alright, ive spoiled you with my last blog. dont get use to it. i dont like spending time at the computer when traveling, but i have someone that i need to protect these days, and Lima is not a safe place. we are on night lock down at the moment, even though technical we could go out, well, im tired and weve seen lima today. the flight from australia to san francisco was long, 13 hour long, but what made it worse was the 9 hour flight after that to lima, which included an extra hour sitting in the plane before take off while they loaded the plane and waited for something. i did get to see san fran from the window, and the bridge was entirely clouded over except the arches that poked through the clouds. pretty cool. my ass and thigh was pretty sore after sitting in those seats for the longest day of my life. longest because i actually lived July 19th twice. the first time was for about 18 hours, then i crossed the international date line where i then had my second july 19th for about another 18-20 hours. the meeting up at the airport was going to be a nightmare, considering my flight was 1.5 hours behind, but fortunately air canada screwed up the same way and was late by the same time, so we found each other with absolutely no problems. difference was, the blond had to look for baggage under the toronto sign, where i got to stand under the san francisco sign.... much much cooler!

tomorrow is the flight up to cusco, about 14,000 feet above sea level. well see how we can handle the elavation. looking forward to it. dont be surprised if you dont get another blog for a little bit, these next few places are fairly remote!

Surprise!

I heard through the grapevine that im a terrible blogger. Ya.

So here I am, 2 continents later writing to all of my anxious readers. Ill quickly recap japan and australia, or pretty much wont say anything about them. japan was ok. got over the whole thing pretty quickly and was happy to get out of there. im not much of a sushi and rice type. japan is super clean even though they have no garbage bins. the cost of everything is about the same as home, but transportation in their labrynth of trains and subways costs add up. i spent a day and a half out in the forrest near mount fuji. lots of natural hotsprings and they are crazy hot to bathe in. it was up in the middle of the cloud range, so even though i was near fuji, the clouds around me prevented any sightings. i did see i glimpse of it from tokyo atop the municipal government building, but nothing like the post cards... so that was slightly disappointing. i was surprised at how easy it was to do everything in japan, despite the massive language barrier. the only tricky part was the train system... which i wont explain here. oh, i should say that the flight from moscow to tokyo was cool because it flew over the urals and siberia, passing vladivostok before hitting japan.

the night flight from tokyo to australia got me in to Cairns in north oz about 7am or so. it was probably 19 out and awesome. it was nice to finally see white people again and hear english... no offense to all my asian fans-readers out there. the accent wasnt as harsh as i expected it to be, but i still couldnt understand some people. cairns didnt last long and before i knew it i was in sydney... home to the worlds most venomous and deadliest spider... which i saw, along with the top 5 deadliest snakes... all behind glass fortunately. sydney is nice... not too big in the center, but the surrounding areas have a lot to offer. i did go for a day trip out into the mountains...which arent really mountains... which are the size of mountains but they technically arent because of the way the were formed... not that you care about geology. anyways, i did see the southern cross as soon as i looked to the night sky.... so easy to pick out. its the constellation found on the aussie and kiwi flag. i went swimming in the cold winter ocean, not at bondi, but rather manly beach. oh, and i ate kangaroo burger and even cooked kangaroo on a beach bbq. sydney has a ton of free bbqs provided by the city, located all over the place. all gas operated, checked and filled up again by city workers throughout the day... anyone can use them any time. overall, australia was a short but really great stay. with the lifestyle that they live, its so easy to see why so many people move to sydney, and the rest of eastern australia. i forgot to mention that i pet a koala and emu, as well as played and pet kangaroos. one also attacked me... i think i have video of it, despite it being an unprovoked surprise attack.

ya so, i guess i didn't really say anything different from my last post other than it got a little warmer. im a wonderful writer. maybe alicia can be my secretary and post stuff for me. i think i just made her upset.

well russia has come and gone again. it was better than last time and all thanks to the people that have made the past week so good. traveling has it's rewards, but the hardest part is you are always leaving people behind.

a quick recap since i haven't been able to have much internet time... the weather has been in the 30s and blue sky. typically its about 20ish here with small bits of rain every couple days. i heard that toronto is a little bit hotter at the moment :)

i've seen too many things to list, but i think i did all that i wanted to. not sure what japan will bring but i have several hours overnight on a plane to get through first.

ok so this whole blog thing is not going so well. i've been super buys everyday, very limited computer access, and very little time to do any writing anyways. still white nights here, so sun is still up after 1am and only goes down for a few hours. haven't had much sleep, maybe 4 hours per night, and very full days. so far so good. nothing but blue sky, about 25 degrees, very nice. going on a boat cruise of the rivers tonight with a group of people. that could be chilly.

Sunday night. 3 more sleeps in my bed.