Taiwan 2005-Sights

TAIWAN

For a relatively small island Taiwan really has a wealth of sites and diversity. We visited lots of temples, shopped, saw the famous Taroko Gorge, and of course had some great beach fun.

TAROKO GORGE

 Mom and Dad Lee!

Kenting 

Unfortunately it was a bit too cold to go in!

TAIPEI

That's my Uncle who is a professor at Bei Da . . . we are in one of the campus gardens.

and MALLS!! A post on Taiwan wouldn't be complete without malls. This is one of the biggest (in the world?). Taipei 101

TEMPLES!

Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of these.

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The countryside

 

Japan 2005-Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka

Tokyo!

Kai's dreaming of something . . .

There were a lot of places like this! The sign says "We are deeply sorry but we cannot allow foreign nationals to enter. What is going on in there?!

The Japanese had the fanciest toliets ever. They can spray (in different positions), warm up, big flush, little flush. I"m sure I'm missing a ton of functions.

KYOTO

Kyoto was the old capital of Japan and had a ton of temples, very zen gardens, old castles, and even geishas!

Beautiful cheery blossoms.

We spent one night in a Japanese tatami room.  You sleep and lay out all the bedding that is provided.  They even provided us with Japanese kimono like robes as pj's!

There was a traditional Japanese puppet show that we went to. Do you see the man in the back wearing all black?

OSAKA

Ecuador 2005-Quito, Amazon, Otavalo (Sights)

Quito

We spent a few days in Quito and rambled along the old town visiting la Igelsia de la Merced and the Museco National de Arte Colonial.  The square, pictured above, always had something going on. 

 On another day, the square was the site of a protest.

I hadn't brought appropriate clothes for the trip and bought a pair of shorts from this lady.

And I also forgot shampoo-here's what a local store looks like!

Some locals adopted us one of our nights out and took us to karaoke in the new town.  The night life in Quito was actually way funner than anything we expected. Lot of places with an easy bohemian vibe.

We stayed at La Casa Sol . . .super cute.

Sights Around Quito

Otavalo

We took a bus here which was a bit of an adventure was we completely went past it!  There were a ton of textiles here and we got a pair of traveling pants and a light weight blanket.

La Mitad del Mundo!  The Equator!

Yes! Kai is standing on the middle of the world.

Cotopaxi

This was awesome.  You could literally hike up from the parking lot all the way to the bottom of where the snow line was!  This is one of the highest active volcano's in the world.  Not for those that can't handle high altitudes though-a group of 10 year olds ran up and down before I made it 50 steps.

Lagunas de Mojanda

 and finally . . . pictures of the Amazon!

Okay-so this area isn't officially the Amazon as the Amazon river doesn't flow through it but the river, the Rio Napo, is a tributary of it and the area is known as the Amazonian jungle.  We stayed at Yachana eco Lodge which we picked since the owner is super interested in community building and working with the locals to try to develop the resources of the Amazon sustainably.   

Our guide had grown up in the rainforest and his father had been a village shaman.  He had the best vision EVER-he could spot a needle in a haystack I bet.