Ballena Jorobada, Humpback Whale

A video I took of the most joyful, carefree baby humpback

Papaya, Palo Santo, Pan de Yuca....I'm in Heaven

On the outskirts of Puerto Lopez, on a property that covers an entire block, resides the brick castle that houses the Fundacion de las Ballenas del Pacifico, I have a nice room shared with a nice fellow volunteer named Alison. This on Enma's land.

 Enma is the mother of Cristina, the biologist who, as far as I can tell, single-handedly runs this Ecuadorian arm of Hawaii's Pacific Whale Foundation.  Enma runs this property, though.  She manages all the renters, cares for this building, and tends this land with a constant smile and the sweetest way of shooing the dog out of the hallway you have ever seen.  She has a passion for plants and she is beyond kind and full of local knowledge.  Leave it to Enma to bring Alison and me warm chocolate soymilk directly from the local factory after I mentioned I like soymilk.  Leave it to Enma to bring out a bowl of soy cheese and raw honey when I told her how disappointed I was in the honey I just bought that tastes mysteriously like menthol.  Leave it to Enma to place a perfectly ripe papaya in the kitchen for me and Alison after I explained my favorite breakfast is simply a papaya with a spoon.  Leave it to Enma to make fresh pan de yuca just when I thought I had left behind this unbelievably delicious bread made from yucca flour and cheese when I left Colombia, the place I first discovered it. And leave it to Enma to show up with a grocery bag FULL of palo santo wood and the promise to get me the same for 5$ before I leave. Bless her heart and this land that has provided quite likely three of my most favorite things on the planet: papaya, palo santo, and pan de yuca.

Papaya

Arbol de Palo Santo

Pan de Yuca

***In case you don't know what Palo Santo is, it is a tree that has the most delicious, gorgeous scent.  I am more than a little obsessed with it, as Alison will attest.  As we hiked through forests of it today I was couldn't stop deeply inhaling as its scent wafted through the air! The tree grows in bosque seco, dry forest, along the coast in Ecuador.  The wood is collected once the branches have died and fallen to the ground and they can be burned like incense.  It was traditionally burned in churches and during ceremonies, and modernly it is used to keep mosquitos away and cleanse the air.  A delectable essential oil is also made from Palo Santo as well.  Here in Puerto Lopez there is a Palo Santo store and factory! I will be going on a tour of the factory this week.  If anyone wants me to bring Palo Santo products back for them, let me know asap ;)

Las Ballenas

Today I began my whale adventure in Puerto Lopez, Ecuador.

I could not have dreamed of anything more perfect. I received my general assignments from the humpback whale biologist Cristina: whale watch as many days per week as humanely possible, photograph as many whale tails as humanely possible, occasionally teach an environmental ed program about whales  in the local schools, and photo-identify whales by referencing the pictures I take to binders of pictures taken over the past 14 years.

Cristina and I went out on a whale watching tour boat this afternoon so she could train me how to take the photos, what information I need to record, where to position myself on the boat, etc. We saw some macho humbacks who seemed to be battling for a female. We saw from afar a phenomenal and energetic tail slapping show. We saw the giant girth of their backsides as they came up to breath nearby. And just as we turned to head back to land our boat floated over a trail of recent bubbles rising up from the depths-- a whale had just passed under us.

I can't believe this is going to be my job for a month. I am still in shock, overwhelmed with happiness--let me tell you more later.

Here I am....What I left

**note: I am so behind in posting that I am actually in Peru at the moment, but I wrote this a week ago when I was in Ecuador. Been traveling like a mad woman on over night buses....**

Here I am in Ecuador, the next phase of travels has begun. I am full of new energy to go and move and see and cover ground!  I spent two days in Quito, without much ambition to see the city, since I am tired of uber-urban at this point. But I met a lovely French couple at the airport and we stayed in the same hostel and ventured around a bit. We did go to the Mitad del Mundo (Center of the World).  A small town about an hour outside of Quito that is supposedly right on the equator, right on the center of the world. There is apparently some debate about the measurments, but by the sight of this place and the way the entire town is built around the monument, no one really cares if they are a few hundred meters off....I will post pictures when I load them!

Today I hiked to the lake at the bottom of Crater Quilotoa, a huge mountain-crater 3 or so hours south of Quito.  (I am making my way to the border of Peru, should be crossing Friday).  My heart has not pounded so hard in ages (maybe since my first monkey conditioning class) as it did on the way back up from the botton of the crater.  The 13000 foot elevation was seriously fizzing up my oxygen supply. Again, pictures when I load them!  The highlight, however, was actually my ride back to the town of Latacunga, where I am staying.  I rode the whole 3 hour journey in the back of a pick up, the massive Ecuadorian Andes and their surprisingly cultivated and steep hillsides spreading out before me-- well, behind the truck as we zoomed forward and I looked back.  It was amazing! and free!  

What I want to write about before I get too far away from it, is my experience in Medellin with Conexion Mujeres. This organization is a non profit that provides legal, pyscological, and employment assistance to women and occassionally men, who are victims of violence, displacement by guerrilla or paramilitary groups, or who are in at-risk situations.  Currently, their biggest project is an employment contract with the city of Medellín to employ a crew of 55 street sweepers.  This is a common job in all big cities.  To keep massive Colombian cities semi- (note, semi) clean, it is the job of dozens of crews to cover the streets with mobile garbage bins and brooms and whatever else they need to pick up trash.  Conexion Mujeres, runs one of the Medellín crews and they meet each morning in the workshop a couple blocks away from the office.

Over the course of my time with Conexion Mujeres, I got to know the crew a bit.  I would walk past the workshop in the mornings on my way to the office and there was always a friendly flurry or Buenos dias! between myself and whoever happend to be waiting outside with their morning cigarette or tinto (coffee with lots of sugar).  I am still struck by how instantly everyone was so friendly and welcoming towards me.  And that friendliness only increased once I began to teach short workshops before work a few mornings a week.  The first week I taught self-Shiatsu (automasaje) to the crew! What an experience.  Sergio, my buddy in the office, helped me painstakingly translate a set of instructions I got from my Shiatsu course into Spanish.  I wanted everyone to have a copy of the exercises so they could continue on their own.  It was more or less a success, these three days of morning self-Shiatsu, with the crew half-humoring me, and half actually interested and following along.  Sergio´s support in shouting out the correct instructions in Spanish was crucial, as my attempts to describe body parts, symbolic Chinese names, and directions proved far too advanced for my good, but not-good-enough Spanish.  And in front of 50 people!

It was really special to share this with the group.

The following week I taught basic English phrases.  Attendance was much smaller but much more devoted to this workshop. Amazing the the intricacies that arise in any situation the first time you try something out.  I never thought that teaching English would be that complex.  Well, it wasn´t easy.  The fact that we were crammed into a corner of the worshop while the noise of the morning arrivals was going on all around us didn´t make it any easier.  But how to explain things?! What is the best way to convey the variations in how you can greet someone? And my brain was getting confused by actually being allowed to speak English and I kept just saying things in Spanish.  But what a joy to see the group puzzling so determinedly over how to say , Fine, thanks, and you?  It was a lot of fun and I was truly sorry to leave at the end of the week.

But the farewell was beautiful.  My leaving coincided with an annual celebration of the hardest worker.  After a few presentations and the awards, myself and the other volunteer, spunky and big-hearted Ana from Holland, made our own mini presentations on our lives in our respective countries.  I made a powerpoint full of pictures of the Bay Area and got to tell the group how much I love where I am from. It was well-received with oohs and ahhs  (Something I have noticed in every place I have been so far on this trip is that when I tell people I am from the San Francisco area, unanimously people respond with a mix of awe and admiration!  Everyone I have met, not only knows where San Franciso is, but has a positive perception of SF and wants to visit one day!) Another co-worker, the tough-loving and sharp lawyer Diana is also leaving at the end of the month, and this news brought tears to everyone, but in true Colombian style, it immediately became a ruckus of indignant shouts and commotion coming from a place of 100% love!  The celebration ended with brownies and the crew going to work while we in the office had our final lunch together.  We always have lunch together, like family dinner. It was cutting it close after our hugs and kisses and promises to stay in touch so Lina graciously drove me to the bus station with Sergio coming along too. I caught the airport bus just as it was pulling out.  Ciao y mil gracias Colombia.

A punto de salir

Tomorrow  marks 59 days in Colombia.  My 60 days are almost up. I have to leave the country and I will be doing so on a flight to Quito, Ecuador.  I can't believe I am about to leave Colombia. This trip has been so full so far, and I still have so much more to fill!  There is so much I still want to share about Colombia, namely what I have been doing in Medellin the past four weeks volunteering for a badass women's organization called Conexion Mujeres, the incredible people I have been meeting and how they have been beautifully guiding and inspiring my trip, the swim complex of 8 pools I have been swimming in (!), my scuba diving experiences, and not to mention, the beautiful places I've been!  I am determined to provide a smattering of retrospective entries, hopefully equally mixed in  with present-time entries.  

La Guajira

(Yes, thongs are normal here )

Some bits and pieces of the earlier part of my trip to La Guajira, the northernmost department of Colombia, not to mention the northernmost part of all of South America. It's a very special place.  Silent, empty beaches, tinkling sea shells, desert wind, crystal turquoise sea....

 And a sea of exquisitely-colored mochilas (shoulder bags), handmade by the indigenous women of La Guajira.

Cabo de La Vela

And so, since there is much to much to fit in this entry, I will leave it at that for now.  I really just wanted to make one last entry from Colombia. But who knows, I may return before the end of this trip actually.  More on that later since absolutely no decision has been made yet, but to briefly refer back to what I wrote above about the people, the beautiful people, who have been guiding and inspiring my travels, I met just this morning at the pool a divine woman and her family who not only invited me back to stay with them in Medellin, but Maria Eugenia may acompany me back to Miami in September and stock Lumenrose Jewelry in her amazing tienda (store)! After a delicious cappuccino with Baileys, we just came back from an awesome evening of learning how to read the Mayan Calendar...

And, biggest news as of late, is that I will very likely be squeezing Peru into this trip.  I met another wonderful person, my buddy Jumpei, an energetic Japanese man who is 90% Colombian, 100% Asian-chef, who loves American music videos and San Francisco, and who owns a store in Salento.  He is going to Peru to purchase for his store and has invited me along to see where he buys stones and jewelry. He is one of the loveliest characters I have met so far and on the basis of his charming, hilarious, company alone (and the promise of more delectable Thai/Japanese cooking together), I am planning on booking it by bus directly to Lima a couple days after I land in Quito.  I will return to Ecuador, of course, for the whales.  

This Morning, This Morning...

 Behold

I have to write about this morning.  It is 7:45 am here.  I woke up at 5:20 in Salento, a small town in the southwestish part of the country. If you can find Pereira on this map, Salento is about 1hour to the southeast, in what I could only describe as the most stunning landscape of green-as-can-be mountain-hills peaking all around as far as the eye can see.  I arrived here yesterday from another small town about 6 hours to the north, named Jardin.  It was equally stunning there, and even more pristine in the pueblo itself.  But rather than pastures, the hills are covered in coffee plants, passion fruit vines, fincas (plantation, or estate).  However, I promtly erased all 200 or so of my pictures from Jardin and the splendid hostel I stayed in, when I was loading everything yesterday afternoon.  The only picture tragedy to occur so far, but I didn't even feel that much anguish, my soul being so renewed and simply grateful after one day in the tranquility there. All the memories are, of course, absorbed in my being.  Sorry I can't share them....but here you can see pictures not even an hour old, of Salento, equally as beautiful.  I really can't describe how happy I feel in the countryside here.  I am slightly dreading returning to Medellin.  But, ah, I won't think of that now when I have two days here ahead of me.   

(I smell Hawaii often here.  The precise combination of relentless green things growing over every piece of land in the perfect amount of hot sun and humidity make the most delicious concoction of smells in whichever continent....Salento is also the first place where I have felt the Open Space - the trails and hills in Walnut Creek I know and love so well - complete with cows and grasses and dry wind)

Ah the cows. They are why I write this morning so enthusiastically.  I milked one!  (This hostel, La Serrana, is an eco farm - hacienda about 1.5 km out of the town of Salento. The most charming place I've stayed in yet.)  At 5:30 as the sun began to rise and the moon still shone perfectly, I met Horatio, the caretaker, down in the stables. After observing him lure the female cow and then tie her hind legs together, he handed me the red plastic bucket and explained how to squeeze from the top of her teat to the bottom in one rolling motion. I couldn't help but at first feel like I was intruding. Ha! But She certainly didn't mind.  The milk came easily.  The milk Horatio and whatever curious guest collect each morning goes right to the kitchen here, for breakfast, to go with coffee, to make yogurt, cheese, etc.  I have not been drinking cows milk for quite a while, but one warm mug of it right after we finished was incredible!

Now it was only 630 in the morning.  Sunrise over these mountain valleys and a cool breeze-- perfect yoga time.

 My yoga view

 My yoga

And now I go to enjoy the breakfast here. I think I will order a fruit smoothie with fresh milk.

Arepas

La Piedra del Peñol

Guatapé

Hi. It´s been a little while. I started with a lot to catch up on and now I have even more…But last night´s gastronomic experience warrants an immediate recounting because I am still reeling, well, my arteries are. Here is the tale of our day.

So Mironda, my awesome new friend from Alabama/Michigan/Chicago, and I arrived Friday in Guatatpé, a gorgeous small town about an hour and a half outside of Medellín.  This town is set in the midst of a sea of lakes, all man-made when a damn was built and essentially flooded a hilly valley.  The crown jewel of this region is an anomaly of a rock, La Piedra del Peñol, an enormous, dome-shaped rock that rises majestically (and nakedly) up from a hill to survey all the land of its kingdom.  It´s quite singularly the best vantage point around; nothing can compete for the view from the top of La Piedra (the rock).  

We opted to reach the top if La Piedra via a 16 kilometer hike around some of the most beautiful countryside I have seen so far.  Colombia is stunning in many ways I never expected.  Here in Guatapé was no different.  The grass is so vibrantly green and the homes and their small gardens or manicured properties sloping down hillsides are charming. Not to mention people are relaxed and friendly, a very welcome relief for me after almost a month spent in the two largest cities of Colombia, Bogotá and Medellin.  The hike was so pleasant that Mironda and I kept interrupting each other so exclaim how happy we were to be doing this.  I was really savoring having a travel companion for a couple days.  I am feeling the middle-of-my-trip-weariness setting in and to talk freely in English and share my thoughts with a peer was a treat.

And so we arrived quite quickly at La Piedra, time flew chattily by.  We climbed the million or so zig-zagging stairs, set into a giant crevice of the rock like an eccentrically sewn up scar.  The view was, of course, spectacular. 

Fast forward to night time.  The town was day 4 or so into the La Fiesta de la Virgen del Carmne, which means basically that every vehicle in the region comes out to honk its horn and stop up the streets with joy and ruckus, terminating in the town square, where various puestos (stalls) of street food are set up and prepared for a long night of flipping arepas.

Arepas, what are they?  I luckily discovered these delectable corn patties before I left San Francisco at a colorful restaurant on 14^th and Valencia called Pica Pica.  Pica Pica serves Venezuelan-style arepas however, so what I found here in Colombia was different and just as delicious.  Arepas are patties, as I said, which is the best way I can think to describe them, made of corn meal or corn flour.  Mostly I´ve found them filled with cheese and happily grilling on top of a banana leaf.  You just eat one piping hot off the grill for $1000 pesos (about 60 cents), más o menos, and you are full for 10 hours.  I  ate them often on the northern coast.  What Mironda and I found last night in the zócalo (town square) of Guatapé was not only traditional arepas de queso, but arepas de chócolo, y arepas de queso con lecherita. 

Arepas de chócolo are made of a different kind of corn, a bit more sweet, darker yellow, thinner and larger, and my new favorite kind of arepa.  They are served with hunks of butter and queso blanco on top. Good thing Mironda and I split one.  It was awesome.  Then we decided to try the arepa de queso grilling right next to it.  The three folks manning the stall were efficient as hell with taking orders, and keeping the arepas coming.  They  kindly cut this one in half for us as well, then proceeded to drizzle some thick white sauce on top.  We decided not to intervene and trust that it was a necessary part of the experience. And wow, did that thick white sauce make the experience.  It is called lecherita, which is really just sweetened condensed milk.  It was divine.  Smushy, warm, cheesy, sweetness.  It was divine. Divino...

Then we decided it was time for vegetables, so we opted for the fried mini potatoes.  Little balls of salty starch that soaked the pathetic brown bag they were contained in.  (You really can´t avoid fried food here. Most of the time I find it frustrating, but occasionally I find it wonderful.  I will dedicate an entire post to buñuelos soon.  They are a fried ball of dough that I never thought I´d find myself craving daily….) I think Mironda and I agreed we didn´t like those particularly well, so how about another arepa de queso con lecherita? Excellent choice.

Now it was fruit time.  We ordered a jugo de mora (blackberry.)  It was light and fruity and simple and refreshing.  It tickled our sweet tooth and now it was cookie time.  I won´t talk about the cookies because both were disappointing.  They were typical Colombian panaderia (bakery) cookies, more or less chubby sugar cookies with various toppings.  Now we were full, now we were done.

That was our evening.  That is what we ate.  This is what we each spent : $5,600 pesos, or $3.29 USD.

Arepas de queso

Arepa de chócolo

Arepa de queso con lecherita (dulce)