Final Blog :(

Well, here it is. The last blog. It´s been a trip, but it´s time for me to go home.
My trip to Ciudad Perdida was an absolute success. But by the last day I was soooooo ready to sleep in a normal bed again. My original group consisted of only 3 people, including myself, but after another group of seven lost their guide (he got sick) we joined together to form a nice group of ten. From my original group there were Ruth and Ben (Irish), then from the other group we had 3 Germans, 1 Canadian, 2 Americans (one from Yakima another from Salem, Oregon), 1 Australian and myself. All the people working for the tour company as guides and food guardians were local campesinos from the area. It felt nice knowing that we were being led around by people from the region who knew the area and were the ones making the profit from our tourism. We stayed in hammocks in shelters along the way which were surprisingly comfortable. The food they made us was absolutely wonderful, different for every meal. Our guide Yovani and our two food guardians did everything they could to help us along the way and make our journey more comfortable. From the second we stepped out of our hostel the first day until the last day when we returned we were drenched in sweat. Santa Marta is humid and hot as it is, but the slightest bit of physical exertion results in a sweat so profuse and without pause that I have nothing in my entire life to compare it with. It got easier as we ascended in altitude, but it was still physically difficult so the sweat level was pretty much the same the whole time. But on the plus side, my skin hasn´t looked this good since I was about 11. The hike itself is about 30 miles each way, but they managed to break it up in such a way that we only hiked about 4 hours each day, with the exception of the 5th day when we hiked about 9 and a half. We spent the first 3 days getting to the ruines, spent the 4th day touring them and made it back in the remaining 2 days.
The ruines are believed to be the remains of a huge city-like complex at one time containing several thousand of the Tayrona people. The Lost City consists of a number of circular platforms that are connected by steep and winding staircases. They cover an expanse of 16 kilometers squared, but only the central platforms are open to the public. The ruines themselves are incredibly well-preserved. Like Machu Picchu, they were never discovered by the Spanish colonizers. In order to reach the Lost City from the river at the base of the mountain you have to climb almost 3000 steps, or 1200 meters (if I remember correctly). Seriously, climbing up and down those stairs was the scariest thing I´ve done the whole trip. I´ve never been that scared--ever. Why? Well, first of all the stairs are made of stone. Unlike Incan structures, the stones are uneven and uncut. They are at times steep and other times very steep. They are ALWAYS slick and mossy. Most of the time my feet didn´t fit on the next step and my hiking boots kept bouncing back each time I tried to climb the next step. If that had been all, it would have sucked, but it wasn´t. About 5 minutes into the climb it started to pour. Tropical, jungle rain that doesn´t let up. So as we got higher the rocks got slicker and slicker. This was already after a few hours of hiking. So, I´m sweating, soaking and tired, but I don´t even notice it because I´m thinking that each step is going to be my last. Seriously, I´m not exaggerating, that was the scariest part of my trip, maybe even of my life. The entire three months. I would never do it again. ever. I started crying a few times. Not going to lie. Coming down was almost as bad, except for the it wasn´t raining. But it rained later. And that experience also brought me to tears a couple of times, but I won´t even begin to go into that story. Let´s just say, at the end of the day both my body and spirit were broken.
There´s sooo much more to be said about that trip, but I´d rather do it in person, so you´ll just have to wait.
But all, in all, great trip!
After getting back to Santa Marta I left for the beach along with the Irish folks and Mike, the Canadian. We went to this national park called Parque Tayrona where they have a couple mile stretch of beaches linked by a footpath. We met up with a few other people from our trek who had also decided to spend some time relaxing and snorkeling on the beach. Again we slept in hammocks, but the beach was waaaay better than the jungle. And since the beaches are only accessible by foot there are less people than a normal public beach. The caribbean sea was absolutely wonderful and just what the doctor ordered. Well, sort of. The last day I got sick with a fever and a head cold, but whatever. I´m still sick now, but it´s not too bad. The fever broke and now I´m just suffering the usual cold symptoms. I was planning to visit Cartagena, but since I got sick I couldn´t get moving in time. Oh well, something for the next time I´m in Colombia. I took the bus to Bogota yesterday and arrived this morning. So far, the place seems pretty cool. I´m feeling pretty lazy so I don´t know if I´ll wander too far, but I do plan on visiting the famous Gold Museum and the Police Museum sometime before I leave.

Alright. That´s it. To sum up: Good trip. Many more details and stories to be shared in person and with my photos!

Love and Peace.

Gabi

Colombia, at last

I finally made it to Colombia. And tonight I will finally be in my destination of Santa Marta. I decided to fly there for two reasons: the first being that it is way quicker and will ensure that I arrive in Santa Marta in time to organize a trip to Ciudad Perdida, and the second being that its probably safer. Colombia is a big place so bus rides take some time and its not like Argentina where you can basically take one bus and get wherever you like. To get from the border town of Ipiales to Santa Marta on the coast I would have to take no less than three buses. And since I would only be taking them during the daylight hours it would take me no less than three days to get there. And I´m not exactly comfortable with the bus situation as it is. I mean, I guess here you can bargain for a better price, but I have no idea what a good price is/I have no idea how much money Im spending anyway because everything is in hundreds of thousands of pesos. Anyway, thats why I decided to fly.
I had an interesting day yesterday. It was my single goal in Cali to find a battery charger for my camera since I had mysteriously misplaced mine a couple of weeks ago. I first went to the owner (maybe, I really dont know) of the hostel and asked him if he knew of any RadioShacks around. He looked at me blankly. RADIOSHACK. still, nothing. The reason I was so sure that there should be a RadioShack here in Cali is because while in Quito I went to a RadioShack that had what I needed, but when he took it out of the box, it was broken. He recommended that I visit the RadioShack in Cali. Thus, my insistence that I find the nearest RadioShack. Next I tried looking it up in the yellow/white pages. Again, nothing. No radioshack, no electronics store, no camera accessory stores. NOTHING. And the owner guy was of absolutely NO help. Soon after he showed me where the yellow/white pages were, he peaced. Thanks a lot. I googled RadioShack. still nothing. Finally, I just decide to go out into the world and see what I can make of it. I start walking, just looking around for a place that sells ice-cream or something, when I stumble across a ¨ferreteria¨ or a hardware store. I went in and explained my situation to the guy working in there and he directs me to another part of town where they might have the part I´m looking for. He explains to me how to get there (under two bridges, straight 5 blocks and then turn left) and as Im about to leave says, ¨and, it shouldnt be too dangerous. I was just there a couple of days ago and it was okay. It used to be a place where you had to be careful, but you should be fine.¨ OH. whatever, I decide to walk. So Im walking, and its sweltering and I´m feeling a bit uneasy, but just keep walking. The under the two bridges area is a little shady, but once I pass through there and walk a few blocks I´m suddenly in a very busy part of town. I guess, you could call it downtown, but I really don´t know. I find the store that he recommended to me. Its closed for siesta. But the nice thing about the cities in South America is that usually all the business in the same line of work are located on the same block, or in the same building. So I just went to a couple of stores around there and asked them where I could find a charger for my battery. And they directed me to other places until I finally found a place that was open and that carried the part that I needed. I felt so accomplished. All by myself I had found a very obscure battery charger in a big city, in a big country, far, far away from home. And it works, too.
So, after that I decided to take this matter of flying to Santa Marta into my own hands. At that time, I still hadnt decided to fly or not. Earlier that morning the owner guy promised to make a phone call to ¨his friend that owns a travel agency¨ and give me a price. Which he never ended up doing. So I went to the airline and got an estimate for a flight to Santa Marta, enquired about a discount, got one, and bought my ticket. So there, owner guy--you suck. Afterwards I treated myself to a HUGE soft-serve ice-cream sundae. What a good day.
In conclusion (Allie!!!), I got all my goals accomplished, plus one, and I managed to navigate my way around the city relying solely on my natural-born wit and intuition. I´d say it feels pretty good to be a ganster, right about now.
Thinking about that ice-cream makes me want another one.

Peace!

Ecuador

Hey everybody, whats up.
Right now I´m in the town of Otavalo, Ecuador. They are famous for their Saturday morning markets so I decided to stop over here to check it out before heading even more north to Colombia. But, I just got here and the only thing I´ve done is taken advatage of the cable t.v. in my hotel room. Is that wrong? I´ve also walked around a bit. And I bought and ate a cookie.
Hopefully tomorrow I´ll go on either a bike tour or a hike around the lagoons around here. It all depends on whether or not I find another person to do it with me. So, I´m just killing time before I go back and check to see if the tour agency has found another person.
Anyway. Quito was nice. I stayed with my stepmom´s family. It was nice to sleep in a home and eat home-cooked meals for a change. I met up with some friends that I had met in Montañita who were also in Quito and together we visited the ¨middle of the world¨ (i.e. the equator), which incidentally is about 240 meters off of where the actual equator is. But it´s the thought that counts, right? I also took a night tour of the colonial part of Quito. I saw all the churches lit up and from a nice viewpoint above the city. Then the next day I visited them by day. All in all, Quito is a nice city.
That´s about it. I´m anxious to get to Colombia!!!!

In the last few weeks...

Alright, so I haven´t been keeping up with this blog thing. Sorry. But I´ll try and summarize what´s happened ¨in the last few weeks...¨
I returned to Lima to spend Passover with some Jews. I contacted the synagogue there after an Israeli girl named Niva told me that they were having a seder for travelers. At the hostel I chose to stay at there were a group of Israelis that were also going to that seder and that I was able to walk with to and from the synagogue. The seder was nice. It was about 70 people or so. Most were Israeli. Actually, all except for me and one other Australian fellow. So the whole thing was done in Hebrew and it was loud and rambunctious, as things tend to be around a bunch of Israelis. But it was really nice to be surrounded by so many people that were all away from their families, but still mantaining the spirit of the holiday. I definitely started to feel homesick at this point because Passover is usually a time for me to be with my family and we have certain traditions that I didn´t realize I would miss so much. And Soph wasn´t around to provide the cheer and to distract me from thinking about my family too much. so that was hard, but still really cool.
After Lima I went to the town of Huaraz which is located in a section of the Andes called the Cordillera Blanca. There are loads of opportunities to be in the outdoors and I thought that I would spend some time there before I left for the beaches of Ecuador and Columbia. What I didn´t anticipate was getting altitude sickness the second I got there and feeling sick the entire time I was there. I would have waited more time until I became acclimated, but I´m sort on time as it is and I was anxious to leave Peru. So I left without really doing anything that I had wanted to besides for take a tour of the surrounding towns and lagoons. It´s a beautiful region and I definitely want to return to really explore the area. So, that´ll be my next trip.
So I bounced from Huaraz to the town of Trujillo on the northern coast of Peru. I actually stayed in a small village about 20 minutes outside of Trujillo called Huanchaco, which was right on the beach. It was a really nice place to relax and recuperate. I ate fish, layed in hammocks and slept. I also met a few people to that were planning to travel to Ecuador and I decided to go with them. But before that we visited the ruins of Chan Chan just outside of Trujillo. Chan Chan predates the Incan civilization by about 300 years or so and the ruins are a huge complex, over 10,000 buildings and they´re still excavating more. The buildings were made from sand and adobe and so they were a nice contrast from the typical stone Inca structures. They were absolutely beautiful and so well preserved. The area is pretty dry, but I´m still blown away by how well preserved the facades of the buildings are. Anyway, that was a little bit of culture for that excursion.
The four of us left Huanchaco. Ruth and Luke are a couple from London and Yael is Israeli. Together we make a nice group. Along the way we´ve picked up some other travelers and we arrived in a pack to the beachtown of Montanita in Ecuador. We had a HORRENDOUS time crossing the ¨worst border in South America¨ but that´s a story for another time. Basically we were conned, robbed and abandoned in a dangerous area of the border. But, being that we were in a group it turned out alright. I think I should probably clarify, the conning and robbing were done at once by the people taking us across the border and there was no physical assaulting or violence, but it was still scary and we all felt pretty stupid and angry afterwards. The important thing is that we were together and it all turned out okay.
But anyway. We made it to Ecuador and so far I really like it here. We stopped for one night in the city of Guayaquil which was like any other city. And now we´ve finally made it to Montañita. It´s a small town, basically ready-made for tourists who come to take advantage of the great surf. I´m planning to take some lessons sometime, but for right now I´m just trying to settle in. Again it´s overcast, but it´s very warm. And the beach is really nice. Alright. That´s about it.
Hope everythings going well for you guys!
Love,
Gabi

La Huacachina

Hello!
I´m down a traveling partner. Yes, dearest little sophie has left me. We got to Lima and after searching for a little while, managed to find the house of my friend Javier´s family in the neighborhood of Santiago de Surco, Lima. LUCKILY for us we managed to find a really decent taxi driver who was with us the whole way, determined to make sure we got to the place we wanted. Javier´s family was, of course, extremely gracious and wonderful hosts. The first night Javier´s mother, Teresa and Aunt Ana took us to visit Larcomar, a mall-ish structure that is built right on the cliff above the ocean. But we were so beat from the 20 HOUR bus ride from Cuzco to Lima that all we wanted to do then was go to BED. The next day a neighbor boy named Luis took us around to visit the beaches of Lima as well as the neighborhoods of Barranco and Miraflores. It was a beautiful day and despite the pollution, Lima has a really nice coastline. Luis was a G and we quickly became friends. After lunch and a bit of a siesta we headed out with Luis and some of his friends to the center of Lima to walk around a bit before Sophie left. The boys insisted on accompanying us to the airport where Soph and I tearfully parted.
the next day I decided to skip on out of town and headed to the southern town of Chilca. When I got there, it was pretty deserted, pretty boring, pretty disappointing. There were no hostels in sight, no tourists in sight and no one to really ask any questions of. I decided to have lunch before i made any decisions as to what to do next. The place I picked is called Rositas, it´s on the main plaza, facing the cathedral. The owner, Rosa, immediately recognized that I was a tourist traveling on my own and offered her assistance. She told me where to go, how to get there, she fed me and even offered me a room in her house to sleep in. I ventured to the ¨magical¨lagoons, for which Chilca is famous for. What I found was a series of smelly ponds surrounded by other tourists covered head to toe in the mud and silt from the bottom of these ponds. I hopped on in and took a swim. It was alright. Do I feel like a different person? no. I returned to Rositas and began chatting with her and her father, Melquiades. Both characters. Very interesting. I ended up spending the evening chatting with the rest of her family over ¨lunch¨(a snack between lunch and dinner) over at their other restaurant, by the highway. They were pretty awesome actually. I felt like part of the family, for a second. Today it was hard to say goodbye to them, especially since I probably wont see them again, but if ANYONE is trying to go to the beaches south of Lima, go visit them. They usually work a restaurant near the beach during the tourist peak months of may-august. Melquiades will show you his collection of dinosour fossils, or bones, or something. They will take care of you. Good people.
So from there I caught a bus along the panamerican hwy going south to the town of Ica where I visited the Ica Cultural Museum and had lunch. Then I took a taxi to the small oasis...village of Huacachina. I don´t really think it´s even a village, it´s just a collection of restaurants and hotels around this oasis lagoon. All around this oasis are HUGE sand dunes, something out of Alladin, or Arabian Nights tales. A lot of tourists, a LOT of Israelis and a lot of sand. I´m not sure if I´m going to want to ride down the dunes, but there´s a pool in my hostel and hammocks and that´s all good for me. It´s a chill little spot and I´m planning on relaxing for a few days here before heading back to Lima for passover.
Love and Peace,
Gabi

Boliva, Peru

Hey everyone, sorry it's taken so long to write...I know you've all been desperately checking this blog everyday in hopes that I might have a new post. A lot has happened since last time. I don't really even remember when the last time it was that I blogged. But I think it was in Argentina. Since then we've been to two more countries. We're moving along pretty quickly since Sophie has to leave to go back home from Lima on th 15th of April. Anyway, Bolivia was really, really incredible. I really loved it a lot. Crazy, beautiful and so surprisingly diverse--in all aspects. The food, the climate, the geography, the people, all so distinct and vibrant. I know that word sounds kind of cheesy, but that's exactly the word to describe everything in Bolivia-distinctly vibrant. It sucked having to leave so soon, especially since we had to pay 100 dollars for the visa to get in, but whatever, I get it, the USA screwed over Bolivia and we deserve it. Especially considering how EASY it is to get a visa into the United States.
But anyways, we did the salt flats tour from Tupiza along with these two Canadian chicks which was a nice change of pace coming from all the cities we had visited in Argentina. We then spent a couple days in La Paz, which might have been my favorite city we've visited so far and then we went to Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca where we spent a few days exploring the Isla del Sol and the lake itself. I got really burnt the day we hiked Isla del Sol, but it wasn't all that bad since it kept my face warm during the extremely chilly nights. Now we're in Puno, Peru and we're leaving to Cuzco tonight. We're planning on visiting Mach Picchu and maybe whitewater rafting on Rio Urubamba before heading to Lima for Sophie's departure :(
And then who knows where I'll go, the opportunities are endless. I'm finally getting the hang of traveling however, so I think the next 7 weeks of my trip are going to be incredible. I've learned from the mistakes made during the first 5 weeks, and there have been many.
Anyway, that's just an overview of what has happened in the last couple of weeks. I'll try to keep a more updated blog in the future.
Hope all is well with everyone at home and traveling.
Love,
Gabi

Cordoba--what up?!?

As you can probably tell from the title of this blog, we have reached the promise land and it´s called Cordoba--finally. Because it´s Semana Santa, in addition to all of the backpackers traveling, it seems like everyone in Argentina is on vacation. This makes getting buses at rooms at the hostels all the more difficult. But let me back up a bit...
Sophie and I decided to leave Buenos Aires once and for all and continue our journey north. Our next stop was Puerto Iguazu home of the incredibly Iguazu falls. It was an 18 hour bus ride to get there and both our chairs were broken, plus the air conditioning was on full blast the entire time, but we made it. As I said before it is beautiful and tropical looking without all the humidity. And the falls are incredible. You can spend days visiting them, there´s just so much to see. But we only stayed one day. We met up with our friend Aviv at the falls and had a good time exploring the area and swimming in the water. I would hav liked to stay another day tovisit the falls form the Brazilian side, but we needed to get going, plus we couldn´t get visas to enter Brazil anyway. But we´ve heard that the Argentinian side is better anyway.
The next day we left to go to Cordoba, but when we got to the bus station, they informed us that there were no direct busses and they could only get us to a town near by called Santa Fe. They promised that we would find a bus from there to Cordoba. WRONG. When we got to Santa Fe the next morning at 6 am we found out that they didn´t have any buses to Cordoba available until the next day. We scrambled to get a hostel for the night and then wandered about Santa Fe a bit. Not much to see there and we were happy to leave. After checking out we still had to wait 3 hours in the bus station before our bus left. So we did. Finally we made it to Cordoba-5 hours later and made our way to the hostel. When we got there they informed us that they had only one bed left. They offered to call other hostels around town but they were all full. Just as we were beginning to panic the hostel told us that in fact they actually did have some beds available, I didn´t really understand what changed. So we luckily got some beds with our own private bathroom for pretty cheap, so that was really, really lucky. Our Israeli friends, who had arrived early that morning could only find a hostel that would let them set up their tents on the roof. And last night there was a thunder storm in Cordoba, so that sucks. Today it´s still raining so i didn´t really feel much like going outside. Basically just been hanging out in the hostel. Tomorrow, hopefully it will get nicer. At least it´s not hot. Very Seattle like.
Alright, people are waiting for the computer.

love,
Gabi

Shout Out

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACHEL!!!!! I KNOW ITS LATE BUT I DIDNT HAVE ACCESS TO E-MAIL BEFORE THIS DAY AND I COULDN{T FIND YOUR E-MAIL SO I HOPE YOU READ THIS.

in other news....Sophie and I are up in the north of Argentina in a small town called Puerto Iguazu. It{s a major tourist spot becuase it{s the nearest town to the famous Iguazu falls. You can definitely tell that we{re in the tropics now. The scenery is radically different and it{s HOTT. I{m typing on a weirdo keyboard, so that{s why I{m using the brackets instead of an apostrophe. I can{t seem to find the apostrophe anywhere and it{s driving me NUTS. Anyway. Went to go see Bob Dylan in Buenos Aires two nights ago. It was pretty sweet. What was even sweeter is that we were escorted by a pack of Israelis. And we should be meeting up with one of them here at the falls and maybe the rest of them later on in our trip.

And Happy St. Patricks day for all you Irish folk...basically just Taylor.
Of course we{re in the one town that has no bars, but Im sure we{ll find a way to celebrate.

And Stanley. If you{re reading this, you are a snitch because we were in Buenos Aires for the longest time hoping that you would e-mail us so that we could meet up. But now it{s too late. And we{ll never see you again.

Bye.

Ten Minute Limit

Here we sit, in Rosario: Birthplace to Che Guevarra. Just got here, and the three hostels we tried to get rooms in were all booked up because its Semana Santa, when everyone else takes vacation time. Since our last post, we have taken a weekend trip to Uruguay via boat. Buquebus. We landed in Colonia which was just the cutest little place. Gabi thinks its a combination of Kirkland and downtown Edmonds. But with more mosquitoes. From there we bussed it to Montevideo. When we got there it was dark and loony. The hostel we stayed in was in a seemingly bad part of town and the music from the birthday party going on downstairs kept us up until the wee hours of the morning. We left the next day before we even got to explore the nice parts of the city or enjoy anything about it. Punta del Este was our next destination. Oh man, we hit the beach and soaked up some sun rays and some sun burns. We pranced in the waters of the Atlantic ocean. It was a ritzy resort town. Ofc ourse we met some fun people yada yada yada. At weekend´s end we went back to B.A. and holed up in a cool hostel called Alkemista. Our visa getting attempts were thwarted and now weré in Rosario. Gotta go! One minute left! Bye guys! We love you. Soph and Gab.

atttagirl!

Since yesterday a few things have changed. The Israelis left us, but they were quickly replaced by a girl from Munich and a boy from South Carolina. Caro and Stanley, respectively. Seeing as how dinner and night life don´t really get going until 12ish, we hit the town with those two english speakers and didnt retire until 5 in the morning. Chickachickayah! We are getting alot better at whistling.

Oh yea, we visited Casa Rosada for a sec, and scuttled around the city microcentro. Today was spent with Caro on a walking tour of the richest part of town Recoleta. We went to the nicest ice cream shop ever and got cones... delicious cones. The cemetery there was all old rustic, yet highly decorated, mausoleums. Evita Peron´s body is there but we never found it. It rained and we were worn out from the long walk so we took a cab to a cutie little neighborhood called Palermo. it was about 6:30 and none of the restaurants were open. But we were starving so we stumbled across a new classy looking joint. It was very nice inside and the owner let us come in and sit for a spell while they got ready to open. Gabi had the first fish of the trip and Sophie had the first steak. All said, it was an authentic sort of dining experience.

We took the subway back to the hostel, which, even though we had only ridden it once, came naturally to us. We are pros. And now we are very very tired pros. Our plan is to take a boat to Colonia early tomorrow, then hop a bus to Montevideo and hit the beach.

sorry there aren´t more pictures, but it takes FOREVER to upload them onto the computer. we´ll try to put up as many as we can.

Numero Uno

Here We Are.
After a brief separation, Soph and Gab were reunited in Buenos Aires. Our hostel, BA Stop seemed like an oasis of sorts amidst a whirlwind of confusion. Basically, our first day was spent wandering about in search of nourishment and a sense of direction. Luckily, we found both. Our hostel is located in the middle of BA, surrounded by cafe/bar/restaurant units. Pretty central and easily accessible from the main street, Avenida 9 de Julio. The weather has been...diverse. From overcast to clear skies, drizzles to downpours, we never seem to be prepared. The one constant is the level of humidity (high). But we´re surviving. In fact, we´re doing swell.
First Night: we come to discover that out of the 10 beds in our dormitory room, 4 are occupied by Israeli men. Score. Gabi let´s it slip that she knows some Hebrew and they´re hooked. Like babies to their pacifiers. The next day (day 2) they invite us to join them on an excursion. They tell us that it is a hugely popular, very famous zoo where the animals are drugged to the point that humans are able to climb in their cage and have actual physical contact. At first we felt conflicted about joining them in what seemed to be a very unethical interaction between man and beast, but ultimately their Israeli charm won out. After three hours of walking/riding the wood-panelled subway/bussing we arrived at what appeared to be nothing more than an abandoned farm. Our first impression of the zoo suggested we would be venturing into a cageless pasture with a smorgasbord of animals from all walks of life mingling together. Ducks ran rampant, as did little dogs. But we were not alarmed. As we ventured further, the Israelis spotted the cages with the lions and tigers, which we were free to enter if we so desired. Soph and Gab decided to sit this one out--watch and learn, if you may. At first they were apprehensive about getting too close, but once the cameras came out, they were more than willing to strike a pose. It wasn´t until Soph and Gab came across a pen of baby tigers that their apprehension yielded to a girly kind of soft spot for cuddly furry creatures with playfulness in their hearts. Gabi even spewed a bottle of milk into her hand and allowed the baby tigers to lap at her fingertips. Upon questioning, she learned that the milk was not, in fact, full of drugs to keep the animals tame, but that they had been trained from an early age to respond to their trainers´ commands and to not harm a human being. The zoo was a hit. Afterwards, hopping onto an elephant or petting a grown lion, reminiscent of Mufasa, seemed like a piece of cake-- dirt of ya shouldas. After noticing that the only other zoo patrons were Israelis asking about the drug content of the milk, we came to realize that this "zoo" was most likely known amongst them as a place for great picture opportunities with wild animals, nothing more. Needless to say, the day had worn us down. After returning home in the same manner we had gone, food and drink were in order. We thought the day was through.. but we were mistaken. At around 1 AM, the same Israelis we had befriended and ventured with, invited us to join them in going to an exclusively Israeli club with a few of their friends. We danced until four in the morning, completely out of place with our Western moves. WHAT A DAY.

Things that we learned:
-Two heads are better than one.
-Half the people you´ll meet speak Hebrew.
-Don´t eat the mozzarella, or¨muzzarella¨. It ain´t the same...
-The bill doesn´t come until you signal for it
-Don´t go to bed before 1 AM
- Carry change!


Love you, miss you!
-S & G