ord

Decided not to pass up the chance to do one more post from an airport. I'm back in O'Hare. I missed my final connection last night so I slept for a bit in a sleep number bed with plenty of pillows that were the perfect thickness. Glorious. Seriously. Words cannot express how amazing the bed was. Thanks American Airlines for helping my transition from South American hostel beds to American beds so dramatic! (imagine anything from mattresses that are caving in to rock hard mattresses for the last 3 weeks, and lumpy sometimes paper-thin sometimes fat and solid pillows) Wish I woulda been in my own bed... but I sure wasn't suffering either.

Time for the final leg! And then some time at work before the weekend. Tchau!

mia

Well I'm in the Miami airport with a chai tea in hand. My flight left late from Medellin this morning... but we were already boarded and I sure didn't know the difference - I was out the whole time. I'm exhausted but I'm glad to be getting closer to my bed. Getting off the plane was somewhat of a rude awakening - I really miss the South American charm already! Seriously. And it was funny to go through customs here. I've always thought that customs in Latin American airports was a joke, a chance to make chit chat and compliment you on your eyes. But it appears that Ecuador and Colombia are countries the US is more suspicious of because I've never gotten so many questions and never been sent to so many additional lines. And in the end it's all the same chit chat, they just joke with you about being a Gopher and compliment you on your new football stadium instead of complimenting you on your eyes. The good news is that no one actually tried to open up my backpack - I'm confident they wouldn't have gotten it zipped shut again.:)

Colombia and Ecuador from hindsight already both look wonderful. Colombia is such an interesting gem. Their history and contextual reality is so dark just 10 years back. Being in Medellin, the stories of guerrillas, violence and drugs are so fresh (Medellin is after all Pablo Escobar's hometown), but that might be influenced in large part by who we stayed with and that where we stayed was Escobar's 'hood. But it really has radically changed and I suspect it's reputation will quickly change - it's a wonderful and beautiful country and I felt so safe the whole time. Although it was also really interesting to learn more about Venezuela's current reality as it relates to Colombia... it will be interesting to see how the tension rises or disseminates along the Colombian/Venezuelan border.

I suspect my dear travel buddies Michelle and Ali are getting ready to get on an overnight bus to the northern coast of colombia right now. As for me, I need a break from looking at my phone screen. It's nice to be back to in-network 3G streaming on my phone, but it sure was a wonderful treat to be free from my phone for three weeks!:) I'll upload pictures tomorrow or Saturday. For those who have travelled along... thanks for joining me.:)

wrapping up

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't sad to be wrapping things up in South America. Three weeks was nothing... my backpack doesn't smell much yet; I'm not nearly sick enough of repacking it everyday; I still have a few things I never wore (really... I brought too many tanktops); I've gotten to the point where I can understand 99% of anything anyone says (might be closer to 94%?) but I have a long way to go with my speaking; I could eat a bag of Milo Nuggets (little crunchy chocolate candies of goodness) everyday; I'm MUCH closer to the ocean now than I am in MN and yet I won't get to see it; there's just something about Latin American that I find endlessly endearing. But I truly am deeply grateful for the family, friends and community that the Twin Cities holds. And I am looking forward to spending less time on buses, to guaranteed hot water, to celebrating my neice's birthday and the Powderhorn art fair this weekend, to some MN summer days.:)

I really enjoyed Myriam and her family in Medellin (we're back at Myriam's sister's apartment tonight) - wonderful Colombian insight that really left me wanting more time to work on my Spanish to help with relational connections. And our jaunt through the Colombian coffee-side was beautiful and relaxing. We spent two nights in Salento, I finally got to see my cloud forest and we toured a great coffee farm, too. The seven hours we spent on the bus this afternoon/evening was great motivation to look forward to my car. And so now my backpack is packed and my alarm is set for 5:15 am to get the return journey started. I'll send Michelle and Ali off with well wishes for sunny beach days as they send me off to hop back to MN. I've got a long layover in Miami - I've never flown standby, but here's hoping something works out because otherwise I hit Chicago in the evening and then arrive in Minneapolis at 11:45 pm. Phew. We'll see how it all goes.

When I'm back to the MN side of life (and probably from the Miami airport... cause I'll have the time. ha.) I'll update more and upload photos with all the posts as well. But for now... it's time to get a bit o' sleep. Hasta!

a change in pace

We made it to Medellin! Sitting in the front of the bus was a wonderful way to do overnight transportation, although you never sleep as well as you'd like. We arrived at Myriam's family's house around 8:00 am and our full day of Spanish began.:) It was a very fun change of pace to spend time with Myriam and her family - she's got the cutest grandma ever. Sure I couldn't understand most of what her grandma said, but it seemed to be mututal.:) We drove north of Medellin in the afternoon to their farm, which is a beautiful piece of land set into some rolling Andean hills. (Michelle & Myriam in the photo to the left at the farm) Her brother lives on the farm with his wife and kids. It's a work in progress, but it was fun to hear how much potential and joy Myriam and her brother see in the farm. I drooled as I looked at the avocado trees and the passion fruit vines. Oh what I would do to get one of each of those in my yard. Seriously. (Michelle & I eating passion fruit in the photo to the right... sooo good) They've got a lot of coffee plants sprouting, the spectrum of different types of banana trees and some orange trees. Gosh would that be fun. We puttsed around the country side and then picked Ali up from the airport! Myriam's family is wonderful and all the Spanish is a great deal of fun but is exhausting.:)

These changes in our travel patterns will be fun ones. We're staying at Myriam's sister's apartment, so I'm glad to be able to pull a few recent photos from my camera. Today and tomorrow we'll try to make the most of the Feria de las Flores (the Flower Fair) that's the big deal in town for the next week. Today is the horse parade. And then Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday we'll explore the Zona Cafetera (the coffee zone) before I hit the road on Thursday back to MN. Who knew three weeks could go soooooo fast!

(And this photo isn't a great one, but Ali's in it! On the left. We went out for Arepas on the way home from the airport last night.)

another all-nighter

We're back at the Bogotá bus terminal. The constant noise of this place is somewhat numbing. Seriously. But the funny thing is that I can hear Hey Jude being played with Andean flutes over the main sound system right now. Really?

We were disappointed this morning to learn that we had to come all the way back to Bogotá to catch our bus to Medellin tonight... but our ride back was sooooo much more mellow than our ride here. Phew. And we bought to truffles and some cookies at the bakery we ate at this morning... and saved them to eat back here in Bogotá. It proved to be helpful incentive.:)

Villa de Leyva was lovely, mellow, relaxing and filled with fun encounters. For those of you also following Michelle's blog, you've already learned of Chava, the best stray dog in all of South America. I was hoping we would see her today to be able to say good-bye, and yet I was releaved, because she just so blindly adored us even after all of our discussions of our pending departure. (don't worry, we never touched her - no flees coming home with us) We ran into another group of policias, but this time they were police officers in training and were vacationing as a full class. So strange. We saw there are a couple of our stops along the horseback riding trip... and again, so difficult to take them seriously. We proved to be quite the oddity for their group, and in the end it was mutual. Ha.

So it's a 9 hour bus ride for us tonight - we're sitting in the front of the bus and I've got my Tylenol PM and neck pillow ready. We're getting to be pros already. Can't wait to meet Myriam (Michelle's friend from Medellin) and meet up with Ali tomorrow night!

the mixed bag of transportation

Transportation has been an adventure every step of the way. As soon as we think we understand what we're agreeing to... we should immediately anticipate that our expectations are wrong. Whether it's catching a taxi to a bus terminal and having him leave us at a random intersection explaining that it's better to go to a different city and transfer buses (right...), or catching a direct bus and stopping constantly all seven hours of the ride, or constantly questioning and bartering with taxi drivers and becoming synical of any price they initially tell you. So why would our ride from Bogota to Villa de Leyva be any different?:) We anticipated a mellow 3 to 4 hour bus ride direct to Villa... but we ended up in what was essentially a colletivo (a smaller bus that takes a round-about way and makes a lot of stops to continue to gather people). Seriously. Ridiculous. I'm hoping that our driver is the worst driver in Colombia, too... otherwise it could get worse...:) But we made it alive after a long, cold, wet busride through curvy, swirvey andean highways. We arrived after the sunset, so it was fun to wake up this morning.

Villa de Leyva is a small colonial town set in the Colombian mountainside. The streets are stone roads (walking is more like stone-hopping so you don't trip), the buildings are all white-washed, and the pace of life is nice and sloooooow. I had envisioned Villa is be like Baños in Ecuador. The pace of life is not all that different but the colonial feel certainly makes for a different world. And I like it. We'll likely venture out on horseback this afternoon to check out some local sites. This area is known for its fossils.

And our time in Bogota was brief. I think we could have spent a lot more time there. The green of the hillside in Colombia is totally different than it was in Ecuador. Being in Bogota felt more tropical (although we still haven't hit really warm temperatures - I packed way too many tanktops) and all the flowers were lovely. We had some funny and randominteractions with people, including some police who approached us, asked how long we had been there and if we had heard anything about the history of Plaza Bolivar (the main plaza in the historic center) and proceded to tell us the history of each building. It was a really funny little tour. They were about 18 or 19 years old. The police presence in Colombia is significantly more than in Ecuador (although I haven't felt unsafe once this entire trip)... and after our first Colombian police interaction, it's so hard to take them seriously. One Bogota tradition I could quickly get used to is ordering hot chocolate and then immediately dropping a piece of white cheese into it - quite tasty as the cheese completely melts into gooey, cheesy perfection. There certainly is great joy in journeying from place to place... but it sure does make the imagination run as I speculate what it would be like to live in Bogota... or any other city we've traveled through.

Well... it's time to get serious about the idea of the horseback riding. ¡Hasta!

the 22 hour andean bus ride

We're in Bogotá! We arrived a couple hours ago after a 22 hour bus ride. It was a windy windy road along the Andean curves between Ipiales and here. It's good to not be in a bus seat!:)

It's a funny thing to be in a different country than I was in 24 hours ago. Looking forward to getting to know Colombia! We're staying one night in Bogotá and then we're heading to Villa de Leyva (sp?) tomorrow for two nights before catching a bus to Medellin to meet Ali and meet up with one of Michelle and Ali's coworkers. But as for now... it's time to check out this city! Hasta luego.

northbound

We've already left Baños, although we could have spent a lot more time there. We arrived in Otavalo last night, but we certainly made the most of our time in Baños before we left. The bike ride was a trip! Baños is a particularly touristy area... but even with that said, you still don't get a put-together, clear-cut tourist experience. We understood that the bikeride was along a path - you know, relaxed, mellow ride through Andean mountains and along side beautiful waterfalls. It was that... only most of it was right on the shoulder of the highway. It was quite the trip biking alongside semi-trucks, buses, etc... especially as we all rounded around mountain curves. Seriously. We even went through a tunnel with some big trucks. Ha. But the views were beautiful and we made some wonderful stops along the way. The scetion of the highway we biked along was called La Ruta da las Cascadas (Route of the Waterfalls)... so needless to say our stops were very scenic. Although the biking was a breeze since it was downhill almost all the way, our stops were quite the workout - the ruta follows the Rio Blanco and every stop involved trekking all the way to the bottom of the river gorge. Well worth it though. And then the ride back in the back of a truck was so satisfying - no way we would have ridden our bikes uphill back to Baños.

Then yesterday morning we got up at 5:00 am to join the early morning crowd at the thermal baths - clearly the time of day when all the Ecuadorians go (when we were there at night, it was PACKED with tourists) - a great way to start the day. Then it was on to canyoning, which was also a great time. Canyoning was essentially repelling, but we descended through waterfalls. We went down five waterfalls in total and between our two guides and the two french girls that were with us, we had a blast. Then we ate lunch in the market in Baños before getting on the bus to head north to Otavalo. Baños was a sweet town though - slow pace, more Spanish than I had imagined we'd get to use, and wonderfully nestled within green Andean mountains.

I hear that Otavalo is the second most popular tourist destination after the Golapagos Islands - they have a market that is up and running everyday but takes over the town on Saturdays (I'm SO thankful to be here on a Friday... I can't imagine the market plaza being packed with tour groups and such). But the city is surprisingly lovely. I had really low expectations, so it's been a fun surprise. We got here last night around 9:30 and I think we'll stay a second night. We just finished our jaunt through the market... and we sure made our fair share of purchases. Time to stretch the capacity of my backpack.:) But I can't remember ever being in an artisan market with so much beautiful and high quality stuff - am I their ideal target-market or what? And so right now we're at an internet place just off the market... with the sound and Andean flute music in the background. Sure is plenty of Andean flute music in Ecuador... :)

Not sure what we'll end up doing in the next couple days, but Sunday is when we should cross into Colombia. I have in my head that Colombia will be more like Brazil. And don't get my wrong... we all know that I love Brazil. But I've enjoyed how off beat, counter-intuitive, casual and curious Ecuador has been. The transportation has been ridiculous and funny. The mountains, waterfalls, volacnoes, etc - all seem to be really sweet reminders of the beautiful grace of God's creation. I'll miss it. But alas, I suspect I'll be equally as sad to leave Colombia, too. At least the Spanish will continue - I keep waiting for my Portuguese to just magically become Spanish. Ha. Hasn't worked out yet.

So we'll find some fun between now and Sunday afternoon... then pass into Colombia and prepare for a 24ish hour bus ride from Ipiales to Bogotá. Our 7 hour bus ride from Baños to Otavalo yesterday has made me less than excited about the longer bus ride ahead of us... but Michelle swears that buses stop less en route in Colombia than they do in Ecuador.:)

Oh. And it's Friday... we're hear that's the day of guinnea pig - here's hoping we can find some to try tonight.

altitude sickness

Well, we made it to Baños today. We had intended to arrive to last night after our trek at Cotopaxi... but I got sick and held up the whole operation. Cotopaxi was amazing! It was gorgeous. It is incredible how many volcanoes there are in Ecuador, but Cotopaxi is the highest active volcano in the world. We made our way slowly up to try to help with altitude, but it was just incredible how difficult it was to fill out lungs with air as we climbed higher. I don't think I've ever been so high. Our major target was at 5,800 meters (?) - a refuge, which serves as the main point of departure for climbers that are going to sumit the volcano. We spent a little bit of time at the refuge and then climbed alittle bit further to the edge of the glaciers. Gorgeous. But we had to take a lot of breaks along the way. I could have spent days up there just taking in the sights. But then we booked it back down and headed back to Latacunga... except that I got sick on the way back... and then proceded to be sick the rest of the night. All worth it, and I think the coca tea probably did help, but here's hoping that's the only time I have to deal with altitude sickness... and Michelle was incredibly patient with the change in travel plans and did a great job getting me Sprite and crackers.:)

So today we arrived in Baños in time for lunch and have had a lovely and leisurely day. Baños is a beautiful little town tucked into the hills/mountains of central Ecuador. It's got a slow pace of life and although it's definitely a tourist destination, it's charming and comfotable. We sat in the plaza, got a pedicure... and have done a whole lot of chilling. I think tonight we will head to one of the hot spring baths on the edge of town and head out for some live music. We will rent bikes tomorrow and head down a trail to a town called Puyo, which is an entrance point to the Ecuadorian jungle. We hear there are plenty of waterfalls and other sites to see on the bike ride, and the best part is that we'll bike downhill... and then catch a bus back.:)

But now... time to test the water in the shower - they say it's hot, but that doesn't mean much here.

beyond Quito

We've had some fast-paced days... but some really good ones. La Mitad del Mundo on Friday was a blast - yes, imagine how "climatic" it is when you get out of the car at Mount Rushmore... you see the stone faces... you marvel at the human feet... and question the motives... and then you just get back into the car. Mitad del Mundo was funny. A whole town built around a marker incidating the equator. It was a funny thing to do, but we both got into it and definitely made the most of it... and we of course have plenty of photos with our feet on either side of the equator to prove it.:) But the best part was going to this museum nextdoor to the main marker. Apparently the French explorers got it wrong, so Ecuadorians used GPS and built a museum around the real line that marks the equator. The museum was a blast - beats the SPAM museum hands down! An they even did the full-out experiment - it would appeart that water really does drain in opposite directions depending on the hemisphere you're in. Saw it with my own eyes.:)

Then yesterday morning we took off early for the bus station and headed out of town. We went to two villages along the Quilotoa Loop. Amazing! It was soooooo beautiful. I think the last time I put my memory card into a computer, it screwed it up, so I won't be doing that again. If you'd like to see... do a quick Google Image search on the Quilotoa Loop, and more specifically the Luguna Quilotoa. It was all together lovely to get outside of Quito and absolutely flooring to see some beautiful mountains with the Cotopaxi Mountain looming in the background. We stopped in Zumbahua to catch the end of a Saturday market and then rode in the back of a pickup truck to Quilotoa. The people were wonderful, the sites were outstanding and the air was very cold at night. I wore ever piece of warm clothing I had with me last night, but our room had a little wood-burning stove in it.:) We enjoyed the company of other travelers as well - Sebastian from Poland split the cab with us from the hostel to the bus terminal in Quito, but was heading the same way so we traveled all day together yesterday. Playing cards with him and a German (Maritz?) was a wonderful way to pass a cold night in an Ecuadorian village.

We hiked down to the Laguna today and then hiked back out. The laguna is actually inside an inactive volcanic crator... which again, only means it was be-u-tif-ul. And so funny to experience the altitude. To say we were out of breathe a bit on the assent would be an understatement. Ha. There was a lot more hiking to be done on the Quilotoa loop, but it was such a process to get out there (bus to bus to pickup truck) that we didn't want to pass up a 1:00 bus back to Latacunga to be able to have a full day tomorrow to visit the Cotopaxi volcano. So the quiet, relaxed, not-all-together-charming-but-a-good-hub-for-other-adventures city of Latacunga is home for the night. We found a tour company to help us make the most of Cotopaxi tomorrow (the details seemed to be difficult to patchwork together on our own), so that makes tonight a full-out chance to relax.:)

More to say... but never enough time. The president of Ecuador visted Zumbahau today - we even passed his helicopter on the way back to Latacunga today. Apparently at 10:30 last night (after we went to bed) he was in Quilotoa for a late supper - we heard the music and celebrating outside of our hostel... but we sure weren't going to leave our wool blankets to check it out. It's a strange thing to be in a foreign country and still use US dollars - it sure makes the conversion easy! Ha. And it's been nice to have more interactions with people other than tourists now that we've left Quito.

Tomorrow - Cotopaxi. Tuesday - Baños. To be continued...

Quito

We made it safely to Quito! Our flight was delayed out of Miami, so we arrived shortly after 1:00 am to our hostel. I didn't really realize just how long our travels were until I saw them from hindsight this morning - I woke up exhausted to the sound of our hotel coming alive far too early in the morning. But as we ate breakfast with a wonderful rooftop view of the city, Michelle and I talked with a Brazilian from Sao Paulo and her Chilean boyfriend. The Chilean had lived in Roseville, MN for 10 years - funny, huh? It was a GREAT way to start Quito.:) The whole time we ate breakfast, I was wracking my brain as to why the Chilean looked so familiar... but sure enough, I remembered that he had been at a Portuguese conversation group that both Michelle and I had gone to a couple times. Hillarious. And it sure helped with some of my aniticipated "saudades" of Portuguese.

We've had a fun day in the city, saw almost every knook and cranny of a strange and beautiful Gothic cathedral near our hostel (life without insurance liabilities sure is freeing - some of those stairs up to the tops of the towers were a little nerve-wracking), took the trolly-bus as well as the city bus, did the gandala ride to the top of a mountain for a beautiful view of the city... that was mostly lost in clouds and then turned to rain, and made some friends with a group of college students who gave us a ride in their tour bus to leave us at a bus station. I'd chalk that up as a successful start to Ecuador.

As for now... we're wet, hungry and tired, so it's snack time and then nap time before we go out for dinner and hopefully some live music. Tomorrow - Mitad del Mundo (the middle of the world) and whatever other fun we dig up. It's not tough to fall back into this transient season.:)

Chi Town

Well, Chicago is lovely as usual. And I suppose the megabus was everything I thought it would be. It really was a nice bus - I mean, it's got outlets at each pair of seats and free wifi. What bus doesn't need that?:) But we did also leave two hours late, which really isn't too bad except that shortly after we got to the corner of 3rd Street and Chicago Avenue in downtown Minneapolis, I took two Tylenol PM. My timing would have been absolutely perfect had we gotten on the bus right away. But instead I more or less passed out from sleepiness right in the middle of the mob waiting for the bus on the street corner. The delay was good prep for the pace of life that's ahead of us... but the sleepiness was just a ridiculous challenge. Two cups of coffee later and I'm still tired.

We wandered down to Lou Mitchell's this morning for a classic American breakfast. Then we made it seamlessly from Union Station to the train to O'Hare and we'll leave shortly after an airport lunch - layover in Miami and then on to Quito. It hasn't really entirely felt real yet. Perhaps it will when we wake up tomorrow morning in our hostel? Or when we get into the throws of new foods and self-portraits in Quito? Tough to say, but I sure the heck am in for the journey either way. The plan will become clearer once we arrive and start talking with people, but we'll spend a couple days in and near Quito, then head to Cotopaxi, the second tallest mountain/volcano in Ecuador, and then we'll go a bit further south for some more mountain fun. Just took the first of a series if pills for altitude sickness - I have zero concept of my likelihood to get sick, but no altitude's gonna keep me down now!:)

On a side note, I realized as we walked the streets of Chicago today that I think my backpack might be lighter now than it has been on the Superior Hiking Trail. Note to self - pack better for the SHT.

Anyway, enough typing on my phone. Until Ecuador...

Southbound

It's funny to start a blog fully anticipating not being committed to it. Blogspot, there is much neglect coming in the future. But historically I have started a separate blog for every excursion outside of the United States... so forget that.

It's that time again - I've got too many lists, too many piles, too much intended to go take with, and plenty of rubber bands to tediously roll up each article of clothing as I shoot for the perfect amount of stuff to put perfectly into my pack. Yup, when it comes down to it, packing is a fine art to me. And then on Tuesday night I fullfill a life-long dream (life-long being as long as I've known about Megabus) - to take the Megabus overnight to Chicago to fly international (save some money and add to the adventure). Wednesday afternoon Michelle and I fly out of O'Hare and arrive in Quito, Ecuador in time for bed. We'll meet Ali on July 30th in Colombia. Then I fly solo back in MN out of Medellin, Colombia on August 5th. A quick jaunt, but one I am hopeful will be refreshing, fun, insightful and then some.

When I board the plane, it will be just 16 days shy of two years since I last left the country! Far too long. Looking forward to the curiosities and the learning curve of countries new to me. And let's be honest, it's gonna be a blast to play with Spanish for three weeks straight.:) You'll hear from me now and again along the way, so check back.