Chicago 03/04 - ???

Sweet (?) Home Chicago

I learned many things about myself on this journey. One of them is that the perfect temperature for me is a humid 30 degrees Celcius. What is up with this cold and dreary weather here? How can anyone breathe with this dry air? My skin feels like it is going to flake right off.  Coming back to a concrete jungle from a tropical one is pretty rough. It was raining and cold when we stepped off the plane. There seems to be concrete everywhere and everything looks gloomy and gray. We can't seem to adjust to the time change as easily as we did the opposite way. We can't sleep at night and force ourselves to stay awake all day. All the problems of everyday life are still here. They have been waiting patiently for our return. Thankfully we still have some time to readjust before getting back to work. More good news is that our little one bedroom apartment now seems like a palace. I feel like we live in the lap of luxury. Our car, which before seemed on the old and junky side, seems brand new. Everything is so clean and our bed is so comfortable. We were also reunited with our kitties who have settled back into their old way of life. They had a nice little vacation themselves and almost didn't want to come home as much as us.

The trip was hard in many ways. It was difficult to get used to the discomforts of travel, stressful when things didn't work out, we were sick for most of India and made a bunch of mistakes. But mostly, it was exciting, fun, and everyday was a new adventure. Yeah, it sucks being back. But, I feel very fortunate that we have the means to do this kind of trip and actually decided to go and do it. It was definitely one of the best things I have ever done. Most people in the places we visited have never left their home town, much less traveled halfway across the world. That is what stands out most from our trip...how incredibly fortunate we are. I feel that I see the world in a different way and I hope that will not fade as I assimilate back into my old way of life. And if it does....that may mean its time for the next trip.

San Juan 02/24 - 02/03

Gorgeous sunsets and surfing at San Juan.

We arrived to San Fernando in the late afternoon once again in search of accommodation and found a basement room at a hotel at the edge of the tiny seaside town. It sounded bad and was a bit dumpy, but it was cheap and literally right by the sea. It had small windows and the surf would break right up at the room so it felt like we were sleeping in a ship. We rented a motorbike and drove around San Juan, the next town over, inspecting the resorts in the area and the following morning we made our move Asian style. We made a human/backpack sandwich on the motorbike – Peter sat in front with a small backpack on his chest and a large backpack on his back, then I sat behind him with my own backpack on my back and another bag hanging off my shoulder. We've seen entire families on one motorbike. One family even managed to get a dog on there. So, we were proud to tackle another form of Asian travel.

Once we settled down the vagabonding urge invaded our minds...so much to see, so many places to go. We vowed to stay at least 2 more nights, unsure if that would actually work out as we have been moving roughly every 3 days for the last three months. We've been to about 35 different places in the last 90 days and have gotten very used to being on the road. But, we began to relax. San Juan may not be as picturesque as some of the beaches we've encountered, but it has a great vibe. We were in the “resort” area which means there are a handful of small hotels with board rentals along the beach as well as some fisherman shacks. Over the weekend, the sea was packed with crowds from Manila, but once the weekenders went home, we were only two of the six tourists at our hotel. The weather was perfect, the sunsets were gorgeous and the surfing was awesome. After two days of learning to surf our plans went from an 8 hour bus trip up to Sagada (mountain cliffs with coffins hanging off them) with more trips to Bontoc and Banaue (famous rice terraces) to a trip to Baguio (mountain town with good food and music) and then Kabayan (mountain area with famous mummies in caves). Then we thought that maybe we would just make it to Baguio. But, we just couldn't get ourselves to leave. I was a perfect and relaxing end to a very hectic trip. We sat around watching the locals surf like pros and made our own daily attempts at surfing. We also drank plenty of beer as we went through the stages of accepting the inevitable dreaded return home. We met some friends to hang out with and even went to a local beach party. I am proud to say that I am no longer a karaoke virgin. Oh yes, it will certainly be very rough transition back home. I am already crying.

After walking the urine filled streets of India, the beaches
of Thailand, and the malls of Singapore....my Teva sandals
actually fell apart on me.  It must have been a sign that it is
time to take a break.  The second sole fell off on our trip back to Manila.

Can you see me in this picture?

Waiting for the perfect wave on a calm day.

Here it comes...paddle hard.

Finally!  A wave worthy of my surfing talents.

Another calm day.  Where are those damn waves.

This is the final picture before the wave wiped me out.
The sea can be quite treacherous.

Here I am with all my boards.

Here I am with my friends.

View from our hotel.  The bed was super hard and uncomfortable
and the bathroom was stinky.  All the more reasons to stay outside.

The karaoke master thinks our new friends, Courtney and
Mike from Canada, are pretty cool, eh?  Fer sure.

Courtney and I singing "Livin on a Prayer".

Some of the best surfers were the eight year old boys
that were tearing up the waves.

The beach on our final morning where I sat and cried.

Most amazing sunsets.