Getting that Yellow Card!

Marc here. Priority one for our extra two days in Lima: get that darn yellow fever immunization card (which they, of course, deliver in a yellow card!). After a phone call to an english-speaking physician who calls himself "The Hotel Doc," we had the name of a local clinic that could issue the cards. A short walk to the Good Hope Clinic of Lima and we were immersed in the healthcare system of Peru. They brought out an English speaking nurse who explained that this was a private clinic for Peruvians who could afford to pay for their care. "We have the rich people here," she said. "The poor people have to go to the government hospital," which is, of course, where immunizations and yellow cards are distributed. She told us that it was a one hour taxi ride, on a saturday, of a holiday weekend....it would be just crazy. With that, we made the decision to honor our promise to the girls that they would get some choice in the day's activities so that they get some acknowledgement of their incredible patience. New plan: spend the rest of the morning walking and shopping in Lima and then call our Angel (the taxi driver and guide from the last tour company that handled our Peru part of the trip) and ask him to return us to the airport, where we know we can get the cards. After a very successful shopping adventure, Rebecca gets a craving for.....KFC....the worst part is that there are as many KFC's in Lima as there are Starbucks in the US. Apparently, chicken is very popular and its hard to go even a few blocks without another KFC. Worst-est part: I was actually excited and motivated for some extra crispy fried chicken! Forget local culture at this point. We want home (and in ways that we don't even eat at home!). Other than the MSG they added (and I discovered 30 minutes later! Remind me, in private, to share my other experience with ingesting MSG in Peru :) ), it was great. Angel picked us up, drove us back to the airport (about an hour), and told us that he had already called the airport clinic, spoke with the doctor, explained our situation, and she was ready to issue the cards, Thank you, Angel! Sure enough, it took just 15 or 20 minutes of bureaucracy and we had our coveted yellow cards. After lots of celebratory photos, we said goodbye to Angel (until the morning run to the airport for Costa Rica). In keeping with the American cultural food theme, we weren't hungry enough for dinner so we compromised with a walk down the street for Pinkberry frozen yogurt. Yeah. Angel demanded that we get to the airport 3 hours ahead of our 10:45 am flight to Costa Rica. Yadda. Yadda. Yadda. Good thing we did! Lima has only one international airport serving nearly 11 million residents. It was PACKED. We got to the ticket counter to get our cherished boarding passes only to have another incredible painful surreal moment: Ticket agent: "You only have two tickets to Costa Rica. There aren't any tickets for Rebecca or Shayna." Marc: "What?" Ticket Agent: "Only two tickets have been issued. You only have two tickets on this flight." Marc: to himself, holy crap. Within a few minutes, we were able to confirm that we did, indeed, have four reservations, just not four tickets. That meant that the airline needed to convert the other two reservations into actual (ok electronic) tickets. BUT...since the tickets were issued by COPA airlines (boo...hiss...) and we were flying Avianca, we needed to go to Copa....except that COPA didn't open until 10 am (even at the airport!) and our flight left at 10:40 am (not enough time!) Plan B: Have the Avianca ticket agent call the Copa call center and have them take care of it. (In order to get this far, the avianca agent sent me running upstairs to the admin. offices of Copa, where I barged into a private office with a sign on the door "do not enter." Heck with that, I entered. After shuffling me out the door, the guy said he couldn't help me. Surprise. Surprise). Fortunately, Avianca (yeah!) did help..called Copa call center..explained our story...got put on hold..... on hold.... on hold... for 15 minutes... for 30 minutes... for an hour... for 90 minutes..... Then, CELEBRATION! The computer revealed that the Copa agent had processed our two tickets. Within seconds, they handed us our boarding passes and we raced to the gate,(but first securing and customs) arriving 3 minutes after they were supposed to start boarding. Fortunately, they were running a little late and gave us 20 minutes to spend our last Peruvian soles.. Thank you, Angel, for getting us to the airport 3 hours early! There was a Costa Rican youth group on the flight with us. They cheered when the plane landed in San Jose. No one was cheering louder than us!

Costa Rica... Finally

As of the last post, we were in Lima without yellow cards, unable to enter Costa Rica. As of right now we have entered the country and are ready for some awesome days here. It's shayna. I will tell you about Costa Rica and my dad will fill you in on how we got here. We landed at the airport and were welcomed by someone from the tour company. She gave us stickers with the name of the travel company. The. Another man came and helped us with our baggage. He then dropped off our luggage and we were handed off to another English speaking man. He told us to have our cameras ready during the three hour drive to the hotel. He then dropped us off at the car and the driver took us to our hotel. Wow. A lot of people just to get us from baggage claim to the car. We got into a giant van for only the four of us. As we started driving, I got a little bit nauseous so my mom asked the driver if we could stop somewhere for water. After about five minutes, he pulled over at a Costa Rican version of Costco. They sold everything from bikes to groceries. We got back in the car and kept on going. I don't really remember much else of the car drive because I pretty much felt like I was going to throw up the entire time. If any of you have been to Yosemite, there is that really windy part in the mountains right before you arrive. We had that for three hours. I also forgot to mention that the drivers are crazy. The driver was going so fast through the curves that I jolted every time we went around one. I couldn't wait to get to the spa and resort hotel. As you may imagine, we were pretty much in the middle of the rainforest. There wasn't much around other than hotels and zip lines. When we got to the hotel it was pretty amazing. They welcomed us with free drinks and then led us to our room. Okay it wasn't a room it was an apartment. With every step I took I could not believe it. The master bedroom has a giant king bed, a living room and a tv. Mine and Rebecca's room is like a regular hotel room except it has memory foam mattresses! Awesome! The bathroom: giant jacuzzi bathtub, rain shower from the ceiling, two sinks, and a separate room for the toilet. We were so grateful that we could get the yellow cards. After hanging out in the apartment for a little bit, we decided to do some exploring. There is a spa and hot spring about 10 minutes walking up the hill. We decided we would walk it but a van was waiting to take us so we hopped on. The hot springs were incredible! The main one had a wet and dry bar and a small water slide. As you keep walking up the hill, there are more and more, each one getting hotter and hotter. One of them even has a waterfall that you can stand under. Next, my parents went to the spa to book massages. When we walked outside it was raining a little. Then it rained harder and harder and harder. Before we knew it, it was out pouring rain and there was lightning and thunder. It was really scary. We stood under an overhang and waited for the storm to pass. It didn't so we just went for it. We tried to find an exit but were unsuccessful. We stood under anther overhang and then had an escort with an umbrella take us to the van. We were very happy to be in the van and heading back tot he hotel. We had a very nice dinner and then decided against swimming that night. I was very tired so we went back to the room and I went almost immediately to sleep. Today we are going to spend the whole day at the hot springs and spa

A few pictures

A delay and continuing lessons on travel and life

Marc here. It´s been quite a 24 hours, full of frustration, even as our family does, indeed, understand the challenges of travel. We begin last night, when we needed to change hotels in Cusco due to a booking error from months ago. As it turned out, the new hotel was just terrible...30 degrees outside with no heat in old rooms with windows that brought in the chill. A location far up the hill that lots of hiking at 12,000 feet just to get back and forth. A 6 am departure this morning only to learn that there would be no breakfast for us because we didn´t request it 24 hours in advance (we only arrived 15 hours in advance!). Neither toilet flushed properly, it took 20 minutes to prep our "free drink" and the list goes on. We couldn´t wait to get out and get to the warmth of Costa Rica. With plenty of time to wait in the long lines of Cusco airport, we experienced a truly surrealistic moment when the agent told us, in plain and simple terms, that we would be denied boarding the flight from lima to costa rica because we had not carried a yellow immunization card that showed we had shots against yellow fever. Of course, we got the cards 4 years ago for our trip to Africa but nowhere in anything were we told that we needed to bring it... Strategy sessions begin with Marci and me. We decide we got a bad agent and when we get to Lima (with a 70 minute layover on a flight thats already 30 minutes late), we were somehow going to retrieve our suitcases, hurry to the ticket counter, get the boarding passes from an agent that doesn´t care, and make the flight. We land, make it to baggage claim, and our angel appeared, an airline agent with a walkie talkie working to get us processed through the system. HE would claim our bags. HE would issue the same claim number for the new flight and he advised us to move quickly to the VIP line at line 1 upstairs. Off we went, quietly celebrating. The new (nice) ticket agent is typing away as fast as he can, telling us how to move through customs quickly, to make our flight. Boarding passes are printing as she and the other agent say ¨"of course you have your yellow cards." Stop the printer. That ended it right there. We were told, in no uncertain terms, that we were not getting on that plane, that if we did, they would hold us in the international arrivals space until deporting us back to Peru. Ouch. With that, a Peruvian man appeared, asking if we were the Dollingers. The Cusco agent from our travel company (Yeah for Monogram Tours) in Cusco called him. He drove to the airport to help. And, yes, his name really is Angel. We learned that we needed a photocopy of our yellow card. we would bring this to the hospital clinic, and they would issue a new card for us to fly. And here´s how it went: -we called (at $2 a minute), the 3 people who have keys to our house. None were available for an immediate trek to get our documents from the house. The one that was (thanks Debbie Stadtner) didn´t have a key. We left somewhat frantic messages for Baruch Cohen, Ellen Levin, and Blanca, who cleans the house. -we went to Lacsa airlines to get on tomorrow´s flight. She said that since she didn´t issue the ticket, we´d had to go to Copa airlines. -we dashed to Copa airlines, waited in line, where they told us that Lacsa needs to change it. We disagreed. They sent us back to Lacsa anyway. -At Lacsa, they said we needed to call the travel agent who booked the ticket to sort it out. -We called travelocity ($2 minute, including hold time) only to be told that we had to go back to copa. -Back at copa, she called over a few lines to Lacsa (thank you!), only to learn that tomorrow is sold out and Sunday would require we pay a massive change fee. We told them it wasn´t our fault and we were denied boarding. She said its our responsibility to know the documents we needed and we would have to pay. -I called the Costa Rica tour company to tell them we would NOT be landing today and to get their help. they said they couldn´t help since it was our fault. I asked them if they knew about this rule. they said they never heard of the rule. I countered that if you didn´t know the rule, and this is your specialty (latindestinations.com, dare I say), then how should we? -we decide costa rica isn´t happening and we´ll go to florida, get on a last minute cruise, visit orlando, whatever. I call now to the copa telephone center (since, remarkably, the airport is not allowed to issue nor even price tickets). we learn that we would have to pay 4 one-way last minute tix, and then fight with the airlines and travel companies (or our travel insurance company) even as they all claim no responsibility since we were the ones without the documents. -we decide we´re going to costa rica to save money! -a new round of calls (I´ll spare you the details!) and we get a flight on lacsa in two days, no extra fees, and we´ll miss our time in the region with turtles. (can´t complain too much after the galapagos!). -meanwhile, the girls continue to sit patiently with our luggage in the international checkin area of the Lima airport. They were (and are) amazing! -next, we locate an office at the airport that books hotels (feeling a bit like snowden in the moscow airport!), then negotiate a taxi, then out of the airport. -.....five hours later!!! -loving the patience of the girls. -with adrenalin running, we just kept pushing in each of these directions, only occasionally expressing frustration with a travel professional for refusing to help, to show any sort of flexibility. (I think my line was "Hey, I´m stranded here with my family in the Peru airport so I´ve got my own challenges to deal with"). -and, then....the traffic...bumper to bumper...late friday afternoon of what we later learned was peruvian independence day weekend. -at one point, cones in the road closed off two lanes of the road, squeezing traffic to just 2 lanes. Frustration on top of frustration. -ALERT. NO READING THIS OUT LOUD TO YOUNG CHILDREN, PAMELA. I glanced out the window to see the cause of the traffic snarl...the motion-less body of a man who had apparently fallen from a pedestrian bridge overhead. I used my best spanish to ask the driver what he thought...he said ¨"bad" and I believe that he was dead. Fortunately, the girls were either sleeping or just dazed in the back seat and never looked to the left to see what was outside their window. -well, how about that for a little life perspective and lesson. As I mourned the loss of this man whom I had, of course, never met, and thought of his mom (he looked like he was in his 30s or 40s), I thought as well about the parents of Ethan, a boy struck by lightning at GUCI camp who is struggling to recover, then, of course, to Annais´death at Tawonga....in just a few seconds, all those hours of frustration, of $2 minute phone calls, of lost vacation days, took incredible focus. It was humbling and maturing in an instant. I certainly didn´t FEEL any better about it all at that point but I certainly KNEW I needed to take a few deep breathes and reposition myself. -when we arrived at the hotel, our room phone rang. it was that Monogram co. agent who went to the airport to help us. he gave us his cel phone, his office cell phone, and made sure we knew where and how to get our yellow form. and with this call from Angel, the tide turned. -the hotel offered to drop 20 percent from the room if we paid in cash :) -the little market next door turned out to be a mega supermarket. marci is very happy. -the atm across the street is from the only bank in latin america that doesn´t charge a fee to b of a customers. -the hotel offered a four course dinner for $12...because we missed three consecutive meals since cusco! -the clinic to get the document is just 4 blocks from the hotel. -angel will drive us to the airport sunday, even though its peru´s independence day. -ellen levin found our documents at the house, even though they weren´t in any of the places i thought they were, then she photographed them, then she went to kinkos to copy them, and just minutes ago, emailed them to us. thank you!!! You are a life saver! (And another angel watching over us.) we did tell the girls that while today was quite stressful, it would, some day, be a great story of our adventures. what a day it´s been and we hope yet another greater reflection on priorities, what they are and should be, and how it is these moments that are our greatest tests to keep things in proper perspective. (something marci does naturally, for me...a little more work.) we will update when we get the new yellow immunization cards. until then, time to sleep. Marc

Shayna here. I will fill you in on the last few days and on machu picchu. Wow! What an incredible place. We spent a few days in Cuzco and the sacred valley. We saw a lot of churches and a lot of Incan ruins. This is because when the Spanish conquered the Incas in the 1500's, they built cathedrals on top of all of the Incan temples. In the Sacred Valley, we went to an Alpaca farm and a huge crafts market. We fed the alpacas and learned how they make their wool into different crafts. It was really cool. Unfortunately, our tour was pretty rushed so we didn't get much time in the market. Rebecca got some scarves for her friends. Our next stop was at a giant buffet lunch. It was about an hour drive through the Andes mountains. It was beautiful. I had learned in school how high the Andes were but it is so different when you are actually there. Our lunch was in the middle of nowhere but it was still great. It was a small restaurant surrounded by beautiful gardens. We ate a lot and then waited for about half an hour. We could have been buying stuff at the market. Oh well. I had a good time taking pictures of the flowers. Our next activity was a hike up to an Incan Temple. There were a lot of steps and I was really out of breath but once we got to the top it was really pretty. Once again, he only gave us 20 minutes to walk around so we decided to just start walking down. Yes, it took us that long to get down the steps. When we got on the bus, we had an unusual passenger with us. He was a student learning to be a tour guide. He started showing us a computer program that teaches you about Machu Picchu. It took us far too long to realize that he was trying to make a sale. The second time that he walked down the bus lane, he made one sale. Wahoo! After he got off, we stopped at our beautiful hotel in the sacred valley. We stayed in our room for awhile and then had dinner in the hotel bar where they gave Rebecca a piña colada with alcohol. Whoops. She didn't drink too much though. After dinner we went for a nice walk around the town. It was surprisingly really nice. We went to this one store to pick up our laundry and let's just say we went on a major shopping spree. I got a sweatshirt because of course I didn't bring a jacket. I got gloves, Rebecca got a necklace and my mom got a sweater. We took a long walk back to the hotel and then went to bed. The next morning was Machu Picchu. We woke up really early to get on a bus so that we could get on a train. It was a beautiful hour and a half train ride. We were surrounded by the Andes Mountains on all sides with a river running down the middle. We're did that river water come from you ask. Of course from Lake Titikaka. Anyways, we got off the train and were met by someone from the tour company who brought us to yet another bus. We were there for about 10 minutes waiting for our tour guide. It was only then that our escort informed us that our guide was already on top of the mountain and that we should get on the bus. Well we could have been on a bus by then. Oh well. We waited in line and then got on the bus to head to Machu Picchu. Let's just say it was the long and winding road. Once we reached the top, we met our tour guide. He got us through the entrance and then we started the tour. It was beautiful. I had seen the picture before but I never really imagined it looking the way that it did. We went on a four hour tour of it and then went to the only restaurant there for lunch. It only has one hotel that is about 1,000 dollars a night. We decided not to stay there. Our guide told us that there was a 90 minute walk to a sun gate. We decided that we would do that short walk and then do our own touring after that. The day didn't really turn out that way. We may have taken a little bit longer on the walk then he said we would. Ok, maybe we took a lot more time to do the walk. Ok, it took us three hours to do the hike. We were just so glad that we didn't do the inca trail. Can you imagine? After our very long hike we got on the bus and went back down the mountain. We checked into our hotel and then had a free dinner there. We walked around the town for awhile and then decided to go to bed. This was because we wanted to wake up early to catch the sunrise at Machu Picchu the next morning. Let me tell you first that everyone we talked to gave us a different time that we had to wake up to see the sunrise. We went with the person at the front desk of our hotel. He said that sunrise is at 7:18. We thought that sounded right so we went to bed. The next morning, we woke up and went to breakfast at about 6:45. Someone was wrong. It was light outside. We stepped outside only to find that the sun had already risen. We were fine with that and decided to head up the mountain whenever we were ready. We got to the bus line only to see that the line went for at least 2 blocks. I guess that was the time to go to Machu Picchu. We were able to get to the viewpoint right when the sun was going over the mountain. The timing ended up being perfect. After taking some pictures and meeting a group of college aged girls from San Francisco, we decided it was time to head down the mountain. We walked around Aguascalientes and did some shopping. It was a nice town with many little souvenir shops. When it was time, we got on the train and had a four hour train ride back to Cusco. It was a very interesting train ride. We had a weird lion dancer posing for pictures and dancing to local music and a fashion show of alpaca sweaters. Definitely a cultural experience (or maybe a tourist experience but it was funny anyways.) we arrived in cusco, went to our not so beautiful hotel and checked in. We had heard of a really good Israeli restaurant in cusco so we decided to go there for dinner. We arrived at the street that it was on only to find Israel ktana. For those of you who don't know Hebrew, that means little Israel. Every store had Hebrew writing and there were Israeli flags everywhere. Who would have guessed? We had a delicious meal of hummus and falafel and then went back to the hotel to go to sleep. The next day was our free day in Cusco. It was the first time in a very long time that we could wake up whenever we wanted. We had breakfast at the last possible minute and then headed across the street to the big market. We spent a very long time in there buying gifts for ourselves and all of our friends. Next stop, chocolate museum. Of course we did some shopping on the way. Both of my parents got alpaca sweaters. In one of the stores Rebecca got a crocheting lesson from one of the locals. She told my mom in Spanish that Rebecca was too tense. She said that she was a shaman and could give her a relaxation. It was so interesting. She took special rocks and put them in a blanket. She said some things in Quechua and then rubbed the rocks all over her. When she was done she was breathing really deeply and Rebecca said that she felt lighter. I took a video if any of you are interested in watching it. The shaman told my mom that Rebecca had a lot of stress in her neck and back. She removed it apparently and then continued on with the crocheting lesson. When we were ready to leave we paid for everything and then the shaman gave us two little doll keychains for free. So nice. Our next stop was the chocolate museum. We learned about the cacao bean and tried some chocolate. While we were in the store buying gifts, we heard the Hatikvah. We followed the familiar song and discovered a chocolate making class in the next room. While the chocolate makers stirred whatever they were making, they had to sing a song. These two girls chose to sing the national anthem of their country. Wow! After the chocolate museum, we didn't do much else. We picked up our laundry and then got a little bit lost going back to the hotel. Two women in a kebab restaurant sent us in the complete opposite direction of our hotel. We eventually found it and were very happy that we did. We went to sleep because we had an early wake up this morning. My dad will blog about today because I really just can't put it into words. It was definitely a crazy travel story day. I will give you a hint that we are not going to Costa Rica until 2 days from now. Until next time, Shayna

Now for mom's perspective...hi everyone, Marci here. I'll share a few thoughts although the girls are capturing the experience quite well. Lima was the surprise city of the trip for me so far. I didn't know what to expect but I thought it would be more like the other South American cities I've seen. This had a very modern, metropolitan feel. Many of the American chain restaurants have made their way here, including chilis, pink berry, TGIF's, KFC, McDonald's and of course, Starbucks. Traffic was crazy, even when we landed at 11:30 at night. Apparently in Lima, a red light is merely a suggestion to stop. Horns are blasting like crazy. They love to honk for no apparent reason. We stayed at a really lovely hotel called the country club in the residential neighborhood of San ysidro. Five star and really luxurious. Never mind that we couldn't get the toilets to flush. More on that later. We had a city tour and saw the beach boardwalk, the old part of town and even found ourselves in the middle of a huge parade of competing schools. I loved it! You know how i love a good competition! The weather has been cooler than we expected. Great traveling weather for us dollingers but not so great for shayna, who left he jacket she planned to pack at home. Thankfully, Marc brought two and loaned her his fleece. For a girl who never gets cold, she finally admitted to being cold. I see a new alpaca sweater in her future! Luckily, we were prewarnend about the bathroom situation here in Peru. Hence the wad of Kleenex in my purse. Apparently they do not believe in toilet seats here so we have been doing a lot of squatting. And oh yes, you may not deposit the tp into the toilet, only in the trash can next to the toilet. Eww! I will never take my potty at home for granted again. Off to pack for our two day adventure to Machu pichu. Sending love, Marci

Hi everyone. I apologize that you haven't seen many pictures. I am having trouble loading them to the ipad so I will post them ASAP. Thanks! Shayna

Hi!! Rebecca here writing from our first and pretty much only day in Lima. Today we slept in, ate breakfast, and headed out around two for a tour of the city. I got very dehydrated and slept a lot of the way, so I honestly can't tell you much of what we learned. However, once we got to the old city, I got water in me and I felt a lot better. We walked far too quickly through the too-awesome-to-walk-that-quickly stores, where we did not get to shop :(. We then headed into a crowded street where a school parade was going on. Schools were competing for something. We saw a lot of giant people on stilts dressed as puppets. Not gonna lie, some of them were creepy. They all had these weird smiles on their faces! I would get really freaked if I woke up in the middle of the night and saw one of them staring over me. Shayna probably has pictures. Anyways, after that we walked through this HUGE fancy church that could probably feed a few small countries with the money it took to build it. But whatever. Then the highlight/lowlight of our day: the catacombs. So apparent,y it was this thing, unknown, under the church that you shouldn't go in if you were claustrophobic. I'm not claustrophobic so I thought eh, might as well. It wasn't until we were too deep inside that we finally beer stand the word catacombs. Basically it was a giant tombstone with the bones of over 25,000 ancient people. Pretty disgusting, right? Oh no, it gets worse. We were in the tight space where we had to duck to fit in the tiny walls with like two other tour groups when we saw the bones. Organized by size and type. Human bones. Rotting. Oh no, it gets worse. We walked through a hallway where we saw more and more of these bones, and at the end, a pit of human skulls. I seriously thought I was going to throw up. My thought at the time was, however, if I throw up, it'll go into one of these pits and they'll have to scrub off the skulls individually of my vomit. Needless to say, not a pleasant thought. I will ease your mind though, I didn't throw up. Phew! And it gets a bit worse. We walked and saw this well of all the bones and decomposed bodies of the people they pretty much didn't have room for. So it was just a giant pit of skulls and bones. Yeah, worrisome. Disgusting, yes. Fun and interesting tour, yeah no. Finally, we had reached the end! Praise The Lord whose these bodies were buried in the name of! Anyways, we walked up and out of the church. We headed to dinner and now we are back at our hotel. It has been an exhausting day. I don't know about you, but I am ready to collapse. But not like the bones we saw today. Tomorrow, kuzco!! Till next time, Rebecca <3

Olah everyone! How's my Spanish? Pretty good right? This morning was our last panga ride. Lucky for us, it was a dry landing. What on earth is a dry landing you may ask. Well I will tell you. During our visit to the Galapagos we had two kinds of landings frm the little zodiac boats which they call pangas, wet landings and dry landings. During a wet landing the boat driver would pull up onto the beach as far as possible and then we would get off in our water shoes or barefoot and step into the water. We would then walk up to the beach. The dry landing was just the boat pulling up to the dock and us walking off. After five days on the boat with two islands everyday we were finally making our last landing. Fortunately we didn't have to carry our suitcases because they made their own landing on the zodiacs. We got off the zodiac but couldn't get off the dock the normal way because a sea lion was lying on one of the steps. I've never seen that before. There was also a park near the beach that had been inhabited by sea lions. There were also two slides that went into the water. We couldnt figure out if they were for humans or animals. As we reached the bus I was surprised to find a real town. We were on the Galápagos Islands and it looked like we were in any other city on the mainland. After we had a little trouble ok a lot of trouble finding the right bus, we got on the right one and took a 45 minute bus ride to the giant tortoise breeding center. The purpose of the center is to replace the 20,000 tortoises that have been stolen and eaten before the Galapagos became a national park. When we got there, we almost immediately saw the giant tortoises. They were giant! Hence the name. "Be careful of that tree!" said our guide. It turns out that one of the trees found on the side of the path is poisonous! If you touch it to your face, you go blind and if you swallow it you choke to death. No kidding. Ok spending this visit staying away from all trees everywhere. Turns out the tortoises are not affected by this tree and it is a main part of their diet. (To all my grandparents, my dad says that I overstated the previous lines so you should not worry even though I told the truth.) while I was disappointed to not see many tortoises, it was very exciting to see the baby tortoises. They were so cute and small. No one could believe that they would one day become the giants ones that we had seen previously living for over 100 years. The oldest one in the Galapagos was 150 years old. Wow! A little lesson for all of you, if you sit on the bus step that is full of mud, you will get mud on your pants. I wonder who made that mistake. Oh yeah that would be me. It's not like it looked like I went to the bathroom in my pants. Ok maybe it did. We left the breeding center and went to one of the only towns in the Galapagos for an hour of shopping and eating that somehow turned into 20 minutes of rushed chachki shopping. Who needs lunch anyway right? Off to a small airstrip that they call an airport. We waited in line and then waited in line again and then finally got on the plane. One of the strangest airport experiences I've ever had. Three takes off and landings later, heading north and then south and then northa gain, we made it to Lima, Peru. Who needs dinner? We did so I got a slice of pizza at the Quito airport. Marc and Rebecca got a burger from Johnny rockets. It was midnight before we arrived at our beautiful hotel in Lima. I tried to fall asleep with out much success but by 1:45 I finally called it a night, or a morning.

Hi everyone! Rebecca here writing from the airplane as we are headed to Lima, Peru. We have had such a packed week in the Galapagos! We saw everything from blue footed boobies to iguanas to a group of dolphins. In all, it was quite spectuacular. I believe Shayna has already written for most of the days, so I will fill you on yesterday. We got up and got ready for a hike and zodiac ride. Once we arrived on the island where we were hiking, we had to climb up about 20 steep steps to get to the path. Once on the path, we saw some amazing birds! We found red footed boobies, which are much rarer to see than the blue footed ones. We saw a bunch of little baby boobies and I learned how to take panorama shots. You will be seeing a lot of panorama shots in the future. I am now kind of in love with that setting. After we finished the hike we rode around a bit in the zodiac. Then we headed back to the boat for lunch and rest time. Okay, here comes the best part: snorkeling! Except not really because I didn't exactly snorkel, just swam around a bit with the mask but not the mouth tube thing. It was too hard to learn to breathe that way, so I just held my breath. We swam so far onto the rocks my mom, on the shore, got worried and almost sent out a rescue boat. But she didn't, so it was cool. We saw a TON of fish, no turtles unfortunately :(, and I saw these three HUGE pink and blue florescent fish. It was awesome! When I got back, our new five year old friend hugged me and kept repeating, "I missed you! I missed you!" I think she was worried about us too. But we had a great time. It was one of my best experiences on the trip so far. I believe Shayna has some underwater pictures too. We got back, played cards, ate dinner, and I went to bed early. It had been an exhausting day! Today we visited a giant tortoise reserve. The tortoises are seriously huge! I guess that's why they call them giant tortoises. We also got to see some adorable baby tortoises. More panorama shots for me, and now we are on the airplane. It has been a great two days. I can't wait for Peru! Till next time, Rebecca <3

Galapagos day 3. Shayna here. Today was another incredible day in the Galapagos. We started the morning off by taking walk on a red sand island. Really, all the sand is red. Again, we saw maybe 20 sea lions, probably 50 iguanas all laying on top of each other and many more types of birds. Don't worry I took a lot of photos. After our walk, we sat on the red beach for about half an hour. I played in the water with a five year old friend that I made. After that, we took a glass bottom boat rode. Again, we could have gone deep water snorkeling but decided against it. We had much more fun sitting on a boat. We could see very well through the boat. The coolest thing we saw was a shark. The zodiac took us back to the boat and we did some more sleeping, eating, writing, and watching. After lunch we once again had the choice to do deep water snorkel or glass bottom boat. Hhhmmm tough decision. What decision do you think we made yep you're right. Another glass bottom boat ride. We saw parrot fish, angel fish, and even a giant sea turtle. When we got back to the boat, we only had about half an hour until our next island. We decided to just sit in the bar lounge and play cards. Our next activity a as a hike up 372 steps. It was VERY tiring but the view at the too was well worth it. The guides told us that it is the view on postcards. We were just so fast that we had some extra time at the end of the hike. We got on the zodiac and rode around looking for penguins. We found three! They were sooooo cute and only about three feet long. We came back to the boat and now I am sitting in the cabin writing this. It's a really nice room by the way. We have a lot of space. After this, we have a briefing about tomorrow's activities. Then dinner. After dinner there is a game of Galapagos jeopardy. Let's see how well we do! Until next time (or until we get internet) Shayna

Hello everyone. Yesterday was our first full day in the Galapagos. What a magical place! We got to sleep in yesterday! Yay! 7:00 wake up. We headed to a very nice breakfast. We got off the boat and rode a zodiac around James island. We could have gone deep water snorkeling but we decided to take a boat ride instead. Our first sighting was the famous Blue Footed Boobie. They actually weren't as amazing as I expected. That's probably because we couldn't really see their blue feet. We saw tons of pelicans too! Everybody's favorite spotting was the dolphins. We were riding along in the zodiac when our friend Jesse saw something moving in the water. Our guide was so excited to tell us that it was a dolphin. It was the first dolphin we had seen. everyone crowded to that side of the boat and started taking pictures. All of a sudden another one jumped out of the water and then another one and then another one and then another one. There were maybe 20 dolphins surrounding us. It was only then that we realized we were riding through a pod of dolphins. It was incredible. I couldn't believe how close they got to the boat. I took out my camera and started taking pictures. One of the dolphins was white. At one point I almost had to put away my camera because it was getting wet. I thought we were getting splashed by the boat but when I looked up, i realized that a dolphin was flapping its tail at us. The dolphins were playing with us. They started jumping out of the water and putting on a little show. We spent so long looking at the dolphins that the head of all the guides told us that we were late and that we had to immediately return to the boat. Whoops. When we got back to the boat we did a lot of sleeping, eating, watching, and playing cards. Upon our arrival onto the ship, we were given the opportunity to get snorkeling equipment and go snorkeling. As many of you may have imagined we are not a snorkeling family but since we were in the galapagos we decided to try it. After lunch, we went up to the deck and got fitted for our snorkeling gear and our wetsuits. When we were all ready, we got onto the zodiac boat in our bathing suits and wetsuits. We got off at a beautiful beach. After we put sunscreen on and put our snorkel masks on we headed into the water, very slowly. Let's just say we faked it till we made it. We got about knee deep in the water and stayed there for awhile. We started going out further and we saw a lot of tropical fish. They were really pretty. Let's just say we were very grateful that we didn't do the deep water snorkel. Luckily, I had brought my underwater camera so I got to take a lot of pictures of the fish. A sea lion also swam right by me. They were all along the beach. After snorkeling we dried off and went on a hike around the island. I took almost 1,000 photos just on that hike. We saw sea lions, iguanas, crabs, mockingbirds, herons, these little yellow birds, sea turtles, doves, lizards, and many more. It was magnificent. Except for the iguanas. I have to say they are really ugly. They also spray water out of their nostrils to clear them up but it really just looks like they are trying to spit on you. After that, we went back to the boat and did some more sleeping, eating, and showering. We had our briefing about the next day and then ate dinner. The food is really good on the boat. After dinner we went almost immediately to sleep.

Shayna´s Amazon Highlights

Hi everyone! It´s Shayna. I will be sharing some of my highlights from the Amazon. One of my favorite activities was the night walk. I already posted some pictures from that. We saw so many interesting bugs and animals. We saw maybe 15 different kinds of spiders, including tarantulas. That was pretty cool (and a little scary.)That picture of the frog was from that walk. I really couldn´t believe our native guide. He had amazing eyes. He could find things in the dark that I couldn´t find even if he pointed a laser right on it while our naturalist guide showed us exactly which plant it was on. Yes, that actually happened. Another part that I really enjoyed was the butterfly house. That was the english translation. I don´t remember what it was actually called. It was a very large enclosure with many, many different types of butterflies. They also had cacoons and caterpillars. One butterfly even landed on Rebecca´s hat! We went there twice. The second time, one of the people that took care of the house showed us a butterfly called the owl eyed butterfly. It was incredile. If you caught it and covered the top part of the butterfly, it looked like and owl head. If you covered the bottom part, it looked like a snake head. It was an amazing adaptation. The next part that I will write about was definitely a highlight. I wouldn´t say it was fun though. Rebecca already talked about the wooden tower. The afternoon activity that day was the metal towers. Yes you read that right. There wasn´t just one tower, there were three. They were connected by two very long flexi bridges. It was called the canopy walkway. The lodge built three metal towers in the canopy connected by two rope type bridges. The bridges were only connected to the ground by ropes and they shook a little bit as we walked. They were over 130 feet in the air. I have some pictures that I will post later.Once we crossed both bridges, (AAAHHH) we did some birdwatching from tower #3. We saw some amazing birds including toucans. When we finsihed birdwatching, we learned that we had to turn around and walk back across the two bridges (AAAHHHH again) That time was a lot more scary. I´m not sure why. Probably because the bridges were shaking a little bit more. That was quite an experience! Also I forgot to add that our guide, Daniel told us that the guides often go up to the tower to make calls. I thought that he meant bird calls but then realized that these towers were the only places with cell reception. I find that a lot of work just to make a phone call. More pictures to come! Until next post, Shayna

Blog Post July 14, 2013 Hello! Rebecca here, and we have internet (FINALLY!)! We arrived at our hotel in Ecuador yesterday, and have spent the day visiting Ecuador in a private tour and shopping in the marketplace. It has been a great day. But geez, what it took to get us here today! Let's start at the beginning (or wherever I last left off) We arrived in our Amazonian hotel where there was indeed no internet, which is why I have to fill you in about three LONG days in one blog post. This should be interesting. Wish me luck! Hmm, let's see....after I finished writing the last blog post, we were about to head to dinner. Dinner that night was a BBQ (mostly pork,, but pretty good). The meals were great. I personally mostly only ate dessert, because that was the best part of the meal. There was a lot of meat, but my mom and sister always managed to get a fantastic vegetarian alternative. In general, the meals were good (especially considering we were in the middle of nowhere, miles away from nowhere, which was also next to nowhere. How they got the food in I have no idea.). Our days were spent with 5:30 wake-ups (Yes, that is AM) and long treks through the rainforest. We did everything from climbing up a VERY tall tower to canoeing at night. We saw everything from monkeys to toucans. I mean, I spent most of the tour boat rides sleeping (we had to get up at 5:30 AM! Come on.), but I've heard there were some nice birds. Shayna got a lot of pictures. Hopefully she will post them. The three days spent in the amazon were basically the same. Wake up, realize it's 5:30 am, groan and roll your eyes, get dressed and go to breakfast. From there we would go on some kind of adventure that involved a lot of bugs, frogs, and a whole lot of mud. We would trek through the rainforest, admire the scenery, Shayna would take a lot of pictures, then we'd go back to our room. I would sleep till the afternoon activity (did I mention we had to get up at 5:30 am?!) We would then do the afternoon activity (repeat step two) and then more rest in the room, dinner, and a nighttime activity, either a night walk or a night boat ride. Needless to say, I was exhausted by the end of the trip. But it was a great experience. Some highlights: We took a long hike to a very tall tower. I was not as excited about the tower, but on the way back we took a little swing zip line across a river and that was awesome. I loved the night canoe ride. It was kind of creepy, but still pretty cool. Trekking through the mud in our boots. We wore these huge chunky boots that we ended up appreciating very much when we walked through the quicksand-type mud. It was pretty fun. We got really dirty. Today we toured Ecuador and went shopping in the marketplace. Boy, was it crowded! I got two hats for three dollars each (awesome deal, they're really cute too), and my favorite purchase, a bag of beads and string, assorted, that I picked out myself. It's a pretty big bag with a lot of great stuff. Seven bucks. The deals are just coming to me! I really am Marci's daughter. Well, that's all for today. Tomorrow we wake up at 4:30 am (yep, and I thought 5:30 was bad!) to board a plane for the galapagos. We are headed for a ninety passenger boat that will take us around the galapagos. I don't know if we'll have internet there, but I'll still write and post later. Anyways, I'm excited! Till next time, Rebecca <3

Day Three: Our journey into the Amazon Rainforest Hi everyone! It's Rebecca. We are here on July 10, the third day of our trip. Today was spent all day on boats and feet to get to our home for the next three days: The Sacha Hotel. Our long trek to this hotel pretty much took all day. We got up early (we are currently living off of about six hours of sleep), flew from Quito to Coca, a short flight spanning less than an hour. We landed in a rather, shall we say, quaint, airport. It could probably fit in my bedroom. The baggage claim consisted of two airline guys tossing our bags to us from a the van type thing they had been on on the plane. Nevertheless, we were in Ecuador (again)! I was so excited to step onto the soil of a new country.....until Shayna told me we were still in Ecuador. Apparently we had just flown from one city to another. Oh well, at least we're beginning our trip in the rainforest! We got on a bus that took us to a rest stop. We waited a tidbit too long for our boat, then put on our lifejackets and headed to the boat!....Except for the fact that the boat was more than a couple feet away, and we had to parade down the Main Street donning our new fashion statement: the life jacket. Spread the word! Life jackets as a fashion accessory will soon be hitting stores everywhere. You heard it here first. :) So after that only slightly embarrassing walk down the street, we got into the boat. I'm not quite sure how to describe it, I hope Shayna had a picture. It was basically a giant canoe, electric powered, with benches that were actually a lot more comfortable than they looked. We rode down the river for about two hours. As amazing as the river banks and trees are, I will admit, they got old pretty fast. I slept on Shayna's lap for a bit of the ride. For a electric canoe, it moved pretty fast. There were a couple times I was genuinely afraid we would flip. Leaning too far too one side, flying through the water, wearing life jackets, knowing there are piranhas in the water.....well, it's not quite as fun as it sounds. But most of the ride was pretty calm, and we reached our first destination: an island with a museum. It was around one at this point. We sit down on some benches on the island and eat lunch. South America has these awesome peach nectar juice boxes. Probably my favorite taste so far this trip. The juice and fruits here are so good!! Anyways, lunch consisted of chicken sandwiches for my dad and me, and vegetarian sandwiches for my mom and sister. But then Shayna wasn't hungry for her sandwich, so I ate hers too. I was hungry! Don't judge. We followed our guides to what I had hoped would be a huge museum filled with interesting facts in English. In reality, it was a one room museum filled with tribal spears and baskets and such, and everything, including the tour, was in Spanish. We had a translator, luckily. So this one room museum probably would've taken me thirty seconds to look through on my own. It took us thirty minutes to get through the museum. Between the long lectures about this weapon or this candle, then to have to get everything translated...well, it took a while. When that finally ended we got back on the boat for a half hour ride to the hotel. My sister rested on my shoulder. It was a pleasant ride to what I thought was the hotel. Turns out we had a twenty minute walk to get there. Of course it took more like forty minutes because we all had to stop and stare at the giant killer ants. Seriously, the bugs here are HUGE! So at the end of that walk, I am ready to rest at the hotel. But as you can tell from this post so far, I would have no such luck. So another canoe ride, this one man-powered (actually, one man- powered. One man drove the canoe while the rest of us gazed at the scenery), we floated down the lake till we FINALLY arrived at our hotel. We were able to see some turtles and the views were gorgeous. I'm sure Shayna will post pictures. We have a quick meeting in the social library area, then we all disperse back to our rooms. Which gets us pretty much to where we are now. I read a bit of my school book, East of Eden, in the library, overlooking the river and the rainforest, and we got sized for boots that were very clearly two sizes bigger than they said they were. So tonight we are headed to a BBQ for dinner at 7:30. It is seven o'clock now. By the time I post this it will probably be three days later, since there is no internet here. But despite all the travel, boats, planes, and hustle bustle, it's been quite a relaxing day. I have a feeling tomorrow will be quite an adventure, as we are headed to trek the rainforest. Till next time, Rebecca <3

Amazon photos!

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Welcome to Quito, Ecuador! Day 2 of our travels.

Its shayna! Yesterday we arrived in beautiful Ecuador (even though we couldn't really see it because it was midnight). We got in a cab and headed to the grand plaza boutique hotel. Our adventure started the minute we stepped into the cab. The driver didn't speak English very well which meant we could barely communicate with him.  As we winded through the streets of Quito we talked about how much the streets looked like those in Europe. Soon we realized that we had been on that street before. We were indeed doing loops through the streets looking for our hotel. As you can imagine it was very cramped in that cab with all our luggage and we were all very tired so it wasn't a great start to our trip. That all changed when arrived at the hotel. It was beautiful! We walked into the room and there was a plate of chocolates. For free! Also free water bottle and a heated bathroom floor! Time for bed! next stop, Amazon rainforest!

Hi everyone! It's shayna. We are at the airport now ready to go to Long Beach! Our flight is an hour delayed! 

Here we are! A family of four for a month! Pretty good! 

The Night Before

Hey everyone!! Rebecca here! It is the night before we leave for our big trip!

So I will be the one primarily posting the writing on this blog, and my sister Shayna will be doing the photographs. Hopefully we will be blogging every day.

A little about me before we begin:
This will be my little self bit before the trip, so you can get to know who's work you're reading.
My name is Rebecca Dollinger, I am seventeen years old. I have been traveling since I was an infant.

I have been writing since I was in second grade, most recently I attended a slam poetry camp in Minnesota for a week about one week ago. From one adventure to the next!!

My hobbies include art, writing, and music. I hope you will enjoy our blog!!

So now we are here, the night before we leave for South America. I will compose a poem for this occasion.

Being Prepared

My bags are fully packed, did the double check

My ipad is charged

My clothes are as neat as ducks in a row in my suitcase

And tomorrow starts day one of our journey

A million thoughts are racing through my mind

I am not prepared for this

Of course, my zipped suitcases beg to differ

But I do not believe it will feel real

Until that second I step on the plane

Breathe in the disgusting overused airplane air

And realize that I am hours away from taking steps on foreign soil

From our next big summer adventure

To the place where we will tell stories about and remember forever

To the ships and cars and planes

To the too much dirt and too little clean water

To the loving feel of the blankets that enwrap us after a too full day

To wishing I was in a bed when my leg falls asleep trying to rest on the plane

To the "take only photographs" and "leave only love"

To really understanding different cultures

To having the best Latin American trip we could've ever dreamed of

I know this will be an amazing trip

I just hope I am prepared

Now it's time for me to go to bed, for it is early morning tomorrow on a plane to Los Angeles! Follow along on our journey, share the excitement. Hope you enjoy!

Heading South!

This summer, we're heading south, to Ecuador, Peru, and Costa Rica, traveling to the Amazon, Galapagos Islands, Machu Picchu, and the cloud and rain forests of Costa Rica.  Rebecca and Shayna have stepped up to take the blogging responsibilities.  With Shayna's interest in photography (and the fact that there's no (expensive) film to buy anymore, we're taking guesses at how many photos she will take on our nearly one-month trip.  Offer your guesses in the comments.  The winner will receive a framed photo from the trip!

Here's our itinerary, for you following at home...

Summer 2013 Itinerary

Marci, Marc, Rebecca and Shayna

Central and South America

Tuesday, July 9 Los Angeles to Quito, Ecuador

   
Wednesday, July 10 Quito-Coca-La Selva, Ecuador

          

Thursday, July 11  Amazon Basin, Ecuador

Friday, July 12 Amazon Basin, Ecuador

Saturday, July 13 La Selva-Coca-Quito, Ecudaor

Sunday, July 14 Quito

                       

Monday, July 15 Quito-Baltra

Tuesday, July 16, 17, 18, Cruising, Galapagos Islands

Friday, July 19 Quito to Lima, Peru

Saturday, July 20 Lima

Sunday, July 21 Lima to Cusco

Monday July 22 Cusco to Sacred Valley

Tuesday, July 23 Sacred Valley to Machu Picchu

Wednesday July 24 Macchu Picchu to Cusco

Thursday July 25 Cusco

Friday, July 26 Cuzco, Peru to San Jose, Costa Rica

Saturday, July 27 San Jose to Tortuguero, Costa Rica

Sunday, July 28 Tortuguero

Monday, July 29 Arenal, Costa Rica

Tuesday, July 30 Arenal

Wednesday, July 31 Monteverde, Costa Rica

Thursday, August 1 Monteverde, Costa Rica

           

Friday, August 2 San Jose, Costa Rica

           

Saturday, August 3 San Jose, Costa Rica to San Rafael, CA