A New Era

First of all, I would be amiss if I did not start this entry by sharing my joy and excitement over yesterday´s inauguration of Barack Obama. President Obama - it sounds a bit funny after hearing about President Bush for so long, doesn´t it? But of course it´s so refreshing, and I am ready to see what he can do. Unfortunately, I missed his speech when all the cable on Santa Cruz Island cut out a few minutes into it. But it was dubbed over in Spanish anyway, so I was already missing a lot of the pizazz. No matter - I will watch it later when I´m back in mainland Ecuador with a faster internet connection.

I have officially ceased living the life of your typical backpacker and have lapsed into the easy day to day routine of those fortunate enough to spend an extended period of time in the Galapagos. Angela, a girlfriend from college who I have been here with, met an amazing chef in Quito who manages a beautiful restaurant here. We have been fortunate enough to crash on his couch since we got back from spending a few nights on another island, Isabella, a few hours boat ride away. Before that we were on our boat cruise. Unfortunately, Angela takes off tomorrow and we lost Rebekka on Sunday, but I suppose I´m ready to revert back to solo traveling mode. It has been refreshing to have companions though - it really does make for a whole different kind of traveling.

How do I even begin to tell you about what I´ve seen and experienced here? There´s just so much. The highlight has probably been snorkeling with sea lions and sharks. The sea lions love to play and shoot right by you at very close range. I´ve also seen giant sea turtles, rays, tons of fish, penguins, fur seals, a million birds and marine iguanas which are only found in the Galapagos. The boat tour was great because we got to visit a bunch of islands in a short amount of time. I was initially proud of myself for not getting sea sick (I´m very prone to motion sickness) thereby proving that I might be able to indulge a recent whim of mine to live on a boat. Sadly, it seems I only do well on very calm seas, since on the extremely bumpy ride (on a smaller boat) to Isabella I threw up the whole time.

It was worth the trip though. I have never seen so many stars in a sky so clear on a white beach so empty. The streets aren´t even paved - they´re still sand. I have never spent an extended amount of time around beaches you would want to swim in, but here I float around in the warm ocean every day. I walk a lot, eat ice cream and fresh pineapple every day and have probably eaten more shrimp in the past week than I had previously had throughout my entire life. I feel like I´m settling in, which would be nice except that I am also getting anxious about getting back on the road.

It is frustrating that it has been so long since my first Galapagos entry because it is not a general summary I want to give you, but rather soundbites of moments and emotions. I am storing up quite a collection of little stories which I suppose you will have to ask me about when I return. One of the most recent observations is how I´ve realized that my level of fluency is not going to end up as good as it was after I studied in Spain unless I spend more time with locals. I discovered this when at a party with a bunch of Galapageños only speaking Spanish and I couldn´t understand everything. It´s not enough to be in a Spanish speaking country. One must begin to live, talk, think and breathe the language - total immersion - before it truly becomes second nature.

Damn, I am so lucky to be here. I am even more grateful that I still have money left to travel after this expensive side trip. But I´ll tell you - my skin has never seen so much sun and salt water. I walk over lava (not to be confused with magma) all day in flip-flops and drink a ton of fruit juice. My only problem is too much free time and that I can apparently still get a sunburn after applying SPF 70 ¨Babyface¨sunblock twice. What a life, eh? Tonight Angela and I will take a water taxi over to the restaurant of our friend so that we might indulge in a gourmet dinner and cocktails. I have to get out of here before I get sucked in. But in the end I suppose I would eventually get restless - one can only spend so many days relaxing in paradise before craving the excitement of a rougher life, the life on the road.

Note: I will have to wait to add pictures until I get back to the mainland because the internet connection here is just too slow. Also, for additional stories about my time in the Galapagos you can check out my friend Angela´s blog.

Journal Entry Highlights

Since I haven´t been consistent in updating my blog while in the Galapagos I thought I´d include some excerpts from my personal journal:

*Tourism is a weird form of voyeurism. All these people live their day to day lives in places I consider exotic and want to learn from. But all I´m seeing is just a slightly different / more impoverished version of what I´m doing. We´re all people and therefore we are all subject to the laws of human nature. We may come in slightly different cultural packages but we share the same basic wants and needs. The most I can do is alter the scenery in order to focus on what is important instead of getting caught up in society´s artificially constructed values.

*I´ve realized that (so far) the places I like the best - Vilcabamba, Galapagos - are places that remind me of home. I have to be somewhere with a lot of nature, not too many people, a laid back/artsy community feel and fascinating residents.

*I think I´m getting more serious about pursuing journalism as a career. I love to observe people, places and experiences and then write about it. All I need is guidance and discipline, which I suppose is what I´m lacking in most of my pursuits that founder.

*Things I´m loving on this trip (inspired by the first two items on the list which I am enjoying right now): breezes on a warm day, good music that goes with the mood, girlfriends, food that is not chicken and rice, books, full days, dancing, laughing, snorkeling, aloe vera, people, home, reminders that money is of minimal importance, how I feel after hiking, stars, never knowing what time it is (and that not mattering), showers and cold water.

Still alive

...and will be posting an actual entry with photos and everything in the next few days. I am still in the Galapagos and am having a blast - currently traveling with a friend from college. I am getting an actual tan and have freckles on my face for probably the first time ever. This internet cafe that I am in right now is super hot and I am covered in sweat (something I do not think I will ever get used to) but I just wanted to post this quick note. Highlights of the entry to come include our boat trip, snorkeling with sea lions and sharks, hanging out with locals, white sandy beaches, good times with the girls, and our current adventure - surfing on the couch of a five star Canadian chef that Angela met back in Quito. I am supposed to leave the Galapagos on Tuesday but I might stay a week longer and get certified to dive...

Paradise Found

Iguanas. Pelicans. Lizards. Sea lions. Mocking birds. Giant turtles. Dragonflies. Crabs. Finches. King salmon-sized electric blue fish. Cactus. Volcanic rock. An orchid biologist who looks like Wolverine. An oasis. More fish. A friendly gay couple from San Francisco. Salt flats. A white sandy beach with crystal blue waters. What do all these things have in common? I´ve run into all of them in the roughly six hours I´ve been on the island San Cristóbal in the Galapagos. I don´t even begin my four-day/three-night boat tour until tomorrow and I´m already in awe of this place. I spent all afternoon swimming, scuba-ing and jumping off cliffs in a little oasis a 60 second water taxi ride and a fifteen minute hike away from my hostal.

Where I was last week was amazing too. Rebecca and I had a great time hiking and relaxing in Vilcabamba, a town that I instantly fell in love with. It reminds me of Juneau, what with its great hiking trails and granola cruncher feel. Our hostel, The Hidden Garden, was absolutely charming and had the best included breakfast I´ve eaten my whole trip. I´m talking real, homemade bread here (the bread so far is generally awful) along with eggs, fresh fruit and fresh juice. All this and our room for only $12.50. I´m telling you - this is the life. Actually, the hostal is for sale at the moment, so if anyone has a spare $450,000 lying around please do consider buying it because I´ll totally volunteer to be the manager.

A funny thing about Ecuador - they use American money. I guess they ditched their currency a few years ago in favor of using ours, although Ecuadorian coins are still in the mix. It´s weird seeing dollars again. I feel like things are a bit more spendy here than in Peru; although hey, I did get a full body salt scrub and a facial in Vilcabamba for only $13, so I can´t really complain.

After my tour in the Galapagos I have at least until the 19th to do some exploring on my own, although I could change my ticket and hang out even more if I like. I´m thinking about returning to Vilcabamba (before making my way to Colombia) because I dug the vibe so much. I´m quickly coming to the realization that I probably won´t make it through all of Central America - hell, I might not even make it out of South America - but I am totally ok with. I am absolutely getting something out of every experience and I think that´s what´s really important.

It has been great traveling with Rebecca and we´ve had some good discussions. I have learned a lot about Sweden from her and I find it to be a very impressive country. To start off with, I never realized that the bands ABBA, Ace of Bace and The Hives are all Swedish. But more importantly, in Sweden they have universal health care, public universities that you can go to for little or no cost, six weeks paid vacation a year, free oral contraceptives for everyone until they´re twenty, maternity leave worth 90% of a woman´s pay for one year, and so on and so forth. They even have a law that you can only use naked/scantily-clad women to sell things like lingerie. When trying to figure out things that supposedly make the US superior, all I could come up with was our war machine and the possibility of making it rich. In Sweden, it sounds like family and free time are more important than money and one´s career, which unfortunately I fear have become the focus in the United States.

But anyway - here I am. In the Galapagos and I have at least another three months of traveling to go. I keep hearing people say oh I wish I could do that. But you know what? You can. It´s a choice. Obviously it´s easier for me when I don´t have a ton of commitments. But I think that with a year or so of planning everyone should be able to break away from their established routine and just get out there. Check out the Vagabond link in my ¨Books I´ve Been Reading¨ section, it´s got some good stuff related to this theme. In the meantime, I´m glad you´ve been reading my blog and I promise some good stories after this Galapagos trip.

Bad times with the shaman man

The scene - Huancabamba. Ten thirty at night. Myself and ten Peruvians sit in a small room with a dirt floor lit by a single light bulb. I have paid $100 for an all night visit with a healer recommended by the owner of my hostel, a man well known around town who many of my compatriots have come to visit from other parts of Peru. He has a good reputation and I even spot him in a video about the region. I have no particular ailment, but figure the visit is good for some general soul cleansing as well as an interesting blog entry. In the corner of the room is the ¨mesa¨, which isn´t really a table at all, but a few rugs laid out with a bunch of ceremonial trinkets: shells, rocks, swords, and curiously enough - a skeleton popping out of a little orange halloween pumpkin. The roof consists of wooden beams and dozens of cardboard boxes.

The action - The ceremony lasts until five in the morning and mostly consists of the the maestro and his assistants imbibing flower water and spitting it all over us. Sometimes it is spit into our hands and we are then instructed to rub it on ourselves, while at other times it is sprayed directly on our chests and faces. In between rounds the maestro does a bunch of chanting and asks God to help us out with whatever we came there for. We also snort tobacco juice through our nose via a sea shell, and later on some flower water. At one point we drink San Pedro cactus, which is supposed to be hallucinogenic, but I don´t notice any effects. At the end of the ceremony we cleanse our hands with sugar and baby powder, clap our hands and then throw flower petals into the air.

The problem - Some of you may wonder why this entry seems particularly matter of fact and unemotional. That is because of something that happened towards the end of the ceremony which completely turned me off to the whole thing. At one point in the night certain people were singled out for some individual cleansing. In my case this involved being cleansed (aka rubbed) with a rock while in my skivvies. Now to be clear, I have no problem participating in traditional ceremonies and stepping outside my comfort zone. (WARNING - This next part may be upsetting to some people.) But I became a bit suspicious that I was being taken advantage of when the guy started by pointing out that the particular rock he was using was phallic. Suspicion turned to alarm when he started rubbing it vigorously against my crotch while asking me to think of the best sexual experience I´d ever had. Oh my god, I thought, is this really happening to me? He asked me to tell him when it felt good, and so to get him to stop I said that yeah it was great, and then that was that - he called on somebody else and we went back to the group ceremonies. I spent the next hour and a half freaking out inside my head.

Afterwards - The maestro noticed that I was withdrawn and sulky, and from then on spent extra time talking with me to try to make things bettter. I flat out told him that what he had done had made me extremely uncomfortable. I was sure that he hadn´t done anything like that with anyone else so why had he done so with me? He skirted the issue and started talking about how a healer was like a father figure and how I´d better watch out because there were plenty of men out there who wanted to take advantage of me. I think he realized I knew that he had crossed the line, but played it off like everything was totally normal. He also predicted a white car in my future and a husband by age 27. Don´t worry, he said, everything is going to go well for you after this ceremony.

I left feeling disgusted and disappointed. I refused to attend the final part of the ceremony, which would have involved heading into the mountains to bathe in the lakes that the region is famous for. I talked with the owner of my hostel about what had happened and she admitted that while bodily cleansing with rocks is normal, the other part was a bit weird (especially since I hadn´t gone there to deal with men problems). But as is typical, she ultimately refused to place blame or admit wrong doing on the part of this respected man.

As for me, I got the hell out of that town and spent the last week (including New Year´s) in a popular hostel in Mancora that housed about a hundred other backpackers. It was on the beach and had a pool and constant sunshine. I feel much recovered, but felt that this was a significant experience that I should share. I was going to write two seperate posts, one on this experience and one on the positive things that have happened since then. Unfortunately I´ve just had to retype this whole entry after it was accidently deleted, so I think this will be it for now. I will report more on the good times in a few days, which mostly include getting a tan, meeting some great girlfriends and eating a lot. I´m currently in Vilcabamba, Ecuador with my friend Becca from Sweden, and will be relaxing here before heading to Guayaquil and the Galapagos.