The Lost City

Last up in Colombia, we headed to the Caribbean. We flew from Medellin to Cartagena, spent a few days there, bussed to Taganga, and I went SCUBA diving. We hung out in the HOT HUMID weather. Then we went to the Lost City and the small town of Minca.

Cartagena’s old town was really beautiful. Old buildings with colourful paint and flowers spilling over the balconies. It was lovely to wander around, although it was really warm. Taganga was not as nice but not due to the scenery. It is set facing west in a small bay, surrounded by mountains spilling into the sea and has great sun sets. Our hotel was 60m from the beach with a rooftop terrace overlooking the sea. We spent a couple evenings up there playing Dominoes and drinking cerveza (beer). Taganga smelled of trash and there were a lot of people trying to sell us tours into the national park so it wasn’t as nice to wander around, but it has great coral reefs nearby and I got to go explore underwater with two boat dives in the coral. I tried to get Adam to snorkel or try diving but he was content to sit on the boat and get slightly seasick as he waited for the divers to surface!

   

The next adventure was a 4 day trek in the jungle to Ciudad Perdida, the Lost City. We were on a tour with 7 other tourists from Germany, Holland, and the UK, an interpreter and an excellent guide. Our group was fabulous and we got on really well. The trek was quite challenging up some steep slippery mountains and down rough rocky barely formed paths. It was AWESOME. The scenery was incredible, with rugged mountains and dense jungle.

There were many swimming holes along the trail that reminded me of rivers back home, when not hiking, eating or sleeping, I was swimming. There were mules that carried the food and fresh fruit waiting for us at the top of the climbs. Our guide, a local man named Ariel was really knowledgeable about the local indigenous people, their culture and beliefs. The indigenous people have rather interesting culture from our *western * perspective. At 18, the men are given a poporo (a neat looking container used to store seashell powder) and they use the basic sea shell powder to activate the coca leaves that they chew constantly. The women and children are forbidden from using coca and they do ALL The work. Men chew coca, woman work. Quite the life! Oh, and the men can trade in their wife on a newer model whenever they want too!

The journey through the jungle to the Lost City was fabulous and when we arrived at the 30 hectare site there were only about 18 people to visit that day. What remains are beautiful moss-covered terraces built for every house. While it was abandoned about 400 years ago due to Spanish explorers, all the houses have long since rotted away in the humid jungle, but the stone terraces, stairways, roads and other infrastructure remain. It seems like it’s still lost from tourism, with seemingly untouched ruins open for us to explore. We felt so lucky to get to experience something like that.

When we re-emerged to civilization, a day of rest in Santa Marta was followed by a trip up into the mountains again to a little village called Minca. It was paradise. We stayed in a hostel way up on a hill with great food and breathtaking views. It was a couple of delightful rest days (except for the grueling hike up the steep hill to get to the hostel – I’m glad Adam was carrying our heavy backpack!)

And now… to Ecuador and the Amazon!

The Jungle!

Our return from the paradise of Jardin was quickly followed by the departure into a new paradise, Rio Claro. However, first Diego took us on a side jaunt to see a big rock. Sounds pretty dull, of course it was anything but. The large granite boulder of El Penol sits atop a mountain surrounded by a reservoir. In the late 1960s, this series of valleys was dammed in order to create a reservoir for hydroelectricity for the city of Medellin. Now-a-days, you can climb 750 stairs to the top of the rock and see the expansive views of the reservoir. Pretty spectacular scenery! (Though I don’t want to think about the ecological implications of flooding 50+ valleys…)

The following day, we boarded another bus and headed to the private nature preserve of Rio Claro (meaning Clear River). It’s hard to describe how incredible it was to be there. Our room was in the third story of a building constructed into the side of a cliff face, and it looked out through the tree canopy. There were views up and down the sheer canyon from our windowless balcony. Yes, I did say windowless. It was hot. It was humid. It was the real jungle. We had walls that went almost to the roof (but there was a sizeable gap) and the entire front of our room was open to the jungle. There were surprisingly few bug, although we did not turn the lights on after dark (as per Adam’s demands), which meant bed time was early since it gets dark around 6pm. The restaurant was a ten minute walk on a cobble path through the jungle. Overhanging were many plants, dripping trees, mosses, ferns, all sorts of things you’d imagine finding in the jungle.

At dinner, the walk was with flashlights. We only saw one scary bug (though we saw several of them!). It was a Whip Spider (aka Tailess Whip Scorpion), which is neither a spider nor a scorpion. Flat body, and really long legs and creepy looking. During the daytime walks, we were often treated by playful spider monkeys frolicking in the forest on the other side of the river! We spent a lot of time watching them play. We could swim in the river, float down in the current and watch the monkeys jumping from tree to tree. It was pretty awesome.

We walked upriver for about an hour, until we came to a swimming hole that I just couldn’t pass up. While I was in the water, Adam spied an indigenous man upstream. We decided to retreat back to our reserve area so as not to disturb him any more than we probably had. While at Rio Claro, we saw several types of frogs (both big and small), the whip spiders, monkeys, a few birds, little lizards, a big snail WAY WAY up a tree, and incredible flora. Oh, and a game of cat and mouse in the restaurant, between a cat and a rat!

Next stop, the Caribbean.

Medellin & Jardin

As we drive out of Santa Barbara, we look at each other and ask ourselves, are we really doing this? Are we really leaving the comfort of our daily lives as Post Docs in Santa Barbara for the unknown world of South America? We don’t speak Spanish. We have no actual plans other than a plane ticket into Colombia and a plane ticket, two months later out of Bolivia… Armed with a lonely planet travel guide and a couple of adventurous spirits, we’re off!

A red eye flight to Miami, an 8h layover was filled with a jaunt into the city, Miami Beach. As we walked on the beach at 10am, I was off put by the frequency of waves, which seemed rather fast compared to what I’m used to. It left me feeling a bit disconcerted rather than calmed. Also, the beach was groomed, reminding me of early morning on a ski hill before anyone has skied on the pristine groomer tracks, perfect corduroy all around. There were beach chairs sitting empty waiting for sunbather. There were deeply tanned people laying on towels, applying tanning oil. There were people standing oddly still in waist deep water, as if waiting for something to happen. It was muggy. We returned to the airport.

Landing in Medellin, much to Adam’s delight, in the customs area was a GIANT billboard of a bikini-clad woman welcoming travelers to Colombia! Diego, our local friend welcomed us and drove us to our hotel in Medellin. We booked it about 10 minutes before boarding the plane from Miami.

Diego’s hospitality as a tour guide kept us busy, showing us many great things in Medellin. It struck me as a city of contrasts: rich and poor, clean and dirty, danger and safety. Many areas appear quite rough, with rubbish and graffiti prevalent. The metro however, is a completely different atmosphere. Built 20 years ago, there is not a speck of dirt or vandalism. The people of Medellin are very proud of their train and the respect is obvious.

After a few days in the city we took a bus to the country. To an incredibly beautiful town, virtually unknown to gringos. Diego hooked us up with some locals who helped us find a gorgeous family B&B with views that take your breath away. We’ve been horse trekking to caves, taken a tour of a sugar cane farm/factory, watched Gauchos strut their stuff on the cobblestone streets (the horses here would put Bojangles to shame!). We’ve also lounged in a hammock watching lightning in the surrounding mountains, drank coffee made from beans grown and harvested within a few kms. We got trapped here for an extra day due to return buses being full… I feel a bit like I’ve been locked in paradise. We’ve seen two awesome bird species too, the Andean cock of the rock (Rupicola peruvianus) and the Blue crowned motmot (Momotus aequatorialis).

The Colombian people are wonderful, helpful, friendly, kind and patient with non-Spanish speakers like us!

Next up, we’re headed into the jungle…

Thanks to: the Rothman lab for the great send off, Sally for chocolate, PJ for the final sushi dinner, Shirin and Thomas for the Lonely Planet, Diego for being a great host, Carlos for helping us out in Jardin.

Arctic Alaska - AC

It has only been 260 days since the last post on this blog so I thought it was time to post something new, well actually, this post about something that happened 170 days ago in September 2013.

I finally got a job (yay$$$) as a research technician on a three month contract working for a limnology professor. The job involved field work up in Alaska in the Arctic Circle at Toolik Lake taking dissolved gas samples and installing temperature measurement instruments in five different lakes nearby.

It was pretty exciting to have a trip to Alaska after a few months being an unemployed bum. I flew from Santa Barbara to Fairbanks before getting in a research truck for the 600km journey, NORTH, to the research station. The road we traveled along was the infamous road from ice road truckers. We had a quick stop at the Arctic Circle sign, unfortunately the field office was closed so I couldn't get my Arctic Circle certificate.

We passed through the Brooks Range and onto the tundra. There were beautiful views of trees changing colour as far as you could see along with big rocky mountains and never ending flat tundra.


We had three weeks working out of the field station, which involved working outside in temperatures ranging between -5°C and -12°C. These temperatures weren't so bad when you were moving around but it started to get cold after a couple hours sitting in a small boat in the middle of a lake. There were chefs cooking three meals a day. Dinner even included food such as Cornish game hen, king crab legs, and homemade icecream. As it was the low season at the field station, we had private rooms all to ourselves.

Most of the wildlife had left for the winter but there here still a few arctic squirrels and foxes around the field station along with a pair of ravens and loons (which sound like howling wolf). I even saw my first grizzly bear. It was on the bank of the lakes while I was safely in a boat. *Davon Edit: Grizzly bears can swim.* I thought it was a rock for the first 15 minutes, before it started to run through the deep snow. I saw a second bear a few days later as it was running directly through the field station then off into the distance. The sun was always low in the sky which made for long colourful sunsets.

The next story begins 145 days ago. Hopefully it will be posted soon.

Vegas Baby! - DC

Still trying not-so-successfully to catch up on the blog... On memorial day weekend, we went to Vegas. It was nice of my mom to remind me before we went that “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” Therefore, that’s the end of the post.

Just kidding.

It’s about a 6 hour to drive from Santa Barbara to Vegas. The drive itself is pretty dull but for us, the first drive through desert was pretty interesting. Seeing the odd tumbleweed rolling around, Joshua trees and signs for Death Valley were pretty cool. At first, we bypassed Vegas to check out the Hoover Dam. Quite the feat of engineering and pretty cool, even for me! It’s obvious that Adam loved it, he’ll stop to take a photo of any interesting bridge, so bring him to the Hoover Dam and well, he doesn’t know what to do with himself. The dam was really cool and there’s a new bridge above the dam too which was pretty impressive. We managed to spend time in three different states that first day, as we started in California, drove through Nevada and popped into Arizona while at the dam.

We went back to Vegas for the evening and wandered around taking in the sights. The extravagance of Las Vegas is pretty numbing. It was somewhat disturbing but also really impressive at the same time.

The next day, we left the city behind again and headed to Red Rock Canyon. There is an 11 mile scenic drive with several stops along the way. It seemed quite unusual to have toll booths to access nature, only in America. We brought plenty of water with us (remember, we’re in the desert), slapped on some sunscreen and headed out. The nature of the rock makes it apparent how it’s quite a destination for rock climbing. We could even see the odd bolt glinting in the sun. After about a couple hours clambering around, we were happy to revisit the air conditioned whip. As we were coming back to the whip, we overheard a few different people reminding their friends/kids/families that the farther they walked towards the rocks, the farther they’d have to walk back to the car… we were only about 50m from the whippark. Yikes.

Back in the city, we dipped in the pool then more mind-numbing Vegas. We did a bit of gambling, Adam has a much better knack with the one-armed bandits than I do. At one point, before going to the bathroom, he gave me 5 bucks and said “don’t lose it all before I get back” haha - I did. With his guidance though, we ended up about 40 bucks up. The next day we headed back to Santa Barbara via some back roads and no name towns.

Whip* Shopping - DC

We were amazed with the amount of bike paths, including many paths completely separated from roads, upon arrival in Santa Barbara. There are even bike traffic circles and bikes have the right of way over pedestrians! We were very lucky that Tim made it his mission to find us some bicycles. That was a main mode of transport for several weeks while we (mostly Adam) combed Craigslist for used cars. After a couple test drives, we were wondering why on earth people sell cars with the check engine light on. We certainly weren’t interested in purchasing a car that seems doomed. There were several stints of long bus rides followed by short test drives and then another long bus ride. A russian guy was selling a VW Jetta, when we said we weren’t interested he offered us to look at a different car. He shook a heavy key chain and said he had 5 cars that he was selling. Huh? Who has five cars! It was pretty strange. Eventually we found a guy, Richard, selling his 2001 Mazda Tribute (think Ford Escape). When the sale was complete, Richard was so sad to see the car go that he hid behind his house so that he wouldn’t see us drive away. It was pretty cute.

Now that we have wheels, we’ve been exploring a bit. We saw a rocket launcher up in the hills (Adam thinks it might be a water collection tower, but I’m positive it was a rocket launcher). We also went on a hike and came across a 4ft snake lying across the trail. It wasn’t interested in moving out of the way until after I poked it with a stick.



*Disclaimer: Apparently, according to Adam and his "street skills", a whip is a car. I thought that I'd better translate cause a whip is a silly word for car... *

Dr Crowe - DC

Yesterday afternoon Adam defended his PhD. Through a 3-way Skype session between New Zealand, Australia and America. I got him access to a little conference room, the “Rothman Sanctum” and let him loose to defend. His reports were AMAZING. Really really positive and with only minor suggestions (e.g., “take out the indent after your equations”). The defense was a little under 30 minutes! Like I said, very positive.

I’m very proud of him, for what he has accomplished and the quality of his work.

After a bit of bubbly in the lab conference room, we headed out to the local brew house for some dinner and beers. It was a lovely evening.

Congratulations Dr Crowe.