Hola Ecuador!

After a rough journey, with a 5.5-hour delay in Miami and a 1.5- hour wait in the Quito customs line, we were glad to finally arrive at our hotel around 2:30am to get a few hours sleep before our tour the next day. Six hours later, our guide Jorge picked us up and off we went to Ciudad Mitad del Mundo – the Middle of the World, which is along latitude 00º00'00”. Rather than stopping at the monument, which is located where the French first marked the spot, we traveled to the Inti-nan Museum, which contains the actual GPS-marked spot (see pic). We got to participate in goofy 'equator' experiments that were exaggerations at best, such as the clockwise vs. counterclockwise water drainage and standing an egg on its end, plus view some exhibits on Incan culture, like this actual shrunken head of a 12-year-old boy and sloth (see pic).

Next we traveled to El Panecillo, which has fantastic views looking down on the city (see pic). Quito is situated in the valleys at ~10,000 feet (twice the elevation of Denver) flanked by volcanoes, so the 2 million residents are squeezed into a very long narrow area of land, and smog is rampant. This hill is also home to the “Winged Virgin of Quito” metal statue (see pic). Here we stopped at a stand to buy a 25-cent cone of strawberry meringue fluff (see pic – that's not ice cream!).

On our drive back down the hill, I asked Jorge to pull over at a roadside stand so I could pick up a “guaba de machete”, which looks like a giant green bean about 2 feet long (see pic). Inside the fruit are edible 'cotton-balls' with big black seeds inside (see pic). Yummy!

After our descent, we drove into the Old Town section of Quito, which has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO due to the preservation of colonial architecture. The area was swarming with activity, and since it was Sunday, many of the streets were closed to cars, cutting way down on the air pollution. We walked to Plaza San Francisco for another view of the Virgin statue (see pic), La Compania, the Governor's Palace, and Plaza de la Indepencia (see pic). We also bought some fantastic Ecuadorian chocolate, and Brian purchased a trendy handmade Panama hat. On the way back to our hotel in the touristy Mariscal Sucre area of town, a little local boy started following me whining for my machete guava... he continued for a few minutes until finally I turned and snapped “Don't touch my bean!” and he finally left us alone. :)

The following day Jorge again picked us up early for the long bumpy drive on gravel roads out to the Cotopaxi volcano – the highest active volcano in the world at 19,347 feet. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate, and the entire day was just rain and fog with no view of the volcano. I did buy a postcard and take a picture of it though, so here is a picture of us in the rain, and a picture of the volcano that you should be seeing in the background behind all that fog.

After a disappointing day at the volcano, we returned to the Mariscal Sucre area to explore La Mariscal Craft Market, which has extremely cheap local crafts. The currency in Ecuador is the US dollar, but goods tend to be much cheaper; gasoline is especially cheap since oil is found in abundance here. We purchased a scarf, a woven coin purse, and a little turtle made of Tagua nut (vegetable ivory) (see pic). We decided to forgo the cuy (guinea pig) for dinner (see pic), but did try the corn beer (chicha), potato cheese and avocado soup (locro), llapingachos, and empanadas. Then we returned to the hotel to prepare for our early flight to the Galapagos the next day!

Our Final Frigid Days in Russia

Alright, I'm going to buckle down and finish up our tales of Russia... now that I have procrastinated to the last day before we leave again. :) Our second day in St. Petersburg, my brother Edward sent us off to the Winter Palace/Hermitage for the day, while he perused the flea markets for old Soviet cookware. The Winter Palace was the official residence of the Russian Tsars from 1732 to 1917 and now houses the huge State Hermitage Museum of art and culture (see pic). As with most of the museums in Russia, the entry fee cost several times as much for foreigners as for locals - even though most of the exhibit explanations were written only in Russian. So we couldn't understand what we were looking at, and we had to pay considerably more. And then there of course was another fee to use cameras in the museum (also common). But such is life.

Brian and I really could take or leave the art (hehe), but just seeing the interior of the palace was worth the entry fee. There are over a thousand rooms, most designed in an extremely ornate Baroque-style, using gold, marble, and malachite (a dark green mineral). Here is a picture of the Guard Room, with an example of the impressive gold columns found throughout the palace. It would take multiple days to get through the entire museum.

The following day we headed out to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery and Cemetery, which contains the tombs of Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Dostoevsky, and other famous Russians. My goal was to find the grave of Rimsky-Korsakov, the composer of one of my favorite pieces, "Scheherazade". I searched and searched to no avail, then went back and checked the map... and finally located a shed, covering his grave for the winter. :( So here's a picture of Rimsky-Korsakov's "winter shed".





An extreme cold front was beginning to blow in, so we decided to make the rounds of some of the city's cathedrals. We walked to the Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood (see pic), which is the only building in St. Petersburg with the traditional Russian medieval architecture (like in Moscow). The rest of the city was built in a European Baroque/Neoclassical style.






Afterwards, we ventured into the Kazan Cathedral and St. Issac's Cathedral, before hiding out from the cold for awhile in the Gostiny Dvor department store. Here are pictures of the inside and outside of St. Issac's.


For dinner, we made the frigid walk over to Idiot Vegetarian Restaurant, where I had delicious patties made from broccoli and brussels sprouts covered with sunflower seeds and sour cream. (see pic) Then we shuffled back to the hotel in the extreme cold - here's a pic looking down the sidewalk at some of the "Christmas" lights. (New Years is the big present-swapping holiday in Russia; the Russian Orthodox Christmas is observed on January 7th due to the Julian Calendar.)

The next morning we checked out of the hotel and ventured to the Museum of Hygiene, which we didn't get a lot out of since we couldn't read the exhibits. We then made the mistake of trying to buy stamps at a Russian post office - I have a feeling that Brian and I are going to have a lot of trying times at foreign post offices, haha. After over an hour of chaos with Russians screaming and no one knowing what line to be in, we finally gave up and luckily were able to find stamps elsewhere. That night, we took the overnight Nikolay's Express train back to Moscow (see pic), sharing our 4-berth coupe with a nice Russian man who surprisingly spoke fluent English. (The urine-cicle photo is from this train.)

We arrived back in Moscow the following morning, where it was currently -27C (-17F). My eyelids and nosehairs were crunchy, and the snot from my incessant runny nose froze all over the front of my face. Yay! Even the Russians were complaining about the temperature. There was only one thing worth braving that kind of cold for - more khatchapuri! So sure enough, we met my brother down at the Georgian boat restaurant again for dinner - this time the entire Moscow River had frozen over. Here's a picture of the 3 of us getting ready to go back outside - we could pass for trick-or-treaters. :) The next day Brian and I departed Moscow and arrived in balmy 40F Tennessee, 57 degrees warmer than where we had just come from. I'll take it!

С НОВЫМ ГОДОМ! (Happy New Year!)

Brian and I have actually spent the past couple of days in North Carolina for my grandmother's 93rd birthday, amusing ourselves by watching the old women zoom down the nursing home hallways in their electric wheel-chairs, sportin' the one-armed gangsta lean while trying to run down the other women who might be competing for the one or two men in the place (my grandmother got her foot run over!). Sigh. We spent a nice Christmas in Tennessee with my family, and will be heading back to Austin for a few days before taking off for Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands next weekend. But first, I need to get caught up with the blog. Back to Moscow (cue the fog and spirit fingers)....

We had to delay our departure to St. Petersburg by a few days to wait on Edward's visa paperwork, so we passed the time by visiting the Novodevichy Convent and Cemetery, which contains the graves of Yeltsin (a large flag monument, see pic), and Prokofiev (see pic). We also tagged along with Edward to a large shopping mall near his place and the large outdoor food market where he gets his odd blue "pumpkins", and finally started getting accustomed to the Metro subway system (with gorgeous stations - see pic). Finally his paperwork came through, and we departed on the overnight Smena train to St. Petersburg, an 8-hour trip. The three of us had a 4-berth coupe to ourselves, which was nice, but the thick cigarette smoke on the train kept me up most of the night. Blech!

We arrived in St. Petersburg at 6:45am, and made our way to the hotel, which of course wouldn't let us check in yet, but after a jumbled conversation with the night security man, we were told to leave our bags in someone's room (and half expected to never see our luggage again). We then ambled down Nevsky Prospect, cold and hungry, looking for anything that might be open - the sun wouldn't rise until 10am. We finally stumbled upon a 24-hour baked potato place, and got a "unique" breakfast - here is the picture of my potato, covered with 2 cheeses, mushrooms, and pickle pieces. It actually wasn't all that bad!

We killed some more time in a coffeeshop, then ventured to the Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic, which documents Soviet polar exploration. As we were heading through the rooms, one of the older gold-toothed female museum employees started mysteriously following us around and started lecturing Edward (in Russian) on what is wrong with Russia today. She claimed that all the young people just want to have "sex sex sex" instead of having large families, leading to a dissipation of sexual energy, and that subliminal messages in commercials (the work of the 25th cadre) were encouraging young people to start smoking, which makes the babushkas cry. Edward frantically translated for us during the long conversation - once he got one part translated, she would come back over and start up again.It didn't make a whole lot of sense, but was probably the most interesting part of the museum visit. :)

After that lesson in Russian culture, we headed to the center of town to the Kunstkammer Museum (the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology). I, of course, wanted to see the most famous portion of the museum - Peter the Great's "natural science" collection of deformed animals and fetuses, decapitated baby heads, and children's skeletons. It did not disappoint! (see pic)

By this point it was beginning to get dark (~3pm), so we headed back to the hotel to see if anyone had absconded with our luggage. Luckily, it was still there, and we were able to check into our 2-BR apartment, which ended up also having a party shower! (see pic) This thing had party lights, a radio, 14 shower heads, a rain shower, a massager, and a jacuzzi. Sadly though, the tap water was brown in St. Petersburg (say hello to giardia!), so the party shower mostly just went to waste. Now if only I could get one of those back to Austin...

Two Texans in the Snow! (aka "How We Almost Got to Visit a Russian Hospital")

The day after visiting the cat theater, we met Edward at the Metro station and headed out to the newly renovated Cosmonaut Museum, which Brian was especially excited about. We saw Gagarin's Vostok capsule (actually very spacious!), several models of orbiting spacecraft, landers, many engines and other space-related gear. Here is a pic of Edward standing next to (the stuffed) Strelka and Belka, the Russian dogs that went into space. It was here at this museum that we first started to noticed the pervasive stench of vodka permeating the air, particularly around men... and this was at 10am on a Sunday morning. According to my brother (and NPR), the average Russian consumes 18 liters of pure alcohol a year. Guess that explains the 3L bottles of vodka and the 5L bottles of beer we saw in the grocery store! (see pics)

That afternoon we headed over to a Christmas party thrown by Taryn, a high school acquaintance of mine who is now working in Moscow, and had some fantastic American-style Christmas cookies and Siberian Corona (a real brand of beer!). Here is a pic of a giant spinning Siberian Corona bottle on the side of the road (see pic). Since we were on an American food kick, Brian and I hit up Pizza Hut for dinner, incredibly thankful for their dual-language menu!

The following day we met up with Edward to head to Gorky park, an amusement park on the Moscow River that contains a test vehicle for the abandoned Russian space shuttle program. It was snowing a bit, but we weren't too concerned, as the mayor of Moscow has implemented a "cloud seeding" program this winter to ensure that Moscow doesn't receive any heavy snowfall, which apparently is much cheaper than plowing the streets (this program of course is inciting much consternation in the small towns surrounding Moscow).

Anyhoo, turns out Gorky Park is closed in the wintertime. But I did get a picture of "Crapdogs" (Edward insists it says "Stardogs"), the hotdog stand outside the gates, though (see pic), and could see the shuttle from afar (see pic). Since our trip to the park was unsuccessful, we took a minor detour to a fantastic Georgian restaurant in a boat on the river... and it was here that my love affair with Khatchapuri (a Georgian cheese bread) began! (see pic) The following week I would end up braving the -27C temperatures to return to this restaurant (it was so cold the entire river had frozen) just of the for another taste of the Khatchpuri. :)

Throughout the day, the snow had continued to fall, accumulating on the ground and snarling traffic. The sidewalks were beginning to get a bit slick, but I suggested to Brian that we take a quick jaunt over to Red Square so I could see St. Basil's in the snow. Turns out that was not such a smart idea. Brian's legs went straight out from under him while crossing the street, and he landed smack on his back and head in the middle of the road. I quickly shuffled out there and did a ridiculous policewoman impression trying to get the traffic to stop while Brian tried to limp out of the road. I'm sure it was quite a sight! Somehow his tough noggin' survived hitting the pavement, but he had back spasms the rest of the evening and the next day. We debated going to the doctor, but he decided to tough it out. Now I see why the guidebook recommended boots with cleats!

We were pretty much apartment-bound the next day while Brian recovered, but I did venture out and finally got my picture of St. Basil's in the snow. (see pic) The headline in the newspaper read, "Unexpected Snowfall Paralyzes City". I'm just glad Brian wasn't paralyzed, too. :)

привет Россия! (Hello Russia!)

We arrived in Moscow in the evening and somehow managed to locate my brother Edward in the large Paveletsky Station (this is where his large handlebar mustache comes in particularly handy!). He helped us get over to our rented apartment, just across the river from the Kremlin and Red Square. The next day, Brian, Edward, and I ventured over there in the deceptively balmy weather (oh, if we had only known what was to come), and got to see Red Square all decked out for the holidays with a giant tree and skating rink (see pic). Even Lenin's Tomb had some small Christmas trees out front!

One of the buildings on the square was undergoing renovations, but no fear - a fabric facade was hung around the building so we would know what we were missing, haha. (see pic)







We walked through St. Basil's (aka "The Candy Building"), popped in GUM (the upscale shopping mall), and then made our way over to the Kremlin. The highlights definitely were seeing the Tsar Cannon (40 tons) and the Tsar Bell (216 tons), the largest cannon and bell in the world, respectively (see pics). Sadly, the bell cracked during a fire before it ever was rung.







After the Kremlin, we headed to Old Arabat St., a pedestrian shopping boulevard. Here we had sweet condensed milk blini for lunch (see pic) - these became one of our staple meals, as blini stands are everywhere and we could order just by pointing!






The next day we got up early and headed out in the snow flurries to Izmailovsky Weekend Market. Here I found a handpainted set of 'cat lady' nesting dolls (see pic) that I tried unsuccessfully to bargain for, so I enlisted my Russian-speaking brother to get me a deal. I'm not exactly sure what happened next, but it involved the babushka yelling, some laughter, and no price reduction for me. Sigh. Apparently she told Edward that the "discount" he was asking for was equivalent to the price of a cheeseburger - and "this is art!!!" As you can see, I bought the dolls anyway. :)





We grabbed more blini for lunch, and then made our way across town to the renowned Moscow Cat Theatre, a fast-paced show with clowns, dancers, and 120 'trained' cats performing tricks (see pics). Most of the cats are rescued strays, and (as was apparent in the show), cats cannot actually be trained - they will do what they want, when they want. But if one cat wasn't behaving, it was just removed and replaced with another cat who would perform for treats. I personally think that my own kitty Ginger could be a star, but sadly she's a bit pudgy for a lot of the apparatuses, haha.

That evening we headed over to my brother's apartment, where he made us a traditional Russian dinner of mushroom pelmeni (dumplings) and vegetarian Borscht (plus some homemade eggnog!) (see pic). It's no Italian pastries and pizza, but I could actually get used to this Russian food...

Journey to Rome

Well, so we're actually in frigid Moscow right now, but due to a lack of reliable internet in Italy, I will start from the beginning of our trip. We departed November 25 - Austin to DC to Rome, overnight, arriving at 7:45am on the 26th. Jetlagged and exhausted, we managed to get on the train without validating our tickets, got on the tram going the wrong way, stepped in dog poo on the sidewalk (apparently Italians have not yet discovered the concept of "dog poo bags"), pissed off 2 Italian women by asking directions, and finally arrived at our B&B in the Trastevere neighborhood after about 2 hours of being lost! But at least we avoided having to take a cab and being ripped off by an Italian cab driver, which happened in the next segment of our trip.

After dropping off our luggage, we headed off for lunch, where we discovered that 1 kg of pizza is a whole helluva lot! (It's ordered by weight in Italy.) Then we took a guided tour of the Vatican, which is now selling billboard space around the main plaza to fund renovations. There is one billboard visible in the picture (Italian Telecom), but there are more around the sides that are even more gaudy. Don't worry though, they're all God-sanctioned. :) The Sistine Chapel was fantastic - I've wanted to see it ever since reading "The Agony and the Ecstasy" in high school - but of course, no photos were allowed.

The next day we went out exploring historical Rome, visiting Largo Argentina (with thousands of cats that take sanctuary in the ruins), the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and Capuchin Crypt, which is made from bones of over 4000 monks donated between the 1500s and 1800s (see picture). In the evening, we wandered around our neighborhood (Trastevere) - it's a fantastic local neighborhood with shops, restaurants, and lively activity. The weather was great too - 60s every day.

The following day we took a guided tour of the Colosseum (see pic), Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum. We had lunch in the Jewish Ghetto at a local place called Sora Margherita - no English was spoken, and we had to become "members" to eat there. They chuckled at Brian's name when we got on the list, and kept referring to him as "Life of Brian". :) We had a fantastic meal that included the famous fried artichokes (see pic). It was later this evening that I fell in love with Merengue con Panna (2 meringue "buns" with creme in between) from a local pastry shop... these proved to be my downfall at pretty much every pastry shop we passed from then on out in Italy! I wanted to get a picture, but they always disappeared into my belly by the time I remembered.

The next day we got up early and took the train out to Toffia, Italy, about 1.5 hours north of Rome, where we met Sally and Guido in the old medieval village for a cooking class with Convivio Rome. This is olive country, and the village is on a hill surrounded by olive groves in every direction (see pic). We made pumpkin risotto, melanzane alla Parmagiana, and Guido's award-winning apple cake, using local produce and cheeses. After the meal, we headed to the Annual Olive Oil Festival at the monastery in Farfa, where we sampled local olive oils, breads, and cheeses. We pretty much had to roll back to Rome that evening!

I guess I'll stop here for now... maybe tomorrow I will post some pictures of some of the stranger things we've seen in Italy, including the conveyor belt toilet, and then continue our travel tales as we ventured south to Sorrento.