. It's an interesting mix of Islam, ancient Christianity, Europe, and backgammon. Most of our first few days here were spent exploring the city. Some highlights included going to the Grand Bazar, Spice Bazar, Hagia Sophia, and the Blue Mosque. We've also eaten a lot of kebabs, sampled a turkish delight (which is a delicious candy treat and also nicknamed "Turkish Viagra") and turkish coffee (not so delicious!), and ate at an all you can eat Pizza Hut buffet to boot.

We also had the opportunity to experience a turkish bath house. The guys and girls areas are separate, so I had the privilege of hanging out with a lot of sweaty, hairy Turkish men all morning. There are basins with little dog-like bowls to splash yourself. In the center of the room is a hot stone, where you can lay down and look up at a huge dome, planetarium like ceiling. Michelle and I decided to do the works, which included my first ever professional massage and an exfoliating scrubbing glove. Afterwards, I stepped into the lobby and was immediately engulfed by towels. One man wrapped a towel around my back while another tied together a nice little towel turban. I could hardly move and wanted to laugh as I can only imagine how ridiculous I looked, but I could only waddle away. Sadly, cameras were not allowed inside so no photos are available.

Island Town:
The next day, Michelle and I took a ferry out to a nearby island where we rented bikes and cruised around. It was our first sunny day here, and the weather was absolutely perfect. Aside from the center of town, we hardly saw any people, and would only need to stop for an occasional stray horse that would plant itself in the middle of the path. It was quite a surreal place, and an incredibly peaceful and enjoyable day. Here's a little highlight video that includes a little ditty by Michelle at the end. It's really cute.

Thermal:
After our bike day, we set forth to a small town about an hour from Istanbul. The town is centered around thermal, hot springs and has a camp-like feel to it. If you stay at a hotel for one night, you get access to all of the facilities which includes a thermal pool, giant hot tub, cold pool, sauna, steam room, etc. The coolest part (pun) was that our entire first day, it snowed like crazy, so we went swimming in the outdoor thermal pool in the middle of a snowstorm. We even had a snowball fight in the pool. It was a perfect way to experience winter. Below are some photogs of the thermal pool, as well as a sign with a picture that I thought looked like Conan O'Brien.

Tomorrow we head off to Cappadocia for a few days and then we'll be making our way to Ephesus before crossing into Greece next week sometime. We've been staying with some friends of friends here in Istanbul... they've been incredibly gracious and have helped show us around this great land. They're working for an artisan group that you can check out here: http://www.artisanslane.com/

We love hearing from you back home and greatly appreciate all of your thoughts, prayers, emails, and e-cards.

Love you all and to all a good night.

Giza + Sinai

2010-01-23T04:19:00.000-08:00

Hola Amigos,

The Meesh and I are still holding it down in Cairo. It is a lovely day here. A lovely day to blog.

Giza:
As you may have noticed from our snazzy new title photo, we made a visit to the pyramids of Giza earlier this week. It was day of highs and lows. The pyramids are only about 15 minutes away from where we are staying in Cairo and are visible from the highway, which is quite strange. One difficult thing about the pyramids is that the "hagglers" are on camels, which allow them to follow you more quickly. It is also intimidating to have a slobbery, hump backed mammal right at your eye line when being yelled at. We managed to escape most of the mayhem by wandering to the desert side of the pyramids. This was a high point. Seeing the pyramids un-obstructed by hoards of tourists, tour buses, camels drivers, and camel buses was really nice.

Not knowing where the Sphinx was, we flagged down a horse and "carriage". The driver was really nice and we made small talk about Obama and such. As we were nearing the Sphinx, our horse tripped, hit its face on the ground, and crumbled beneath our cart. This was a huge low point. Our driver fell off (we think he broke his arm), and we leapt off the cart as it was on its end. Tons of people immediately rushed over to help out as the horse was stuck under the cart. Thankfully, everything ended well, with the horse being freed (after around 20 minutes) and more importantly without any apparent injury. We were both really shook up afterwards and totally confused by what had just happened.

To finish our morning at Giza, we went inside the great pyramid. There are a few winding hallways and tunnels that you can crawl through and up. It was a cool experience to be inside the largest pyramid in the world, but we know that there's a lot more to see that they have blocked/roped off... Egypt is holding out. We had planned on going to some other pyramid sights, but felt that Giza had provided enough memories for one day.

Sinai:
After recouping from Giza, we set off on a bus to the Sinai Peninsula. The roads to St. Catherine (Mt. Sinai) had mostly been washed out by a flood (the largest in 16 years) and were closed until the day of our journey. It was entertaining and a bit disconcerting to watch our bus driver pick and choose which rocks to drive over and which "puddles" to drive through. We arrived in the evening and my, oh my, was it freezing! There's not much in St. Catherine, save for a few restaurants, Mt. Sinai, a beautiful monastery, and a hostel here and there. Because it was so dark, we had no idea of the incredible landscape. We could only make out the faint, shadowy, edges of the jagged, steep mountains that surround the town. Our hostel was appropriately called, "Moon land".

It is recommended to hike up Mt. Sinai in the middle of the night, so you can watch the sunrise from the summit. We began our trek at 2:30 am and set off to tackle the beast. Walking along the unlit road to the base of the mountain is quite eerie. We could barely make out the shapes of bedouins in white cloaks walking their gurgling camels towards us. I had begun not feeling well before leaving for St. Catherine, but figured that we should give it a go anyway. Starting at 3:00 am, our bedouin guide, Emmit, used his cell phone as a flashlight to help guide us up the 6 km trail to the top of Mt. Sinai.

Michelle was a champ and walked with authority all the way to the top. I, on the other hand, faded really quickly. I caved in and saddled up on a camel which made me feel better health wise, but far worse in other ways. 1. Riding a camel is very uncomfortable. 2. My camel walked diagonally up the trail, so that its rump was constantly hanging over the edge of the mountain.

It began snowing about half way up. Thankfully, there are warming huts complete with blankets, tea, and Snickers at various points along the trail. As we neared the top, it was still incredibly cloudy and all of the local bedouins announced that we wouldn't even be able to see the sunrise. Lo and behold, at the summit, the clouds opened up beautifully and shone in the most vibrant sunrise either of us have ever seen. It was so bright, that we had a quick debate as to whether there were active volcanoes nearby. It was a beautiful moment, and made the trek up more than worth it.

We only have a few more days here with our gracious and lovely friends (Emilee and Andrew), before we say goodbye to Africa and hello to Turkey! Tomorrow we plan on catching the Vikings clinch a Super Bowl berth under the courage, tenacity, and beauty of Favre.

Love you all, and we leave you with some fun photos of hanging out in Cairo.

Aloha

2010-01-15T14:02:00.000-08:00

Dear friends and family,

My how time flies! We have much to catch up on, and will do our darndest to fill you in.

Massai Mara:
On New Years Eve, we made our way to the Massai Mara for a safari. We were greeted by Jared (the manager) with a cold glass of lemonade and a damp cloth for our foreheads. Perfect start. The "tents" we stayed in were more of a mini resort. We had running water, hot (bucket) showers, a mint on our pillows and a view that opened up to water buffaloes grazing the plains. The camp isn't fenced in at all so animals freely roam during the day and night. One lady opened up her tent to a lioness, while another couple had some things stolen by monkeys that had broken into their tent.

Anywho, on our first game drive, it was nearing sundown and we happened upon a suspicious group of lionesses and some nervous antelope. Shortly thereafter, one of the lionesses broke off from the pact and went full Usain Bolt after the antelope. Our jeep gunned it, and we found ourselves only meters away from the catch. It was a bit of a bittersweet moment. Seeing a kill is quite rare, and seeing it all so close was quite exciting.

To make everything even more awesome, we drove out into an open plain for champaign, appetizers, and the sunset. Moments later, Massai warriors appeared and began performing their tribal dancing, chanting, and jumping. It was quite the cool experience.

Other highlights included seeing a 3 month old cheetah cub, a jackal catch and then release an antelope, and eating lots of good food.

Diani Beach:
A few days after returning from the safari, we took a 16 hour train to Diani Beach. The train is infamous within Kenya and was quite an experience itself. The tracks go through slums, cities, and the countryside. Children and their mothers would run along the train waving and yelling, "How are you?".

Diani Beach is a small beach town right along the Indian Ocean. Our first day there, we met an awesome couple from Sweden and spent the next number of days with them. Very lazy days that mostly included going to the beach and watching the Office at night. The downside of Diani Beach is that the "beach boys" (the guys who try and sell you everything!) often blocked our view of the water. Sometimes they would just sit in front of us and wink and blow kisses at Michelle when I wasn't looking. In terms of hassling/selling they were easily the most obnoxious we came across. I developed different methods of dealing with them including building sand castles and trying to sell them to a persistent beach boy and waving my finger furiously while yelling no as belligerently as possible. One of them said to me after a long ordeal of me refusing his services, "Your heart is like Russia. Cold and Hard.". It was perhaps the quote of the trip thus far.

After Diani Beach, it was off and up to Egypt!

Cairo:
We've now been in Cairo for a few days and love it. We are staying with some good friends from college and they have been awesome with showing us around and taking good care of us. The people here are easily the nicest and most hospitable of anywhere we've been. With that said, I've never heard more car honking, seen so much dust, or eaten with my hands so much. It's also still a bit eerie to hear the call to prayer over loudspeakers throughout the city 5 times a day. We've spent a lot of time in markets and at mosques, and will likely make our way to Giza in the next few days to see some pyramids and the Sphinx.

On a side note, one of our friends has a connection at the American embassy, which means we get to watch the Vikings this Sunday night! While my purple shirt is a bit dirty from not having been washed for close to a month now, I will wear it with pride as Favre dismantles the Cowboys.

We love hearing from you back home, so please keep writing when you have a chance!

Love you all.

No more 'stache!

2009-12-30T09:27:00.000-08:00

Dear friends and family,

We are in Nairobi, Kenya and preparing to embark on a safari tomorrow! We're pumped and wanted to update a few things before we leave.

For your entertainment, here are a few videos and a photo of our Christmas bounty:

1. Bungee jumping:

2. The lost chicken/our Christmas tree:

3. Michelle being tickled by many children at the Chifubu compound in Ndola:

In other news, here is the last picture taken of the 'stache:

...she's gone home now, and maybe for good. I must say that I feel a bit insecure as I now look rather pre-pubescent. So it goes with my facial hair or lack thereof.

We spent all of today exploring Nairobi, and had a really cool experience in Kibera (the largest slum in the world). We saw some soccer matches, explored a few markets, and we were even welcomed into a home right in the middle of the slum (pictured below). The children all called us "muzungu" (white person) and laughed whenever we looked their way. It's quite funny and really cute to be walking/in a bus/anywhere in Africa, and be called muzungu by a chorus of kids.

Well, that is all for now! Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Years!

Love from your muzungus

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T07:12:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to all you wonderful people from Ndola, Zambia!

We have had quite the eventful/funny day here. The morning started with some stockings (filled with candy, avocados, and oreos), gifts (including a wildebeast mug, bright orange sunglasses, and an old shirt), and a makeshift tree, made of a broom stick, a green towel, and a flashlight "star". It was lovely.

The funniest/most enjoyable part of the day just happened. While playing Settlers of Cataan (greatest game ever), we heard a chicken yelping. Long story short, a chicken had wandered into our yard and was being mauled by some dogs. Michelle being the animal lover she is, ran outside, shooed the dogs away and ran back to the house. Lo and behold, the chicken followed her right in. For a good 10 minutes, we had a chicken running around the living room and kitchen. Our good friend here, David Bramlett, put a towel around the chicken and carried it around to the neighbor's house and dropped it over the fence, into their yard. Chicken saved! Michelle happy. We have a funny video documenting the whole saga, but it is too long to post.

To recap...

Livingstone:
After arriving in Lusaka, Bram picked us up from the airport and we all made the trip down to LIvingstone, the home of Victoria Falls. This began a rather fun, somewhat un-nerving 3 day adventure.

Day 1:
We arrived at Victoria Falls and were immediately harassed by two baboons. Michelle was the first victim. She noticed the baboons creeping up behind her, and quickly offered them some bread (my lunch). She then put the apples in my camera bag, leaving me quite vulnerable to the baboons. The lead baboon tried taking my bag from me, but I resisted and held that baboon off with all of my might. Little did we know, the baboons would follow us. Minutes later, hundred of feet in the air, and on a narrow bridge, the baboons cornered me. I panicked, took out the apples and chucked them. Unbeknownst to me, in Michelle's direction (not to mention around 20 other Zambians). Baboons 2. Humans 0.

We then hiked around to the other side of the falls and met a Zambian named, Elvis. Elvis proceed to lead us through the Zambezi river (usually waist deep), hopping from rock to rock, to the very edge of the falls. It was a little close for comfort, but it was an amazing view and experience. He then showed us a natural pool that flowed into Victoria Falls. We jumped off of a small waterfall into the pool and enjoyed a nice little swim.

Later that night, we went on a sunset dinner cruise. We saw some hippos, we talked to a South African man about polygamy, and had some good ol' Wheaton fellowship.

Day 2:
We rose early in the morn and made our way back to the mighty Zambezi River for an all day white-water rafting trip. The Zambezi is known for some of the best rafting in the world and dons the world's largest commercial rapid. 25 rapids, mostly all class 4 or 5. The raft behind us tipped twice (no one was hurt) though they did tell us later that there are crocodiles in the water. At times they let us jump in the water and ride the current/rapids for long stretches of time. It felt like a combination of Huck Finn and Bear Grylls. That night we crashed and slept like a new born child.

Day 3:
We went bungee jumping off of the falls! Michelle and I went tandem which was hysterical. My ears were ringing for days. The workers at the bridge don't even give you time to get too scared... they put on your harness, tie up your feet and gently push you on your way. Enjoy the photos of us, and note how ill Michelle looks ill in most of the photos.

Earlier this week, we went to a couple of slums (compounds) with a ministry called Jubliee Center. They help build schools, churches, wells, etc. and also sponsor feedings for at risk children. We spent two days with the children and helped photograph a feeding as well as their new constructions. It was a really moving time.

Well, that's all for now. We're off to Kenya on Monday and we'll be on a safari this time next week!

We miss you all and keep us updated.

Merry Christmas and much love.

Here's a link to our friend Dave's blog:
http://www.braminzam-bia.blogspot.com

and a link Jubliee Centre:
http://www.jubileecentre.org/

Brazil Recap + Africa!

2009-12-14T04:21:00.000-08:00

Hey there Loved One,

The Meesh and I are officially in Africa! We arrived on Wednesday and have been having a blast. But first, a quick Brazilian recap.

Ilha Grande:
This place is pretty ridiculous. It is about 3 hours away from Rio, and is only accessibly by ferry. The main walkway is the beach. Our first few days were a bit rainy, but all things considered, it was still awesome. We hiked many hours through the jungle, over the mountains, and through the woods, to a beach called Lopes Mendes; one of the top rated beaches in Brazil. We also found a natural pool where many of the local islanders were playing. We joined in the fun and jumped off of many a rock. Some other highlights including snorkeling, where we saw lots of huge starfish, and building an incredible sand structure which you'll see below. All in all, it was a really relaxing, enjoyable week.

Sao Paulo:
We arrived in Sao Paulo late Sunday night and were greeted by Rev. Jonas (a connection of a connection of a connection). He and his family graciously welcomed us into their home and for the two days we were there, completely humbled us with their generosity and hospitality. On Monday, we visited an orphanage named Lar Boa Semente. They house, feed, and clothe 11 children under the age of 3. When they are ready for school, they are educated and mentored holistically. The government in Brazil takes these abandoned children and sends them to this orphanage, but provides zero funding. They rely solely on donations. We took some photos to help with promotional purposes to hopefully draw more donors and potential parents. It was a very moving, beautiful experience to hear about their ministry and to be able to interact with the volunteers and children.

Here's a link to a photo album (you may need to copy and paste it):
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2043296&id=187700907&l=fa72720d2f

We also had the opportunity to tour a good deal of Sao Paulo with a family from their church. It was so nice to be in a car and not in a rickety bus/train/plane/etc. It's hard to describe how humbling it is for a family who doesn't even know us to take us into their home, feed us, and go out of their way to show us their city.

After Sao Paulo, it was onto Africa!

We've been thoroughly enjoying ourselves thus far and will provide a proper update soon. Today:
-I had my lunch stolen from monkeys (the first time my bread, the second time, my apple)
-We hiked through the Zambezi River to the edge of Victoria Falls (more on this later)

Tomorrow we are rafting down the Zambezi (class 5 rapids), and will be bungee jumping off of Victoria Falls on Sunday. Booyakasha. Michelle gets nauseous when talking about bungee jumping, but we'll be going tandem, which should make it especially entertaining.

We love you all much and thank you for your thoughts/prayers/updates!

WE LOVE RIO

2009-12-09T10:02:00.000-08:00

To backtrack a bit:

Iguazu Falls
So after Buenos Aires (which we thought was the best city in South America), we hopped on a 20 hour bus up to Iguazu Falls to see the beautiful waterfalls. We walked around for hours and saw as many of the 250 waterfalls that comprise Iguazu as we could see. There were boardwalks and bridges everywhere that allow you to stand above the falls as they plummet below you. Throughout the jungle, there were also hundreds of butterflies that surrounded us and even landed on us. After a day of waterfalls, we were Rio bound. In an effort to save some money, we took a bus that stopped in Paraguay. The bus company assured us that no visa or money would be needed to enter or exit Paraguay. Lo and behold, our friends at the border patrol, stopped us, confiscated our passports, and demanded $50 from each of us... Of course, we didn't have any cash on us, and even if we did, we would not have given it to them for spending ONE hour in their country... So, I put on some tears, and Jonny kept saying "no entiendo". Eventually our bus driver came to our rescue. He fought for us, got us our passports back, and we were on our way!

RIO
WE LOVE RIO! After around 25 hours on a bus, we arrived in Rio, and stayed in Copacabana at a hostel called "Stone of a Beach"...it was pretty great. The first day there, it rained...poured, so Jonny and I spent the day up on the rooftop terrace, watching the office and laughing out loud. It felt nice to have a down day after all of the traveling.
The next couple of days were spent playing in 12-15 foot waves..SO BIG...visiting the Cristo Redentor statue (which is truly unbelievable and quite powerful), hanging out with some awesome people we met at our hostel, and drum roll please....going to the Brazilian championship futbol (soccer) game! Our hostel took a bus down to the stadium, handed out free beer (which people can drink on the beach, on the street, in a car..wherever you want...see pic below), and let us loose. The stadium is the largest in the world and used to hold 180,000 people. They have since cut it back to 110,000 due to safety regulations. We didn't have official seats, so we made our way through the crowd, all the way down to the second row of people, right next to the field. It was complete madness. I'm really happy the favored team (Flamengo) won, because there would have been riots afterward had they not. Apparently, when they lose, people tear up the chairs and throw them at each other, on the field, etc. Instead, everyone sang, jumped, chanted, and celebrated their first league championship in 17 years. Jonny and I were welcomed into the celebration with the help of several sweaty Brazilian men, who lifted us up and threw some high fives. It was such an amazing experience.

O I forgot to mention...Men in Brazil wear speedos. Everywhere you look, speedos! On the beach, no the street corner. It doesn't matter. So my husband, wanting to blend in with the locals (as if the stache is not enough) bought one and has been rocking it. Watch out Minneapolis:) He also tried to skimboard in it, and well, the picture below says it all.

Ilha Grande
Now we are sitting on the porch of our hostel looking out at the ocean on an island a couple hours southwest of Rio. Its pretty much paradise here. It has been raining quite a bit today, but Jonny and I walked around, got soaking wet, and stumbled upon a pretty secluded beach, where we swam and played in the sand. Sun or no sun, Ilha Grande is where its at!

One more week in South America and then.....off to AFRICA!

Valpo to B.A.

2009-11-29T16:37:00.000-08:00

Hello blog people,

Michelle and I are currently in the beautiful, beautiful city of Buenos Aires! It is pretty easily our favorite city thus far.

And now for a brief update on the last few days:

1. After spending a couple of days back in Santiago, we made our way to two small coast towns, Vina del Mar and Valparaiso. We stayed at a nice little hostel in Vina del Mar and spent most of our first day there recovering from a long, long, long walk from the bus station. We were totally lost after arriving, and ended up stopping at the police station to ask for directions to our hostel. A sweet little government worker ended up walking with us for well over an hour to our hostel. We tried to give her some pesos for a cab, but she shook her head, gave us a hug, and was off for an hour long trek back across town. There's been no shortage of blessings thus far. That night, we met up with a lady from Australia that we met in La Serena, as well as two of the Minnesota folk. It was great to re-connect with them and fun to see a bit of the nightlife in Vina.

2. The next day, (Thanksgiving) we took a short train to Valparaiso. Valpo (as the locals and informed travelers refer to it as), is a colorful, hilly, kind of run down city. It's a bit like a Chilean San Francisco. We spent all of the afternoon walking around, and taking old elevators lifts up to different parts of the town. We celebrated Thanksgiving by eating a delicious completo. What is a completo you ask? Let us tell you. It is a hot dog, smothered in guacamole, mayo, and tomatoes. Don't knock it unless you've tried it.

3. On Friday we flew over to Buenos Aires, and immediately fell in love with its boutiquey self. Picture a european style city with cobblestone streets and bookstores, cafes, galleries, and beautifulness everywhere. It's really amazing and is easily our favorite city thus far. We spent all of yesterday in the Palermo Viejo neighborhood. Michelle was immediately overwhelmed by all of the beautiful design and boutique shops. She at numerous points said that she was on, "sensory overload", and even at one point apologized in advance for providing bad conversation due to her constant boutique distraction. Last night we met up with an Australian couple that we met at the Brazilian consulate in Santiago. They were a lot of fun, though the club we went to was playing '80's/'90's pop music. Think Jock Jams. Michelle and I danced like we've never danced before. We also stayed at a sweet hostel pictured below.

4. Today we wandered about the San Telmo neighborhood which features one of the largest markets in Buenos Aires. Let's say it together, "sensory overload for Michelle". Little vendors, opera singers, puppet people, orange juicers, leather swindlers, and an occasional gringo, lined the streets for miles. And if that wasn't enough, there was an antique market at the end which sported lots of really expensive pocket watches, grammaphones, and other old goodies. I've had an absolute hay day with photography and Michelle has been incredibly patient throughout.

5. As if Buenos Aires couldn't be any greater, when returning to our hostel today, we were graced with the Vikings/Bears game. My did seeing Favre live make me giddy with glee. And then for him to dismantle yet another team. It was beautiful.

We are soon off to Uruguay (maybe) and then Iguazu Falls before venturing into Brazil.

We love you all and miss you much. It's really difficult being away from home for Thanksgiving and soon Christmas too, but we're starting to get into the swing of things and have been having a blast thus far. Please email us and keep us updated about life back home as well.

And now, I leave you with a picture of Michelle and her new bag, as well as a photo of the sushi place where we had dinner.

2009-11-24T12:34:00.000-08:00

The Raspberry Farm:
After arriving in Santiago, we soon made our way down to Southern Chile to an organic farm called Brita's. Eva (the owner)
makes all kinds of delicious jams, spreads, and pie. The first day, it was quite rainy, so we spent a lot of time labeling jars
and taking photos of the different parts of the farm. The second day, we did our best to construct a giant raspberry out of
plastic red balls to help with the roadside signage, but sadly to no avail. The task proved too difficult. Later in the day,
we explored the property and explored a beautiful river that flowed through the back of the farm. We also found a giant bug.
With Michelle hiding in the house, I garnered up the courage to swipe it with a broom handle. Upon hitting it's crunchy body,
I screamed, causing a neighbor to run over and make sure everything was ok. I was just a little embarrassed, but rest assured
the bug escaped just fine and was placed gently into the grass, out of harms way.

La Serena:
We then made our way up to La Serena, about 6.5 hours North of Santiago. There, we stayed at a hostel with a number of
other gringos, 4 of whom were from Minnesota! Such a small world. The skies in La Serena are supposedly some of the
clearest in the world, and there is a large observatory in a neighboring town. So one night, we took a tour to the observatory
and were able to see the moon in all its glory (see below the picture we took through the telescope) as well as the gases around Jupiter, Magellanic (sp?) Clouds (which are really 2 other galaxies only seen in the southern hemisphere!), and other astronomical goodies. It was an amazing experience and a great reminder of how small we are.

Back to Santiago:
So now, we are back in Santiago for the day and we'll be heading West to Valparaiso and Vina del Mar tomorrow to meet some of the Minnesotans from the hostel in La Serena. Then it is off to Buenos Aires on Friday!

We're both missing home a lot, especially with Thanksgiving and Christmas being so close. We should have some access
to Skype later tonight if you are in the chatting mood. Today some Chileans even asked me for directions. I don't know if it
was the 'stache or the scarf, but I was flattered. Unfortunately, I had no idea what they were saying.

We love you and miss you all, and we leave you with this a video of our lunch today!

Dinner in Santiago!

2009-11-16T18:05:00.001-08:00

Friends,

We arrived in Santiago, Chile this afternoon. There was a brief moment of panic at the airport when we learned about the currency... Chilean pesos are in hundreds, thousands, and hundreds of thousands, which doesn't bode well with our math skills.

Tonight we are staying with Viqui and Aaron. They studied in Madison, WI and have been incredibly hospitable, generous, and kind. We just finished a wonderful meal with their family and some friends. Check out the video and know someone in Chile loves you.

Oh Peru.

2009-11-14T16:29:00.000-08:00

Dear You,

We are back in Lima after many days of fun adventure.

Huanchaco:
After a couple of days in Lima, we got on a bus and traveled about 9 hours north to a small surfing town outside of Trujillo, called Huanchaco. Jonny learned to surf and we filled our bellies full of ceviche and corn (which the kernels are like 3x the size of American corn...its amazing!) After meeting some Americans at a restaurant who told us we would be crazy if we did not go to machu picchu, we decided to hop on another 9 hours bus back to Lima and then immediately onto another 23 hour bus to Cusco. As we drove through the night, the bus would stop and let randos on to try to sell us food/wine/you name it. It was definitely an experience. The next day (still on the bus) we stopped for lunch at a little restaurant. Jonny and I didn't have much money on us since the day before we had spent it all on the bus tickets, but were able to scrounge up about 7 soles ($3) to split a plate of rice and beans. A little Peruvian woman, dressed in very worn clothes, approached us and started speaking to us in Spanish. After a couple of minutes we picked up on the fact that she wanted to buy us another meal, which she did, and all we could do in return was say "muchas gracias". It was such a beautiful display of the hospitality of the Peruvian people, and also of the Lord's provision.

Cusco:
Beautiful, bustling town in the mountains. The roads are a maze of steep cobblestone alleys filled with shop after shop. We stayed a night and then took a 2 hour taxi and a 3 hour train to Aguas Calientes..the gateway city to Machu Picchu.

Aguas Calientes:
Finally some jungle and greenery! At the base of huge tree filled mountains that are usually covered with thick clouds, sits this little town that exists to bring people up and down Machu Picchu. Jonny and I pretty much jumped from restaurant to restaurant eating 4 course meals for $5 a pop....YUM:) At then end of the town are the hot springs, which we also enjoyed.

Machu Picchu:
The next morning We woke up at 4:00 am to ensure that we would be in the top 400 people to enter Machu picchu which makes you eligible to climb Waynapicchu (a huge mountain that overlooks the ruins). We took the bus up to Machu Picchu and then began our trek up Waynapicchu which was an absolutely amazing experience and the biggest work out of the decade for both of us. We climbed the steep stairs in a little under 40 minutes which i think is pretty impressive, if i do say so myself. At the top, the clouds started off below us and then began to rise up right in front of us until they were gone and the sun was shining down on Maccu Picchu. Our only response was awe. We spent some time up there journaling and looking out, and then made the trek back down to the ruins. At the ruins, we hiked up to the guard house and met some llamas..they were everywhere! Take a look at the videos:)

Lima:
After another 23 hour bus ride back to Lima, we are here staying with mission workers, Sara and Rusty, who have been the biggest blessing. They are letting us stay in their house, they let us wash our clothes, and they cooked us delicious fish and rice last night and pancakes and fruit this morning! We are here one more night and then we are off to Santiago where we will be visiting a raspberry farm a couple hours south of the city.

Until next time...Peace

First day in Lima

2009-11-05T17:35:00.000-08:00

What a crazy city... We arrived late last night to a taxi driver holding a sign with our name on it...(a missionary who we have emailed back and forth but never met arranged it all thank goodness!) We are staying with another mission worker down here, Alexandra.

This morning we awoke to some fresh mango banana juice and bread with passion fruit and honey spread on top.
Then we found a clinic that would give us the yellow fever vaccination (which we found out only yesterday was necessary to have in order to get in and out of most of the countries we are going to), so all set there:)
The rest of today was spent walking around the neighborhood of Lima called Miraflores, eating ceviche (raw fish soaked in lime juice and onions), watching the surfers, hardly staying alive on the bus and in the taxi, and otherwise just taking it pretty slow.

Tomorrow Jonny will be taking some photos of products for local artisans that are part of a fair trade organization and then we will be off to who knows where:) Guess well let you know once we figure it out!

much love

4 more hours.

2009-11-03T22:09:00.000-08:00

November 4th is finally here! After months of preparation, training, and intensive labor, we are soon to be aboard a plane to Miami. And then to Lima, Peru.

Michelle is blow drying her hair.

I'm about to start packing.

And we have to be at the airport in 4 hours.

4:30 am here we come!

Under two weeks!

2009-10-22T08:45:00.001-07:00

Dearest Friends and Family,

The blogosphere is an exciting and somewhat scary place, but we are here and excited to provide you with updates on our travels! November 4th is rapidly approaching and we are increasingly excited. We are heading out to Colorado for our last wedding of the season in just a few days, and then it's Lima or bust.

Here is our itinerary:

NOV 4-16 Lima, Peru

NOV 16-27 Santiago, Chile

NOV 27-DEC 15 Buenos Aires, Argentina and Sao Paulo, Brazil

DEC 15- DEC 29 Lusaka, Zambia

DEC 29- JAN 13 Nairobi, Kenya

JAN 13- JAN 27 Cairo, Egypt

JAN 27- FEB 10 Istanbul, Turkey

FEB 10- FEB 24 Athens, Greece

FEB 25- MAR 11 Mumbai, India

MAR 11- APR 1 Bangkok, Thailand and Phnom Penh, Cambodia

APR 2- MAY 1 New Zealand

MAY 1: Come home to Minneapolis

We'll be updating this here blog as often as possible. Expect cool pictures, interesting stories, fun facts, and even a few surprises. Also check out http://www.jonathanhoffnerphotography.com every now and then as we will be updating our site with fresh new photos.

That is all for now. Until next time.

JMH