We have met many Dutch travelers over the past year, and after hearing their stories we were happy to discover that the cheapest way back to America is through Holland. A little wrinkle is that we will land in Toronto, not the US, but close enough.
We spent our last overseas weekend hanging out in a beautiful city. Between the tree lined canals, countless old churches, row houses, cafes, and the start of the fall foliage it was impossible not to be charmed by the city. We went on the …

That was our first thought when we landed in Kolkata. The airport was built in the 1930s and it appears that little has changed. No computers at immigration, customs was a joke, no ATMs anywhere, and once you step outside you find a fleet of yellow taxis made circa 1950, lovingly called Ambassadors.
The drive to our hotel revealed the modern side, complete with neon lights. The whole city is an interesting mix of old and new. Many colonial buildings remain but most in dismal shape with vegetation growing from …

Even though we were outside of climbing season, we decided to spend a few days in one of the small towns at the base of Fuji-San (Mt Fuji). Kawaguchiko is a small town next to a lake, so we decided to relax and see what we could see before heading back Tokyo. We didn’t have very good luck with the weather and didn’t even get to see the mountain, which was shrouded in fog the entire time we were there. We did get a chance to walk around the lake, …

Narita International Airport outside of Tokyo was the quietest airport we have ever been in, eerily so. We guessed that we were among the few people actually staying in Japan instead of transiting across the Pacific, but still. There was no line for our baggage, immigration, or customs. We traded in our JR Passes immediately and zoomed into Tokyo, navigated the metro system with ease and made it to our hostel without any complications.
We had planned two days in Tokyo at both the beginning and of our …

Since there is no ATM on Isabela and no one takes credit cards, we counted how much cash we had left, subtracted out lodging and the boat ride back and realized we could only stay one more day. One of the reasons we wanted to go to Isabela was to see the volcano. The island is actually made up of six volcanoes that have merged together. We were picked up by the “tour guide” around 8 am and taken to the trail head. The rest of …

After waiting around in the Lima airport for 5 hours, we went to recheck our bags only to find out that our flight to Quito had been canceled. The airlines thought it would be fine for us to be delayed for an entire day. What they didn’t know was that we had a flight to the Galapagos five hours after we landed in Quito. Since we are dealing with separate airlines, there wasn’t much we could do. Also considering it was Sunday night at 7pm, we were really stuck. They …

We made it to the capital city of the Incas after a long journey through the Lima airport.

When looking up our flight from Rio, we realized that we had about 24 hours to spend in Lima before continuing on to Cusco. We spent the day downtown visiting some churches and museums, and had some great ceviche and picso sours. Back at the airport we had to wait until 4:30am to check in and get on the plane. Unfortunately, they won’t let you past security more than an hour before …

Phil and Meredith were fantastic hosts for our 3 day scramble before we left from LA. Not only did we immediately make a mess of their guest bedroom, we also did laundry and brought various half-used items from our house that we didn’t know what to do with. Hopefully the case of homemade beer, various half bottle of liquor and some wine will make up for some of their inconvenience. Yes our trunk was full.
Sunday:

The four of us plus Jeremy went out for breakfast and headed to San Diego’s Wild …

We are expecting some inconveniences and problems while traveling, but didn’t realized the trouble would start so soon.
After landing at SFO, we get to our car at the airport parking lot and the coolant light comes on as soon as the car starts. A quick look under the hood reveals the fluid level is quite low…that explains the light. It’s 12:30pm so we just start driving anyway, stopping at a few gas stations to look for more antifreeze. No luck since they are either closed or don’t have the …