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

In closing..

China is a wierd place. I think knowing that almost a quarter of the world's population lives here was enough of a reason to make me want to visit. I am glad I did. One frustration was always feeling like a tourist and always being treated like one. Without knowing the language, you exist in a sort of bubble not always sure what is going on. I know that the Chinese are remarkably friendly to foreigners, but I still dont have a good sense of how they treat each other.

I have heard for example that the urban folk dislike the rural peasants (who are two thirds of the population), and that people are classist in general, but the Chinese people I spoke to didn't give that impression and both groups seemed to sit next to one another just fine at the train stations. Men are still comfortable giving warm embraces to each other and even walking arm over shoulder, but my guess is that is likely to fade a bit once homosexuality is more accepted and there becomes the fear that someone might "get the wrong idea"(as in western countries). Couples show very little affection in public though, and rarely even hold hands.

Manners:People often think the Chinese are impolite because of the spitting, staring, pushing, not standing in line, looking over your shoulder (as the people to my right and left are doing right now),food slurping, not covering their mouths when they sneeze, or even subtle things like saying nothing like "god bless you" after a sneeze. Maybe they are, but you don't really think about it much after being here a while (except for the spitting, I don't think you ever get used to that). Oh, the classic I have heard about but not personally experienced is the verification that western men are "generously proportioned". When using a urinal, you will feel a pair of eyes checking you out.

Censorship:I learned that this seems to work surprisingly well. All the Chinese I have spoken to think things are going great for their country and are psyched for the future. They have some sense of the issue of pollution, but little idea of the scale of China's human rights violations. For example, they have very little concept of what really went down and continues in Tibet. No one seems too concerned either that all the newspapers,tv,radio etc are govt monitored and western news websites are blocked (the Chinese versions that is). I think it is part of the Chinese mentality since it has always been this way. The very visible signs of rapid economic progress are all around them.

2008 Olympics in Beijing: This country is going nuts about this. Every time you turn on the news its about progress on choosing the theme song, volunteer recruitment, or torch bearer selection. Everything from seat covers in taxis to light fixtures in hotels have the new Olympic logo and say "Beijing 2008". And if you haven't seen them yet, there are four dorky vaguely Asian animal characters used as mascots. Beijing is demolishing the classic hutongs and relocating tens of thousands of residents who get no say in the matter. Oh, and this is my favorite: the govt is well aware that westerners find the Chinese inability to stand in a line, throat clearing and spitting, littering, and general lack of manners "offputting". So they instituted "politeness days" once a month in preparation for the olympics which will be politeness days throughout. You see commercials on tv of people being really nice to each other and there are flyers in apartments etc. And in a country where people are used to listening to govt propaganda, it works! I wasn't there the one day a month, but I have heard people stand in single-file lines and are more courteous.

Superstition: Its kind of nuts how even the most modern Chinese are still very superstitious. My friend went to buy a cell phone here and he was offered a choice of numbers for his new phone. One of the numbers was 50% cheaper than the other numbers. When he asked why, they explained that the number ends in a four so noone would want it (the word for 4 sounds like the word for death and so is bad luck). Maternity wards are flooded this year because everyone timed to have their child born in the year of the pig. At the temples, Chinese tourists do a lot of bowing and offering to gods I'm told they often don't even recognize. One god I see over and over is this really fierce, pissed off looking god who is stuck on in poster form to most front doors in the countryside.

Faves: I think my favorite thing about the Chinese though has to be their recreational spirit and use of the outdoors. In parks, you often hear people singing together in chorus, or competing karaoke outfits. All over you see Chinese chess, mahjong, go and other card games. In the morning is Tai chi, and in the evening is ballroom dancing. Even throughout the day, people eat on the sidewalks on little plastic tables and stools.

The food here was probably the best I have had in any country. At first I was daunted by all the weird stuff I didn't recognize, but once I learned a little Chinese and got better at just pointing at things, I really looked forward to meals. A typical vegetable dish is about $1-2 and a meat dish is $2-3. I usually ate just vegetable dishes and would order a couple to sample cause it was so cheap (extra food usually goes to beggars or animals).So when eating with friends, you can really have a feast for a few bucks each, its fantastic.

The future for China: This provides for interesting debate. The Chinese will say they are moving towards democracy but that it cant happen overnight. Some westerners don't see the progress. Capitalism is obviously thriving, but the crackdown on dissent is as brutal as ever, and allowing another party other than the Communist party is still inconceivable. Not everyone is sure they will be the next superpower. One opinion is that they are following a similar path as other modern countries except they are doing it in 30yrs instead of 200, and eventually the workers wont allow themselves to be exploited anymore and will organize and demand a living wage, safety standards, health care etc. And that of course would mean an end to the dirt cheap stuff. Or maybe they are growing too fast and this place could implode. A couple months ago president Hu Jintao surprised many by saying that a diversity of opinion was welcome. Since then the govt has allowed some articles published that would normally have been seen as threatening. If this will be a new trend or temporary and just for show remains to be seen.

A common way to see the country is one that has had sudden and dramatic economic expansion but whose people and govt till have the older mindsets and habits. Ya know how sometimes you see a 14 or 15yr old boy who is tall,lanky and awkward, and his mom or older sister will say that he hasn't grown into his new body yet? Thats a little like China.

Anyway, thats a quick some up of a few observations. Like most trips, the thing that made it most enjoyable was the people I met and hungout with along the way. BTW, how many of you do Facebook? It seems to be all the rage now.

Sunrise on the plane ride home (symbolic eh?):

Yak yak yak

I am home now and waited to post this to be safe:

07-01-2007
Lhasa is not the distant, exotic, city on top of the world that it once was. I guess it stopped being that when China took it over in 1949, but since the Han Chinese have been relocated here in droves, and the tourists come in by the trainload now that there is a train here, its well on the circuit. But that said, its still an intense and very holy place.

Flying over the Himalayas on the flight in was spectacular



When I first arrived, I was especially moved because I didnt realize that my hotel was in the heart of the "old city", and that the other 80% of Lhasa looks like any other big chinese city. This area, called Barkhor centers around the holiest temple for Tibetans. Pilgrims from allover Tibet (along with a smattering of mostly chinese tourists) walk in a clockwise direction through the busy markets around the temple, spinning their prayer wheels and muttering mantras. I still love watching it all although occasionally you have to go against the flow of traffic and feel like a jerk for it.

Aside from the police posts every block or so, it isnt obvious what is going on here. Most of what I know, I have read or been told by people who know Tibetans. Their lives are obviousely much better now than when the genocide was going on, but there is litle doubt that they are still occupied and not happy about it. Tibetans are regularly thrown in jail for everything from being drunk to mentioning the Dalai Lama. I heard a story once of a Tibetan guide being beaten up by a policemen for being a guide (not officially allowed) and my friend having to shovel quite a bit of money at the officer to make him stop. But again, you dont see that every day around here. Not surprisingly, Chinese tourists seem to be totally clueless about it all. The reason is simply because they only know what their govt tells them. I had an interesting interaction with a shoe seller about this recently.

I had my guide book sitting next to me as I tried on an ill fitting pair of sandals. In an uncommonly gutsy move for a Tibetan, she told me that what my book said about Tibet was not the truth. I questioned her about what she meant, but she was afraid to say any more. After a little discussion we figured out that she thought I had the common guidebook to Tibet that all the Chinese have. When she realized that my book was for/by westerners she said it was probably the truth then. I reiterated to her that we know what has happened here.

Its hard to talk about Lhasa and not mention the Potala palace. Its a 400yr old monolithic building that stands perched on a hill at the centerof the city. I think it looks like a mix of an ancient apartment complex, fortress, and palace. Dalai Lamas used to live there, it was an administrative center, a monastery, and a fortress of sorts. The challenge of just getting tickets to get inside is a common discussion amond travelers here. Inside you are allotted an hour where you are pushed along from shrine to library to gold plated stupa. Only a handful of the thousand or so rooms are viewable now.
Outside the palace


The palace itself




What I enjoyed more was visiting some of the nearby monsateries outside of the city. Less touristy and fun to explore. They are like small neighborhoods with endless alleyways. The monks are always friendly and occasioanlly speak some English. When I ask why they say they like America so much I get everything from, "America help all the world", to "Basketball, Michael Jordan!"(all these monasteries seem to have TV).



At the last monastery I visited, I followed the sounds of animated commotion and found the "debating courtyard". This is really something to see. In each "debate", one or two monks stands up and schools the few sitting. Every 30seconds, the standing monk winds up as if to pitch a baseball, and aggressively slaps his hands together yelling something I wish I knew what they are debating, but I guess I can imagine too;
Sitting monk: "..maybe, but what about the lowly cockroach?"
Standing monk:"you forget that the 8th Dalai lama said that all creatures are sacred! Waaacho! ("Get some of that!" or perhaps "How ya like me now!?")
Checkout the video!


The last thing I did here was visit a nearby lake for a couple days. I went with a group of 4 others and despite accimatiing in Lhasa, the 4700m elevation kicked everyone's butts at various times. A couple of the women I was with had found that tickling the children living in the area was a sort of international language. Even kids in the city performing their money begging scripts, easily break down and become children again.
A bunch of Tibetans live up there (brrr!)

In case you've never seen a yack up close