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 …

The main destination in New South Wales was Sydney, but the first stop was the Blue Mountains.

Feeling that the name was a bit familiar, we looked into it and found out there are at least ten mountain ranges in the world known as the Blue Mountains. This one was probably unique in that it had a city named Katoomba, which is where we spent the night. The town was quite pleasant, we even found several places serving high tea with all the traditional items. We were mostly there to see …

At least that’s what the license plates say in the state of Victoria. We officially set foot on our 4th continent since January by landing in Melbourne and we hit the road yet again. The three of us didn’t have the same flight so Beth had a little extra time in Melbourne to check out the shopping center. She found Woolworth’s and Target!
We headed for the Great Ocean Road and Apollo Bay. The first day was spent mostly in the twilight and dark which made driving the unfamiliar twisty …

We’re back on the road after a week on the beach. This time we get to drive. On the wrong side of the road even. Apparently, the thing to do in New Zealand is to rent a camper and drive around the islands. Everyone we had talked to along the way had recommended that plan, so we went along with it too. The campers here are known as campervans, although the one we got was just a van. The company we ended up with was named, appropriately enough, Hippie Camper. …

After our two day delay, we hit the ground running once we arrived. The first stop was the Charles Darwin Research Station. The main attraction here is Lonesome George. He is the end of the line for the Pinta Island Tortoises. They have tried to get him to breed with other Galapagos tortoises, but no babies yet. The station also houses young turtles from multiple islands in an effort to keep them safe while they mature and then return them to the wild. They also have a large collection of …

After our 4 day hike, we decided to take the tourist bus to Puno. What’s in Puno? It’s the city on the the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca. What’s the tourist bus? Instead of taking the direct bus that takes 6 hours, the tourist bus makes 3 or 4 stops at points of interest and takes 10 hours instead. There are actually 3 companies that do this and we kept running into the other tour groups all day, none of the buses were full. What a waste!
Not on the …

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 …

We made it! On time and everything still in one piece. The only trouble was that we didn’t have the name of the hostel we had reserved. No big deal, but we did put down a deposit. After looking at a small map we took a taxi to an intersection that we thought was close and walked about 6 blocks and found it.
Within 2 hours of our arrival, we were invited to a toga party to celebrate the birthday of one of our roommates. The catch is we had …