Maybe once a month is more realistic :)

There is a certain smell that comes with developing nations. It’s not rotting garbage or sewage or anything terrible. It’s just a constant smell that is common to Morocco, Peru and Kenya (I can’t comment on other developing nations). In the mornings, it’s a bit crisp with an undertone of dust. It makes you feel like the day has potential, like maybe traffic won’t be that horrific. In the evenings, it’s dusty and full of exhaust – the smell, like you, is tired. I guess you could say the smell helps keep you in check, you always know of the possibilities ahead of you and the insanity behind you.

As a consultant for the UN, my day begins before dawn. I get up between 5:30 and 6:00 am, eat in the semi-dark and hop in the Toyota Corolla I’ve rented for the hour to hour and a half cross-city trek. I tried to find a map to accompany this description of my daily commute, but there wasn’t one small enough to show you all the landmarks. So bear with me and enjoy a glimpse at the global grind of a commute with a Kenyan spin on it. (I’ve taken some photos during my commute and will post at a later date)

To get out of my neighborhood, I literally play rally car driver and weave around pot holes, going both in the other lane and off the tarmac to avoid the car-swallowing holes. Once out of my ‘hood I go down Ngong road and see all the furniture makers bring out their handmade beauties to their roadside-dirt-parking lot showrooms. Between me and the “showrooms” is the dirt path meant for pedestrians or bicycles. Between the "showrooms" and by showroom I mean a dirt parking lot full of furniture - there are the mamas making grilled corn on the cob and various other goodies. When there is bad traffic, the pedestrian path is full of matatus, the pedestrians walk through the “showrooms” and the bikes fight for space on the road.

My favorite part of the drive is seeing the kids walking to school. They all have their sweaters and skirts or pants. Even with holes in their shoes or missing sleeves to sweaters, the children walking to school look ADORABLE and totally innocent and happy. Whether it’s two little boys walking arm in arm laughing with each other about god knows what or a big sister making sure her sibling doesn’t walk too close to the road, the children are the best part of my drive.

Occasionally I’ll see cows or goats grazing in any patch of grass their herder can find. And just as I’m gazing at the livestock, a pimped out land rover will cut me off and I’m reminded that I’m in a capital city.

Any slow corner or intersection is surrounded by flower sellers and paper boys who walk to your window and sell you the morning headlines. Luckily they understand that people want their product and they don’t hound your window. Unlike another stretch I go through where people know you’ll be stopped in traffic (and you always are) and they present kittens and puppies and toy cars and brooms at your window, hoping you’ll be their first purchase of the day. In actuality, I don’t see those guys until I’m on the way home, in the mornings, in that same trafficky, captive-audience stretch, they have young boys leading “blind” men and women asking for money. Just the other morning I heard a radio report about how they found a training camp to teach people how to pretend to be blind or crippled. I don’t donate.

I have to cross a highway on my way to work. It’s not too terrible, but on the way home, I have to get to the other side of the three lanes in about 200 yards so I can get to a Uturn area and get to the other direction. Not so fun when I leave after dark.

Another section is a huge dip. In the evenings, there is without a doubt a truck stuck on one side of the dip and if it’s raining, there’s a stuck truck on each side of the dip. I’m not sure if there is a single truck in Kenya that is fit to be on the roads. Each one has a driver and a “rock guy”. When the truck can’t make it up a hill, the rock guy gets out and puts rocks under the guy’s back tires to help him have friction and not fall down the hill. If this somehow miraculously works and they don’t have to repeat it, the rock guy grabs the rocks, throws them in the back of the truck and then chases after it until he can hop back in.

Another two person job is the matatu. I’ve learned that the door guy doesn’t just collect the money. He’s the one that smiles when they cut you off and he’s the one that jumps out at a crowded intersection, directs traffic with authority until his van is through the madness, and again, chases down the vehicle until he can jump in.

NO ONE respects any traffic laws. On a two-lane road, if it’s stopped or slow, people just drive in the other lane or off the road to get around everyone. If I see someone (normally ALWAYS a matatu) coming around the off road behind me, or coming down the wrong lane behind me, I get as far out of my lane as possible to block them. It’s great fun. Sometimes it work, more often than not it doesn’t cause they don’t care and go further off the road or further into another lane.

There are no four-way stops. If you come to an intersection it’s every man for himself, so good luck. The other day I was at one and everyone one was blocking everyone. Then matatus and buses started going in the wrong lane and really screwing everything up. So I bailed, luckily I knew another route.

No drive is complete without a pedestrian walking in front of you. At the afore mentioned four-way stop, people find a way to ALWAYS walk in front of my car JUST when a window has opened and I can scoot across. But alas, I cannot for if I do and if I hit someone who has so stupidly walked infront of oncoming traffic, I’ll be blamed and most likely subject to mob violence. It’s highly likely that the surrounding pedestrians will drag me out of my car and proceed to beat me. No joke.

So you don’t hit pedestrians.

There is so much more to tell about the commute alone, let alone the rest of my life in Kenya. It used to be a white-knuckled hour and half of hell twice a day. Now I enjoy the kids in the morning and being a nightmare for matatus in the evenings. Funny how things change. Someday soon I’ll tell you about “Obama Day”. It was great fun!

I’m home soon. I’m no longer a blogger, but I keep waking up in the morning, smelling the potential of the day, and thinking about ALL the amazing things I could blog about. And then the evening smell reminds me that I’m exhausted and no one still checks this blog anyway! ☺

~EKYV

Back so soon?
I thought I’d try to be a little more consistent with my writing, in order to not alienate the five people I’ve gotten back to reading again. And by reading again, I mean they’ve read two blogs over the last two and half months…real fanatics. ☺

Life in Nairobi is now life as normal. Not too exciting in terms of lions and hundreds of thousands of animals – but it’s exciting in other ways. I’ve joined UNEP at an exciting time, so there’s lots of cool stuff going on. Unfortunately, it’s still the UN – so every decision has to be approved by ten people and can take up to ten days…but I guess I’ll get used to that at some point. The most stressful/exciting/unpredictable part of my day, is without a doubt the commute. A solid hour long drive (or more) consists of no roads with lines in the middle, not a single curb, lots of potholes, donkey carts, people walking in the streets, cows grazing next to veggie stands on the side of the road, mercedes benzes, lots of bike riders, billboards for coke, pimped out land cruisers - we've got it all!!! And I see it all on my way to and from work.

I’m working on website designs and special events. It’s a nice mix of things to keep everything fresh and new. I’ve only been there four days so how could it not be fresh and new?

As far as life being normal in Nairobi, we went for a really nice sushi dinner the other night and the week before I went to a huge market with tiny little shops selling clothes from the states - some really nice stuff for about $5 or less, I can only assume it happened to fall off the back of a truck and these nice people are making sure it doesn't go unused.

I guess that’s about all. This season’s blogs have been LACKING and not such great writing, but alas, no one can be 100% one hundred percent of the time can they?

Upcoming highlights – wedding to go to in Mombasa on November 1, last day of work Novemeber 28, cooking a Thanksgiving meal on November 29, flying to London Dec 1, flying to Atlanta December 6 – see y’all suckas in the A!

~EKY V.

Back for real...

So, to sum up the last two months - sorry I disappeared. I got here and Phil and I had an amazing week together (the first blog) and then he left. It was a difficult time for me. Being so far away and feeling so alone made me not want to blog or keep in touch. I felt like I was on the other end of the earth. And then slowly, slowly I made my way back. Some peanut butter toast, an exploding avocado puree, and the amazing love and support of my family and friends helped me get to a good place. I got a bit bored and the freelance/be your own boss lifestyle was too much for me. I thought I needed more structure. So I gave my resume to some friends. And then I started to think, "What if I never get a job? What if I'm not good enough?" Then I a friend at the UN said they had something I was qualified for and that she had passed my resume along. Well they called. And put me through a RIGOROUS interview process that lasted over a week. And then they offered me a job for six months with great money. During the interview process, the work they made me do gave me my confidence back and also made me realize that I came here to do to the freelance thing and I came here to build PWS with Phil. And so because they offered me the job, they gave me the strength to turn it down. I didn't come here for money and I didn't come to work a 9-5. So I said no. Then they called back and asked if I would do it just for two months and that I could then still go home for Christmas and maybe we'd reevaluate things in January.

SO I SAID YES!!!! I start officially on Monday, although I'm currently already doing work for them. I'm so excited to check it out and see how it goes. It's a great position and six months would've been great except that it's more than I want to take on at this point. It would've involved either moving or buying a car, something I'm not ready for at this point. I'll work with them on this consultancy and then see how things go in the future. I'm going to work my butt off, prove myself, and see where things go from there. Phil and I will go to London Dec 1-6 and then come to Atlanta, he'll stay until Dec 15. Then I'll stay until January 16. If anyone is still reading I hope all is well. I'm posting some photos and there are also TONS of photos on facebook for those that can access it. Phil and I just spend the most AMAZING week in the Masai Mara. He's there with clients and came down to join him for our birthdays (17 and 20 of September). It was amazing. Those are the stories I should've written about, but I figured I had some explaining to do. Update me! ~EKY V

Back Again!!!

Yo pienso que yo necisito escribir en espanol, seeing as I promised in my last entry to write completely in Spanish. Unfortunately, I couldn’t give this place justice if I tried to describe my last six days solely in broken Spanish.

My emotional departure from Atlanta was complete with tears on my part, endless hugs to my parents, and a long series of waves that still put a smile on my face today. The two nine-hour flights went by relatively quickly and without much to tell. With a fake itinerary from Phil, in case they hassled me about my exit date, I nervously went through the Kenyan customs. A beautiful woman with a beautiful accent let me through without so much as a second glance.

Phil was waiting at the airport and was shocked by the “lightness” of my bags. However, upon our arrival to the cottage, as I began unpacking all my rolled-up clothing, he quickly realized that despite their deceptive weight, I had indeed brought an unfathomable amount of clothing…in his opinion (I was proud of the restraint I practiced, thanks to Nicole and Jaci and Laura).

On Sunday afternoon (I arrived Saturday night), we had a nice lunch with Phil’s dad and stepmother, Henry and Nicki. They are incredibly welcoming and very friendly. Later in the afternoon we relaxed with Ivan (Phil’s twin), Ivan’s wife Lyn, Lyn’s sister Laura, and Laura’s six-month-old son, Alistair. It was also great fun and nice to hang out with them again.

Sunday night Phil cooked us a delicious dinner and I continued to find nooks and crannies for all of my things. Monday saw us go on our first adventure. We gassed up the Land Cruiser and headed out of Nairobi for a four-hour drive to Lewa Downs, a 65,000-acre conservation area. Lewa has several houses and lodges on it, our family first met Phil when he was the manager and head guide of Wilderness Trails. We stopped on the way at a beautiful airstrip for lunch. They served us delicious sandwiches while we sat on a green lawn enjoying the sunshine. There were old, white men who looked like were straight out of the movies with there white hair, safari shorts, and safari shirts. They had their lunch, grabbed their briefcases and hopped into their little planes to fly off to their farms. I felt like I was in a movie as we barreled down the highway with African music playing past small villages, mango trees and pineapple fields.

We arrived at Lewa and everyone flocked to Phil. It’s been six years since he worked there, but his popularity hasn’t faded one bit. Lewa looked much as I remembered it and unfortunately, its beauty is indescribable. On our walk to our room, we passed monkeys and a herd of impala; we could see giraffe eating just outside our window; the food was phenomenal and the hosts were lovely. On our second day we went for a drive with Simon, a new guide at Lewa. Management wanted Phil’s opinion as to whether or not he was ready to “go it alone” with wagani (clients). So we had a great drive and saw many sites I remembered from eight and half years ago – it brought back wonderful memories and really made me miss my family. I asked Simon tons of questions, learned a lot, and Phil gave his stamp of approval.

On Tuesday evening we took a car and drove to what Phil says is one of the best views in Africa. It was stunning! The sunset wasn’t the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen (due to the clouds) but it was a nice way to end the day. On Wednesday we got up early, had a breakfast with the family (and the monkeys who stole bananas from the buffet), and went on our way. The ride home was soooo interesting. We had an anthropology lesson about the people of Africa and more specifically the tribes in Kenya. It led into general Kenyan history and the drive went by quickly.

We’ll continue to visit friends for the next few days and have driving lessons until Monday. Phil heads off on safari and I attempt to get settled all these thousands of miles from home. I’m looking forward to reaching out to contacts and seeking work again. I just hope it’s successful, I know it will take time, but I’m ready to get the ball rolling.

Please email or comment on the blog and let me know about life. Have a great weekend! ~EKY V.

Lake Titicaca: Buses, Boats, and enough papas to last a lifetime

In order to get the most out of my last weekend in Peru, my friend Karina and I decided I´d go out in style with a trip to Lake Titicaca. Two of her friends, Laura and Julia (twins) joined us, along with Kim, a former student at our school during our primero semana.

The Lake was absolutely beautiful! We had two crystal clear days with full sunshine, a cool breeze, and not a cloud in the sky. The lake is the highest navigable lake in the world and thus you´re literally in the mountaintops, you just happen to be on water. You´re reminded of this when you spot all the snow capped mountains surrounding the lake. Here´s a “quick” recap of our weekend:

Karina and I did some research, got the best deal on bus tickets and we all took off on Friday night on the 10 pm overnight bus trip. While the seats reclined and were as wide as first class plane seats, I was still unable to really get any sleep. My faithful Tylenol PM let me down in the moment of truth and I arrived in Puno un poco grumpy and very tired.

We were all excited to arrive, but we hadn´t done any further planning, all we knew was that we wanted to spend the night on an island, and we wanted nothing to do with Puno, cause there´s nothing there. So before the bus even came to a complete stop, some Peruvian man in a track suit was in our face about taking his company´s tour and staying with a family. We politely told said “Peruvian Dude” that it was 4:30 in the morning, we were hungry, tired, and wanted some time to chat. “sure, sure, of course.” He proceeded to sit at the next table over (we were inside at this point, he followed us from the bus to the terminal to the upstairs “foodcourt”).

Then another “Peruvian dude”, who also happened to be in a track suit, cooed up to our table and offered us a better price. Everything he said sounded better, so we began the process of going with him. Then Peruano hombre numero uno pops back up again and suddenly he can offer us the trip for 50 soles (13 less than hombre numero dos). Some Spanish smack talk obviously occurs between the two competing salesmen dressed like they´re headed to aerobics class, but being the poor travellers we are, we go with the cheaper price. So then we go through ALL the details and begin to make some for real plans. Then he says, okay, so it´s only going to cost 275 soles, I do the quick math, uhhh no, that´s 55 per person. Then Julia, the best Spanish speaker of us all, goes into asking him if he´s a liar and letting him know we´d lost trust in him. I wanted to take the easy route and just punch the guy in the face, but my fellow travellers talked me out of it. We finally ditched the idiot and decided to go it on our own. We´d take to the docks and make our own plans….

It couldn´t have worked out better! While we paid the same price the sleezy guy was offering, we knew all of it was going to the families of the island. So we got on a boat with about seven other random travellers and we all entrusted our lives to the folks who said they could house us for the night.

We took an hour ride to the Uros Islands. These are the floating reed islands. The people live their entire lives on the islands and it seems to me they rely solely on fish and money from tourists. We explored for a little bit and then boarded the boat to head to Amantani, our second island of the day and resting spot for the night. We arrived two hours later and their well organized system saw us get escorted to a home ready to take in the five of us. It was a small two story home with a little courtyard and an outhouse. We had lunch: potatoes with cheese and a side of potatoes. Then we all met in the square and a girl of 10 years old showed us to the top of the island. It was no easy walk but well worth it. We arrived and had a 360 view of the lake and a prime seat to watch the sunset. It was clearly the thing to do because all the other tourists were there as well. I met a guy from CARE who lives in Atlanta and more than likely used to order four cheese ravioli bolognese from me at Figo. I was reassured that other people were entrusting their lives to the folks of the island.

We hiked back down in the dark to our house, NOT easy with no lights, and while I wasn´t looking forward to it, I was totally ready to have my front teeth reinstalled by a Peruvian dentist if it came to that. Dinner was potato soup and an omelette ontop of rice. Lo and behold! The omelettes had potatoes in them!! This put us into hysterics, we couldn’t escape the papas. We even had to smuggle to lunchtime potatoes out of the house because they too closely resembled giant maggots to be eaten.

All in all, at the house, we were a scene from Charlie and Chocolate Factory. Karina ate from her bed and changed on the side of her bed. She became “abuello joe” for the night. On Sunday we took the boat to the island of Tekille and had another gorgeous hike to the top of the mountain that made up the island. I had the best meal I´ve had in Peru, a pitabread sort of thing with an egg and cheese on the inside. I was in heaven…it´s the little things. Then we headed back to Puno, hopped on a bus, and after seeing three high class movies (Even Almighty, Terminator vs. Alien, and Littleman), we arrived safely in Cusco. I´m outta here on Saturday, inshallah. So maybe there will be one final entry for all those Spanish speakers out there. Otherwise, check back with me in July when I move to Kenya. –EKY V.

Uhhh, yes it´s been three weeks

Seeing as I only have eight days remaining in Peru, I figured I should add another blog. Unfortunately, I´ve sort of lost the "blogging" spirit so it´ll likely be short and sweet for once (or perhaps NORMAL by everyone else´s standards).

I spent last week in Taray, a TINY town in the Sacred Valley. I think there may be 100 residents there, and that would be pushing it. Myself and eight other students stayed in a house owned by the school. We had all our meals there and took classes with our teachers in the mornings. In the afternoons we went on various excursions around Taray. Taray is a 20 minute walk to Pisac, a reasonable sized town, with internet, shops, and cold beer. We´d walk to Pisac almost everyday for one reason or another. It is a beautiful walk down a dirt road along a river with gorgeous mountains surrounding you on all sides.

The house was great, complete with a pool (although the water was WAY too cold to swim in), a pool table, a pingpong table, and some great hammocks. Our excursions included a trip to some nearby saltmines, the ruins at Pisac (which I had already seen but were once again beautiful), and a pretty much Emmakate Young guided tour to a waterfall. We had great fun at the house and all became pretty close given the circumstances. OH!! One afternoon included a game between a Peruvian teacher (40 years old probably) and me against two Dutch boys who were convinced I couldn´t play. Despite the hinderance of the altitude, Rudolfo and I easily put away the orange-boys, won beer for the night, and I once again showed a third-world country that women can play futbal. It was GREAT!

We got back and I decided not to temp fate and remain with Carrolla at my former homestay. She´s VERY nice, lets me practice Spanish, feeds me decent enough food, has a semi-decent shower (despite a horrible stench that sometimes make me gag while brushing my teeth), and the house is safe. So I stayed with her and it´s been great.

Tonight I´ll take an overnight bus to Lake Titicaca with four other girls I know (two I know, two are friends of one of them). For the seventh week in a row (more or less) I still have a horrible cold and a stuffy week. And for the first time I´ve given in to antibiotics. One of my travel buddies for tonight is a doctor and she took me to the pharmacy to get a z-pack. Hopefully I´ll be better in a few days, otherwise, I´ll try to get to a doctor next week before I return as an uninsured nomad to Atlanta for a month or two.

Tomorrow night we´ll all spend the night on a man made island of floating reeds, I think, or atleast we´ll visit one. The island we´re staying on doesn´t have hotels, so you basically get off the bus tomorrow morning and families are waiting there to take you in for a small fee. It should be fun.

Next week will include some frantic shopping for presents for my immediate family (sorry everyone else, I´m broke :)), 20 hours of one-on-one classes, and a few dinners with friends.

I thought about writing this whole thing in Spanish. It wouldn´t have been this detailed, but I could´ve done it. Read up on your Spanish cause an all espanol blog is in your near future. :) Love to everyone. - EKY V.

Photo attempt...no promises

Cusco view from hostal; Cusco main square; Laura, Emmakate and Mandy almost there; our group at Machu Picchu; myself and two new friends atop Wayna Picchu - the mountain behind Machu Picchu; the Sun Gate; Machu Picchu once the clouds lifted.

I´ve posted some photos on facebook, but I´ll see if I can manage to get a few on here. -EKY V.

Life around Cusco

So to fill in a few blanks about the last few weeks, Cusco is wonderful!! Just like people said I´d like Cape Town and they were correct, people told me I´d like Cusco and I love it! IT´s much bigger than I imagined, but it´s still just a city pearched in the mountains. There are thousands of houses stacked on top of each other, all with red tile roofs. There are 360 degrees of mountains surrounding you and some snow capped peaks off in the distance. Most people don´t speak English, a little bit, but I´ve been able to use broken Spanish and French with a twist to get by just fine...really well actually.

The train ride back from Aguas Calientes after the Machu Pichu hike was BEAUTIFUL!! You rode through the sacred valley following the river the whole way back. The ride was very comfortable and enjoyable, even a few complimentary snacks and drinks. At one point some VERY loud music began playing. Laura and I were in the very last row and actually faced backwards out a huge window at the back of the train. I turned around upon hearing the music and there was a man in FULL costume, complete with a scary mask and hat, dancing up and down the aisles with a fake little llama, or "llamita" if you will. This routine went on for a good ten minutes, including a moment when he reached us at the back and made a strange noise on behalf of his llamita into Laura´s ear. We had a good laugh and settled into our seats once the music was over. Until... more loud music...a fashion show!! These Peruvians are ALL about the mid-ride entertainment.

Another fun story, we planned to take a public bus up to Pisac, another town nearby, known for it´s beautiful ruins and great twice-a-week market. We went to where the hotel people told us to catch the bus, much the bus under the underpass of the highway in Lima, I assumed we´d say Pisac a few times and people would point and eventually a bus with Pisac written on it, or a man yelling Pisac from it´s doorway would appear. No such luck. At one point we got into a really nice van and the guy was going to take us up, but said we had to wait for two more people, we left. Prior to this moment, after much questioning and furrowed brows, peopled pointed to this scary, dodgey looking blue doorway. As if we were going to go through some doorway into a building to catch a bus to Pisac??!!!?? Upon realizing what they meant I think my exact words were, ¨No way! Yeah right! We´re not going in there!" After getting out of the nice van, we decided that we might as well just look into the doorway, low and behold it led into a gravel parking lot and like the joy of seeing the McDonald´s arches at 4 am we found a huge, nice giant bus with individual seats waiting to take folks to Pisac. Luckily we were some of the last people to get seats and we took off relatively quickly. The market was great, I did some comparative pricing and will go back, and the ruins were beautiful! We took another public bus home after dark and arrived safely at our hostal.

Most restaurants in Cusco are Pizzarias. It´s not real pizza though, sometimes there is no sauce and sometimes it´s almost ketchup. But we´re had some good meals. The rest is chicken and rice. On Friday night, we treated ourselves to a nice Italian restaurant and I actually had a CHICKEN CESAR SALAD. It was incredible to have vegetables. Since it was a nice place I risked having the local produce and was totally fine.

We met our family yesterday, and by family I mean a 55 year old woman and her 27 year old son that she hides in his room. "Carrola" is nice enough, but the 50 minute WALK TO CLASS is not so nice. Laura and I will split the cost of cabs for the week, but next week things will change. I just don´t want to have to deal with walking 50 minutes or paying for a cab about three or four times a day. So I´ve created an INCREDIBLE solution!!

Next week, at no extra charge, I will take Spanish classes in the Sacred Valley. It´s absolutely beautiful and will be nice to be away from the city for a little while. Then when I return I´ll move in with a family closer to the school so I can walk and get some exercise. Then my third weekend I´ll go to Lake Titicaca for the weekend and my last weekend, I fly back to the ATL!!

I have my first class this afternoon! I´m very excited! Then we have a welcome dinner tonight and lecture about a Inca ruin nearby that we hike to last week. Another night we have salsa lessons, cooking lessons, I think they´re showing "Frida", and some other activities as well.

Okay, I´m getting overrun by other students. Adios! -EKY V.

Machu Picchu ain´t no joke!!

I thought of this blog title on my first day of hiking as I was wondering WHAT I had gotten myself into. A few minutes later I came upon Laura Freel, who was sitting on a rock on the trail ahead of me, as I approached panting, she managed to squeek out "Machu Picchu is the real deal". We both agreed it had surpassed our expectations as far as physical activity was concerned.

Our four-day hike began when we were picked up at our hostal at 4 am. We piled into a little bus/van with our fellow hikers (9 others - 12 of us in total), our two guides Franklin and Juan Carlos, and our 17 porters followed in a bus behind us. We drove two hours in the dark to get to our starting point in the sacred valley. It was absolutely beautiful and like nothing I´ve ever seen really. The valley has a beautiful river running through it and huge green mountains on either side mimicking the river´s path through the Peruvian landscape. There was immediately evidence of Inka ruins and just foreshawdowing of many ancient sites we´d see along the way.

Day 1 - We went 16 km in total and climbed from 2600 m (8500 ft) to 3850 m (12,600 ft). Unfortunately, after going 10 kilometers and stopping for lunch, we had six kilometers remaining, but they were ALL uphill for THREE HOURS. So on our first day, after a long hike, we spent the afternoon going staight up basically from 3100 m to 3850 m to our camp. The porters pass you while you walk and you feel like a complete idiot because you´re struggling with your day pack and they have 50 pounds strapped on their back and they JOG by you, literallym JOG. Not to mention that the majority of them are wearing running shoes and some even wear sandals made from tires. They are incredible. The camp was nice, it was no Phil West Safari, but I´m completely awar of the fact that I´m spoiled in that regard and this trip was even almost out of my price range.

Day 2 - We woke up at 6 am to begin our 13 km day which would take up from 3850 m (12,600 ft) down to 3680 m (12,000 ft). Going down? Sounds good right? EXCEPT that today was the day we went through the two highest passes the first being at 4200 m (13,800 ft) so while we started higher and ended lower for camp, we spent the entire day hiking straight up, then straight down to lunch. Then straight up to the second pass and straight down to dinner. I´m going to have to google Dead Woman´s Pass (the highest pass) because it was cold, rainy and completely overcast for this entire day. We got to camp and everything was soaked.

Day 3 - We´re now tappering and only going 10 km today. We went from 3680 m (12,000 ft) down to 2700 m (8829 ft), but again, lower elevation at night doesn´t mean easy downhill all day. We went through our third pass and had some serious uphill that day as well. My sickness came on again that day and I went to bed as early as possible to prepare for day four and the great Machu Picchu!!

Day 4 - Today was only 6 km and involved getting up at 4:00 am to try to get to the Sun Gate and beat the rush of the other hikers (although there weren´t many given that high season hasn´t started yet). So we took off, all hopefull and eager to see our awaiting lost city. As we climbed up a SERIOUSLY steep staircase, Juan Carlos said, this is the oh my god moment. As we got closer we didn´t hear any oh my god´s, when I summitted the staircase, I immediately realize why...we were totally engulfed in clouds and couldn´t see Machu Picchu, so much for the oh my god moment. I felt a bit like Liz must´ve felt in Ethiopia. THe city finally showed itself, but we´d already begun to head down to explore. The ruins were amazing and unexplainable. I´m kind of in a hurry, so hopefully I´ll write more about them later. But I decided to leave the tour early since Franklin our guide had said that if we could Wayna Picchu (this MASSIVE mountain behind Machu Picchu) that we should because it´s specatular. When myself and two Australian girls showed interest, he then told us they only let 400 people up there a day. We then found out they were at 340 and Franklin still had two hours of his tour. Based on HIS advice we wanted to hike the mountain. He seemed to get offended when we wanted to hike it, and he made it as difficult and uncomfortable as possible, but we pressed on and hiked it anyway. It was WELL worth it and my favorite part of the hike. It was QUITE scary and there were no safety rails or anything. There were times where you could easily have fallen off to your death. The views were amazing and I´m so glad I did it. Okay, hopefully we´re caught up now and i won´t have to write such long entries for the next four weeks.

Mandy left today and Laura and I move in with our homestay family tomorrow. Adios!!! - EKY V.

FINALLY CATCHING UP

So if there was ever any eloquence or inviting prose in prior entries, this entry will be lacking. Much to my dismay, I got out of the "blogging" and suddenly three days has turned into three weeks. So my friends, those of you that haven´t given up on me and my adventures, this will be another reader´s digest entry.

Backtrack to Germany... I had a WONDERFUL time with my aunt Marianna (Kit´s sister) and my cousin Abigail in Garmisch-Partinkeirken (no clue how to spell it). I enjoyed Easter with them at the church on the small US Military Base there. The 75-year-old priest from Chicago pulled out all the stops for the celebration and put on quite a show. It´s ironic that I used the phrase "pulled out all the stops", only because there was NO music to go along with the mass, aside from one 12 year old girl forced to lead all the songs accappella. So there was no music and the priest literally, I mean LITERALLY, gave his homily as if he were a southern bapist preacher at a revival. He would take his volume from soft and barely audible, to loud and yelling and slamming his hands down on the pews. Yes the pews, he was in fact walking the aisles, getting in people´s faces, and making no sense along the way. It was the strangest mass I´ve ever been to and I had a few moments where I expected the hidden camera to pop out on us.

We had a great brunch at friend´s of the Pratts and the weather was sunny with TONS of snowfall. On Monday I went skiing with those same friends. They, all much more experienced skiiers, faithfully led me through the motions. I did great until about mid-day when we partook in the German tradition of "huttas", pubs on the side of the ski mountain. It was fun all the same. That night I got a terrible cold/flu and still haven´t recovered entirely.

Atlanta was wonderful, saw my incredible parents. I think if I´d stayed any longer I wouldn´t have been able to leave again. We had three great nights with dinners with friends and LOTS of college basketball. I went to the airport on Saturday and waited to see if my Delta Buddy Pass would allow me to get on the plane or would have me bumped for Sunday. The flight attendants said it was overbooked, but at the last second I got on and go to go in FIRST CLASS!! Now every good thing must come to an end, and it did when I got to the Lima airport.

Surrounded by taxi drivers asking if I needed help, I diligently searched the names on boards from outstretched hands, but to no avail. Without any change, I couldn´t use the pay phone. So after exchanging some dollars, I was able to call my hotel and ask why on EARTH I was at the Lima airport at 12:00 am without a ride. The man I spoke to thought my name was Johnson, so I was yelling Y-O-U-N-G into the phone until he finally said someone would be there. An hour and half later, I arrived at my hotel.

It was a great hotel located in the Miraflores district of Lima, it´s apparently artsy and cool. I couldn´t tell from the short walk I took the pharmacy the next day, but I did spend the most of Sunday in bed. On Monday, I decided I´d try to walk to the beach. As I was getting directions, the woman at the desk told me that the two people (young english speaking white guy and girl) were going to the beach too. I finally got some courage and ran after them to see if I could tag along. I´m not usually the best at meeting random travelers, but I went for it, and I was so pleased with my leap of faith. We took a public bus to a four lane highway and then went under the under pass. I said "THIS is where we´re catching the bus?" they assured me this was what the woman at the desk had said. Then all the little busses started filling in and we finally found the one we needed. Only AFTER getting on this bus did I realize that the beach we were going to was in fact a beach town and it was an hour and half away. Ah well, at least I´ve got something to do I thought to myself.

The town had a small beach and a few beachside stands with food. We chilled out there all day, it was by no means white sandy beautiful, but it was a nice respite from the city and neat to see another way of life. We headed back to the hotel that night and I went to dinner with my new friends right on the main square in Miraflores. We went to a salsa place after dinner and shook a rug for a couple of hours, complete with lessons from "Antonio" who made it quite easy to feel like a latina dance machine. The next day we went down to the main square in downtown Lima and saw some historical stuff and ended the day out by the beach on the cliffs having dinner. Laura and Mandy arrived late that night and my new friends, Carrie and Brian, departed the next morning.

So suddenly I became the expert and showed Mandy and Laura around on their one day in Lima. I managed to find a place for lunch I´d been to the day before with a local we met. It was CLEARLY the place to be in Lima and we waited our turn, we were the only foreigners in the packed joint and quite pleased to know the inside scoop. We saw it all and did quite well for ourselves, aside from an evening bus tour that a local had recommended, it ended up being three hours in traffic with a woman describing things in spanish that we couldn´t understand or hear. We ditched the bus in order to make our dinner reservations at the other place to be in Lima, Rosa Nauticas. It´s definitely an expensive place, set on the ocean, literally, it´s out on a pier. It seemed to be catering to the rich Peruvians and the tourists. It was nice enough and then we headed back before our early departure the next morning to Cusco.

We got to Cusco and got settled at our AMAZING hostel. It´s two blocks from the main square which is soooo beautiful! It´s also near the art district, lots of great restaurants and bars. On Friday we took a day hike up to some ruins near Cusco called Saqsaywuaman, also remembered and pretty much pronounced as Sexywoman. It was good to start to get acclimated to the altitude, cause it is QUITE different. Basically any step you take in an uphill direction left me breathless. Whether that´s because of the cold I was recovering from, or the fact that I hadn´t run in MONTHS, I don´t know, but it was challenging all the same. The ruins were beautiful and got me really excited to hike to Machu Picchu and live in Cusco. Now continue reading to hear about Machu Picchu....

Headed to Machu Pichu

I have TONS to catch up on. But I´m in Peru and being picked up at my hotel at 4:00 am to hike the Inca Trail. I LOVE Cuzco and will write TONS more after my four day hike. -EKY V.

On the road again

I woke up in Cape Town on Wednesday morning with a feeling as though I was preparing for an athletic event. I diligently ate a hearty breakfast to ensure some endurance for my daylong excursion. After all, I was being picked up at 9 am to take a tour of South Africa’s winelands until about 5 pm. “Grant” picked me up and I said adieu to my lovely Hout Bay hosts and my beautiful B&B. Luckily we didn’t arrive at the first winery until 10:00 am, so I guess it was a little civilized to be enjoying the spirits at that hour. We were the first to arrive. Our first visit was a winery that boasts a blend called “The Trilogy” that was voted fifth best wine in the world. Unfortunately, they were low in stock and didn’t get to taste their claim to fame, but the rest was good. Grant held off on drinking, seeing as he was driving, and I sole-handedly did my best to pretend like I knew something about wine. After the third glass I realized that the pitcher and spittoon-looking thing were meant for me to rinse out my glass between wines…hahaha oops! The winery’s host had a seriously lazy eye, so I made sure to look at his good while trying to concentrate on what he was saying about the wines. It was a beautiful setting and I enjoyed their wines the best out of all of them. The second place was the oldest privately owned winery in the country. It was absolutely beautiful, set in the rolling foothills of the Drakenburg mountains. At this place, I had red wines, then port, then whites – a HUGE no-no in the ways of wine-tasting connoisseurs, but I held my own and did it my way. :)

At that point, I began finding the entire situation pretty comical. Here I was, at 11 am, feeling a little tipsy with some stranger, driving me around to all these wineries. We had lunch at the next spot thank god and then headed for the airport. It was a beautiful day and I enjoyed the wineries very much, but again, it would’ve been so much more fun to share the experience with someone other than Grant, the enthusiastic fellow with the lazy eye, and the Dutch Goth-girl who scoffed at me for going from red to port to white.

Upon arrival at the airport, I had some more grub and waited to board my plane. Once seated, my plane-pal, “Anders” the German model headed home from a shoot, notified me that our flight was 11 hours. OH MY GOODNESS!!! I knew it was going to be long, but subconsciously made a point not to check out the actual travel time. Flight went well, although it was overnight and I slept for a total of about 25 minutes.

Anders and I parted ways and I learned of the horrific-ness of the Frankfurt airport. No clear signage, a TERRIBLY slow customs woman, and construction, made my hour layover a continuous battle that ended with me sprinting up stairs and bursting into gate A16 for the final boarding call. I managed to get some sleep on the 40 minute flight between Munich and Frankfurt.

I feel as though this blog just got extremely boring, because honestly, who wants to hear about travel dilemmas. We all have them. Let’s just suffice it to say, there was a bit of miscommunication with my family in Germany and I had an eventful morning at the Munich airport which included: making security nervous after checking outside three separate times, begging a 20 year old girl to let me use the internet since it only took coins and I only had a credit card (couldn’t get out cash because Bank of America forgot AGAIN that I’m traveling and wouldn’t let me get money), begging a 40 year old man to let me use the internet (again, no luck), finally remembering my Kenyan shillings and exchanging them for Euros so I could get online, getting online to check email and seeing my cousin on g-chat (while I’m thinking she was going to be at the airport) – that was a funny chat to say the least, then hopping on three trains and arriving in beautiful Garmisch. I would never have made it if it weren’t for Hans, the German cologne seller who was headed in the same direction as myself. Thank you Hans.

Arriving to family after traveling for two months was so incredibly wonderful!! If you know me, you know how close I am with my extended family and I was ecstatic to see my aunt Marianna and cousin Abigail. We spent some time catching up, sharing stories, and reflecting on the insanity of our life paths at the moment. Then we all cleaned up and prepared for the influx of Garmisch women coming over for book club. Not much talk of the book, but it was a great to almost be a fly on the wall in a room full of mothers and have some delicious food. Relaxing today as some serious snow falls on this amazing town. Going up to Munich tomorrow, Easter brunch with friends on Sunday, and skiing next week. THEN HOME SWEET HOME ON WEDNESDAY!!!! I’ll keep you posted if something more exciting than travel stories comes up. ~EKY V.

Kickin' it in CPT, goin' with the flo' and growin’ up some mo’

During the course of our lives, we all have moments when we feel we’re getting older, maturing, and becoming an “adult”. I had one of those moments a few months ago in late December when I realized that for the first time in my life I had bought my own wrapping paper. I suddenly felt older, more mature, and more of an adult after proactively buying my own gift wrap as opposed to mooching off my mother for the 25th year in a row. While at the time I felt it was the pinnacle of my ascent towards adult-status, I knew there was another similar moment lurking around the corner. I had that moment yesterday when I rented a car, by myself, in a foreign country. Having never previously rented a car anywhere in the world, I achieved many firsts by conquering my virgin rental in South Africa. I signed the papers and felt an immediate sense of “adult-hood”, but more importantly, sweet freedom.

There is something to be said about flying solo down the coast (any coast) with the windows down and music blaring. It soothes the soul. With that being said, I have to recommend that everyone take the drive from Cape Town to the Cape of Good Hope at some point during your life. It definitely rivals the PCH. The almost orange rock cliffs on your left compliment the blue, blue sea stretched out to your right, and the silver boulders make a nice, solid divider between the two. You hug the curves and sneak glimpses into the seaside towns you pass along the way, or the pristine beaches on the floor below you.

This drive is the story I will recount, inshallah, to my children and my nieces and nephews when I encourage them to travel the world. It was just amazing. The freedom, the independence and the isolation really made me feel alive and made me feel that I had taken this journey for all the right reasons and gotten everything possible out of it. I used to sit at my desk for all those long hours and think “there’s has GOT to be more to it than this”. I know it sounds cliché, but it’s true. And it felt great to know that I’d gone out on a limb, WAY out of character, and taken the plunge to do what felt right – travel. This drive yesterday solidified all those feelings and brought everything full circle. (Davin – I was one of those people, driving down the road with a HUGE goofy grin on my face. I couldn’t help it.) (Jessica – I know Davin is not reading this, so please rely the message.)

Okay, so enough about the drive… what have I been all this time in Cape Town anyway? I think I left the blog on Saturday night. So I enjoyed a great dinner that night with Di and Don – my hosts while in Cape Town. Sunday I went down to the local Sunday market and checked out the local flavor. Then I grabbed a cab (cost me an arm and a leg) to Table Mountain. There I proceeded to wait in line for an hour before jumping on the cableway and heading to the Cape’s best known landmark. It was a PERFECT day and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The first people I enlisted for helping me take a photo of myself on afore mentioned landmark turned out to be from Hall County, Georgia. Small world indeed.

Now I’m going to get reader’s digest on you. Came down from the mountain and headed into the city. Checked out the famous V&A Waterfront, enjoyed a meal and beer on the edge of the water in a wonderful waterside café that was reminiscent of so many European cafes on canals and such. I tried to get out to Robben Island, where Mandela and so many other political prisoners were once held, but the tour was booked through next week (unless I wanted to come at 8:45 am, and the $50 cab ride wasn’t really in my budget for a second trip). So I hopped in another cab and came back along the coast, enjoying the sights of all the cute, bustling coastal towns. On Monday I woke up RARING to go and expecting to pick up my car at 10:30 am. As anyone who’s traveled to Africa would know, things don’t happen like that. So the car won’t be ready until 3:00 pm. Having already planned my route for my “day long” drive and planning to be at a winery all day Tuesday, this threw quite a wrench in my plans. But left with no other choice, I made due. Spent the morning at Kristenbosch one of the biggest botanical gardens in the world. It was BEAUTIFUL!!! Set on the side of the mountains behind Table Mountain, there may not be a more beautiful botanical garden in the world. It had insane plant life, but I couldn’t get over the setting. These perfect lawns of short grass surrounded by beds of beautiful plants and little benches dispersed throughout for those regulars who knew to bring a book and picnic lunch. Blue skies, warm sunshine, and a perfect light breeze to keep you from sweating. (Nicole – take your dinner break).

So THEN, I picked up the car and did the drive I spoke about earlier. On the way back from the Cape I stopped at Boulders Bay and chilled with the African penguins for a second – they were much happier than the ones at the GA Aquarium. I got back to Hout Bay just as the sun was setting, so as I approached the bay from over the mountains I had the bay and the sunsetting in front of me and a HUGE moon rising over the mountains to my right. I grabbed a quick dinner and headed back to my B&B.

Although I thought the car situation had thrown me off, it actually made things PERFECT! This morning I woke up early and decided to try to get out to Robben Island despite being deterred by the mere fact that they were sold out of tickets. BAM! I arrive ten minutes before it leaves and there’s space. The tour was incredible and both my guides were former political prisoners at Robben Island. It was on my list of things to do and it wouldn’t have worked if it hadn’t been for the botched car rental. Then I drove over to the Long Street Area and checked out the infamous party street – which did in fact have partiers (I think they were 14 years old) at 1:00 pm in the afternoon. I also made it to the Green Market Square and wished I had more money to buy things. I also wanted to mention that the drive into the city was another incredible sight. This time the mountains were on my right and as the sun rose over the Twelve Apostles (rock/mountain formation near Table Mountain) massive, strong rays of sunshines, sheets of light rather, shone between the twelve apostles. It was magnificent.

I returned to Hout Bay via the coast again, hugging the curves and relishing in the wind and music. I then made a special trip to Hout Bay’s claim to fame – “Fish on the Rocks”. I doused my bag of fish and chips with vinegar, dashed it with salt, and sat a huge picnic table to inhale my meal. Unfortunately, I was pressed for time to get the rental back and the two German girls sitting next to me watched in horror as a healthy portion of Hake and Chips disappeared before their very eyes.

I then walked up the hill (imagine walking to Susan Harmon’s from that big avenue way below) to relax in the pool/jacuzzi and read. Tomorrow I have a day’s tour of the local wineries before being dropped off at the airport to catch my overnight flight to Germany. I know I’ve kept you long enough. Hope you enjoyed those past photos. ~EKY V.

Photo Session

So please have a look at some long overdue photos, but also go beyond these and read the few posts below - these all went up in one night, so I'm sure you're a bit behind. The post prior to this one will explain the phenomenon of seeing photos on this website. It's a shock..I know. Enjoy! ~EKY V.

The view from my room in Mombasa - seems like ages since I was there!!

The table where we had many great lunches, dinners and games of Trivial Pursuit.

The driveway to Kimita - the location of Phil's dad's house and Phil's cottage.

Half of the wounds I've been dressing and cleaning for the past two months.

The other half of the wounds (and there's also the side/back wounds - but they didn't require quite as much attention).

Our plane and runway in the Serengeti on first safari with Steve and Jane.

Swervin' in the Serengeti

Tea time near the Gol Mountains

You can make out our tent at Nesera Rock, TZ in the bottom center.

View of a sunset over the plains from our tent - baboons live in the tree on the left.

Greystoke Lodge - where Lake Tanganyika meets the Mahale Mountains.

Not a bad spot for an upstairs afternoon read, or an evening's meal under the stars-only 12 allowed.

Upon finding the chimps despite the rain, we had to put on masks to protect the animals.

Do I have something in my eye? (They were about ten feet from me)

Sundowner (noun): beautiful spot with great sunset and wine or cocktail.

Resting grounds after long dinners and hiking for chimps.

Not a great shot, but that's a leopard walking about three feet from me.

Hopefully you've learned by now that this is called a sundowner.

You lose the quality and color on this small size, but you get the gist.

Just to make sure you realize how close we get to the animals-these lions mated five minutes later.

Just another example of the closeness to the wildlife.

Pretty plains of the Mara with a typical lone acacia at the horizon.

Again - the color gets washed out in these small versions. :(

The airstrip at the Masai Mara.

Hopefully this helps you imagine things a bit better. Don't forget to read the other new posts, there's a couple. ~EKY V.