No escaping Bob

One of the few things that seems to be consistent in almost every country I have visited is that Bob Marley's music will always make an appearance at some point on the trip. I am sitting on a balcony outside our room at Mancora beach in northern Peru and I can hear Bob emanating from a nearby restaurant as has he has done from probably about half of those we have eaten at here. Maybe they think it helps nurture the free spirit, grungy type ethos they are trying to cultivate in this town. Judging by the number of dread-locked heads walking up and down the main drag, I think they are there. Our five days here has been really relaxing, but it's time to move on. We are heading south tomorrow to see the famous Nazca lines. Very excited about that.

4 days later:The Nazca lines were impressive but tough to photograph from a 5person plane doing a quick circuit tour. If only planes could hover like helicopters. Those Nazca folks were a kooky bunch too. Trapezoid, triangle, then monkey and "astronaut"? Its kind of fun too when the anthropologists cant make any more sense out of it than you can. This town does have the branding down. They've got the designs on park benches, bus stops, fountain tiles, you name it.

We also tried sandboarding. Kind of like snowboarding, but after every run you have to rewax the board because sand just isn't snow and you also have to schlep back up the dune each time. Our dune buggy driver seemed to love terrifying the tourists as he flew up and down the dunes. "Low center of gravity, it's not gonna flip", I kept reminding myself.

In case it wasn't prime time news over there, the US embassy in Peru sent out a warning a few days ago that a bunch of cocaine-funded Maoist rebels might just kidnap us if we go to Machu Picchu this month. Naturally just before we plan on going. So we are rerouting and will try to hit up that area towards the end. Hopefully these rebels will have gotten over this nonsense by then. The plan now is to study more Spanish in Arequipa.

Colibri

After the last post, we stayed in an "Eco-lodge" in the rainforest for a few days. Lots of pretty birds, but the hummingbirds were probably the most abundant and interesting. Creatures like that exemplify a working theory I have that time might move at different rates for different species. They move so quickly and make decisions so fast that it just doesn't seem possible otherwise.
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It was a very nice place but of course everything is always damp (including toilet paper which is a little ick).

Next we stayed in a poor village by the water for about four days. The family that owned our "hostel" was very warm and the matriarch a good cook. Lots of little children always bouncing around, having a great time, and I am trying to find another way to say, "poor but happy". I still have a lot of trouble understanding the litter all around. Apparently that's an "education thing", but you actually have to be taught that? It's trash people. In your front yard.

The beach was barely on the map and really nice. I adopted a scrappy dog for those days who I still miss. He never left my side. I wish they could show these animals just a little affection.

We just finished 6 days in Galapagos. It's one of those places people say you must see once in your life and is worth blowing your budget for. I was a little skeptical (surprised?) but I think I was won over. These giant tortoises are pretty amazing and you get to see them in every stage of development. They live to an average of 150 very uneventful years. I wouldn't say the islands have a huge variety of wildlife, but what you see is remarkably docile and each island has a unique terrain. Great snorkeling/diving too.

Next post will be from Peru

The Devil's Nose

A week ago, we visited what's apparently the largest weekly market in Ecuador. My guess is word has been out among the tourists for a while now as much of what was for sale reminded me of things you might see at 10,000 Villages and hung on a wall or worn in the crunchier cities back home. An effort to cater to tourists does create some interesting paradoxes though such as "Indigenos" in their traditional clothes knitting Angry Birds and Elmo hats. Small world.

We just completed our first travel/study week. Alex, me, and our new German friend each had our own tutors for late afternoon classes after whatever adventure had been planned for that day. The highlight was white water rafting down some really thrilling class 4 rapids. The low point was not being able to take one more step at 4900meters and feeling like crap. I'm not a mountain climber even if the van got me most of the way there.

We are now in a tiny little town mainly known as the starting place for a famous train ride called the Devil's Nose that we will be taking tomorrow. Tonight we walked from "restaurant" to restaurant trying to find one that actually served something other than the set chicken with beans and rice. Really, they all look at you weird if you ask for a menu.


Spanish is improving even though I still have trouble understanding them regardless if I know the words or not. Alex started far ahead of me with Spanish as a major, but is also more committed carrying her flash cards everywhere even after our 4hrs of class.

Chicky Park

We just got back from two days in a cloud forest.  It's a beautiful, dense, wet, place. The guy that coined the term, "rainforest" was right on the money. It does a lot of that. They had a zip line course that was unlike any I had done before. It was 13 lines way up in the hills at some points maybe a hundred feet off the forest floor. Every line was a blast except the time when the guide was giving us options for how we wanted to travel and I heard "mariposa" and thought "ooh, I like butterflies, lets go that way! "  I found myself upside down, lying flat, arms and legs outstretched kind of like the wings of a butterfly I suppose.  For anyone trying this, I would recommend the "Superman". That was fantastic.

We also went repelling down some waterfalls. We weren't quite sure what was involved, and the lady in the office told us there was no need for a bathing suit. Clothes still in the drier. Only understanding maybe a third of what they are telling you always keeps things interesting.

In the forest, we hung out with a disillusioned German neurosurgeon. He had just spent the last 6 wks living with an indigenous community and had great stories about hunting toucans and shamanistic medicine.  One of his most acute observations from all of the houses he had visited in Ecuador prior was that these people have no concept of decorating. All walls white, empty,  not even area rugs or interesting fixtures. We are currently staying in a family's apt in Quito and that was the first thing that struck me. If every place we stay at is like this, I could eventually go nuts.

The most intriguing thing we can view from our window is the largest KFC I have every seen. Next to the KFC logo are the words, "Chicky Park".  We call this place El KFC Ultimo.  Can't wait to check it out.

1 month out!

We've told our bosses, found someone to rent the house, gotten our shots, and figured out the general itinerary. It's starting to get more real and more exciting. I have often felt that the anticipation of a big trip can be as exciting as the trip itself.

We will be gone for 6months. It's something like our honeymoon. It just made so much sense. We had both always dreamed of a trip like this, so there was no convincing necessary when I brought it up. Alex was even ready to go for a year, but I think that might have been too much for me. As it is, I know I will miss our friends and family, Toastie and Kitty, even the fridge and TV (I'm truly the intrepid type). But of course all that will still be here when we get back (unless the renters burn the place down).

We will spend at least the first couple of months in language schools to really get up to speed on our Spanish. The only goal we've set for ourselves is to be mostly fluent by the time we get back. There's just something intangibly cool about being able to really communicate in two languages and we would love to raise the kids bilingual. When we get back, we plan to have 2.4kids, buy an SUV, a big screen, and start going to the mall on weekends. It's all planned.

We will arrive in Quito, Ecuador and do a language program there for a month. That place seems to be like the language school capital of SA, so there are lots of solid options. Some of "teaching trips" and other locations in Ecuador, so we probably won't spend the whole month in that one city. Then we head north a bit to Colombia and do another language program in Medellin. After that we fly all the way down to Buenos Aires and work our way up over and up through Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Peru. Why so screwy? We are trying to avoid the rainy seasons and end up in Bolivia and Peru when they are nice.

Stay tuned. I promise to keep the posts more interesting than anything else you will ever read on the internet. Lots of pretty pix too.

Enough with the monkeys

After Granada I stayed on a large island called Isla Ometepe. Plenty more monkeys. I am now remembering that whenever I visit a country with monkeys, I return with half my pix of them and am trying to show more restraint this time. I was at a place that runs a free English school for the kids on the island. The owner and I had many discussions about the challenges of getting the kids motivated. He actually had the funding and benefactors, it was just getting the kids to show up regularly and take it seriously.  Its an impressive place to kayak because you are inbetween two volcanoes.

Next I moved on to a beach town in the south called San Juan del Sur. Its a quirky little place with an interesting mix of people. You have the cooler-than-thou surfers sporting future melanoma, manly jewelry and naturally walking barefoot on the roads. The risks of this sort of thing btw, I think are well explained on this hilarious sign.

There are of course the gringo travelers in their 20s and 30s looking for a cheap place to stay, the town Nicaraguans some of whom are suddenly doing quite well, and then above all this (literally and metaphorically) are these ridiculous mansions on the hills surrounding the town. Since I have been here, I have done some surfing, snorkeling (glad I didnt blow my money on diving, because I couldnt see a thing), and atv renting (easily the highlight).

Charming, beautiful, etc. but I feel like I have done everything this town has to offer and I am ready to move on. The line between relaxation and boredom is fine.

Volcanoes, monkees and mango trees

For those of you that I didnt have a chance to fill in, I (along with a lot of other folks) got laid off from the library. So I bought a ticket to Nicaragua. I can only be here for a couple weeks because I already had teaching obligations (weak).

First, I can report that this thing about the "rainy season" seems to be quite accurate. But its not endless, usually just a few hours a day. I´ve been in Granada for four days now and reveling in all there is to do here.

The first day I took some sort of old army truck to the top of an inactive volcano. The craters (more than one) are all filled in with plant life now. The best part was really the rainforest experience. All sorts of funky plants. That hike was an all day deal.

The next day I kayaked around the tiny islands outside the city. Some are privately owned with houses. Others, people hangout and fish on. Many have mango (everywhere around here, people eat them like apples) and plum trees for the picking and one had monkees that would take food right from your hand! Too cute, but I was advised that monkess are not for hugging.

The third day I took a tour with an opera singer which was novel but exhausting. Then to another volcano, quite different from the first. This one is active and therefore considered, "adventure tourism". Checkout the plumes!

Next to a bat filled cave that really tested phobias I didn´t realize I had. Apparently the sonar thing means they will not fly into your head (if ever in this situation, repeat this to yourself over and over). On the way out, we saw this funky looking creature that we didnt recognize. Any guess?

We also stopped at market selling mostly touristy shlock but with some hilarous but sad knick'knacks.

Today I explored an old cemetery, a crumbling abandoned hostpital, and a cigar factory.   Interesting, but it was dripping gross hot.

Tomorrow I am off to a big island south of here. So far I have met a Canadian traveling for a few mos before starting a PHD in astrophysics, a woman doing her grad thesis on displaced Jewish communities around here (appar. Nic still has 30-50 Jews), a volunteer engineer building a variety of solar powered things for a village in Honduras, a couple nurses doing aid work, a guy traveling around the world convinced he doesn´t need guide books, and some other random folks.

This is a charming little town. Excited for whats next.
Hope you´re all well,
-Dan