Looking Back

Well, as I said, a recap is in order. And this is it. Before I go into real detail I want to sincerely thank everyone that contributed to making my trip possible. First, my family and friends for their unwavering support and understanding of my desire to go really far away. Second, all of the individuals that organized and led the different volunteer gigs I participated in. That means Dr. Emily Lemmon, Dr. Santiago Ron, Dr. Andrew Crawford, Kelsey Reider, Patrick Campbell, Roy Santa Cruz, Heidi van Hoof, Jefry Moncada, and Faidith Bracho Altamiranda. I also want to thank all of my many fellow volunteers for making each experience worthwhile. There are too many of you to list. Finally, thank you to the hostels, their owners, and all my fellow travelers for keeping me company on what otherwise would have been a very lonely 5 months.

BLAM! A map of the trip (below). I think it is always good to understand world geography, especially if you plan to travel, or have already done some traveling. For me, this map shows me that despite making a concerted effort to see as much of each country as possible, I still missed many places. A return to South America is unavoidable, and I hope to fill in some of those gaps, as well as the other countries. Anyway, I like making maps and looking at them. I hope you do too.

In case you did not already know, I started in Lima and finished in Bogotá

Okay, now that I have that done I think I figured out a good way to wrap things up: some top 5 lists. To start it off, here is my list of top 5 pleasant surprises:

1. Capurganá - The pristine beaches, jungle, etc. and supreme solitude here were unmatched. Guide books hardly mention it, and if it stays that way this place will continue to be perfect.
2. Bogotá - Way more fun than dangerous. Our perception of Colombia as a whole is mostly wrong.
3. Machu Picchu - It lived up to what I thought would be over-hype. I went in expecting to be disappointed by the real thing. I was not.
4. Glass Frogs - They somehow managed to be a hundred times cooler than I could have ever imagined an animal being.
5. The People - Seriously, the people of all three countries are so friendly and interesting. The diversity of cultures I saw was amazing. I believe we have a lot to learn from their approach to daily life. I could say so much more here.

My favorite, the top 5 foods:
1. Cronuts - These are not South American, but Cusco has them and they make me very happy.
2. Sweet Arepas - A semi-sweet version of a thick tortilla-like Colombian mainstay. All arepas are good, but I consumed the sweet ones like an addict in Bogotá.
3. Fried Plantains - After so many years of banana-hating these made me decide I like bananas and all their relatives. So good!
4. Tuna (Prickly Pear Cactus fruit, not fish) - Cheap, colorful, full of hard seeds, and a great snack in a dry place. They may have affected my digestion negatively... Whatever, they are delicious.
5. Anything with Maracuyá (Passion Fruit) - Natural juices, donut fillings, alpaca steak sauce, whatever you encounter that features some form of this fruit deserves a try!

And yes, my top 7 animals, because 5 was not enough:
1. Vizcacha - Rock monkeys, monk rockies, chinchillas, whatever you want to call them. I think of them as high elevation rabbit-squirrels.
2. All Glass Frogs - Their massive eyes, the transparent underside... They might be aliens.
3. Bushmaster - The longest viper species in the world, known as "shushupe" by many. This thing was absolutely ridiculous beyond description, and a lucky thing for me to see.
4. Toucans - You think you have seen one after watching a Froot Loops commercial. Turns out they are tough to find, and infinitely more impressive in the wild. I had to put a bird on this list.
5. Vicuña - These relatives of the llama and alpaca just glide across the most perilous cliff faces and make funny noises to top it off.

6. Basilisks - Seeing lizards sprint across water was cool, and very deserving of an extra spot on my favorite animals list.

7. Monkeys - This trip was my first time seeing wild primates. From capuchins to howlers to spider monkeys, all were so clever and fun to watch high up in the trees.

Of course the animal list had 7 instead of 5. We all saw that one coming. To complete the top 5 lists, here are my top 5 tips for people interested in doing a similar trip in South America or elsewhere:
1. Make friends at hostels - The people you meet make your trip. This is especially important if you travel alone as I did. If an introvert like me can do this then so can you!
2. Be adventurous - Being in another country is all about seeing it for what it really is. Do things that are interesting and off the beaten path as much as you can. Gift shops and tours have their place, but finding the true essence of a place means breaking free of them. The times that I did this are my fondest memories.
3. Volunteer - Volunteer work was what brought me to South America in the first place. There are so many avenues you can take to get involved in something meaningful. The best part was that it kept me in one place long enough to really get to know where I was and who I was with.
4. EAT - Yes, you can save some money by cooking for yourself instead of going out to eat. But sometimes you must sacrifice a little cash and eat the food at the marketplace or the local restaurant. Food was a remarkably enjoyable aspect of my trip. I recommend trying everything at least once, maybe twice.
5. Learn the language - I am guilty of not studying Spanish enough during my trip. Sometimes I felt too busy to put time into it. I regret this, so learn from my mistake. The better you can communicate with locals the better your understanding of the community will be. Practice on your own time and then apply what you are learning with native speakers. Being in another country is your best chance for improving your foreign language skills!

So there you have it; some surprises, foods, animals, and advice. I hope those of you that have followed this blog have enjoyed reading what I had to say. I have had a great time writing. This blog provided me a place to share my experiences with many people without having to send tons of separate emails. That was nice. Additionally, my perfectionism forced me to put in a lot of time and thought into my writing, which I think was a valuable mental exercise. I am thankful to everyone that has read this blog, looked at the pictures, or given me feedback. For people that did not read my blog or were turned off by it, I completely understand and do not hold it against you. Sometimes I felt a little weird for talking about myself so damn much. I may or may not do a blog like this again in the future. Only time will tell. I can say for certain that the travel bug has caught on, and I have a feeling it will be a lifelong affliction! For now I am back in northern California, with a cell phone, constant internet, good beer, and warm showers once more. The readjustment is underway. Thanks again for reading!

Guinea Pigs, or cuy in Spanish

Bogotá and a Few More Frogs

This could easily have been divided into two posts. Instead I chose to combine my final two adventures to conclude my travel blog for this trip in South America.

Because it sits first in the title, I will tackle Bogotá before the frogs. I spent more than a week in Bogotá, spread out over two separate visits, the first being 7 days and the second being just one full day. Despite me being more of a small town person and Bogotá being an absolutely massive city of more than 7 million people, I found it to be lots of fun - possibly the most fun of any city I went to on my entire trip. The city is cold, sometimes rainy, and located high up in the Andes, much like Quito. It features a bustling historic area known as La Candelaria, which is where I chose to stay. I spent a fair amount of time doing indoor sightseeing in places such as the famous Museo del Oro (Gold Museum), Museo Botero (art by Botero and others), and the Septimazo and Ciclovía street gatherings. The Museo del Oro had a fantastic collection of sacred gold objects from many virtually unknown yet important Colombian civilizations. The collection of solid gold frogs was easily my favorite, followed by a golden musical instrument that somewhat resembled a clarinet. The Botero art collection was surprisingly fun for me as well. I did not necessarily love all the pieces by Botero (I get it dude, you make every living thing look fat), but the additional pieces by Monet, Picasso, and a great many others really caught my eye. As good as those museums were, the Septimazo and Ciclovía street festivals were probably my favorite experiences in the big city overall. Both occurred on Calle 7 (7th Street) and had all kinds of fanfare, from live vallenato music to delicious snacks. Ciclovía was especially cool because it featured a game where a guy lines up guinea pigs in the street. Maybe 5 meters (sorry, I do not think in feet anymore) from the fuzzballs there are 20 overturned bowls, each with a portion cut out so a guinea pig can sneak in to hide. The point of the game is to guess where a guinea pig will go by placing a wager in the form of a stack of coins on that particular bowl. Only one guinea pig goes at a time, making it pretty tough to guess right. After watching a few times I gave it a shot. I technically lost because the stupid animal only went halfway under my bowl before freezing in place and eventually being disqualified. In my mind I won, and that is all that matters, right? The other neat thing about Ciclovía is that it occurs every Sunday, and a huge stretch of the street is closed to vehicles and opened to bicycles for much of the day, partly as a fitness initiative. Bogotá impressed me with that.

My other main activity in Bogotá was to wander around the streets of La Candelaria whilst eating whatever caught my eye. I saw plenty of nice old churches and other historic buildings while enjoying more than my fair share of cocadas (sugary coconut sweets), cakes, arepas (like tortillas except thicker and better), natural fruit juices, and empanadas. It was the perfect way to enjoy myself for a day or two without spending too much money or getting stressed about travel plans. At my hostel I made some awesome friends, whom I went out with for some fun evenings. Fredy, a costeño from Valledupar now working at Hostel Sue, was especially welcoming and became a good friend of mine.

After that first week in Bogotá I joined another pair of costeños (people from the Caribbean coast) for my last volunteer experience in the field. Myself and José of the Universidad de Cordoba came along to help graduate student Faidith on her final trip to collect frogs for her Master's research at the Universidad de los Andes. We went by bus to the nearby Tolima department first. The three of us stayed in a hotel in the quaint little town of Coello. Our work was split between processing specimens by day and catching more by night at a nearby "tropical dry forest" area. We really did not find that much, yet it was still a great time. There were some toads as well as one of my favorite frogs, Dendrobates truncatus. The habitat was exactly as it sounds: a dry forest. It was especially dry when we were there, which explains why we found so little.

In our off time the three of us spent a lot of time getting to know one another and sharing silly Spanish and English slang. They were very patient with me, and looking back I think I improved my Spanish a lot in our 6 days together. I learned that policía muerta is their name for speed bump, and it literally translates to "dead police" for reasons that are unbeknownst to me. We also became regulars at a local restaurant run by Doña Chela, who always had something great for us to chow down on with an accompanying fruit juice. Coello was incredibly hot at most hours, which made us extra grateful for the pool and air conditioning at our hotel. Not a shabby place to stay during fieldwork!

From Coello we headed down to the city of Neiva, in the Huila department. Much like Coello, Neiva was very hot. I only got one night out in Neiva, but I am glad I did because I found a fat little frog called Elachistocles pearsi, of the family Microhylidae, for you nerds out there. Unfortunately I have no picture to show. It was cool though, I promise. It looked like a stout, stony-colored arrowhead with stubby legs, the back two being splattered with yellow. Not much else to say about Neiva, for lack of time spent there. The following day I had to leave the other two, and that was sad. Faidith and José were hilarious, knowledgeable, and extremely easy to work with. We became good friends in our brief time together. I will definitely make an effort to see them again in the future!

I came back to Bogotá with just one full day to spare on my entire trip in South America. That is when I finally elected to hike up to the viewpoint at Monserrate with Fredy and Andrea, another traveler. You can see from the photo that we got a pretty good view of the big city, surrounded on all sides by green mountains. For my final night I went out and enjoyed some of Colombia's anise-flavored aguardiente while dancing salsa with friends at a fun Cuban salsa bar. Even though my dancing skills are still incredibly limited I had a great time in the friendly atmosphere. A particularly hilarious additive to the night was an old man that kept yelling out "LA SEMANA!!" (the week) at the top of his lungs while doing goofy dance moves. It was a great way to finish up my trip.

I think I alluded to this being my final blog entry earlier in this post. Well, I actually plan to do a recap in a few days, mostly because I have been working on a cool map that shows my travel route. I also plan to create a list of my favorite places to visit, and some general thoughts I have about traveling in South America. Stay tuned.

Ancient Colombians liked frogs too

The fact that this was done by hand is ridiculous

A musical instrument made of gold

A Botero piece with a man in his typical style: round

One of a couple cool Picasso paintings

The guinea pig that almost won me some money

Family band playing vallenato music

Fruit pyramids

A sweet church

Poison dart frog cluster

Peaceful little Coello

Metamorph of a frog (it has a tail)

Happy little toads

Not my favorite frog, but pretty neat

José and Faidith being goofy as always

Bogotá from above