Latin America - A journey of "non-sense of belonging"

Here is a map of where we will be traveling...I tried to make it in Photoshop program, however, I'm very bad at drawing, so I screwed up a little bit, I know...Anyway, at least it gives some idea about where we are going...We start with Quito, travel to Otavalo and head southward, to Trujillo in Peru, Lima, Arequipa, Macchu Picchu and Puno (Lake Titicaca), then La Paz (Bolivia) and Sucre on the plane...To make it a little more comprehensive, I added the flights so that you could follow...From Sucre, we head to south to Salar de Uyuni, an extraordinary salt desert and pass to Chile which becomes "San Pedro de Atacama"...A possibly crazy journey will take us to Antogafasta in Chile and we'll have a long bus journey to Santiago de Chile (about 20 hours!!!)...Then we go down, take the Navimag Cruise from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales to see the glaciers on the way, sounds fantastic huh??? We pass to El Calafate on the bus, visit Perito Moreno and fly to Ushuaia to see the end of the world!!! After visiting Tierra del Fuego National Park, we will fly to Buenos Aires (BsAs)...As we stay there, we'll go to Colonia, Montevideo and Punta del Este in Uruguay and come back home to BsAs!!! For Iguazu Falls, we make a 2-day trip flying there and coming back...Next stop is Sao Paolo in Brazil, lots of people and carnival time!!! Wooo, let's see what will happen...Uggghhh, I get excited, am I nuts??? (I know I am, I bet you know too,haha)...After a coupel days, we pass to Manaus for our Amazon Adventure with piranhas and giant mosquitos:)))) ...If we are still around safe and sound, the plan is to pass to Salvador de Bahia for a little bit beach, sun and fun (more a little carnaval leftover beach parties!!!)...Next is coming back to legendary Rio de Janeiro, full of carnival people all over the world, though the Samba Parades over, still very rewarding for two adventurous women from Turkey :))))) Wooo, I get excited...After exploring Rio, we head to Mexico City via Miami and hit the road again to discover the Mayan Heritage in Yucatan Peninsula. We had to Yucatan, see Chitzchen Itza, Cancun, Uxmal, Tikal in Belize, Antigua and Guatemala.. Last before Mexico City exploration is Guadalajara by bus for 2 days...We left 2 full days for Mexico City, as it is as huge as Istanbul, but we'll do our best!!!

Ugh, I got tired of writing...I have doubts whether we will find chances to upload to this blog...I decided not to bring my laptop there. It may be stolen, I may be tired of carrying it, it may be asked to be out of its case at the airport security checks (and I may punch to the security people which means an early end of my lovely trip in jail!!!)...Well, we'll see how it goes...

For my lovely dear Turkish friends only: Bu siteyi ingilizce yapiyorum, cunku izleyecek en az 100 tane tur yaptigim adam var, ve bu gezinin hazirlanmasi safhalarini da yakindan takip ettiler...Ben de ingilizce yazmayi cok sevmiyorum, ama mecbur kaldim...Zaman zaman dilim donmezse Turkce de araya sIkIstIracam...Piril'in arkadaslari, sizler ozellikle kusura bakmayin, biliyorum siz de buradan takip edeceksiniz, ama uzgunum, siz Ingilizce anliyorsunuz ama gavurlar ne yazik ki Turkce anlamiyor:(((...

Seattle WA

Seattle WA
Originally uploaded by karahanmine

I went to Seattle, WA for the first time in my life. I had heard a lot about that city, however never had the chance to visit it. My trip lasted 5 days between 13th to 18th of November. I had a visit to the company I work for, joined some workshops and talked on a radio program. The company is located in Edmonds, some 30 minutes drive up to north. I had two days of spare time, I spent it with visiting Seattle.

Seattle is a grey town, with a beautiful skyline and ferries operating in Puget Sound. The city is almost a peninsula, it is surrounded by Puget Sound and Lake Washington. It is almost next to British Columbia, Canada. The picturesque Vancouver Island is easily accessible by ferry. The capital of British Columbia is called Victoria and it is located on the south of Vancouver Island. (not the city of Vancouver in BC mainland)

Seattle is basically famous for three things: The Space Needle, Starbucks and Public Market. Space Needle is a structure built in 1962 during World Fair, resembles a space needle as the name suggests, has a rotating restaurant and an observation deck where one can see Mount Rainier, Mount Baker, Elliot Bay and Olympic Mountains in a clear day. I did not go there because the weather was terrible. Starbucks was founded in 1912 right across the Public Market and Starbucks lovers can visit the first coffee shop opened like visiting a shrine.

Public Market is a market which is a little touristy now, has lots of fresh fish and vegetables and two famous lovely fish restaurants... Especially the one called "Athens" , where most of the scenes of the movie "Sleepless in Seattle" was shot is very cool...