10,000 meters

Today was a good day. I woke up at 9:38 and was supposed to be at the race at 10. I roused Danielle and Leo and we quickly ate some toast. Danielle and I jogged around town looking for the start of our race. Nobody in this town knew that there was a running race going on. The previous day we asked at the tourism office and the athletic store. Just blank stares. There was a flyer posted on the wall of the National Park headquarters advertising the race. As we approached the alleged start of the race, there were no signs, no closed roads, and nobody out running. There was an empty swimming pool at the "sports club" near the road where we were looking for our race. Everyone was inside the club. The race was in memory of a man who was kidnapped and killed by the dictatorship in Argentina. He was a 25 year old man that would run to promote freedom in his country. The name of the race is Carrera de Miguel. Miguel and many other people that wanted freedom disappeared during this dictatorship. This was the 3rd year that the race had been held to remember this victim.
After the finish line was inflated and the cones marking the turnaround were in place the gun sounded, well the lady waved her flag and we all took off. It was a fun run. Just under 800 meters in elevation. Lots of serious Argentineans, a few women, and a visually impaired guy were all running this morning. As you crossed the finish line, you were handed a raffle ticket. During the raffle Danielle won a used Donna Summer CD. Some other people won boxes of chocolate. (Bariloche is the Argentinean capital of chocolate.)
Danielle won her age group. I ran a 39:15. However, before you get excited, my Garmin says that the run was only 9.34km. After the race, I saw a kid that looked to be about 16 years old. His shoes had giant holes in them. So I gave him my shoes. He needed them more than I did. I wont be running until I get to Boulder where I can buy another pair. Turns out this kid was pretty fast. He won his age group and gave me his medal. It was a great experience. Mothers of some of the people that were killed by the regime showed up to talk to the runners. This is a picture of our new friends, Koby from Israel, Michael from Washington D.C., us and the mothers.
The entire morning was very emotional for me. According to some new German research, it might be because I was high. Thanks Trish.

New blog

I have started posting my blog here again. This is easier than doing all the work myself. It also takes less space on my .mac account. I am currently sitting in a hostel with the flu or some head cold. I think that it was all the long bus rides. I have signed up for a 10K run that occurs tomorrow morning in memory of a 25 yr. old runner that the military abducted. Well that is the story that I got from the poster on the wall. If I feel well enough, I would love to run it. I have some more pictures to post, but I haven't gotten around to it. We leave for Punta Arenas in two days. I need to feel better because the weather there can be horrible. Lots of wind. Snowstorms aren't uncommon. We are going at the end of the tourist season. This can be good (cheaper accommodations, less people) but also can be worse (less guides, worse weather). I will keep you posted!

The older posts of my blog are here.

viva la siesta

You have got to love a country that shuts down businesses for a nap in the afternoon. I am definitely getting used to this! There is a big park where we go running every morning. Parque de Retiro. We have to wait until the sun comes up. We try to start about 8:30 hoping that it will be above 0 degrees C. Usually it isn’t. It stays below 0 until about 9:30. Cheese is very hard to find in Asia so we are very excited about the food here. So far, we have not been disappointed. Un bocadillo con jamon y queso (ham and cheese sandwich) is the thing that I eat most often. Danielle finally got to try paella y sangria. I stuck with empanadas de carne.
The city of Madrid is beautifully decorated. They have Christmas lights everywhere. Art, sculptures, monuments, and fountains are spread all over the city.
We are staying in Residencia Alvaro. Stay here if you are ever in Madrid. It is a family’s house, but they rent out rooms for about the price of a hostel. It feels nice to be in a real house. Real bathrooms, kitchen, and a living room is a luxury. We also stayed at Mad Hostel which was a typical hostel, but being in Madrid, people came in and out at all hours of the night, usually drunk. Tomorrow, we are off to Paris.
Tonight, we went to the Prado Museum. It houses a lot of artwork. We saw pieces by Rembrandt, Goya, Poussin, and many more that I should probably remember. I am more of a fan of photography. If you are interested, the Prado musuem is free from 6-8 every night. This trip has taught me the importance of frugality. I should have listened to Kurt more. He is the king of cheap!

I have gotten a couple of requests for information about the places that we have visited. I will try to put more of my own thoughts into what is worth seeing and what to avoid. Keep in mind that I am not a huge fan of going to every museum, play, theatre, or show that is available. I heard that the flamenco in Madrid is amazing. The only places that were offering shows were over priced and geared towards tourists. I would recommend CouchSurfing.com to everyone. You will get a locals view on most things. The price can’t be beat and the information and hospitality that we have received so far has been second to none.

the wall is great

Today was our last day in China. We have had an amazing time with an amazing host. We saw the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Summer Palace, a lot of 2008 Olympic propaganda, and the Great Wall.
Mao and I. This is where Mao Tse Dong has been pickled. When he died, nobody knew what to do with his body. Looking to Lenin and Ho Chi Minh as examples, they decided to preserve his body as well as make a wax copy, you know, just in case. So they put him in formaldehyde and he is now on display. Unfortunately, he was under construction while we were there and we were unable to pay our respects. Mao, by the way, wanted to be cremated.
Like most large cities, Beijing used to made of poor people living in squalor surrounding the rich aristocrats. The Emperor and his family (and concubines) lived in the Forbidden City and everyone else lived in these Hu’Tongs. The are shanty towns. Constructed of whatever is laying around. Most of them are being destroyed before the Olympics are to be held. Unfortunately, they are being replaced by skyscrapers. There are giant high rises being built everywhere you look. The history of Beijing is being replaced with a lot of money.
This is the Summer Palace. The Emperor and his family (and concubines) lived here when the weather was nice. They would be pulled from the Forbidden City along canals (30km) in boats. Everything was painted with beautiful intricate designs.
It wasn’t until our last day that we got to the highlight of our China leg of the trip. The shopping and food were just bonuses. The first day that we tried to go to the Great Wall, it was snowing and the bus drivers all told us to come back tomorrow. Well, most people don’t speak English, but that is what we understood. So the next day we showed up, and they all waved us away. We went from bus to bus saying the name of the city where we get off to see the wall, “Ba da ling?” They would point us one direction and then the other. We went to a dozen buses in 4 different directions and finally someone told us to get on their bus. It was about 7:40 and they said the bus would leave at 8, we thought. We sat in a parking lot for about 2 hours. Not moving. It was 2 degrees. Celsius.
Eventually we made it to Ba da ling, and it was colder than I imagined it was now -5 degrees and windy. I will check my Garmin and post the info, but I think that we started at about 700 meters in elevation. The wall is about 7 meters high and 5 meters wide. I could not get over it. But it still didn’t keep me out China.

Beijing China

We have made it to Beijing and have had our first successful Couch Surfing experience. We are staying with Marcus, a German that teaches English to Kindergarten kids. I thought it was funny that an engineer from Germany would teach kids until I found out that he has an assistant. And that the school pays for his apartment. And his computer. And his flights to Europe. And he get more than two months off every year. Oh yeah and he only works 16 hours a week. Are you kidding me?! Wo bu xiang xin, I told him! (I can’t believe it).

Here’s Danielle and Marcus having breakfast. We eat most of our meals on the street. Everything is cheap and very tasty. Today we had an egg, green onion, some Chinese sauces, and a wonton all wrapped in a crepe. It was about 35 cents. Last night we ate a fish shaped pancake with chocolate melted on the inside for dessert.

It is hard to describe how big Beijing is. The number, 30 million residents doesn’t do it justice. Everywhere you look, there are skyscrapers. For the Olympics, they are trying to teach everyone some basic English. It seems to be working. Everyone we have met is very friendly and eager to help. Of course some people are still trying to take your money, but I don’t really blame them. I feel like I am throwing money around. We went out to a nice dinner. A bottle of plum wine and 3 dinners was under $20.

Today we went to Gu Gong, the Imperial Palace (aka: Forbidden City) and Tiananmen Square. The Imperial Palace was built in 1420 only for royalty (Ming and Qing dynasties) until 1924 when the people took over and kicked out the monarch. Then the Communist Party took over, that will teach them!

Tomorrow, we go to the Summer Palace and then sometime in the next few days... THE GREAT WALL!

The pollution has been very minimal. We haven’t seen any cloud seeding, and a lot of people drive cars. So for those of you reading my previous posts, maybe they were all lies.

south east asia

It has been a month. The first chapter of this exciting trip is coming to an end. New adventures are ahead. We have two more nights in Bangkok before we head off to Beijing for a week. Some things about Beijing that may or may not be true:

They are hosting the Olympics: Technically I guess they are. We heard that they are trying to tear down the old slums and put up new and modern buildings so that the city looks better. This might be the last time to see the old Beijing.
The pollution is so bad that some athletes are refusing to compete in Beijing. The marathon might be moved to another city.
The Chinese government is trying to combat pollution. The government is pulling cars off the road. One million cars. A third of all the cars in the country. A thousand cars are sold every day in China according to this article. They are also doing cloud seeding. You know, modifying the weather to force it to rain. Of course the silver iodide that you blast into the air via rockets or dump from airplanes might also come raining down on your city and its inhabitants, but don’t worry about that.
Governments do weird things. America is a good example. But I can’t get into that at the moment. We have had lots of conversations with people all over the world and I think that some of them are actually surprised that we don’t agree with what our government does. Anyway, while in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam I have noticed things that seem unusual to me. At a market over the weekend, we saw them collecting tables and chairs that people were using to sell their goods. Apparently, it was forbidden to sit in a chair with your stuff on a table. You had to sit on the ground. They were also looking for counterfeit or stolen goods. People were stashing swiss army knives, hatchets, and clothing, when they saw the government truck pull up. If the officials saw any contraband items, they took them and put them in the back of their truck. The police have sticks that they point at people that are disobeying the law. I think. It is very difficult to determine what laws exist here. If they exist they are broken all the time. People pee on trees in large cities. They cook their food in the street. Literally burning anything they find, and cooking, all while on the sidewalk, or street. The typical driving speed: As fast as you can. Try to pass the person in front of you, at all costs.

Some history: Because the French had such a strong influence in Viet Nam, people build their houses as if they were living in Paris, still. Because land is so expensive in Paris (or any large city) people would buy a plot of land that was 5 meters wide. That was made the standard. So houses out in the country of Viet Nam are also 5 meters wide. They might be 20 meters long and 5 stories high, but only 5 meters wide.





Because Kurt taught me the importance of pride in the name of a place, I have been calling towns by the names on the signs. Ex: Viet Nam (Vietnam), Sa Pa (Sapa), Ha Noi (Hanoi). Also, the metric system makes sense, so I will be using that from now on. I encourage everyone else to do it also.
So for my friends that travel and want some advice, here it is: When in Bangkok, get out. If you have to stay here, pay the $12 to get to Sukhumvit. Sure it is the #2 prostitution/strip club area in Bangkok, but I never saw any of it. Take the overnight train to Chiang Mai. It is about 12 hours and can be a lot of fun. Get the second class sleeper train and ask for the bottom bunk. Chiang Mai is my favorite town in Thailand. Parami Guesthouse was one of the best places we have stayed so far. Four twisting hours in a minivan north of Chiang Mai is the small town of Pai. It is like any tourist town in Hawai’i. You aren’t missing anything if you don’t go there. However, the elephant riding was cool, but only for an hour. Then it gets sore. After Thailand, we flew to Ha Noi. DO NOT stay at the Funky Monkey hostel. Horrible. DO go to the Funky Monkey bar. They are completely unrelated. If somewhere is popular (the bar) other places copy the name to confuse tourists. Matt, Clint, Jeff, and Joe, you will love the Funky Monkey bar. Danielle thought it was funny that she got no attention there. If you guys ever make it there, ask for Duke. Ironic huh? Northern Viet Nam was wonderful. We didn’t make it south due to the typhoon that hit while we were there. The roads were flooded, the restaurants were closed, and life was miserable, but only for a week while the typhoon landed. We were in shorts and bikinis hanging out on boats and rock climbing while all that mayhem occurred. DO go to Cat Ba island. DO go see he guys at Slo Pony Adventures. I cannot begin to describe how much fun we had with them.
We are going to Bangkok today. I need to get a haircut, massage and a wax. It wont be more than $20 for all of it. Then I want to check out getting a suit made.

I will be looking for jobs while in Europe. I will have to post my resume here soon. For those of you wondering what I learned in college (I get that question a lot) here is what I can do:

I am knowledgeable in the science and management of natural resources and their links to environmental quality. I have been provided with scientific knowledge of the physical, chemical, biological, economic, social, and policy elements of natural resources management. I understand the principles that underpin productive, sustainable land use, and enhanced environmental quality. I am able to solve contemporary resource use problems and assist in sound decision making for optimizing land use and managing agricultural and forestry systems, watersheds, and landscapes in an ecologically sound manner. I am also skilled in addressing resource policy issues and the needs of diverse clientele and communities including policy makers and planners. Scientific objectivity is continually emphasized as an important element of environmental planning. Thus, I am trained in the use of quantitative models and such tools as decision aids for optimizing natural resource management and ecosystem stewardship.

Beef and wine.

We are going to Mendoza, Argentina. It is an 8 hour bus ride that went something like this.

6:00 am - Wake up at Leo’s house.

7:00 am - Leave Quintay to get to Valparaiso.

7:10 am - Think that I am going to die because there is a lot of fog and Leo thinks that he is driving a race car. Luckily, the road has been paved in the last year.

7:22 am - Comment that there is still a lot of fog and maybe Leo should slow down as I wipe the sweat from my palms.

7:44 am - Arrive in Valapariso thankful to be alive and realize that Leo is a better driver than most of the people in this city and maybe country.

8:05 am - Leave Valparaiso on a double decker bus. We are sitting in the very front seats on the top level for a good view of the Andes as we drive into Argentina. (I like saying it Arr-hen-teen-a.)

8:12 am - Watch four buses, including ours, nearly all collide because of one crazy driver. I had a great view of two buses pull up beside each other and call each other names.

8:15 am - Fall asleep because it is too stressful to constantly wonder if I am going to die on this bus.

9:45 am - Wake up as we start to enter the Andes. Put on the iPod and rock out to Mika.

10:38 am - Pass vineyards while looking at the snowcapped Andes in the background. We keep crossing  small streams of glacial melt. I will get to test the rumors that Argentinian Malbec wine is some of the best in the world.

11:03 am - I think that I am in France. There are about 30 turns on this road. We are on our way to the ski resort of Portillo. There are a few ski runs, but no snow.

11:52 am - 3185 meters. Pass through the Tunel de Cristo Redentor. Emerge into Argentina. Start going downhill, finally.

12:43 pm - Get through customs. Like most bureaucracies there was a lot of waiting in lines and paperwork. My passport is nearly full. There was a smashed Mercedes that had been towed to the immigration area.

12:55 pm - Saw an 18 wheel truck on its side. Lots of wool that it was carrying had spilled out. That slowed us down a bit.

2:45 pm - Another 18 wheeler on its side. This one was carrying buckets of cement. Or so it looked. The bus drivers stopped to talk to the police that were making sure traffic was flowing smoothly, for 15 minutes. I am beginning to think that this road is a little dangerous.

3:46 pm - Arrive in Mendoza. Bus stations are weird places with strange people. The people coming and going are not too bad, it is the people just hanging out there that make me a little worried.

Still Traveling.

Steak, wine, horseback riding and white water rafting. That was our two days in Mendoza. We went wine tasting for a day. We did half a day of rafting and half a day of riding horses. We left Mendoza at 11:00 pm to arrive in Santiago at 6:00 am hoping to catch a bus to Valparaiso. Then we got a crazy taxi to Quintay, back to Leo’s house.  

It is Easter weekend so everybody is here at the beach. I say “here” because Leo lives pretty much ON the beach. There is a constant sound of waves. When I wake up, I think that the waves are under the house. Yet it is very peaceful. Leo has recently been elected a member of the community board so the first thing that he did was organize a beach clean up. I have blisters from doing manual labor. It was great to see a dozen of the local kids come out and have fun picking up the rubbish. There is constant surf here, but it is cold and a closeout beach break. Giant green walls of arctic water crush me every time I get into the ocean. But there is nothing like being in the water with a friend that is equally as stoked.

The plan for the next few weeks is to head to the Lake District in the middle of Chile for week. Then go to the southern most city in the world, Ushuaia, Argentina. Camping in Torres del Paine and Tierra del Fuego. This is something that I have always wanted to do. 

March 25, 2008: I am living on buses. 13 hours from Santiago to Puerto Montt (1000km south). We tried an little adventure. We were going to take a bus to a ferry to a bus to a ferry kinda deal, but we got halfway there and the next ferry only runs in the summer. So that idea went out the window. Plans quickly changed as we arrived at a bus station at 1:27 and there was a bus going to Argentina at 1:30. We made it on and now it is 7 hours from Puerto Montt, Chile to Bariloche, Argentina. From there, we are going to a smaller town called El Bolson. Our guidebook describes it as:
Hippies rejoice - there’s a must see destination for you in Argentina. Within it’s liberal and artsy borders live alternative lifestyle folks from all over the country who have made their town an ecological municipality. El Bolson is peaceful, plain, and unpretentious, surrounded by dramatically jagged mountain peaks that host activities for nature lovers. Look out El Bolson, here come Danielle, Leo, and Rory!

faith, family, and food

Sa Pa has been great so far. We are traveling with a brother sister combo from Canada. It has been great, because (like us) they like to eat, drive motorbikes, and treat themselves to French desserts. We rented a motorbike for the day ($5) and drove outside of town for an hour. We stopped at a waterfall and ate some food at a roadside stall.

Sa Pa sits at an elevation of 1650 meters. It was founded in 1922 by the French. But I think that they left because of the freezing temperatures that we are currently experiencing. Every day, we wear nearly every piece of clothing that we own and I am beginning to think that we will not be ready for China in a week or Europe during the middle of winter.
The town of Sa Pa is situated on the side of a beautiful valley. It is very misty and foggy every day and it is difficult to convey the splendor in pictures. Our room is at the top floor, we splurged on the $15 room, and it is 172 calf burning steps to the top from the lobby of the hotel.

There are “hill tribes” nearby that are the indigenous people of the region. We are surrounded by the Black H’Mong and Red Dzao people. Like gang members, they dress accordingly. They make all kinds of tapestries and hawk them everywhere. Their hands and feet are dyed from working with natural dyes. They also sell food which is ridiculously cheap for us. There is a strong French presence still in Vietnam. This means that we get to eat croissants, chocolate, and baguettes all day long!

One night, we went for dinner in the town of Sa Pa. More hill tribe, ethnic minority, buy our handicraft locals were out and about. They offered us their handmade purses, blankets, and pillows, but as it got later, we were getting offers for marijuana, hashish, and opium.
Now, I have to tell you a bit about our current traveling companions, Shannon (a guy) and Naomi. Shannon is a doctor from Northern Canada and his sister Naomi lives in Toronto. Shannon likes to rock climb, drive motorcycles, and fight in mixed martial arts. He has been backpacking all over the world on and off for twenty years. His stories and generosity are amazing. Naomi was a refugee from Cambodia when she was a child and fled to Canada. She is very good at navigating from the back of a motorbike.

finally leaving Cat Ba

deep water soloing
Rock climbing without ropes above the ocean. There is only one way down!

After 10 days of semi living on Cat Ba we got the courage to leave. We made some amazing friends and will keep in contact with people from around the world.

Before we left Cat Ba, we went on a 6 hour hike around one of our rock climbing spots called Butterfly Valley, or to us locals, Lin Minh. Here is a picture out hiking with Dermot and John from County Mayo, Ireland. They were pretty cool...for a couple of Mayo guys.

Now we are in Sa Pa, (sometimes called Sapa) Vietnam. It was another 4 hour trip (bus to boat to bus to bus) back to Hanoi, then an overnight 8 hour train, followed by an hour uphill on a mini bus to Sa Pa.

getting a job

Thousands of islands are found in Ha Long Bay. This creates a lot of bays to hide in.

I finally got to do some real (lead) climbing yesterday. My new boss helped me. Ok, so I don’t really have a job, it is more like an internship. I am helping the guys at Slo Pony Adventures, and they are helping me get back into climbing. It is a great way to keep myself occupied until we leave Vietnam.

We went to a “party” after climbing the other day. It was very authentic. Lots of drinking and lots of food. They have a drink called Zio. It is some sort of alcohol. They called it a rice wine, but it is more like 151. I think that you can light it on fire. Zio looks like dirty creek water and tastes like gasoline. However, drinking that probably kills whatever bacteria is living in the goat’s blood that we ate. My stomach hasn’t been right for the last couple days after attending this “party”.


Klaus (click his name to read his around the world rock climbing trip) and I enjoy each other’s company more than eating goat’s blood. But I think that it makes him a stronger climber.

Only a bit Chile.

We are now in Chile. When we arrived, it was nearly one in the morning. Because it is difficult for ans to gain entry into the Good Ole US and A, everyone else likes to make it hard for Americans to get into their country. They don’t hide it. On any visa application or entry point, it always say “with reciprocity”. So there we were at one in the morning getting ready to breeze through customs in Santiago. However, we must first pay $131 (the sign says...with reciprocity) in order to enter Chile before going to customs, immigration, then the baggage claim. Mexicans only pay $13...with reciprocity. Because it was such an odd hour, there was one person collecting these reciprocity fees. But he can’t just take your money and let you through. He has to enter your passport number, collect the money, print two receipts, staple one in your passport, make you sign the other one, then enter all the information into his computer. This process takes about 5 minutes, per passport. We can put people on the moon, but this process involves a dozen steps. This wouldn’t be so bad, but there was about 100 people in line with us and one guy working. After standing in line for two hours, the nice bald Chileno took my $131 and allowed to go to customs. For some reason, there were six people working there. It was 3 in the morning and they wouldn’t smile at me. Then you go try to find your bags. Because we had been off the plane for over two hours, they were no longer going around and around on the carousel. In fact, the carousels were no longer operating. The baggage handlers were sitting around smirking at the gringos that were wandering around frantically searching for the two giant backpacks. I had to interrupt a poor girl trying to send a text message to find our bags behind a desk.

So we get our bags and are trying to walk out the door, but get stopped by agricultural inspection. Every bag must be screened by the four people staring at the screen to make sure that we aren’t bringing fruit, vegetables, seeds, dirt, or wood carvings into the country. So we arrive to find 15 people doing the same job, but one guy doing the job that takes the longest. I already don’t like this country. However, once we are outside the terminal with our bags on our shoulders, I feel that things must be getting better. We ask a taxi to take us to our hosts house. Of course, I don’t know how to get there. So we have to call. It is 3 in the morning and I have to call and ask for directions. Now I really feel bad. I forgot to mention that our host had been at the airport for two hours driving around while we were standing in line to pay our fee. He had just gotten home and gone back to bed assuming that we had missed our flight. So I call and wake him up. I put the taxi driver on the phone so he can give directions in Spanish. Now we are on our way. Well not quite. The guy with the phone tells some other guy where we are going. So we follow guy number two. Guy number two gets on his phone to call his buddy to take us to our destination. A random car pulls up and our driver, guy number three is too old to still be driving. He pays guy number two and I know that we are now being ripped off. Guy number three likes to drive his age. 100 years old, 100 miles an hour. Until he gets lost. We pull over in some sketchy neighborhood so that our driver can call guy number two to get the directions, again. Guy number two has to ask guy number one, whom he can’t find. So our driver pulls out a map and a magnifying glass thicker than my high school history book and tries to locate our destination. It is almost four in the morning and I can’t believe what is going on. We have to call out host, again, wake him up, again, have him give directions, again, and we finally arrive. I have been tired for 3 days.

 

I want to get a Spanish dictionary. We went to breakfast before our one day of exploring the city of Santiago. We saw people eating eggs, bread, and coffee. One lady even had some avocado to put on her bread. We were not handed menus and I think that you got eggs, coffee or tea, and bread. So that is what I ordered. No problem. Now in Portuguese, the word for avocado was avocate. I mildly remembered from 2 years of UH Spanish that it was similar if not the same in Spanish. So I tried to order some.

“Avocate, por favor?” Blank stare.
“Avojado?” Nothing. Desperate, I look around at the other plates, but nobody has any left. I figure,
“La fruta verde? (The green fruit?)” The lady points at the watermelon in the fridge and (I think) tells me that is all the fruit that she has.
“Nevermind.” I mumble in English.
“Gracias.” I muster with a weak smile.

So I really want to get a Spanish dictionary. I didn’t think that my UH education was that bad, so I asked how to say avocado in Spanish. In every other Spanish speaking country in the world, it is Avojado. In Chile however, it is Palta. Now we are visiting Leo in Quintay. Leo, his house, and his beach will all get their own blog entry soon. First I need to plan my birthday. Hopefully, I wont have internet. I will be camping in or near Patagonia. The water here is very cold. But it is uncrowded. Life is good.