After a five hour layover in Atlanta, Two Who Trek boarded the Boeing jet to Quito, Ecuador at 5:45 PM. You probably expect horror stories about the flight. Not in this case. Joe had shelled out extra money to purchase seats in the emergency exit row, giving ample legroom. There was an added bonus. We were seated next to a Quito native, now a citizen of the United States. He enlightened us with tales of the delights of his country and the trip time just flew by. (Yes, a bad pun). Continue reading
blog
On the Road Again!
The latest adventure has started for Two Who Trek! Yesterday was filled with packing and bill paying; doing all those things that need to get done before leaving for a month.
The 3:30 AM alarm made for a short night following a midnight bedtime. In the blowing snow, we made a pre-dawn drive to the Detroit Metro Airport (DTW). Sherri had rousted one of her relatives to drop us off at the airport. Lucky guy, he managed to sleep most of the way to Detroit. This left Sherri to very competently handle the big rear-wheel-drive wildebeest through beginning rush hour traffic and slippery roads. Continue reading
Categories: blog, Michigan, travel
Tags: deicing, detroit airport, dtw, plane, travel
Leave a comment
Up on the Housetops, Click, Click, Click . . .
Here is a special gift from Two Who Trek — a collection of rooftop photos! These are all photos we have taken on our journeys.
No, we don’t specialize in house top photos, nor do we have any connection with the shingle-making industry. Actually, Joe has a thing against ladders. Continue reading
Categories: background, blog, Michigan, photos, travel
Leave a comment
The Twelve Days Before Cuenca
In the twelve days before leaving for Cuenca, my true friend gave to me – Continue reading
Categories: blog, Cuenca, preparation, travel
Tags: 12 days of Christmas parody, cuenca, ecuador, learning, learning Spanish, spanish, travel
Leave a comment
A side journey to Olivet and Marshall
Two Who Trek does a lot of international travel, but we also journey in the states, too. Together we’ve been in about 30 states; separately, one of us has been in 46 states. But today’s story is about a short voyage last Sunday.
We trekked on I-69 to the small town of Olivet, Michigan, to hear the Olivet Community Schools “Holiday Musical Celebration”. The concert is different than most school performances that we’ve heard before. For starters, all the different grade bands, except for the fifth grade, are arranged on the floor of the huge high school gymnasium. Continue reading
Categories: blog, local, Michigan, travel
Tags: band, concert, high school, lights, marshall, michigan, music, olivet, performance, school, travel, two who trek
Leave a comment
Learning Spanish the Slacker Way
If you are reading this post in December, you’ll notice a countdown clock in the right column, showing that we have just 17 days remaining before our month-long trip to Ecuador. We are busily preparing for the trip as well as getting our Christmas gifts, cards, and traditional activities completed.
The trip organizers have been very helpful, sending weekly email messages to prepare us for the adventure. Topics covered include what to expect, what will we need (i.e., Cuenca has the same electric power and plugs as we do so no need for converters or adapters), and lists of Spanish words and phrases to study.
Their goal is for us to learn about 2,000 words before we board that first airplane. So far, Joe has mastered two—“cerveza” and “baῆos”, figuring that would cover both incoming and outgoing. He was shocked to learn that “baῆos” was really a place to bathe and that he needed to ask for a “servicio”. Continue reading
Categories: blog, Cuenca, ecuador, preparation, travel
Tags: dr. seuss, foreign languages, learning Spanish, pbs shows, preparation, travel, two who trek
Leave a comment
The trip in a box
Yesterday among the cartload of ubiquitous smiling brown boxes from brazillian-river.com[1] that the UPS driver lugged to Joe’s door was this mysterious priority package:
The mysterious UPS Priority package
Upon closer examination (which really didn’t have to be that close), Joe found that the three-pound package came from AHI, the organizers of the upcoming trip. Continue reading
Where?
Ever had the desire to live in a foreign county? Maybe not forever, but at least during the cold winter months? Twowhotrek have had that idea for some time. Now we get a chance to live that dream.
In March 2007, Twowhotrek visited South Africa. We really enjoyed the city of Capetown, the beauty of the surrounding area, and the vineyards not too far to the east. After a cold Michigan winter, the warmth of South Africa’s late summer felt great. One day the thought came as we were bouncing on a tourist bus – why not spend a month in Capetown some US winter? After all, of the eleven national languages in South Africa, English is the one most commonly used. They even drive halfway normally, just on the other side of the road. Sadly, mundane things like having to work for a living have prevented that dream from coming true so far (but we haven’t given up yet!).
Fast forward to 2012. Continue reading
Categories: background, blog, Cuenca, ecuador, travel
Tags: cuenca, ecuador, hgtv, planning, travel, two who trek
Leave a comment
Why?
Why? I was three, asked that question repeatedly and still do. Travel requires taking what we have learned and applying it to something unknown. Situations encountered while traveling test physical, intellectual and spiritual sensibility and stamina. We have been blessed with finding an equitable partner on such journeys. The middle of life – or a story – is a good place to start cataloging our adventures, experiences and growth opportunities. In 2006, we visited Peru. Is this simply a journal of our return to the “land of the llama”? We’ll see what happens on the road.
Two Who Trek 