After spending a few nights out at the Colca Canyon near Arequipa, Peru we were headed back into town on our way to meet a friend in Cusco.  Catching at 6am bus out of the village, we weren’t surprised when the bus stopped along the way to pick up other people, animals and their baggage.  This little guy made it on the bus, but we saw a llama and a goat loaded into the baggage hold for a short ride up the hill. 

There isn’t much of a road in northern Kenya.   A badly potholed dirt track leads from Isiolo to the Ethiopian border, a journey of only about 100 miles that takes about two days.  With few transportation options along this road, the local population travels in cattle trucks, which run through the night from the border to Isiolo where a proper bus ticket can be purchased.  We were so thankful when we saw this cattle truck that we were in our friend’s car.  Although you can pay more to sit in the cab, squished between ten of your closest friends, the experience can not be called pleasant.  It’s amazing we didn’t see anyone jolted out of the back of the truck …

Ever since arriving in Ethiopia we’ve been excited to get out of Africa, not that its been bad at all mind you, its just that Africa is difficult. Emotionally, physically and mentally Africa can take it all out of you without you even realizing it. It’s been a pleasure sharing the adventure with others along with way, but frankly we were just exhausted of being in the developing world. I know how that sounds and I realize how lucky we are to be able to leave those difficult situations, but it’s the truth, it was hard. We needed a long break, badly.
Needless to say it wasn’t with heavy hearts that we took the ferry to Jordan. In fact it was …

Although we had a nice time in Lalibela, we had some more visa processing to do in Addis so we had to rush away. Perhaps we didn’t tip the priests enough for those pictures, because not more than an hour outside of Lalibela, trucking through the valley before heading back up the escarpment, the Land Rover (Landy or Kaspuuurr  as its affectionately called) stopped. Climbing out of the car, we popped the hood as the local children swarmed us. With a mix of curiosity and fear, the obviously destitute children approached the car. We greeted them in the little Amaharic we know and with big smiles, but they were more intrigued by the land rover than …