On the Road Again...

Sooo, when I returned to Alaska more than a month ago, I really thought that I had finished my rambling ways and would be ready to settle in, find a car (my Honda is now my Mom´s Honda) and a job.  I was excited to enjoy summer in Alaska and that I did.  I went fishing for salmon, hiking with Meaghan, Erica and Erica´s friends from Australia, kayaking with my lawyer buddies and spent time having lunch with friends and doing some summer grilling.  All in all it felt like a great vacation and obviously, I was not ready to stop there...

I stopped back in Colorado for some bear-free hiking and for a reunion with a few of the runners from the Coastal Challenge. 

Of all the people that I have met in these last 11 or so months, I still feel the strongest connection with the runners from the one week I spent running, walking, and suffering in Costa Rica. 

I didn´t participate, but instead decided to watch the Pikes Peak Marathon and cheer-on the Coastal Challengers running the 13.1 miles up to 14,000 feet and then back down the same slippery, rocky trail.  Famous trail runner Kilian Jornet decided to show up and blow away the field.  It was fun to watch someone run so fast and on really challenging terrain.  Sadly though, I have to admit, it was hard just to watch! 

I did manage to have some time to hike up the famous "Incline" in Manitou Springs before the runners returned from their journeys to the top of Pikes Peak.  Apparently, "Incline" is infamous among the Olympic Athletes that call Colorado Springs home. 

And, apparently I wasn´t ready to resume "normal life" just yet...I hopped on a plane to Querétaro, México after hearing rumors about this lovely, sunny and warm city not far from Mexico City.  For the past week I have been taking Spanish lessons, exploring the city and the area around the city and taking cooking lessons.  There have been a couple of days that I thought my head was going to explode from trying to think in Spanish and orient myself in the city, but all in all this trip has been fantastic. 

My buddy Oscar has been an extraordinary guide.  He organized the Spanish and cooking lessons, printed schedules and maps and armed me with tourist brochures and a phone for those times I found myself completely lost (okay, I´ve maybe had to use it at once for this purpose...).

On Sunday we visited La Peña de Bernal in the pueblo of Bernal and 2 wineries in the area.  We toured the first winery, Freienet, with about 100 other people from Bosnia to Mexico City to Ecuador to Barcelona.  At the second winery, La Redonda, I tried tasted the wine and local cheeses.  Finally, we visited the quaint pueblo of Tequisquiapan. 

I have been eating at some amazing restaurants on Oscar´s recommendations as well!  I am keeping a list so I can share this vast gastronomical knowledge with any of you future visitors.  I wouldn´t be surprised if I return to Alaska double my current size.  The food is that amazing.

Querétaro is unlike any other place I have visited in Mexico.  I´ve only spent time in the touristy beach towns, like Cabo, Cozumél, Manzanillo, Todos Santos and the like.  Querétaro seems like a city where business is done and normal people are living their lives.  It is clean, modern and bustling. 

I am staying near the historic district and the area is beautiful.  Most of the churches and other structures in the historic district were built during the 1500-1600s and have been kept in mint-condition.  I usually spend a least an hour or so every day wandering around after my Spanish classes just taking it all in.  All in all, this past week has been an educational and relaxing one.  I am confident the remainder of my time here will be equally interesting.



Re-Entry

My brother picked me up at the Miami International Airport well after midnight and we drove back to his house in Fort Lauderdale.  It took me three days to get to Florida!  Two volunteers and I left San Cristobal on Tuesday afternoon and after our tearful goodbye at the station, we then ran into several people that we had met over the last weeks.  They were all taking either the flight to Guayaquil, Ecuador or flying to one of the other islands.  We had a wonderful second round of good-byes!  After taking the "milk run" flight back to Quito, I stayed one night with my host family and boarded the plane for Miami the next day, stopping again in Guayaquil, then San Jose, Costa Rica and finally arriving in Miami.

When I first arrived, I experienced a little bit of culture shock, but surprisingly, not as much of a shock as I expected.  Sure, I was happy to be back to the land where the electricity stays on all the time (even at night), the water runs regularly and you can even drink directly out of the tap, you can throw your toilet paper in the toilet and things run on time.  At the same time, I instantly missed the chaos and unpredictability of Central and South America.  Also surprisingly, I didn't have any particular "meal" or   drink or anything that I missed desperately while down South so I didn't need to rush off to some place like Olive Garden or Dairy Queen (ha!).  My brother was very patient as he listened to all of my stories and little comparisons...

My relatively minor culture shock might have been due to the fact that Miami and Fort Lauderdale are perfect places for "re-entry" back into the States, First World, or whatever you want to call it.   You can order in either Spanish or English at most restaurants and meet people from all over the world walking on Lincoln Street or the A1A in Fort Lauderdale.

I spent some time with Jen Samway, her family, and Flor in Miami.  We went paddle-boarding and kayaking right outside Jen's door, we biked around South Beach on beach cruisers and watched the Miami City Ballet's junior troupe (Jen's daughter included).  Jen and Flor and I met in Costa Rica at the Coastal Challenge and it was fun reminiscing about the race.  The Coastal Challenge was my first stop on my Central and South American tour and Jen and Flor were the very first people I met on my travels!  They adopted me in the airport in San Jose and gave me all kinds of great advice throughout our "Challenge" week.

After my short visit in Florida, my brother and I flew to Colorado to visit Mom.  My friend Shelley met up with us in downtown Denver and we all drove up to the mountains.  Shelley visited for two days and the two of us hit the trails!  We climbed Peak 1 (~13,000 feet) on our first day (ouch!) and then rose early the next morning to run the 9 mile Peak-to-Peak trail (~10,000 feet) from Breckenridge to Frisco (also ouch!).  This was my first real exercise in 3 months and let me tell you, I was so sore the following couple of days...Yet another facet of "re-entry."  For some reason I also decided that it would be a good idea to run a 5km race.  There is nothing like a 5km race at 9,200 feet to let you know how out of shape you are!

I looked up some really old-time friends, Julie and Kristen, and had an amazing time reliving the really old memories from our days at Carriage House and Breckenridge Elementary, as well as getting caught up on their and other classmates' current lives.


I have to admit, it has been a little difficult to resist the urge to turn around and get on a plane back to South America or hop on one to Africa or Asia.  Traveling definitely has become an addiction of sorts and I have a bit of feeling of, "Okay, what's next?!"  However, I am simultaneously enjoying this time with my family in Florida, Colorado and Washington and really looking forward to getting back to summer in Alaska!

Cheers,
Kelly

Para-para-Paradise

There are so many highlights from my time at Jatun Sacha...Where to begin?!  I ended up volunteering for 3 weeks at the station and saving my last week in the Galapagos for traveling to the other islands.  As I mentioned in my last blog entry, every week and every day at the station was a different adventure.  The day the station director came back from his vacation was definitely one highlight.  Cesar has been the director of the Galapagos Jatun Sacha station for the last 11 years and you can tell that he loves his job.  We were having a great time before he arrived, but we had a little issue with our personal items disappearing and ending up in the co-director's house here and there.  He fixed that little issue straight away, kept us on our toes by quizzing us about the station, the endemic, native and introduced plant species on San Cristobal and then managed to entertain us with amusing "Spanglish" songs every night as well.  

One Sunday night while everyone was washing up from dinner, the water turned brown and then just stopped working altogether.  This had happened a couple of weeks before and that time it turned out that Hernan had accidentally turned the connection off above the station.  Someone checked to make sure that the same didn't happen again this time and when they determined that it was likely due to upstream blockage due to the heavy rains of the day, I naively volunteered to help fix the water system at daybreak the next morning.  Volunteering meant getting up at 5:15am and trekking through the jungle (machete in hand), followed by slipping and sliding down the trail to the river.  Eduardo and I then swam and scaled our way down-river with extra tubing, wiring, a filter and other gear to fix the water system.  The "system" consisted of a liter-sized Coke bottle with holes (a filter) and a series of rubber tubes leading from the river to the station's water tank.  When we finally arrived (soaking wet) at the problem spot, we discovered that a large stick had somehow made it through the filter and lodged itself in one of the connectors.  We dug it out, cleared the tube, and swam, scaled and macheted our way back to the station by 6:45am!

That same day I was assigned kitchen duty for the lunch meal, and since I was up so early already, I helped collect fruit from the property for the meal's juice and harvested vegetables from the station's garden for the group's lunch and then helped the cook chop and wash them as well.  The experience of chopping down banana trees and climbing to collect limes, oranges, passion fruit and guava was sublime.   I don't know if it was really a delicacy, but Hernan convinced me that wasp larvae was a tasty treat.  I tried it and I can say I've eaten wasp now, but I wouldn't exactly recommend it as a snack...

Another morning we all piled into the back of the work truck as usual, but instead of heading for Galapaguera to help in the nursery or El Junco to plant grass and coffee trees, we drove for the port to help a young woman collect rocks to construct the foundation of her house.  It was really hot and hard work, but the woman was so grateful that she was brought to tears when we made our goodbyes at the end of the day.

As if we weren't already hot, that afternoon, we learned how to process and roast coffee beans.  We used a hand-crank to take some of the shell off of the coffee beans, then used a fan to expose the beans and then took the remaining shell off of the beans by hand.  I was in charge of lighting and stoking the fire (due to my camping background and the fact that I live in Alaska)...I had a little trouble getting it going because of the dampness of everything...the paper, the wood, the matches...We roasted the beans on the fire for over an hour, stirring them constantly and enjoying the amazing aroma.  Despite the heat, it was a great learning experience.  

Some of my favorite things about volunteering actually took place in port.  I spent every weekend in port with the other volunteers.  Every Monday I would vow to stay the following weekend at the station and not venture into port with all of its temptations and conveniences and every Thursday afternoon I would start singing our favorite song....Para-para-paradise...The mosquitos would drive me out every week despite my resolve...

I had some great times in port at Aqui Si and at Mi Grande (with "Happy Man").  Every Friday and Saturday night, the volunteers would venture to the pier at the end of town to watch hundreds of sting rays feed on tiny fish under the lights.  We spent one Friday afternoon at Puerto Chino, voted one of the top 10 beaches in South America, and another Friday at Loberia, swimming with giant sea turtles and friendly sea lions.  One weekend, five of us ladies managed to persuade the local Police to let us watch the sunset and stay on Playa Carola after dark, despite all of the warning signs prohibiting use of the beach after 5pm.  We watched an amazing sunset that night and drank the white wine that Emily had stashed in her backpack.  A truly magical evening.

After my three weeks at Jatun Sacha, two other volunteers and I said our good-byes and headed to Santa Cruz.  On an early Sunday morning, we boarded the M/V Osprey Adventure and bumped along in the sea for 2 hours to Santa Cruz.  We had heard horrible things about the ride to Santa Cruz from some of the volunteers that had done the same trip a couple of weeks before, but Jennifer, Helen and I didn't think that this first boat ride was all that bad...

Santa Cruz is much more touristy than San Cristobal, with all of the advantages (nice restaurants) and disadvantages (crowds and higher prices) that tourism brings.  Helen, Jennifer and I spent the first day walking the famous Tortuga Beach to Tortuga Bay.  The walk from our hotel took nearly an hour, but the bay was really worth it!  Before sunset, the three of us then headed off to find "Lonesome George" at the Darwin Center.  Lonesome George is the last of the land tortoise species from the island of Espanola.  It is believed that he was born in 1930.  When he goes, his species will be extinct...We had to hustle a bit to make it before the Center closed and after all of that, George decided to hide from us.  

We got up early the next day to hit more of the highlights of Santa Cruz.  We visited the Tuneles del Amor (creepy and dark!), Garrapatero (amazing beach), and Las Grietas (brackish, clear pools).  It was a full day but we enjoyed every minute of our sight-seeing.  

Helen, Jennifer and I then jumped on another overcrowded boat and bumped along for a couple of hours to Isla Floreana where I swam with penguins (they are fast!), visited another tortoise rescue area and black sand beach, imagined myself living at the time of the pirates at Las Rocas de Piratas, and spied a whale on the return trip to Santa Cruz that night.  

Finally, we made it to Isla Isabela and realized why all of the volunteers love this island.  It is hard to describe why, but as soon as I landed on Isabela, I wanted to stay forever!   We planned to stay two nights and that just didn't seem to be enough time.  That night, Jennifer and I talked to our hotel host at the Gran Tortugua Hostel and arranged to stay an extra day on the island.  

The streets are covered in sand that feels like flour under your feet.  You really don't even need to wear shoes around town.  The beach at the end of town is endless and completely empty, save for the marine iguanas wandering across it.  The Sierra Negra looms above the mellow beach town.  While we were there we hiked Sierra Negra and were lucky enough to have great weather and saw the 2nd largest volcano crater in the world.  We then kept hiking to Volcan Chico and took in a view of the entire island, including all of its volcanos, smelled the sulfur from the active side of the volcano and headed back to town.  We visited the famous Tintoreras and saw penguins, blue footed boobies, a marine iguana "nursery," and swam with sea lions.

I spent the next day recovering from all of the sight-seeing on the beach and visiting the flamingos on a walk to Isabela's tortoise recovery center and then relaxed, listening to my tunes on the two boat rides back to San Cristobal.

I was due to leave the islands on Sunday, May 27 (according to the Jatun Sacha office in Quito that arranged my flights and didn't happen to have a printout to give me...a sign perhaps?).  When I went to the airport to check in, I found out that there are no flights on Sundays.  Luckily, I sort of planned for just this kind of mishap by scheduling my flight from Quito to Miami for May 30.   After the initial shock of realizing that I probably should have taken the flight on Saturday and might miss my flight back to the United States if I couldn't get to Quito by May 30, I went to the beach...

The next morning I decided to go back to Jatun Sacha to see if Cesar could help me fix my minor dilemma.  He assured me that on Monday he would fix everything.  Well, he was right.  By Monday afternoon I had a flight arranged to leave the next day and I was able to tell everyone at the station good-bye a second time.  That chance alone was worth any minor stress my missed flight may have caused.  

Ciao Jatun Sacha!  I hope I return someday...

Jatun Sacha...Spiders, Rats and Cockroaches, Oh My!

Jatun Sacha is the last adventure on my agenda and I am really happy that I decided to end my trip volunteering and spending time in the Galapagos.  What an amazing, amazing place!  My first two weeks at the Jatun Sacha station have gone swimmingly well...I think that all of my travels so far did well to prepare me for the experience, however.  For example, no one from the organization showed up at the airport to pick me up, none of the phones at the airport worked, there were no taxis around and it was about 97 degrees, but I managed a laugh anyway.  In fact, it was exactly as I expected...Have I possibly been in South America a little too long you ask?!  

Luckily, a tour guide from one of the travel companies took pity on me and called the director of Jatun Sacha.  Within the hour I arrived, not at the work station, but at an air conditioned hotel at the port.  I was a bit confused, but luckily, the hotel was crawling with friendly volunteers.  They very kindly explained that every weekend all of the volunteers flock to the beach and the port and spend the week days up at the station.  I was anxious to get to the station to start my volunteering, but decided to enjoy the sun and the sand (and the sea lions) for the weekend.  On Sunday evening, we all piled into the back of a pickup truck (main mode of transportation here) and bumped our way into the jungle.  

The station was also exactly what I expected...It was not, however, what the two other volunteers I was to  bunk with, expected however...One poor girl was really afraid of spiders and one phobic of rats.  We were greeted in our room by giant spiders, giant rats and the biggest cockroaches I have ever seen!  After the initial shock, the English girls calmed themselves down a bit and decided that they in fact did want to stay to finish out their volunteering obligation. 

Our work varies most days between macheting down blackberry bushes (particularly nasty invasive species in the Galapagos), planting grass (to replace the blackberry bushes and prevent their return), and assisting in a nursery by planting coffee plants.  The coffee plants are provided to individual farmers.  These plants are not endemic to the Galapagos, but the Ministry of Agriculture has determined that they are not harmful to the endemic species and they provide a nice source of income for the residents here.  The work is hot, hard and buggy.  I love it and hate it all at the same time.  On the days when the mosquitos are particularly brutal or the sun is scorchingly hot, I really look forward to our daily dip in the waterfall that is located only about 1/4 of a mile from the station.

We definitely still manage to have our fun at the station.  We play cards and some nights the volunteers wander up the road to the "bar" for a bottle of warm beer or rum (the only two options).  Fancy dress parties with various themes are also popular.  Last week a few of us started our own aerobics and yoga class.  I generally try to hassle the staff a bit as well to practice my Spanish.

The volunteers change weekly, and sometimes daily.  Last week, twenty six colleged aged women from Pittsburgh arrived and took the station by storm for about 3 days.  After that chaos, we were down to about 8 volunteers and the silence was magical.  There have been a few volunteer "casualties."  One man arrived and left the very next morning because he couldn´t take the rain and all of the mud at the station.  He had signed on for 2 weeks but was practically running for the taxi after less than 12 hours at the station.  Another woman was planning on volunteering for a week and stayed two days.  On the other hand, a couple of volunteers have been at the station for 7 weeks and are planning on staying 10 or more weeks.

All in all, I am loving my time here and really wish that I could stay a little longer.  I love the routine of getting up early, eating a huge breakfast, working all morning, visiting the waterfall, eating more in the evening and laughing, joking and playing card games or generally getting in trouble before going to bed early and starting it all up again the next day.  

Well, I am in port and the beach is calling so, ciao for now!

Cheers, Kelly

Ah, Quito!

I spent my first weekend in Quito exploring the Saturday markets in Otavalo and Cotacochi with a wonderful tour guide named Angel and two German couples. We then drove another two and one-half hours to the Mitad Del Mundo, otherwise known as the Equator. I went to both the historic equator monument (the one most Ecuadorians recognize and visit) and the more touristy, GPS-proven equator, located about 1/4 mile away. I passed the egg-balancing test and walked the line with my eyes closed. I saw authentic shrunken heads from the Amazon to top it off! It was pouring rain, but I managed to get a few photos anyway.

When I arrived in Quito, I initially only planned to spend one week at the Spanish school, but I ended up signing up for an extra 2 weeks of classes after only two days at the school!  My experience at Academia Latino America was amazing and I definitely recommend the Spanish program there.  My Spanish improved immensely (although I wonder if I will be able to keep it up...).  I must have talked a little too much on my first day at the school though, because the school placed me in a class with only one other student that had taken years of Spanish and who was also fluent in French.  For the first week, it was just the two of us and I struggled a lot to keep up.  In the second week, a girl from Switzerland appeared and joined us.  She was practically fluent...I was drowning to keep up but was loving every minute of it.  Finally, my last week, I was alone with one professor.  My last week was definitely slower paced, but I thoroughly enjoyed my one-on-one chats with the professor. It was intense, but in the end, I "passed" with an Intermedio Medio "degree."  I don´t feel I can use all of the grammar that I learned, but I hope to be able to practice a bit more before I return to the U.S.

Apparently April is the rainiest month in Quito and this proved to be accurate during my visit for sure.  The storms raced in almost every afternoon and slammed into the two volcanos looming over the city.  This produced huge storms with really violent thunder and lightening.  I think I may have a little hearing loss as a result of these afternoon storms!  The weather in general in Quito was colder and wetter than I expected.  I kept telling people that it was like August or September in Alaska.  It was probably a little warmer (it is on the equator after all)...But the strangest thing for me was that despite the rainy cold, the plants were 100% tropical - orchids and palm trees, the works...

Despite the rain, I managed to see a lot of the sights of Quito.  I took the city tour and got an overview of the city highlights.  I visited the Iglesio de la Compania de Jesus, the Iglesio de San Francisco and the Teleferico, all in the rain...

I had two free weekends between classes.  One weekend I spent visiting Cotopaxi with some of the other students.  We had blazing sun, then rain, then snow, then hail, and ended up back in the sun again by the end of the tour.  Just like summer in Alaska or Colorado!  The next weekend I took a road trip with two girls from Switzerland (Jasmin and Eveline) and one girl from Germany (Tanja).  We took a harrowing taxi ride to Papallacta to soak in the hot springs in a beautiful valley. 

The girls (the youngest was 18 and the oldest 27) and I also managed to get out on the town a few nights as well.  We were all very paranoid about being out in Quito after dark (and from the stories I´ve heard recently from other travelers, validly so...).  To avoid traveling alone, we would call one taxi and have the driver drive all over the city picking everyone up and then do the same in reverse at the end of the night.  It took a lot of Facebook messaging and was generally a real pain, but we had some fun times once we were out and about.

I loved Quito despite the danger and managed not to get robbed while I was there...I know it sounds strange, but I would still recommend a visit. 

Next up, Galapagos!

Ciao,
Kelly