Seeing the world, one map at a time.

From sun to torrential downpour in Florence

2011-06-05T15:11:00.000-07:00

It's Sunday morning and I can't wait to go back down to Florence to climb the steps. This was the one thing I hope to accomplish today - and by "steps" I can't remember if it's the dome or the tower, but either one will work for me. This will be my only day in Florence. After the Vespucci Institute, we'll head to Pisa. But first, it's time for breakfast at the hotel which was delicious. It consisted of cereals, ham, salami, cheese, yogurt, juices, fruit, toast, pastries, and Italian coffee or tea. At breakfast, I got a chance to see my friend Stéphane from Quebec! I didn't know he'd be in Fiesole for the Vespucci Institute and staying at the same hotel. It turns out that most of the hotel was filled with Vespucci participants. I'm glad I chose it.

I walked down the hill from our hotel to catch the bus and had a chance to pass through an interesting flee market set up in the main plaza of Fiesole on such a beautiful warm sunny morning.

I also passed a few sculptures which I had some fun photographing from different angles.

Bus number 7 drops off passengers within a short walk to the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. Along the walk you can find art everywhere along narrow roads and through massive doorways, not to mention an endless supply of gelato shops.

Before you know it, the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore comes into view and it's so enormous and ornate, no photo does it justice.

Wow!

There's a smaller building right across from the main church and it is called the Baptistry. The doors to the Baptistry are adorned with bronze sculptures of bible stories.

At one point, the church doors opened. I was able to get this quick shot of the priests (?) inside.
Climbing the stairs in the Duomo or the tower would require some euros and I didn't have enough. I really wanted to do this, but since I didn't know how or why I became so fixated on climbing the stairs, I couldn't really protest missing the opportunity. I know it was something that my friend Karl had mentioned to me, but getting to an ATM to get tickets and do this was not an option for some reason so I followed a podcast walking tour from Rick Steve's website. At this point I think I was on my way to the Ufizzi Museum with lots of art and narrow streets filled with people along the way.

Once at the Uffizi Gallery, the lines were long, but for four euros extra per ticket, you could get an assigned time of entry. Time for some gelato and more walking around. I saw this Martini sign and thought of my friend Theresa back in the states.

I even found the famous collection of locks. Apparently, couples add a padlock at this spot as a good luck charm.

The Uffizi Gallery was amazing. There were so many familiar works of art from a book I remember looking through so many times when I was a kid. I wonder if my mom still has that book.

After the museum, I walked over Ponte Vecchio to see the Arno River. The clouds were starting to roll in at this point, but it was still balmy outside.

From there, more walking to the Palazzo Pitti where a wine festival was taking place in tents lined along the edge of the plaza. Inside contains another museum, but after the Ufizzi, I just wanted to take photographs of the building and outside sculpture. At one end of the building you could purchase tickets, and then enter towards the middle of the building through a large archway. You can see the central archway in this picture below.
As you can see, there were lots of people sitting on the sloped plaza, enjoying wine and taking photographs. I wanted to go into the archway to see the inside courtyard, but you had to have a ticket in hand to go more than a few inches inside of the archway... until the rain started coming down in buckets. The woman in charge of keeping folks out of the archway eventually let everyone in to get out of the rain. Not just any rain, but a torrential downpour! It was unbelievable and when the rain wasn't enough, wind kicked in followed by a hail storm! A river of water and ice was literally blowing up hill into the archway. It was an unbelievable sight and something out of the ordinary according to the museum staff.

This poor guy probably wasn't expecting to be a participant in a wet t-shirt contest...

After at least an hour, maybe two, there was finally a break in the storm and the only chance to try to get back to the bus stop for Fiesole. The bus stop was at least a brisk 3o minute walk away and there were connecting buses to get there, but I got lost thinking I'd find my way back to the bus stop easily. I worried I wouldn't get off the connecting bus at the right stop and it was still raining and street signs are impossible to see because they are typically just white plaques posted on the sides of buildings at most, but not all intersections. The paper maps were reduced to shreds of paper machete material in no time. By the time I made it back to Fiesole, it was time for the reception and no time to make it back to the hotel to change out of wet clothes. Luckily I dried out a bit and warmed up quickly and had a great time meeting the other attendees. Unfortunately my shoes were soaked and would take a couple days to dry out completely. When I finally got back to the hotel, I still need some light so I read for an hour in the bathroom so I don't keep anyone awake. With no alarm clock in the room, I have to do some math to set the alarm on my tablet which has PST time and cannot be altered. I'm exhausted!

Off to Italy

2011-06-03T10:04:00.000-07:00

Well, I have two weeks of stories to reconstruct from photos, so bear with me while I sort things out! I just returned a few days ago, and I'm still trying to catch up on things. Our journey began on Friday June 3rd, not counting the weeks of planning that took place beforehand. The itinerary was to spend one week in Fiesole for the first week of the Vespucci Summer Institute, and the second week traveling around Italy. My friend Rhonda had some time to take Sean and I to the Goleta Airbus Station for the ride down to LAX at 10:00am. I was my usual excited self.

Our first adventure started with an unusually demanding woman scheduled to take the same Airbus down to LAX with us. Her behavior was a bit odd from the start which escalated quite a bit along the way. I'm trying to remember where she said she was from... Jerusalem, Bethlehem, or maybe she just said Israel... I can't remember now.

I like to sit in front, and apparently she does too, so when I sat down in her apparent seat, she got a little huffy. It may seem awful that I saw no need to move out of a seat that she decided to claim before she even got on the bus, but trust me, the driver surely preferred that she not sit so close to him with all her demands and aggression.

She was difficult to understand and had some trouble communicating even though her English seemed perfectly fine to me. She just had zero patience with anyone that didn't immediately understand what she wanted or meant by her half constructed utterances spoken at a tempo befitting of an auctioneer.

First she demanded to have her picture taken so she could have it added to some newsletter she was babbling about, but she didn't have a camera. Then she yelled about me taking her seat. Later she asked if I had a phone, to which I said yes, and then she asked to use it to call her relatives. Of course I said no and then she yelled at me. She asked why I would tell her I had a phone if I was not going to let her use it.

Between Goleta and the Santa Barbara stop, she went on and on about her Rolls Royce and limo service company, her husband (which she demanded to speak to which was obviously not possibly), and a bunch of other nonsense. When we got to the Santa Barbara stop, there was a limo in the parking lot. She asked the Airbus driver if she could get off the bus to see if it was her husband's limo. He told her he would leave her if she wasn't back by the time he finished loading the new passengers and she went into a rage and stormed off the bus to talk to the limo driver. I can only imagine the conversation she had with that unsuspecting limo driver.

Luckily, someone at the Santa Barbara stop spoke her language so she ended up moving to the back of the bus to sit with him or her. When it was time to get off the bus, she demanded the driver collect the food she had carried on to the bus and when he refused to carry her stuff she again went into a rage and stormed off. With no phone and terrible communication skills, I can only imagine what happened to her next. Her family was supposed to pick her up there, but LAX is a big place and I highly doubt this woman would stay in one place near the curb to be seen by passing cars.

We were there with plenty of time to spare, so we walked around for awhile. Sean took this cool picture of the list of international flights leaving from terminal four, and I got a cheese burger meal at McDonald's. Yes, that's me piling french fries on top of the patty. No, I don't know why or when I started doing this...

Where's our flight on the board? It's not. We flew out of terminal 2 on Alitalia which was a Delta code share flight direct from Los Angeles to Rome. The twelve hour flight was pretty uneventful. The video system wasn't working until the flight was nearly over and all that could be seen was True Grit filled with interruptions and static. We slept on and off, read books about Italy, and I had several articles to read for the Vespucci Institute. Special meals couldn't be ordered online, so we went with the standard meals instead of dealing with the hassle of calling Alitalia to make special arrangements. I had the veal and although it tasted more like dark meat chicken, it was pretty good! It came with a side of cheesy penne pasta, green beans and cured ham, and a collection of oddly crunchy yet sweet chunks of cantaloupe. I think it may have been soaked in sugar water.

We arrived on time, even a bit early I think, and headed in to the Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport (FCO) only to find that the mobile hot spot we rented from Cellular Abroad did not work. The display read "SMS Only" so we set out to figure out what was wrong by visiting phone stores in the airport hoping someone could help us check the device or the SIM card, but no one was able to help us. Needless to say, this generated quite a bit of stress but I knew we'd find our way. I rented to hot spot specifically for Sean so he'd feel more comfortable getting around during the week while I was attending the Vespucci Institute. If we didn't resolve this Internet issue, I knew it would cause problems, but there was nothing I could do so I though it better to enjoy this new environment the best I could while trying to keep Sean comfortable the best I could. To pass a little time before we had to catch a train to Florence, we visited the tourist information office and took a few photos from right outside of the Termini station. It's Saturday afternoon, and we're in Rome!

Getting to the Termini from FCO was relatively easy although having Internet access to make sure we were going in the right direction would have been beneficial. Here's a picture of someone running to catch their train, and here's a picture of Sean.

We're on the fast train from Rome to Florence. It's Saturday afternoon, and we booked a 2 for 1 deal well in advance. Luckily the train has free wireless so we're able to log in. The scenery from the train is beautiful and so green!

It was a bit rainy and humid as we passed rolling hills and lots of vineyards. When we got to the station, Sean got busy studying the map. This is just one of many "Sean studying the map" photos I have... of him in the green shirt.

Needless to say, I was pretty excited. Sean was more subdued, likely due to the hotspot issues and the lack of help we were able to get with our inability to speak any Italian. There's a church right outside of the Florence train station. It's pretty loud. I liked it.

We decided to try to walk to the bus stop we needed to catch the number seven bus from Florence to Fiesole where we would stay for the next week. Finding your way around a city that isn't on a grid system can be a bit tricky. We stopped at a TIM store to see if someone there could help us understand why our hot spot was reporting "SMS only" and the guy there spent a lot of time trying to help us. He suggested that the device needed to be unlocked and it may not be which would make the TIM SIM card inside unusable. There wasn't much else we could do until I was able to contact Cellular Abroad, so we began snaking our way through Florence to get to the bus stop. Along the way we passed through an incredible street market filled with all kinds of leather goods. I meant to make it back to this market but never did. So many beautiful jackets in styles that are never seen here in the States.

By the time we got to our bus stop it was starting to get dark. The buildings around the bus stop were interesting, and there's a bus waiting for us!

To ride the buses, you have to buy your tickets ahead of time at cigarette shops, news stands, or at the train station. They cost 1.20 Euro and can be used for 75 minutes. You just get it stamped the first time you use it and we were quick to learn that passengers usually wait until the bus starts rolling before stamping their ticket. Our ride up to Fiesole takes about half an hour or so, and affords amazing views of Florence as you climb up into the hills. Here's Sean on the bus (studying the map of course). As we got off the bus in Fiesole, I snapped this photo. Sean will take this bus almost every day while we're in Fiesole. It makes frequent trips down to Florence.

Finally, we're in Fiesole, we're tired, and we must have eaten something, but I can't remember what. The hotel is cute and our room has two twin beds and its own bathroom with a toilet, bidet, and a very small shower stall. The view from the window included olive trees and a narrow road below. I'm so glad we made it!

As soon as we got settled, I connected to the hotel Internet access and contacted Cellular Abroad right way to get assistance with the hotspot I rented. Since it was a Saturday, no tech support was available. The customer service person who did answer was impossible to deal with and had no interest in helping us. I have no idea why they would even have a customer service person available if they can't help customers and feel the need to be rude and unsympathetic. The guy we spoke to said we couldn't get help until 9:00am PST on Monday which for us would be in the evening on Monday. That means we would be without the use of the device we rented for three whole days. It was such a hassle and inconvenience, not to mention frustrating, but with nothing else to do, it's time to rest.

Tomorrow morning we'll ride the number seven bus back down to Florence for the day before we need to return to Fiesole in the evening for the open reception for the Vespucci Institute.

Agent-Based Modeling in Nelson BC, Hackathon Style

2011-04-28T09:02:00.000-07:00

I was up early enough on Monday morning to drive a partial loop around the town, grab some cereal and soy milk from the local grocery store, and discover the overwhelming beauty of Nelson I missed when I drove in under the cloak of darkness. I really should have brought a box of this cereal home with me. Sean and I discovered it in Vancouver and we loved it.

The city is sandwiched in between a lake and mountains all around. Somehow you miss the feeling that you've dropped down into a valley when you arrive at night. Downtown is relatively flat and adjacent to the lake, while the neighborhood gently climb up the mountain giving every home a stunning view.

Miles was there to collect me right at 9:30 and we walked from the WhiteHouse Backpackers Lodge up to his house. If you made this walk every day, you'd have buns of steel. Nelson has lots of environmentally conscious residents that walk just about everywhere.

He has a fun family. Elka is the sweet smiley baby of the house. Z is the energy of the house. He's probably wondering where I am right now. Kell is their oldest and he's a bit quite and reflective. He seems wise. Miles's wife Jane takes care of everyone, including me while I'm there. There are two dogs, too. One hyperactive Chester, one mellow Lola. I kept quiet about my allergies so I could pet them as much as I wanted. People tend to squirrel their pets away when they find out I have allergies. I was loaded up with antihistamine. I'm petting those dogs. I'm excited. One is jumping all over me. Jane and Miles are trying to make him stop while I'm probably encouraging the bad behavior by trying to get in as much petting as I can. Dogs are just rad. I'm reminded of Hyperbole and a Half.

We spent the first day reviewing models to see what we could re-purpose after talking a little bit about the goals for my project. On Tuesday we really dove in collaborating in a "designer to developer" style very much like my Adobe Flash Hackathon experience. We came up with an underlying TB model that is far more sophisticated than anything I would have been able to formulate on my own. Monday and Tuesday were ten hour days, and Wednesday stretched into twelve. All of the behavioral aspects were coded on Wednesday. We were both exhausted, and I'm not sure how Miles had the energy to push through for so long when he was up most of the night taking care of two sick children.

Going all the way to Nelson BC reminded me that what I do is important and valued. It's unfortunate that I often get bogged down by the politics of my committee. They have clear well intentioned goals for my dissertation work. To finish this degree, that's all that matters I suppose. Miles has had prior experience modeling the dynamics of disease diffusion and he was genuinely interested in my research questions. He's also had experience with policy makers and knows how to construct models that have the capacity to answer the types of questions they are most interested in. When we wrapped up on Wednesday night, the model was about 90% complete. Hopefully I'll be able to sort out the rest in the next week or two.

Thursday morning, after a failed attempt to find a geocache in the rain, it was time to pack up the car and start driving back to Spokane. Of course, right when I'm getting ready to leave, it starts snowing, but only for a minute. The snow came down in giant clumps like nothing I've ever seen before. They were literally big round splats a few inches in diameter. I'm not even exaggerating a little bit. I kept my fingers crossed that it wouldn't start up again, and headed over to the Ellison Market to buy some chocolate to bring home to Sean. This is where folks buy their fresh milk in glass containers among other things. I thought I'd ask the clerk how to get back to the highway that goes to the border. She was bewildered and clearly stressed by the question, so I stopped her mid stammer to let her know I had a map. I would guess that a lot of folks that live in Nelson take very few trips out of the city. The highway out of Nelson was literally a few blocks away.

The trees all around had a beautiful white dusting of snow and as I climbed out of the valley, it started snowing. I can't even begin to describe how spectacular the scenery was. The trees are enormous and everything was just so stunning in shades of green topped with fresh white snow and deeply contrasted by the dark wet pavement. Waterfalls were making their way down craggy rock faces at every turn, and the occasional creek over passes were mighty displays of white water rapids making their way down to the glassy river below. Unfortunately, I didn't stop anywhere along the snowy part to take any pictures because I didn't want to get caught up there should the light snow turn heavy. I have to say, I handled it really well.

The border crossing back to the US was less "interesting" accept that my car, bags, and suitcase were all searched. Not a lot of questions this time around which was fine by me. Heading back into the US, I just felt like the Border Dude was doing his job. A few days earlier when I was entering Canada, I felt like the Border Dude was interrogating me.

Once I was clear of the snow, I stopped a few times to take pictures at various heritage markers and the Box Canyon Dam.

The rest of the drive back to Spokane was relatively free of any precipitation, and traffic was at a minimum until a brief section through the middle of downtown. I stopped at the Mountain Gear store on Division which was somewhat anti-climactic. I was so excited to go there after having bought gear from their online store. It was very much like an REI, but I didn't find any deep discount sales racks. With still an hour before I needed to drop off the rental car, I stopped at a little Asian restaurant called the Mustard Seed for lunch. Nothing to write home about, so I'll spare you the bland review. I will say that the wait staff and manager were really nice and the service was fantastic.

I was in and out of there pretty quickly, arriving at the airport just in time to drop off the rental car before it started snowing again. It was only a tiny bit of snow that had no chance of surviving the warm pavement. Nothing like the giant snow clumps of Nelson, and certainly nothing capable of delaying my flight. In fact, the flight from Spokane to Phoenix was the highlight of the many flights I took for this trip. I flew on US Airways and they will charge you extra for what they consider "premium seats. When I booked, they only had premium seats left. I wasn't about to pay an extra $15 dollars for a premium seat, so I just didn't select a seat for the trip back to Phoenix from Spokane. When I checked in the day before my flight, an exit row seat was now available for no extra charge, so I took it.

When I got on the plane, it wasn't just any exit row seat, it was one of those super awesome exit row seats without a seat in front of it. Check out all of that leg room! It's a little wasted on someone as short as I am, but that didn't stop me from swinging my legs up and down like a kid on the playground.

On top of that, I had the good fortune of sitting next to Matt, a funny guy on his way to Vegas to celebrate his 40th birthday with his best friend.

My connecting flight to Los Angeles departed and landed on time and I thought I'd call the Santa Barbara Airbus office to see if by chance there was a bus back to Santa Barbara at 8:00PM when I landed. One was scheduled to leave at 7:30PM, and the one I had a reservation for was scheduled to leave at 10:00PM. To my total surprise, the 7:30PM bus was still circling the airport and I had literally 5 minutes to get off the plane and run through the airport down to the exits by baggage claim. I got out there exactly as the bus was pulling up in front of my terminal. I've never been so excited to get on a bus. This means I'll get home at 10:30PM instead of 12:30AM.

I've been home a few days now, and it has taken me some time to catch up on all the little projects that I'm involved with. Now it's time to see how far I can get with the model...

Next trip: San Francisco for Google I/O.

Outbound, Inbound, and Determined

2011-04-25T20:28:00.000-07:00

This is one of those weeks of travel I will surely remember for the rest of my life. I've been struggling with the coding environment for my dissertation models for quite some time now. I can do the simple things, but it's a slow process for someone without a computer science background. Logic is king in programming, and I am apparently pretty illogical most of the time. So what's a girl to do? Get help.

On April 19th, I contacted Miles Parker, ready for help. He's a software engineer that works in my field. This is important to me because I really wanted the agent-based modeling side of things to be done correctly based on the research questions in my dissertation proposal. I've been doing most of my coding in an environment Miles developed called AMP. It's free, open source, and has a lot of features to make model building easier for non-programmers like myself. Even still, what I'm trying to do goes beyond the typical model.

By Sunday, I was on the Santa Barbara Airbus down to LAX at 3:30 in the morning. Surprisingly, flights on Easter Sunday to just about anywhere are relatively affordable even when you book last minute. I wasn't just going anywhere though. I was heading about as far north as I'd ever been, and of course there was no direct way for me to get there.

For starters, I needed to get to Spokane, Washington, and I needed to get there as early in the day as possible with a returning flight that's after noon. That pretty much excludes flying out of Santa Barbara, so down to LAX I went for a 7:45AM flight to Phoenix and then on to Spokane.

When I arrived at the airport, an earlier flight to Phoenix was just boarding. I thought for a second, I should ask if I can get on that flight. A longer layover in Phoenix would be better because wireless Internet is free there. It's usually not a problem to switch if there are seats in coach available and it usually won't cost you anything. I should have asked. Hindsight = 20/20

My 7:45AM flight was delayed a good 2 hours making me miss my connecting flight. There was quite a bit of commotion on the plane since we had all boarded, yet couldn't get off the ground. This wasn't a case of "trapped on the tarmac" though.

Our delayed flight had thirty North Carolina bound passengers that were originally on another flight that was cancelled. They were all taken off the plane and moved to another flight. There was one family and another woman who were missing their connecting flight to Cancun. Since it was the only flight from Phoenix to Cancun, they were given the option to be stuck in Los Angeles for the night, or travel on to Phoenix to be stranded there for the night, assuming our plane would get fixed. Others were missing their connections to Germany. I never quite heard what happened with them.

Then there was the man from China sitting right in front of me. He was trying to get to Spokane, too, and he spoke little to no English. I showed him my boarding pass and did my best to communicate to him that he should stay with me. The whole time I was thinking about how confusing this must be for him.

Once we landed in Phoenix, we were put on a flight to Portland, and then from Portland we were put on a flight to Spokane. With the help of free wireless Internet in Phoenix, I was able to use Google translate to give him some general information. For instance, he was clearly not a regular traveler in the US because he walked off and left his big duffel bag unattended. Lucky for him, I saved it from being picked up by security.

I've never been to Portland, but it sure does look like a great place to visit. Check out this photo from the plane taken a few minutes after take off:
The original plan was to land in Spokane at 1:15PM. Of course, I don't arrive until 6:20PM. The goal to get to Spokane early was not met and I haven't even told you why I was so concerned about getting there early.

Miles lives far away. Yeah, you get that, but I'm talking all the way up in Nelson, British Columbia. The only practical way to get there is to fly to Spokane and drive the remaining 155 miles north to this little mountain town. From the Spokane airport, you're driving right through downtown, and then after that you're on winding two lane highways the rest of the way.

I had a super cheap rental car waiting for me at the airport ($9.99 a day with unlimited miles, gotta love Enterprise), but since it was getting dark with a potentially icy/snowy drive ahead, I was easily talked into an upgrade. At $17 a day, I was okay with it. Insurance on top of that was a bit pricey, but better safe than sorry. By 7:00PM, I was on the road in a Ford Escape. I felt ready to conquer the road doing my very best to keep ice and snow fears under control.

What I hadn't anticipated were deer. I saw a few of them ever half hour. Big ones, little ones, darting across the road like nobody's business. Every "I hit a damn deer" story I'd heard from friends over the years was playing over and over again in my head. I tried drowning it out with satellite radio, which was something I'd never experienced before. Since I practically had the death grip on the steering wheel, I didn't explore many channels. I spent most of the drive listening to comedians on The Foxxhole. Thankfully there was no snow or ice to contend with and rain was light and never lasted for more than a few minutes.

Being afraid takes up a lot of energy, and by the time I got to the border, I was thoroughly rattled. It was after 9:00PM when I drove up to the border. It seems that there was just one guy working each side. I pulled up to the window and the questions began. On the surface, the questions could make for a friendly conversation, but the tone always makes you feel like you are being interrogated.

Border Dude: ID please. Where are you going.
Me: Hanson
Border Dude: Where?
Me: Nelson! Nelson - sorry about that...

(So now I just assume I seem suspicious because I don't appear to know where I'm going. Damn deer have scrambled my brain.)

Border Dude: Why are you going to Nelson.

(Notice I end that sentence with a period, not a question mark because none of the questions ever really come across like true questions.)

Me: To visit my friend Miles.

(Now up until this point, Miles is somewhat of an imaginary friend. He's real and all, I just haven't met him. I've read loads of his stuff, watched a few of his narrated power point presentations, emailed back and forth with him, and had conversations about him with other people in my research circle who know him and have a great deal of respect for his work. So I say "friend" to make the questioning easier.)

Border Dude: Does Miles have a last name.
Me: His last name is Parker.

(I successfully suppressed my snarky impulse to say "Last name? Of course not! He's just like Cher, Madonna, and Prince.")

Border Dude: How did you meet Miles Parker.
Me: On the Internet

(Border Dude raises an eyebrow.)

Me: But not like that! We do the same kind of research and he's going to help me finish my dissertation model.
Border Dude: What kind of research do you do.

(See now, this is problematic because he doesn't really care and what we do is "complex" and tedious to explain to someone who doesn't really care.)

Me: Agent-based modeling of infectious disease.

(I doubt he knows what I'm talking about, but like I said, he's not asking because he cares. He doesn't even try to add the intonation that indicates a question rather than a statement.)

Beyond that, he asked the typical questions: what are you transporting, are you leaving any gifts behind, where are you staying, for how long, do you have any firearms, dairy, meat, fresh fruit, etc. The whole process took a good 10 minutes and luckily I was practically chanting "I want my stamp, I want my stamp" over in over again in my head because in the end, I had to ask for a stamp in my passport. He put it on the page with my Vancouver stamp, and life was good.

I rolled out to find a herd of deer right around the corner. Someone needs to eat these guys. Seriously.

Most of the drive was pitch dark but I could tell there was still snow here and there. When I dropped down into Nelson, I pulled off at the Alpine Motel to call Sean to let him know I made it to town. I had told him I'd call him from the border, but I just wanted to part ways with Border Dude and keep driving. Sean helped me navigate to my final destination.

I was staying at the WhiteHouse Backpackers Lodge in a dorm room for $25 a night. I had called ahead to let them know that I'd arrive after 10:00PM and they left a note and a key in the mailbox for me. It's a good thing I called from Phoenix because I had made all of the arrangements online and they had booked me into one of the male dorm rooms. Apparently, my name is quite androgynous or perhaps even masculine because I'm often not automatically assume to be female based on my name. I'm actually quite thankful for that, but in this case, I'm glad things were clarified.

I was in room #2 which had two sets of bunk beds, an armoire with four compartments that could be locked, one end table per bunk bed, and a clip on light attached to each bed. A bright orange and red towel was waiting for me on my bed along with a note from the woman that runs the house. The bed above me was occupied, as was the top bunk across from me. The girl above woke up to say hello and tell me her name and her friend's name. Of course I can't remember either one of those names now, but they were young and very nice hippie girls. I was meeting Miles to start working on my model at 9:30 the next morning. After such a long day, I was asleep instantly.

Anza-Borrego March 30th

2010-03-30T22:54:00.000-07:00

Tuesday morning and our last day in the park. Miraculously, no chairs took flight and flew across the desert during the gale force gusts. Somehow they were neatly folded up in the sand right below where they previously stood.

The small wall behind our camp was covered in all kinds of wildflowers.

Apricot mallows...
This area also had more spiny dangers than any other place we'd visited thus far. Just look at all of those jumping chollas! Other cactus plants were plentiful as well.
King of the hill! I was too afraid to go up there. It was literally a maze of hazards, so I just walked around the wall to find beautiful ocotillos....Dozens of buds soon to open....Hedgehog cactus near and far...After breakfast, we packed up and decided to check out a short Narrows Earth loop followed by a longer hike up to the Maidenhair Falls before starting the long drive back home. I was so relieved to have survived another camping trip. One of my best friends joked that I had better remember what to do this time because I could no longer fall back on being a newbie. I still couldn't remember what to do, but luckily I didn't get in trouble for it.

Before we left the Mine Wash area, we stopped at a Kumeyaay Village. A couple RVs had camped there the night before, letting off fireworks which we could see and hear from our camp up the road. Probably not the smartest thing to do in the desert. Luckily all this took place before the winds kicked up. They were fast asleep while we explored the village area.

In addition to the wildflowers, there were lots of morteros to find and caves to explore, but we didn't actually go in.
This little area was a great place to photograph the different varieties of cactus because the path was well worn and relatively wide. The worst thing you can do is back into one cactus while trying to photograph another.
Check out this round monster:
Lots of cactus in bloom:
Our next stop was just a little east of the Mine Wash area for a short geological walk named Narrows Earth. Here you can see a fault.......and here are some of the oldest rocks in the area...Wildflowers were abound here as well.
Our next stop took us back up north in the park to the visitor center for a quick stop to pack our lunches and then on to the trailhead for Hellhole Canyon. With a name like that, you wouldn't expect anything inviting, but the reward of the 20 foot Maidenhair Waterfall brings lots of visitors to this area.

The first part of the hike climbs gently up a gradual incline passing blooming barrels, beaver tails, and hedgehogs, along with various other wildflowers like apricot mallows, brittle bush, chia, fiddlenecks, chickory, and several others. The final stretch of the hike to the waterfall includes several creek crossings and bolder hopping to get around various sections. After passing a few smaller waterfalls, Maidenhair Falls comes into view and can be recognized by it's size and adjacent wall of maidenhair fern. I would guess that the falls are more like 15 feet tall, but all guide books suggest 20 feet. The extra water up here supports a few palm oasis and trees that seem giant after spending so much time with low growing cacti. Not too far from the start of the trail, we came across three piles of rocks without any markers. I took a few photos on our way out.

A mystery I'd like to find information about:I took very few photos on the way up to the falls because the trail was hot and exposed for most of the way, but for wildflower viewing, this was a great hike. I love the apricot mallows and we came across several big bushes in full bloom. Luckily it was a bit windy providing some relief from the heat, while at the same time requiring more effort to make it up the canyon. Coming down was a breeze, no pun intended.

After one last stop at the visitor center to throw out some trash and rinse off under an available spigot, it was time to head home. It seemed like the longest drive ever, but we did pass some Happy Holsteins hanging out in fields of yellow flowers.After a stop at REI and BJ's for dinner in Arcadia, we finally made it home late Tuesday night. Hooray for a hot shower! Between the two of us, I'm sure there were over 1,000 photographs taken. I took nearly 500 myself. If you're thinking about checking out the desert wildflowers, now is definitely the time to go!

Anza-Borrego March 29th

2010-03-29T19:31:00.000-07:00

Sunday night in Anza-Borrego was incredibly quiet and still, and when the sun came up on Monday we got an early start to beat the heat. We had our very own ocotillo plant right on the edge of our camp, along with desert lilies, blooming beaver tails, creosote bush, along with several others. Everything around was remarkably green.Because the road was just a little too crazy, we didn't drive all the way up to the calcite mine area the night before, but we were close and Sean mapped out a 5 mile loop for us to hike which included a trek through a cool slot canyon. Here's the first view of the canyon from the road above, and there are actually two canyons to explore:Once we dropped down into the slot canyon, we found some desert lupine along with a few other flowers (names I forget!).
It was so much cooler down there. The perfect place for a desert hike!

Apparently there is a really skinny area that was once known as "Fat man's misery" but since the canyon is always evolving, it's hard to pinpoint exactly where this super skinny place might be. Sean and I passed through the whole canyon without any trouble. Of course, neither of us are fat men. In any case, we did see quite a few flowers in the canyon that we couldn't find anywhere else. Once out of the canyon, we hiked up the road to the old calcite mines. Along the way we found these two giant boulders that looked like desert watchers. They were home to lots of little birds.We also saw lots of lizards, but this guy was particularly energetic. We caught him doing push ups. I should have tried to get a video:
The second slot canyon was a lot wider with a few open areas where you could find enormous boulders that had fallen from the cliff walls.
Here's a perfect example of why a DEM is only 2.5D:
The road we drove on is probably right along this area. Luckily we didn't have to scale up that wall to get back to the car. A few feet ahead we found a jeep road to get us back up out of the canyon. After such a long way without any sign of civilization, it was weird to come around a bend and see something metal.

During our entire time in the Calcite Mine area, we only saw a few other people.

We hopped in the truck and headed west to visit Fonts Point. It was quite a view, but lots of giant flying ants chased us away. We saw so many desert lilies in the Calcite Mine area and also around Fonts Point, but none of my desert lily pictures are in focus for these two locations.

After Fonts Point, we headed north up through the small town of Borrego Springs on our way to a little place called Desert Gardens, but not before stopping for some grapefruit and tangerines. Yum. We should have bought a whole bag.

We stopped at the Desert Gardens which consisted of two picnic tables and ate our lunch under the shade of an ocotillo. This was the first place we saw indigo, and I think the first blue flower all together.
Blooming beaver tails were easy to find here too.
There were loads of people out towards Desert Gardens. Part of the area is accessible by a paved rode, and the rest is bumpy and dirt yet we saw so many cars trying to make their way up the road. We made it through two river crossings, but the third was completely flooded out. You can see the road going off into this brush area with the 3rd crossing sign off to the right.
We drove back out and headed towards the Anza-Borrego visitor center. Along the way we saw elephants in the field. Turns out the elephants were just the beginning of iron grandeur. We can all thank Dennis Avery for the curiosities all located on his Galleta Valley Estate.

The Anza-Borrego visitor center was closed by the time we arrived, but the parking lot was still mostly full. Lots of people were walking around the property taking pictures.
The name plates next the the plants were very helpful and they had really cool profile maps out to help visitors identify the peaks.

From the visitor center, we headed south to the Mine Wash turnout to find a place to camp for the night. Here we saw a few jack rabbits fly across the road in front of us, and loads of wildflowers everywhere. It was too dark to get many photos when we finally got settled, but I knew the next morning would be perfect.
It was definitely colder and the wind really began to tear through the canyon during the wee hours. I thought for sure I'd find my chair half a mile away tangled up in an impossible tussle with a jumping cholla. Between the super bright moon and the howling winds, I hardly slept.

Palm Springs to Anza-Borrego March 28th.

2010-03-28T15:40:00.000-07:00

On our way out to visit the Palm Springs Indian Canyons before the drive to Anza-Borrego, we stopped at the Rock Garden Cafe for Sunday Brunch.
For $10, you get quite the breakfast selection and you can have as much as you like. We had no idea what to expect. If you Google this place, you'll find quite the range of reviews. The patio was nice and shady, and the food and service were totally fine. Sure it's not anything like Cheeky's and their haute breakfast offerings, but the Rock Garden Cafe had plenty of appeal.

After breakfast, we headed over to the Indian Canyons for a hike through the palm oasis. It costs $8 a person to enter the canyon, but it's beautiful with lots of wild flowers. Thankfully this rock stays put while you head up to the parking area:
There was a fire through here in the '80s, but palms are remarkably resilient. The first bunch on this particular trail are just down the hill from the Trading Post.

Lots of brittle bush on the way down, or at least I think this is brittle bush... This particular palm is bound and determined to get some sun...Pretty pink mallows ...and these purple guys that look like fireworks shooting out of their middles...Each palm oasis provided a welcome retreat from the blazing sun, yet the open vistas were equally spectacular. Further up the valley we found many barrels and beaver tails in bloom. We saw a few other members of the cactus family along the trail, looking just as thorny as ever... Little water falls built up small pools along the trail that were all too inviting. Heading out, I tried to get a shot that could show just how big these palms were, but they really are too big to properly get into the shot!
From here, we drove to Anza-Borrego to find a place to camp. We stopped at the AM-PM to scrub the windshield and grad a frosty mango slurpee with a color quite similar to these sunset skies I captured from our camp as the sun was going down. As we were driving in to the park, ocotillos were ablaze as far as the eye could see! Here's a little bit of zoom so you can see the ocotillo silhouette in the distance. The drive along Calcite Road to our campsite was an adventure in and of itself. Super steep sections, lots of boulders, and more blind corners than you'd care to know about. Luckily there aren't many cars to compete with on a road like this.

Palm Springs - March 26th & 27th

2010-03-27T13:35:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, Sean and I heading out to Palm Springs and the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park to hike around and see wildflowers. After a long traffic enhanced drive out to Palm Springs on Friday, we settled in to the very cool Pepper Tree Inn located just a mile or so away from the road that leads up the to the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. It was dark by the time we arrived, so we checked in and then headed over to an entertainment center called The River at Rancho Mirage for dinner at PF Chang's. Three appetizers and brown rice to share goes a long way at PF Chang's. I wish there was a PF Chang's closer to home.

A nice feature of the hotel was a 24hour outdoor salt water pool. There was a spa too, yet not salt water. A warm swim in the pool before bed helps you sleep like a baby.

The hotel provided some breakfast items, but nothing substantial enough to fuel us for our anticipated hike in the snow above Palm Springs in the Mount San Jacinto State Park on Saturday, so we headed over to Cheeky's next door.There was about a 20 minute wait for a table, so we took a walk up the street and took some pictures of the interesting art installations.

Cheeky's is very popular, and it's easy to see why. Tap water comes in a pretty bottle and maple syrup is served in a little metal container shaped like a log cabin.
The menu was filled with familiar breakfast items, each one with an interesting twist. I tried the bacon's flight which consisted of 5 different flavors of bacon and two eggs. Sean had the egg sandwich, and we both shared a blueberry corn pancake. Doesn't it all look great?!
I'm not sure what time we actually ended up on the road to the tram, but it certainly wasn't "early". No worries though, we were excited to be on our way.
It was interesting to see the reaction of so many tourists riding on the shuttle between the parking lot and the tram when the driver announced 32 degree temperatures and several feet of snow awaiting us at the station at the top. Most people were dressed in shorts and t-shirts, perfect for the desert below.

The first part of the ride looks much like hot rocky desert....
but that quickly gives way to glistening white snow around big pine trees with dusty hot Palm Springs way down below.
The tram rotates as it travels up and down the mountain. If you haven't taking a ride up to the top, we highly recommend it. We got a little discount from our hotel, but you can usually get the same discount with AAA. You can order tickets online, but I think you can only get the discount when purchasing tickets at the station. Getting out discount through the hotel saved us the time of waiting in line at the station. You'll find lots of Palm Springs hotels offering tram packages.

While there was lots of snow, it was pretty icy. I'd never walked on snow for more than a minute before and it took some getting used to. Luckily I had poles to keep me from slipping around. I was a little afraid, but as you can see, Sean was so excited!

Wait for me!

We never did find the ski hut to rent snow shoes, but we were somewhat fine without them. We didn't hike to the peak because we didn't have enough daylight, but we did make it around the nature trail and the desert view trail. A nice jumble of rocks overlooking the valley below made a great lunch stop.This little guy couldn't wait for us to leave some crumbs behind.
After lunch, we started to climb up a hill to find a geocache, but I chickened out. Every so often I'd either slip and slide out of control, or sink down several feet which I think is called post-holing. I opted to take a nap at the bottom of the hill until Sean got back to show me how to make a snow angel:
We were there for several hours, but we didn't really travel all that far in comparison to our regular hikes back home in Santa Barbara. The cold and elevation wiped us out but the views were totally worth it.
On the way back down, I snapped a shot of the other other tram car on it's way up. If you look closely, you can see a guy taking photos of us as we're trying to do the same thing.
Back down in Palm Springs, the temperatures were mild and the moon was just coming up.

We could also see lots of windmills on the way down too.
Back down from the mountain, we walked around downtown Palm Springs, had a bite to eat at a Thai restaurant and then headed back for our last night at the Pepper Tree Inn. Perhaps the elevation from the hike earlier that day zapped both of us because we were dead asleep within minutes.

It was hard to leave our little desert paradise the next morning. We would have arranged the trip the other way around with the Pepper Tree Inn stay after the camping portion of our trip, but the forecast predicted high winds in Anza-Borrego for Friday and Saturday. Desert wildflower viewing and wind don't mix, so we decided to wait it out in Palm Springs.

June 14th - Waking up in Naivasha

2009-06-14T22:39:00.000-07:00

Up at dawn, Theresa and I showered and went out to the dock on the lake with a very sleepy Peter trailing behind us. We were told that we could see the hippos going back out into the lake if we arrived around 6:00am.
Here's the view from right outside our hotel room:
A little hard to see, but they are out there:
There were already some tourists out there. We didn't stay long and before you knew it, Peter had climbed down from the dock and was walking along the "at your own risk beyond this point" shore while Theresa and I took a quick stroll around the property just to check things out before heading back to the lobby to arrange a bird watching walk with Joseph.

We had tea and coffee while waiting for our guide and then toured the property in search of birds and interesting plants to photograph.

This place really has it all. There's a camel on the property for those who want to ride along the lake shore and there are also stables for those interested in traditional horseback riding.

The property is beautifully landscaped and you'll see bougainvilleas in every imaginable color.

There were even cute little monkeys running around everywhere (although we weren't thinking they were so cute when they were screaming just before dawn),

and lots of birds of course...
...even ducks that like to live way up high in the trees:
After a fantastic buffet breakfast complete with an omlette and crepe station, we loaded up our boxed lunches and hit the road for Nakura around 10am. We quickly discovered some issues with the rental car, so we stopped at a gas station and discovered what turned out to be a major issue: snapped fan belt which sheered off some bolts in the process along with overheating and either a broken or missing radiator cap!
Luckily there was a welder within walking distance (or pushing distance) of the service station. Unfortunately, there was a little hill big enough to require a small village of men to push the Prado up the driveway onto the road. We were there (back and forth between the service station and the welders) from 10:30am until 4pm. It was amazing to find something open on a Sunday and equally amazing to see them fix the car without all of the usual gadgetry you find in the states at our shops.

Theresa and I were having a great time, covertly snapping photos of everything including this family of four that stopped by the station to gas up.

We walked down to a hotel called the Sweet Banana to take a photo, but chickened out when we saw a man leering down at us from the upstairs patio. We passed one of those crazy butcher shops too, but again, no photos were snapped.

Back at the gas station, we found a little boy named Ben to play with. He and his mother were their waiting for Samuel, one of the mechanics who was working on our car.
Give a little kid some chips coupled with the fact that Theresa was probably the first white person he'd ever seen, and you've definitely made a friend for life.

Ben was ridiculously cute. We took lots of pictures and I got their address so I could mail them some prints. We were finally off to Nakura National Park!

Of course, we arrived much later than expected, and were nearly denied entry into the park. Peter always knows how to handle these situations. Before you knew it, the largest expanse of flamingos you could ever imagine appeared before us.

The sun was going down quickly, but we did get a chance to see a stunning rainbow, grazing animals, and even a rare white rhino!From high above, we spotted this white rhino heading towards a watering hole.Peter snapped this picture of Theresa and I. We are only a little bit exhausted...

Of course, only a crazy Kenyan would rush down the road to the valley below to get a close up of such a large wild animal...At this point, we headed out of Nakuru and back to Nairobi. By this time, we were so used to the crazy drivers and arbitrary check points, nothing phased us.

June 13th, 2009 - Making our way out of Nairobi

2009-06-13T22:08:00.000-07:00

Today we rented a 4WD and left Nairobi for Naivasha to visit Hell's Gate National Park which is about 90km away from Peter's house. It took awhile to find a rental company renting for the right price. One thing is for sure in Kenya: Everything is negotiable.

For $19,500 Kenyan Shillings, we got a Prada 4WD for two days. While driving to Naivasha, we stopped momentarily to take pictures at a beautiful view point. I say "momentarily" because it was a tourist stop with many merchants and we had no interest in buying anything.
Here's a shot of the shops that line the view area. Vendors aren't shy. They start heading your way as soon as you park the car.
We got to Hell's Gate and as usual, the entry fee was more at the gate then what we found online. Theresa and I weren't able to get a student discount but that didn't stop us.

We say lots of people with rented bikes, which seemd like a great idea until we saw the clouds of dust they had to deal with every time cars and trucks came down the road.

I wasn't expecting to see animals, but there they were! Right by the side of the road! Zebras, buffalo, giraffes, warthogs, gazelles, and lots of fearless baboons.
Here's my friend Peter feeling brave enough to jump out of the car to be photographed.
Check out these big baboons running right alongside the road with us. Sorry the view isn't exactly great from behind...
We got to the picnic area for lunch and elected to eat our packed lunches from the car where we could be entertained by a group of women outside at a picnic table nearby. The baboons descended upon then numerous times to steal their lunch items right out of their hands. These guys were huge and came extremely close to our car.
Peter almost left to arrange a local guide for us without leaving us the keys to roll up the windows if necessary! The baboons were on top of the truck next to us in no time at all and we even witnessed the trapping of one for identification purposes. Our guide Jackson later told us that the largest animals become too dangerous and are usually destroyed to protect the visitors to the park. Sad by necessary I suppose.

Hell's gate has only been a national park since the 1980s. There were Maasai living there, but they were displaced when the Kenyan government took the land and burned down all the villages. It's a terrible story. Now, community members are hired as guides which help the local people earn a little extra money from tourists.

The walk through the gorge was spectacular. It went on forever, but we didn't go in very far. There were too many scrambling parts for dear Theresa, but some day I'll come back and trek the entire gorge. You can see here that it starts out as a trickle...
...and quickly deepens into a spectacular gorge.
With so many river crossings, it was easier to walk around bare foot. The bottom of the gorge is mostly soft and silty.
We also found the most amazing hot springs. They weren't pools like back home, but more like hot waterfalls. Not too hot, just perfect. In fact, it was a lot warmer with much more water pressure than Peter's shower back in Nairobi! Here I am under the warm falls with Jackson our guide smiling in the background.
The only unfortunate aspect of the trek was a large group of disrespectful Korean kids (teens to early 20's) that were making all kinds of noise. Their behavior was really embarrassing. We stayed behind with our guide Jackson to put some space between us and them.

Near the end of the walk, Theresa bought some bracelets from the Maasi women, and I got out picture taken with Jackson in front of the gate.

As we drove out, we saw many animals and striking geological features before leaving the park to find lodging.
We also so a crowd of rock climbers bravely ascending this steep rock:
Peter called his friend Magdalen from GBS to get a recommendation on lodging in the area. She recommended a place called the Lake Naivasha Country Club & Hotel where she has taken many tourists. She gave us the name of the manager she works with and Peter and I were able to negotiate a fantastic deal even though Magdalen's contact was not in.

For 10,870 shillings, we shared an amazing bungalow with three beds under mosquito nets.
The price also included three meals that were served buffet style and they even packed up our lunch picnic style since we were checking out in the morning. The food was so delicious. The whole experience was such an amazing deal at one of the most beautiful places I've ever stayed for roughly $140 USD.This place was spectacular. The acacia trees were so beautiful but you'll have to wait until tomorrow's post to see them since we arrived when it was too dark to get an acceptable photograph.

We tried to get to sleep early so we could get up at dawn to see the hippos and go on a bird walk before breakfast. After all the driving, it was easy to fall asleep quickly. Here you can see Peter nearly asleep in the chair before finally dragging himself to be bed.

Kilimanjaro: Day 6

2009-06-08T02:28:00.000-07:00

June 8th, Monday!

I attempted to get up early, but I wasn't in my sleeping bag last night until 11pm.

It took me awhile to reorganize everything in my bag, filter and zap my water with my steripen, try to wash up as best I could, and get out of the tent for breakfast.

I gave tips to a few of the porters that I wouldn't see again, and everyone sang the Kilimanjaro song to me!

The walk out to Mweka Gate was through the cloud forest. It was cool and beautiful the whole way, with lots of little flowers, giant trees, and even a few Columbus monkeys. Finally to the gate, with a bladder the size of a watermelon, I signed the last book and got my certificate for reaching the top!
For some reason, they put 2:00am as my accent time, but who cares, I made it, and I have pictures (and rock solid legs) to prove it.

We drove back to Moshi, and after an expensive call to the states to clear up the hold on my bank account due to "suspicious overseas spending", Godfrey and his dad dropped me off at the hotel for a long overdue shower.

He came back to get me around 4:00pm for a walk around the town. Godfrey took lots of pictures for me. Some are out of focus and probably need some adjusting, but I'm so glad to have these pictures because it was practically impossible to take pictures of the markets in Nairobi. Godfrey is great at taking pictures discretely from his side or from waist level which explains the off kilter and focus issues:

We stopped at an Internet cafe, the post office to send one last postcard, and dinner at a little restaurant where I had a well earned Kilimanjaro beer!

Kilimanjaro: Day 5

2009-06-07T02:04:00.000-07:00

June 7th, Sunday accent day!

I think Godfrey came calling for me around 11pm. It was cold and I was exhausted because I had hardly slept. I slept in most of what I wanted to wear so all I really needed to put on were my windproof guide pants over my mystery pants that were over my Cap4 pants that were over knee high Patagonia sock liners. I also wore a pair of wool extra support Keen socks and pasted toe warmers between them before putting my hiking boots on. On top, I had on the same sports bra I wore all week, under long sleeve cap 1, under a long sleeve Cap2, under an R1, under my big yellow Patagonia DAS jacket. On my hands, I wore glove liners, and Black Diamond gloves.

I was a little confused (probably due to lack of sleep) regarding what was ahead. I started to pack up my sleeping bag not remembering that we were returning to Barafu for lunch after the summit before descending all the way down to Mweka Camp. After wasting a bit of time and energy there, I went to the kitchen tent to try to eat breakfast with Godfrey. Chew, swallow, chew, swallow, chew, swallow... it was hard to even look at food, let alone consume it. I really regret not making time to find some goo or Cliff Blocks before I left home.

Tonight, I'm heading to the peak with both Godfrey and Willie. The first part of the hike requires scrabbling over some boulders, so we won't be using our poles. The mountain was bright, bathed in the light of the full moon. We didn't need to use our headlamps. In fact, headlamps made things more difficult because the LED light just reflected off the snow and right back into your eyes.

There were some people way ahead of us. I wish I hadn't looked up to see them. The best advice I can give anyone attempting something like this is: don't look up, just put one foot in front of the other, and you'll get there.

My pack was as light as I could get it, only carrying water, GPS, camera, and warmers to keep the batteries from freezing. I had some cookies and candies that Godfrey stuffed in my pocket too. I was warm with all of my layers, almost a little too warm, but I wasn't to the point of sweating out.

The first part of the hike over rocks and boulders was far more difficult than I would have expected. It was cold and there was really no trail that could be seen easily. I had to be pulled and hoisted along for part of this stretch. It certainly wasn't easy, and just a little bit scary.

Once we got beyond that point, it was a long stretch of zigzags up to Stella Point. I wouldn't necessarily call them switch backs, because the path was more irregular. There was a thin layer of snow on the ground from the day before, but the trail was easy to see because the contrast of nearly black earth next to bright white snow glistening in the moonlight was very striking. There were also many large rocks along the way that served as resting points when I really thought I could go no further without a break.

There where times when we let teams pass us, and then there were times when we caught up to them and passed them, but ultimately, they all passed us in the end. I was going pole pole in the extreme sense of the Swahili for "slow". I took a deep breath with nearly every step I took which resulted in some kind of "Indy specific" rest step. The air pressure was... well, there was no air pressure! I'm kidding, I'm kidding...but seriously, the air pressure was so little that it was pretty difficult to fill up my lungs. I was also exhausted. I really wanted to just sleep on top of one of those rocks along the way.

The sun was beginning to rise before we even got to Stella Point. Mwenzi Mountain to my right looked beautiful in the early sunrise colors. I was way too cold and exhausted to take a picture though. I climbed all the way to Stella WITHOUT poles. About half way up, Willie took my pack because I was really laboring to get up that mountain. My poles were strapped to the side, and Willie was always just far enough ahead of me to stay out of reach and out of shouting range. Godfrey, on the other hand, was right behind me up until Stella and he did quite a bit of nudging when I slowed down to a crawl. It really was a test of will. One foot in front of the other. Breath.

When I did have my pack, I was trying to take a sip of water every few steps, but you just can't after awhile, and then the water in the tube freezes. You're never really thirsty, but you know you should be drinking as much as you can.

Once at Stella Point, Godfrey took my camera and became the photographer because he wouldn't let me take my gloves off. I'm telling you, these guys kept me a live the last few hours when I could have easily curled up on a rock and went to sleep in the snow without batting an eye. They told me it was only 45 minutes to Uhuru Peak from there, but I didn't believe them at my pace. They finally admitted that it would likely take me an additional hour and a 15 minutes. Which it did.

I saw "Team South Africa" on their way down and one of them hugged me and congratulated me, letting me know that I was almost there. Of course "almost" was a relative term. I did finally make it to the famous sign around 8:30am I think. It's really interesting because it takes awhile before you can actually see the sign, and once you see it, you'd think you'll pick up the pace a bit due to excitement. But no. You just can't. There's no energy to draw upon. I could see Godfrey ahead, taking pictures and getting his picture taken as if he himself was a client. Then Willie went ahead of me and the two of them were carrying on like tourists: taking lots of pictures, yelling, singing, having a great time.

Then there was me, dragging my self along, one foot in front of the other, but I made it! The guys were cheering for me the whole time, and when I finally reached the sign, Willie picked me up with unexplainable energy.

I sat down for a few minutes and rummaged through the snow down to the bare earth to find rocks to take home from the summit as gifts for some dear ones back home. All the while, Godfrey took photos and we hooted and hollered for a little while before deciding what to do next.

We had planned to go down into the crater to get a few more photos of the glaciers up close, but it started to precipitate and I elected to get out of there as soon as possible. I really had no extra energy anyway, but I really appreciated Godfrey's offer to take me further to touch the glaciers.

We took photos of the ones at the top, and then began our descent back to our last camp; Barafu.

Wow. It was soooo long and difficult. Down was equally exhausting. Godfrey had my camera, so I didn't take pictures going down, but I can tell you that it's unbelievable to see the way you came up in broad daylight. It looks so impossible. It's absolutely amazing that I made it up. Going down, you try to slide a bit like snow shoeing through soft soil, but it's just tiring now matter how you negotiate the descent.

We rested periodically, and I really wish we had taken some pictures of how we rested because it was truly hilarious. There were times when I just climbed on top of rocks and slept while Godfrey didn't even bother to climb on a rock. He layed down right there on the ground in the middle of the trail in the dark earth, completely unphased. Willie was the only one prodding us along at this point. We would ask to rest for five minutes. He would give up two minutes before he was calling out "twendai, twendai... pole pole sasa, hakuna colala" which means "let's go, let's go - slowly now, no sleeping".

I thought we'd never get there, but we finally did reach Barafu and Godfrey sent a text message to my friend Peter in Nairobi to let him know I made it to the peak. It was after 12:30pm at this time. Godfrey expected us back at 9:00am, meaning it took me an extra 3.5 hours to get from Barafu to the peak and back! I'm getting a special Kilimanjaro Sunrise company t-shirt that says "Slowest Client".

We slept a couple hours, had lunch, and then started the hike down to Mweka Camp after 4pm I think. Surprisingly, my knees were totally fine, but my toes felt like they were going to fall off! We had about 7.5 kilometers to go and most of it was over rocks. My toes pressing into the front of my boots was nearly unbearable, so to alleviate the pain, I walked down sideways for several kilometers. It really helped. We saw a few stretchers along the way, left out to assist those that succumb to altitude sickness. I'm glad I didn't need one.
Here we are being silly, checking to see if Willie is OK...

I have to say, my Keen hiking boots were spectacular. Seriously. My guide Godfrey had on the exact same ones too.

We stopped at the Millenium Camp on the way down to say hello to friends of Godfrey's, and it started to get a little cold. From there, we kept on for another couple hours I think, passing protea along the way. The way down was rocky and murder on the toes, but sideways really did help.
By the time we reached Mweka camp, it was dark. The guys brought me some hot water to wash up with, and dinner was served soon after. Yes - the same giant meals as always. Everyone was excited to congratulate me. Tonight was our last night of camping. Tomorrow, I'd be taking a shower for the first time in a week...sounds like paradise!

Kilimanjaro: Day 4

2009-06-06T02:01:00.000-07:00

June 6th, Saturday!

I woke up feeling fine; headache gone and blood oxygen level back up too after dropping into the 80s yesterday. Here's Godfrey washing up before breakfast, and my tent with FROST all over it.

I took a walk around and snapped a few early morning photos. Moshi is somewhere down there below the clouds:

... and here's the giant breach wall that we're about to climb:

Here it is from another angle with Kibo in the background:
Of course, this can't be climbed without an excessive breakfast:

...and for Godfrey, LOTS of chocolate and sugar in his porridge.

After all that, we had a plate of fruit and then I filtered and zapped my water with my steripen and headed off with Godfrey to climb over the breach wall at Barranco. For some reason, they call the wall "breakfast". It was crazy to see porters scaling right along side us with giant loads perched atop their heads.

The scenery along the way was spectacular, and the temperature was just right.

Once we got over the wall, it was still quite a ways to the lunch spot. The landscape changed quite a bit, and we even saw some ice along the way. Meru is getting further and further away....
...and a few rocks had to be pushed out of the way.
... but Kibo was getting closer and here's that ice I mentioned:
Here's the high point for the day, and soon we reached the lunch spot.
...but not before a few photo ops with the giant groundsels:
Abus and Willie was waiting to provide us with a hot lunch of french fries, fried chicken, warm shredded cabbage/carrot salad, and fruit. I think this was my favorite meal of the whole week! I was actually really hungry that afternoon.Of course, the ravens were in full force. There were some cute pigeons too with colorful feathers I've never seen before.
The walk beyond the lunch spot to Barafu was beautiful. We dropped into the Karanga Valley and got more pictures of the giant groundsels and other plants. We also saw more waterfalls (still freezing cold) and interesting rock formations. The last leg of the hike was a long climb up to Barafu which means "ice" in Swahili.
That should tell you what the temperature is like up there. My tent was all set up and ready to go as usual, this time on top of a rock that was ironically in the perfect place for a pillow. I usually set up my bed before hanging out with the crew for dinner, but Babu was blowing up my sleeping mat, so I decided to come back later.

It was nearly 5pm, and we were going to be heading out at midnight to attempt the summit. All I wanted to do was sleep, but dinner was required even though I'd completely lost my appetite at such a high elevation. At least I had no headache, but it took me forever to choke down the required food. By the time I actually set up my bed and went to sleep, it was probably close to 8pm. I had to pee, but just went outside the tent over gravel because the pit toilet was hard to get to.

Kilimanjaro: Day 3

2009-06-05T01:47:00.000-07:00

June 5th, Friday!
Hooray! I slept through the night at 12,610 ft
S 03 04.038'
E 037 16.583'

I woke up at 6am to pee. It was mostly dark, sun (jua) just beginning to rise. There was a little wind last night and this morning, but not much. I was also happy to discover some little birds (Alpine Chats) that make a lot of noise. Their fluttering wings sound like the snorts and growls of something big and dangerous.

The ravens outside sound like crows.

I feel fine, no headache or anything; slight one yesterday walking to Shira Camp after we reached our camp, but I mean "very" slight. My blood oxygen level reads about 90% (bouncing between 87% and 93%).

I packed all my stuff and washed before breakfast of a cheese, veggie, omlette sandwhich, half of a sausage, some cucumbers, oranges, and watermelon. The oranges here have green rinds:
The walk to the lunch spot was long and tiring.
At one point, we reached the junction with the Lemosho route, and at this point I was still in pretty good spirits.
The lunch spot was the camp site for the Lemosho route, right by the Lava tower at 15k+ feet. I drank tons of water along the way and peed tons of times as a result. My super mild headache turned into an oddly soothing sensation of pressure, and that only lasted a few minutes.

It was so cold at Lava Tower, our lunch spot at 15k+ feet, I only took one picture of it, a foggy picture. In fact, if it weren't for Godfrey, I would have missed this picture because at this point I was a bit out of sorts:

The first 10 minutes down from there were steep and required poles. There were patches of ice and it was freezing cold. My hands (without gloves) felt like they were going to fall off. Before we headed down, Godfrey gave me his big fleece because my Cap1 and R1 were no match for this cold. The sleeves were long enough to cover my hands over the poles, but I was still freezing.

We came down quickly and the flora came back after the long trek up over what looked like a lunar scape scattered with rocks.
Groundsels and lobelia were back as we descended into the Karanga Valley.
So beautiful, but mostly foggy. Yellow Warivia (gerbera family) came back too and some Erica bushes. I took some pictures here and saw a big (freezing cold) waterfall. Here we are resting near a bunch of groundsels.
We got to Barranco not long after that, and the breach wall was half covered with clouds. Thank God because today's walk was exhausting enough without having to see the ominous wall that has to be climbed over tomorrow.

I signed the camp registration and then Godfrey wanted me to send a text message to my friend Peter in Nairobi which took me forever because all of the letters on his phone have been worn off! I managed to send "indy.is.at.camp.barranco"

Today, I was sooooo tired. Godfrey, Abus, and Willie let me sleep for an hour before dinner instead of my usual cooking and Swahili lessons.

I made a quick run to the restroom and talked to the South Africans before laying down for a bit before dinner. I'm trying to remember what we had for dinner: Cucumber soup for sure, macaroni (elbow) and some stew. I didn't have much of an appetite.

It was definitely time to start the diamox. Even Godfrey reminded me, so I did my best to bite one of the pills in half before bed and prayed I didn't have any side effects that would impact my sleep.

Of course, right before I went to sleep, Godfrey yelled from the next tent not to be alarmed by dogs sniffing around the tents in the middle of the night. They were once hunting dogs that got loose years ago and now live wild in the area. Two weeks ago, one of Godfrey's pots was stolen by one of these dogs when it was left out after making ugali. Yuma tried to scare it off, but didn't chase it in the rain.

I'm nervous enough about leaving the tent in the middle of the night to use the pit toilets, and now dogs?! I did get up around 2am. No sign of dogs then, but our neighbors were talking about the dogs the next morning.

Kilimanjaro: Day 2

2009-06-04T01:46:00.000-07:00

June 4th, Thursday!

Up at dawn, and time to take a bath sized handy wipe bath and change into fresh clothes. It was easiest to sleep in what I wore the day before. When it came time to get that sleeping bag back into the stuff sack, it was like a comedy act. Believe you me, I did it, but not without a fight!

The crew was getting ready for the day, preparing my breakfast and lunch pack. For breakfast, I had toast with some shredded cheese like Parmesan, sliced tomatoes, cucumbers and an egg omelet. I made a sandwich out of it actually and drank my tea. Not to be forgotten, a big plate of fruit. Geez.

Here's a picture of me with the crew after breakfast:

...from left to right: Baboo, Juma, me, Abus, Johnny, and Willie. Godfrey took this photo.

Soon we were off and it was a long steep rocky slog to nearly the top of an outcrop for lunch at 12,232 ft. Along the way, we saw more everlastings and the giant heathers.

We even saw the first Groundsels (Senecios):
Here's me with Meru in the background:
...and off in the other direction is Uhuru, but you can't really see it because it's beyond and above what your camera can capture from this point:

Check out Godrey, and our porters climbing up the hill:
Once we reached the lunch spot, there was one group there already and the ravens were everywhere hoping for some scraps. These rather large birds are black with a white spot on their necks.

They have interesting beaks that can crush bones. They're also loud, smart, and not really afraid to come right up to you and steal your lunch. There really weren't many animals to see on the trek, other than birds. I did happen to snap a picture of this cute little mouse:

On the way from there to camp, I put on my gators courtesy of Drew, and snapped some pictures of the celebrated groundsels, red hot pockers, and some lobelias that were perfectly round and pre-bloom.

After passing a small (ice cold) waterfall and climbing just a little higher, we crested a ridge and could see the camp below.

When we arrived, I set up my bed and changed my shoes and my hat from floppy safari hat to my wool cap. Warm water soon arrived and then it was time for a snack of sweetened popcorn and roasted peanuts (along with tea of course).

I'm feeling fine, but my blood oxygen level has dropped quite a bit. Tomorrow may be time for Diamox. After our snack, (and me handing out coconut candies to everyone) Godfrey, Willie, and I walked thirty minutes to Shira Camp, stopping to take photos in a nearby cave. This was our typical "climb high, sleep low" acclimatization walk.

At the Shira Camp, I signed the book and used the fancy restrooms. Still pit, but with a raised seat! Here we are and then me signing the book and a super smiley photo of Godfrey with his friend the ranger:
There was also a weather station at this camp:
On the way back, we took more photos and sang some songs; well, they sang and promised to teach me a song. The moon was easy to see in the sky and it was nearly full.
We also saw this giant bug on a rock.
Surprisingly, I hardly ever saw an insect anywhere.

Back to camp, it's almost time for dinner. Thankfully enough time to write up the events of the day.

First course, creamy cucumber soup and chapatis (my favorite), although these are more like crepes and even a little sweet. I'm discovering now that if I eat slowly, maybe they won't fill my bowl again. After soup, it was beef (or some other red meat) stew, rice, and sliced mangos (embe).

I went to the bathroom for the third time since reaching the camp and soon it's off to bed with bottles of hot water to keep me warm. It's much colder out, and the restroom is further. It's going to be an interesting night. I can only hope I sleep through it because I really don't want to venture out in the middle of the night to use the pit toilet if I can avoid it.

Kilimanjaro: Day 1

2009-06-03T03:26:00.000-07:00

June 3rd, Wednesday!

The room was comfortable, but I didn't sleep well. Too excited I think. I requested a wake up call for 8am, but I think I was up by 6am or 6:15. I fired up the GPS at 7:00am just in time to find out what time it was. Next international travel adventure totally requires a watch!

I took my time getting ready and came out to the little restaurant across the courtyard for breakfast. It was complimentary, so I had a slice of paw paw, watermelon, a little banana, juice that tasted like guava or passion, tea, toast, an omelet, and a sausage. I'm going to be such a fatty when I get back to the states.

I'm just waiting for Godfrey to pick me up. He's supposed to be here at 9:30am. Of course, I have no idea what time it is now.

I'm just sitting outside in the courtyard... it's very overcast, and the temperature is perfect. I hear roosters and oddly enough, I'm pretty sure I hear a bird speaking Swahili. This place is pretty cute. I wish I had taken some pictures, but you can see it here: http://www.pvim.com/photos_accommodation.htm

Godfrey, his father, and most of the crew came to pick me up on time and stopped by the post office so I could mail two postcards. I have one more to send, but I'm waiting to see if I make it to the summit before dropping it in the mail.

On the drive over to the gate, I got to sit in front and we picked up one crew member along the way. It was pretty wet outside but not raining. The clouds were practically on the ground in many places. Luckily, the visibility was enough to see pedestrians all along the way. The driver honked at them as we sped by at 100 km/hr.

We passed acres of corn fields that are expected to fail due to the lack of rain. It's been a terrible rainy season this year.

When we arrived at the gate, I took pictures of the famous archway into the park and signed the registration book.

While waiting for the rest of the paperwork, I watched hopeful men outside the gate selling rain covers and hoping to find a crew that needed another porter. My crew consisted of Godfrey my guide, a cook, and four porters. Godfrey, Abus, Willie, Baboo, Johnny, Juma...

The first leg of the journey was through the cloud forest and it was cool and beautiful. It was cold at first so I put on my Patagonia R1 over my long sleeve Cap1, but I was hot in less than 20 minutes. Here are three of our crew heading off ahead of us:

...and Abus our cook carrying a heavy load on his head.

We saw very few people along the way and even passed a group, but were passed by others. It's hard to tell how slow I was in comparison to a good pace, but it was slow. Very slow.

We reached the lunch spot not too long after and Godfrey handed me my Chrisburger box lunch that he had to carry for me because my pack was too full. It was tons of food, but I tried my best to eat it all: Fried chicken, egg and burger sandwich, little banana, apple juice triangle (not a box, mind you) and something else - I forget now.

We saw a waterfall and decided to climb down to it. Crossing a log nearly gave a a heart attack. I thought for sure I would fall and I didn't even have my pack on! It was worth it though. It's a little difficult to see, but the waterfall is just over my shoulder:
Godfrey took the funniest picture of me. Actually, I wasn't even meant to be in this picture... I turned around just in time to block part of his shot.

We also saw lots of flowers along the way:
...inpatients...

...macalelias...
...everlastings...The camp was probably 2 hours beyond the lunch stop, and my tent was set up when we got there.

The porters put my bag inside and then gave me a bowl of hot water and soap to wash my hands.

Popcorn and my choice of hot drinks were set up on a table with a table cloth and chairs. (Tanzanian tea, Cadbury drinking chocolate, instant coffee, instant milk, brown sugar, and honey)

I had hot chocolate and tea, some popcorn, and then we went on our afternoon walk (climb high, sleep low). The sun was just beginning to set:

(There's Meru in the background.)

I got an idea of what the first 20 minutes of tomorrow's hike will be like, and Godfrey took me to a restroom that I was probably the first to use this season. The pit toilets are not as bad as I had expected, although it's hard to aim.

When we returned to camp, dinner was ready. They moved the little table inside because the temperature had dropped. (Little two person table.) They put so much food in front of me. First course: two bowls of creamy cucumber soup. Next course: seasoned boiled potatoes with chili sauce. Next course: a warm shredded cabbage and carrot salad and to top it all off, some super awesome red meat, likely beef, but maybe goat. Oh! I almost forgot: a bowl of some type of vegetable soup.

It was way too much. I tried to eat it all, but seriously, one can only eat so much! Afterwards, I just hung out and watched them make ugali, which is boiling water mixed with white corn flower to make something the consistency of stiff grainy mashed potatoes. It doesn't taste like anything by itself. Godfrey ate some with greens. I was too stuff to even take a bite.

Here's a picture of Abus cooking for me:

...and here's Willie giving me my first ugali cooking lesson...

I showed them the pictures I took and they really liked that. When I get back, I'll have to send them to Godfrey.

I went to bed shortly after which entailed getting my sleeping bag out of its stuff sack and finding my travel pillow. At first, the sleeping bag didn't feel warm, but I soon discovered that heat builds inside, but doesn't escape.

Around 12:45am, I had to pee, but I was afraid! I thought, I can sleep through this, but no - there was no way, so some time after 2am, I finally ventured out to the pit toilet. It was surprisingly comfortable outside, probably because I was practically on fire in my sleeping bag. The camp was bright too because the moon was nearly full. I was really happy to have the eye mask from my Virgin Atlantic flight because it was a lot brighter than I expected. Regardless, the stars were out and I could see the milky way. The southern sky was beautiful.

I slept on and off 'till 6am and then finally woke up. It was actually hard to sleep with so much food in my belly. I'm sure I hear animals outside my tent periodically throughout the night.

Leaving Nairobi for Moshi, Tanzania!

2009-06-02T01:51:00.000-07:00

Up at 6:00am and out the door by nearly 7:00am, we reached the hotel in Nairobi on Monrovia Street for me to catch the Riverside Shuttle to Moshi at 7:30. Peter stayed with me for 10 minutes and then he bid me a safe journey before he headed off to get his visa for his trip to France later this week.

There's a lot of buzz outside right now while bus companies collect their passengers and strap our luggage to the top of the bus. I'm extremely thankful that I packed everything in plastic bags and that my bag itself if water resistant. It could rain for part of the way. Everything gets covered in what looks like a canvas tarp, but it seems inevitable that water gets in.

As instructed by the guide book, I'm sitting on the left of the bus for the best views. There are rows of two seats on the right and a row of single seats on the left. Perfect. The bus seats about 22 people, and at the moment, it's only 2/3rds full, but the driver just started the engine.

I took my first malaria pill and I'm about to slather my arms with some insect repellent. A man outside the window is selling bracelets to a group of ladies. Time to put my seat belt on. Twendai!!

When we got to the border, I got my Tanzanian stamp and a really cool visa that had my picture on it. (It's a terrible grainy black and white photo, but still a cool addition to my passport pages.)

Next stop... Arusha, then on to Moshi. I took a few photos out the window along the way, and slept quite a bit too.

I just arrived at the hotel in Moshi, and it's very nice. The room is very clean and it has its own bathroom. The bus/shuttle ride here from Nairobi was long and bumpy. Once I figured out how to open the window, I took a few photos along the way. At one point, we passed a giraffe right there on the side of the road, eating a tree, totally unphased by shuttle buses passing no further than the space of 3 lanes away. I didn't snap a picture of him, but I did snap some pictures of beautiful Massai people and a few bomas.

There was a man on the shuttle stinking up the place to high heaven! I think he had a gallon of cologne on, and then his friend used his phone to blare music for part of the trip. It sounded like the sound track of an old Bollywood movie.

The only other interesting character on the bus was a woman with way too much cleavage. I mean, come on now; she was about to fall out of her top! When she was receiving her giant backpack from the roof of the shuttle, every eye was on her because we all thought for sure those puppies would be out of the gate. Somehow she kept it all in.

When I finally arrived in Moshi, after a few stops, Godfrey was there to meet me along with his father and a driver. I felt shy (I know, you're wondering "what the hell?!") So we didn't speak much. They brought me to the hotel and then went over a few things with me. Godfrey's father did most of the talking. They gave me a sheet with basic information I was already aware of and let me know that we would depart at 9:30 tomorrow morning.

They asked If I needed anything else or wanted to do any site seeing in Moshi. The only think I could think of was postcards and more cash. While I benefited with pounds when I bought my Kenyan visa, I lost my ass when I had to use pounds to get a Tanzanian visa. First off, it was $100 U.S. ($50 for a Kenyan visa) I paid 20 pounds in Kenya & 80 pounds in Tanzania. 20 pounds is roughly $32 U.S., so essentially, I paid $128 to get a Tanzanian visa. The only thing that would have helped would have been purchasing a visa in Nairobi. We would have done that on Friday had we didn't think about it in time & Monday was a holiday.

All of this wouldn't be such a big deal if it weren't for the amount of tipping I am still anticipating at the end of this trip. Since I am Godfrey's only client on this trip, I don't have anyone else to pool money with. I'm also not sure if I have to pay again to enter Kenya or London for that matter.

We stopped at the ATM first and that's when I discovered that not all shillings are created equally. It's about 80 Kenyan shillings to a dollar and 1000 Tanzanian shillings to a dollar! I really had no idea how much to withdraw, so I went with the largest amount of 400,000 Tanzanian Shillings, but my Visa rejected that request, so I went with 150,000. Not enough, I'll need to go again.

For dinner, I had chicken masala, jeera rice, chipati, and a Crest ginger ale for what I think was $12 U.S. According to the menu, 1,000 Tanzanian shillings equals a dollar. Of course, I have no idea what the exchange rate is here.

Nairobi: Day 5

2009-06-01T04:52:00.000-07:00

Today, we didn't do much, but I did elect to get my hair braided so it would be as low maintenance as possible during my upcoming week of no washing:

I couldn't believe how much cheaper it was to get it done here as compared to back home in California. This was the first time I've ever had my hair braided. I was going to do it one other time for Halloween years ago, but it was going to cost $50 for just 10 braids! Here, it costs about $3.50.

We did some running around town, and then came back to finish up my packing. Of course, the electricity went out and I had the adventure of doing last minute wash by headlamp.

Without flash to show how dark it was:

...and with flash

I went to bed so late... tomorrow it will be time to leave for Tanzania!

Nairobi: Day 4

2009-05-31T04:11:00.000-07:00

This morning I went to church with Peter. We were late because Peter allowed me to sleep in. Of course, this made me feel terrible, but he seemed OK with our 15 minutes of tardiness. We sat in the back row, off to the side behind a congregation of several hundred worshipers. A lot of people were out of town on a mission to the United States.

The pastor spoke in English, and was echoed by a Swahili speaking interpreter. Sections were read verbatim from the Bible, and the rest was built around praises, analogies, and music. Football (soccer) is definitely a national pastime in Kenya, and the pastor had an interesting way of weaving it into the message for the day. He described the fervent enthusiasm Kenyans have for football; how the excitement and strong interest in the game is enough to get you standing on your chair, shouting with all intensity, fully and completely engaged. The pastor went on to explain, that God shares that same interest; that same enthusiasm in you. He too is standing on the edge of his chair, cheering wildly for your success, believing in you, fully and completely engaged.

There were so many familiar rituals with this church. If I had to assign it a denomination, I would lean towards Pentecostal. There was a band and choir, the pastor spoke in tongues along with half the congregation, the preaching was tempered with bouts of yelling and jumping, an offering was taken, and the sermon ended with the sinners prayer and call to alter.

The choir sang a few songs from a hymnal allowing the congregation to follow along, and you could sense joy in the room, but nothing compared to the overwhelming response to the man who came up to lead a traditional tribal song. That’s what really got everyone on their feet, raising up their hands in praise. Everyone was dancing and singing. I don’t understand why they would ever sing the western songs. Clearly they are not as moved by them.

After church, we went to lunch and then to Bomas of Kenya. I had reservations about this place because I’m sensitive to indigenous persons who are exploited in the name of tourism. Bomas of Kenya showcases traditional African dancers, and also has an area of reconstructed traditional African villages. Bomas means homestead, so Bomas Kenya loosely translates to Houses of Kenya.

When I have a better Internet connection, I'll post some video of the dances, but for now, here are some pictures.

Peter had never been here, and I'm not sure if he'll take other tourists there. There wasn't much information to guide you through the reconstructed bomas. Luckily Peter was able to describe many of the tribes.

Peter is from the Kamba tribe.

And this picture really really wants to be sideways, so tilt your head please:

As if this wasn't enough for one day, we went into the city that night. Of course, I have no pictures to show for that interesting excursion.

Nairobi: Day 3

2009-05-30T23:11:00.000-07:00

Most days here feel more like two, and today was definitely one of those days. Peter let me sleep in this morning, which was good. I was pretty happy for a hot shower too. We had a quick breakfast and headed out the door. "Twindai" I hollared as we rushed out to get to the elephant orphanage in time to see the little ones.

There were so many interesting things to take pictures of on the way, but Peter wouldn't let me take pictures while we were driving. It's too dangerous to draw attention to ourselves. For instance, we had to stop at the Shell gas station to get fuel for the car, but a small herd of cattle had the right away so we couldn't turn in right away. It would have made a great photograph of contrasting imagery.

We reached the orphanage at 11:15. It's run by the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. From 11am to 12pm, they provide an elephant viewing and discuss the work of the organization. These baby elephants were so cute, it was really hard to pay attention to the keeper there to explain the plight of these intelligent animals. I took a lot of pictures. Here are some of the cutest ones.

Sadly, these little elephants lost their mothers and would not survive in the wild without protection. This organization rescues these orphans and assigns each animal a keeper who acts as a surrogate mother. Eventually the elephants are released into the wild, and the keeper continues to stay in the wild with the newly released elephant until it is comfortable and able to join the herd.

After we left the orphanage, we went to the Kenya National Park to go explore the Nairobi Safari Walk.

It just so happened that a cake festival was scheduled for today inside the park. There were lots of vendors, and even a stage with singers.

Small tents along the path housed bakeries serving samples of their best cakes. It was sugar heaven. Unfortunately, the excess crowds and noise scared most of the animals away.

My friend Kate back home would love this artistic cake decoration, so I snapped this photo just for her:

Peter's niece and nephew live very close to the park, so he went to pick them up so they could try all of these cakes. There truly is such a thing as "too much of a good thing" and you know it when two children throw away their plates because they don't want any more frosting, sugar, and chocolate concoctions.

I got a chance to meet Peter's aunt, uncle, and older niece when we dropped the kids off after the cake festival. We headed to the city afterwards to pick up his friend Jim who works at Safaricom and go to the Nairobi Arboretum. The arboretum is right next to the state house.

Lots of trails...

... and some interesting trees I've never seen before.

To end the day, we went to eat at Kula Korner. I had the "Juicy Mbuzi Strips" which was awesome grilled goat, rice, and greens. Speaking of food, it's awesome here, and I'll be fat when I return to the states. No kidding.

Nairobi: Day 2

2009-05-29T14:49:00.000-07:00

Lots of adventures today...

I was up pretty early, and had breakfast with Peter before he left for the office for a few hours. While he was gone I had the excitement of an extremely cold shower because I forgot how to turn the hot water on! There's a switch right outside the door for that. Next time I won't forget.

Later we went to lunch at the Swahili Plate restaurant. We ate there last night too. The food is great and they have an awesome chopped pepper condiment made with oil and whole cardamon seeds. Today I had the chicken biriani.

We also stopped by Peter's Green Belt Movement office to meet a few people and take a few photos. Peter's staff member Ben may take me out to one of the communities when I return from Tanzania to plant some trees while he's mapping the area. Here is one of the small tree nurseries:

Afterwards, we drove through the wealthy area of Karen over to the Giraffe Center. We arrived at 5:45, thinking we had 15 minutes until close, but actually they closed at 5:30. No worries. Peter offered the park staff something (150 Shillings) to get them to offer me an opportunity to feed the giraffes from outside the park. After all, they're certainly tall enough to reach me from the outside the fence.

My Swahili is getting better because I understood a little of what they told Peter, so I asked why we were instructed to go slowly and it was because we might see giraffes from the road just a few minutes from the gate. This is kind of hilarious because you could be going 80 miles an hour down that road and there is NO way you wouldn't see those giraffes. They are massive. Especially Jock, the bull that is separated from the females. I dont even know what keeps them in there.

Since we were in the neighborhood, we stopped by the other Greenbelt Movement office on our way out of Karen. Everyone was gone (this is a three day weekend), but I took some pictures of the grounds. It's beautiful here.

Looks like the macro setting on my camera works just fine. What do you think?

After the office, we went to downtown Nairobi... at night. Needless to say, I don't have a single photo of that experience. It was surreal. So many people everywhere! I wish I could have snapped a picture, but it was too dangerous. Loads of students were flooding out of the university, and all of the restaurants were packed. It was interesting to find many restaurants blaring loud dance music. We parked at the parking lot of Peter's downtown office and walked around for a couple hours. Everything was packed, so we left the city to eat at a restaurant closer to home. I had curry goat. So delicious. So fattening...

Hello Nairobi!

2009-05-28T07:02:00.001-07:00

Finally arrived in Nairobi and so far it's been nothing less than surreal. Walking to immigration, the first sounds I hear aren't those of Kenyan singers, but rather Dolly Parton belting out a cheerful country song. The line for passport check and Visa went quickly. It helps to be seated near the font of the plane in order to beat the rush.

After purchasing a Visa and filling out a Swine Flu form, I headed downstairs to collect my giant duffel bag with the sounds of "Islands in the Stream" playing prominently throughout the terminal. Just outside the baggage area, I saw the biggest crowd of hired drivers I've ever seen!
Here's a picture of JUST HALF of them:

One of those drivers was there for me, but I wasn't aware of it. Shortly after taking this photograph, a flood of passengers from my flight came streaming out and I passed through the line of drivers to the back to get out of the way.

After a few hours, I figured perhaps I had typed 6pm instead of 6am in my correspondence with Peter. An information officer directed me to the Internet cafe across the parking lot and I was able to email Peter and see that he had also emailed me yesterday to let me know that his driver was going to pick me up. Of course, I didn't have Internet access then.

We found each other, and were finally on our way. The drive over from the airport was about 30 to 40 minutes and there's a lot here that reminds me of my trip to Trinidad 10 years ago. Same beautiful lush green flora, same Nestle plastered fence advertisements...

Weather: the temperature here is perfect, and surprisingly doesn't feel nearly as humid as Santa Barbara. It's raining at the moment, but this is the first downpour since my arrival.

Peter went to the office leaving me with his Internet card that I'm quickly burning through with all the image uploads. When he returns, we'll be off for dinner somewhere in town. I had a quick nap earlier and feel refreshed.

That's it for now!

Long overdue Kilimanjaro update...

2009-05-28T02:57:00.000-07:00

You know that saying about "the best-laid plans..."

Some months ago, I was all set to climb Kilimanjaro with Destination Tanzania Safaris. They were incredibly informative with all of their timely communications and they had outstanding references. I had planned to climb with a couple from the US on a route that takes longer than other routes and has a camp at 18,500 ft the night before the summit attempt. Unfortunately, the couple canceled and Destination Tanzania Safaris could not offer the trip to just one client. To be cost effective, we needed at least one other person to join me. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful.

I began looking for other companies following a similar route with a group I could join, but it seemed nearly impossible to find treks so early in the season. This is the tail end of the rainy season, and also the tail end of the academic year. Never the less, this is a full moon week. Surely someone wants to go.

I didn't have the time to begin a full search all over again, but I certainly tried. After talking to several Sierra Club friends, I was finally getting comfortable with just winging it. I was going to show up in Moshi, and shop around for a group to join. I'd end up paying a fraction of the prices I as being quoted here in the US, and I'd get up that mountain one way or another.

Late one evening I found an incredible set of Kilimanjaro videos on Youtube. Check out this fantastic website with links to a documentary style account of the Lemosho route: http://www.grundlefly.com/mount_kilimanjaro

I began bouncing around from related video to related video, watching the porters sing the Kilimanjaro song to trekkers on the last day. That's when I got the idea to contact one of the Youtube posters to ask which company they booked with and if they were interested in giving a recommendation.

I only had to contact one to make my decision. Kristy and her boyfriend did the trek in February with Godfrey as their guide. Here is their Kilimanjaro song video that prompted me to contact them:

They were so impressed with the trip and level of care they received. They ended up offering their web design expertise free of charge to develop a website for Godfrey and his company. You can visit it here: www.kilimanjarosunrise.com

Godfrey has one booking assistant in San Diego, and she was very helpful. She even arranged for me to pay for the trip via Paypal which was greatly appreciated because wiring money to a Tanzanian bank account was beyond my comfort level.

The best part: Booking directly (or mostly directly) with the guide has saved me about a grand. Everything is arranged, and I head for Moshi on June 2nd!

London: Day 2

2009-05-27T02:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a long day. I probably got back to the hotel around 11pm which equals roughly 8 hours of walking, so I didn't notice the Marriott turn-down service until this morning. The curtains were drawn to block out the morning sun and overwhelming view of the London Eye I failed to notice yesterday.

All my trash had been taken away, towels replenished, and tea service with chocolates and cookies were brought in for the morning.

The ground outside was wet and the rain was still coming down lightly. Even at 6:00am, a few people were outside rushing around with brightly colored umbrellas.

Surprisingly, I was able to open the windows. It was relatively cold out, but not unbearable. If it was bright and sunny, I probably would have went out exploring right away, but the early rise (courtesy of a Marriott wake-up call) was really to get a few hours of work done.

Just when I was trying to get up the energy to go out into the gloom, I got a special call all the way from the states. Mind you, it was after 2:00am there. Needless to say, I felt bright and cheery for the rest of the day regardless of the weather.

I didn't have much of a plan for today. I just headed out of the hotel and tried going the opposite direction from yesterday. First stop was one of the free entry buildings that is part of the Westminster Abbey. I took a few photos inside before I saw the "no photography" sign. No flash of course.

The main sanctuary costs tourists 15 pounds to enter, but it's free for worshipers. I thought about an attempt to get in for free, but I figured it wasn't a good time to piss God off with Kilimanjaro in my immediate future.

From there, I walked to Westminster to see what the namesake of my hometown in Orange County was like. There were lots of amazing buildings everywhere. (Buildings that were not doubt older than my entire country.)

I took a loop around London and had a curry lunch at a little restaurant with a kitchen that appeared to be underground. All the food was brought up on a dumb waiter. The food server asked me where I'd been when he saw the map out on the table. He recommended I make my way to Buckingham Palace; "the Queen's house" as he described it. I found my way to the "red road" which lead right to the palace. The following three photographs were taken along the way:

The palace is definitely worth seeing. You can't get very close, but there are lots of great vantage points to snap pictures from.

The marble steps up to enormous statues in front of the palace are definitely a sight to behold.

There were two sets of guards. I only snapped pictures of the ones tourists love to see. The others had rifles and were clearly without humor, so I spared them the flash of my camera.

On the way back, I took a few photos of the beautiful landscaping along Birdcage Walk adjacent from St James's Park before it was time to head back to my hotel to pick up my bag and head to the airport.

The foliage on this particular tree was so beautiful.

I've never seen anything like it. London was very green everywhere I went.

Here's a picture of me on the train heading back to Heathrow. Notice the map above.

I'm on the plane now, pre-typing up this blog post so it's ready when I arrive in Nairobi. Dinner was just served.

I didn't reserve a special meal for this leg of the trip, but I'm on for a special meal on the flight back to London. Getting served early is totally worth it. Tonight on the plane I had a curry meal. Not too bad, but certainly not anything to write home about.

We're just now reaching the northern edge of Africa, still 3,200 miles to Nairobi.

A little over 5 hours to go! Now's my chance to finally see Slumdog Millionaire.

Made it to London!

2009-05-26T22:53:00.001-07:00

Hooray!

I made it to London yesterday after the crush of last minute shopping packing and "ride to LAX" planning. Special thanks to Sean, Reggie, and Alan who snapped this photo as I was carrying down my gear to the car:

It's too bad you can't see how big that bag really is...

The flight was LONG and fairly uncomfortable. I elected to try out the Hindu meal which wasn't all that appetizing, but special meals are served first which is worth taking advantage of.

Virgin-Atlantic has a pretty cool flight map application that shows the progress of your flight:

Looks like we definitely took the great circle path (or very close to it). A little after 9pm, I got a twitter message from Sean letting me know I was 35,000 feet over Ontario, Canada going 644mph. Nice to know someone was tracking my flight while I was trying to force myself to fall asleep... (Twitter account is IndyMapper; without a phone (that works here) I can only send tweets when I have Internet access.)

Just before landing, I decided to try out the "aerial photo" setting on my new camera. Not bad:

I arrived in Heathrow at noon, and it took me about an hour and a half to leave the airport. I had to find a place to leave my giant bag, and figure out which trains to take to get to London. Of course I was looking out for spatial references in the airport:
Getting around London is relatively easy on foot, so I did quite a bit of walking yesterday. It took me quite a few blocks (in the wrong direction) before I finally figured out where the street names were. They are posted on the corners of the buildings, not on the traffic signals.

I got to UCL around 6:00, and caught Paul Longely just in time for a pint at the pub. His grad students took me to Agra for curry, and Paul and Mike are totally right: Curry in London beats the pants off Santa Barbara.

I could write a lot more, but it's time to for some tea and biscuits before heading out to take more pictures before my flight to Nairobi tonight.

Here are a few of the pictures I took yesterday:

Trip to Las Vegas where maps were found in interesting places...

2009-03-29T10:33:00.000-07:00

Last week I was on the road traveling to Las Vegas to present some work, network, and throw a big party at the Association of American Geographers annual meeting. Poor as I am, I wasn't able to get a direct flight out of Santa Barbara, so I had a layover in Salt Lake City. Not the most direct route...

View Larger Map

Interestingly, I did see a few maps at the airport in Salt Lake City. On my way to the gate, I saw an interesting store called Your Planet sporting a highly generalized map in their logo so I stop in the busy walkway to snap a photo. Surely everyone was loving my instant traffic jam.

While it looks like it could easily be part of a chain or franchise, you will only find one Your Planet store, and it's located in Terminal 2. Click the photo to jump to their website.

I was on my way to a geography conference were I was expecting to see countless maps, yet the ones in unusual places caught my eye. When I arrived at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas, I headed to the airport tram to take me down to the general vicinity of ground transportation. In the rush to jump on the train with unwieldy bags in tow, I almost missed a map on the floor.

Apparently I actually did miss the best part of the map just behind me embedded in the rotunda terrazo floor. The artist is Greg Lefevre, and you can see much better images than I would have been able to take of his work on his studio website: http://www.lefevrestudios.com/

To find his "Flight Paths" McCarran Airport artwork on his studio website, click the Terrazo/Mixed Media link on his home page, and find the "Flight Paths" link on the left. If you click through the images to the "Final Floor Design", you'll notice that the photo I took above is just a small piece of the outside perimeter of the circle leading into the tram waiting area. You'll actually find quite a few cartographic art works on Lefevre's website. Perhaps he's a geographer at heart.

The last bit of map news from the road is courtesy of my generous friends at ESRI. The sixth edition of Map Use: Reading and Analysis by Jon Kimerling, Aileen Buckley, Phillip Muehrcke, and Juliana Muehrcke is finally available. I came home with a shiny-new-full-color-hard-cover-hot-off-the-presses copy, and to top it off I got it signed by my favorite cartographic researcher Aileen Buckley. Click the cover image below to jump to the ESRI Press website to take a look.

It's a fantastic resource and stunningly beautiful. If only every book about maps and analysis could be published in full color...

I walked EVERYWHERE while I was in Vegas. I really wish I had borrowed a trackstick to show a map of my zigzags back and forth. It was pretty dry and windy during the day... although you can usually find plenty of water displayed in interesting ways along The Strip.

I'm definitely happy to be home and rehydrated.

A weekend of Wilderness First Aid

2009-03-01T22:00:00.000-08:00

This weekend I took the wilderness first aid course offered by Wilderness Medical Associates here at UCSB. I certainly wasn't alone. There were 50 other participants in the class from all over the place. I decided to take the course because I'm out hiking all the time.

For Kilimanjaro, I'll be climbing with Kilimanjaro Sunrise. I checked out several other tour companies and some send their guides all the way to the States every three years to take the 80 hour Wilderness First Responder Course offered by the National Outdoor Leadership School. Other tour companies conduct their own in house bi-annual training where they bring in professional back country medical trainers to review any new medical protocols. So it looks like I'll be in good hands, yet it certainly won't hurt to be familiar with basic first aid and safety practices at 19,330 feet.

The instructors for our Wilderness First Aid course were Rod Tucknott, Chuck Schonder, and Jeff Baierlein. These guys have been everywhere and have done everything.

Rod is the director of the UCSB Adventure Programs and a lot of the students this weekend were wrapping up their requirements for UCSB's Leadership Training Program.

We also had a physician in our class and several Boy Scout troop leaders.
The first day was long, but fun and informative. I arrived at about 7:55am, left at 7:00pm, and we only got out about an hour earlier on the second day.

The course structure includes lectures, exercises inside and outside, roll playing and practice. If it weren't for all the moving around, there would be no way we'd survive such a long day. As our instructor Jeff put it, "the mind can only absorb as much as the butt can withstand". Truer words have not been spoken.

With practice and roll play an integral part of the course, we had a few opportunities to switch back and forth between being patients and responders. The first few rounds were pretty mellow, with the patients pretending to have the signs of volume shock from a kayaking accident or potentially cracked ribs from a horse kick, but the third round on Saturday was far more dramatic with fake blood and fake throwing up (of real chewed up pretzels)!

I ended up being one of the injured D.I.C. heads (Disoriented, Irritated, Combative) which lead me to totally terrorize this poor undergrad Whitney Freedman from Chapman University. Incidentally, the thought of Chapman University makes me very home sick. I was born about a mile away at St Joseph's Hospital. Based on my scenario condition, a hospital was exactly where I should have been. Given the course, hopefully we'd all be more prepared to assess and stabilize the injured in the event of an emergency.

If you think you are going to get away with just injecting a little bit of saline into an orange or a tomato to get your anaphylaxis certification, think again. There's Whitney coming after me with a pen not long after he had to roll up his sleeve and let me inject him with saline solution to get our anaphylaxis certification. If ever we have to inject epinephrine, we're ready, even though the give of the flesh is something that I don't think I'll ever get accustomed to. You just have to go for it and make sure the person is seated just in case you hit a nerve. Thoroughly freaked out yet?

I am now the proud holder of a patch, a couple of stickers, and three certifications:

Wilderness Medical Associates' WFA certification
Anaphylaxis
Adult CPR certification

...all valid for three years, but please don't get hurt on my account.

Not all conditioning hikes are created equally...

2009-02-10T15:51:00.000-08:00

Most weekends you'll find me trying to charge up some hill with the Santa Barbara Sierra Club. With only a few months until Kilimanjaro, I try to hit the trail every chance I get. You can always find an interesting bunch of people assembling for a Sierra Club hike, and the hikes range from mild to wild. This weekend, the hike was definitely one I'll never forget.

A few months ago in mid November, a fire began at the Tea Garden in the hills of Montecito. The Tea Garden, also referred to as the Tea House, has a long and fascinating history. All of the lore associated with the Tea Garden is located on private property, yet over the years many have hiked in, including the now infamous group of Santa Barbara City College students.

On Sunday morning, Keith Schofield and his wife opened the gates and took us on a very special hike through their property. This was by far the largest Sierra Club group I'd ever seen. Once inside the gate, it was easy to see why so many people came out.

Keith Schofield and Robert Bernstein greet us at
the gate next to the old gatehouse on East Mountain Drive.

While there is a winding paved road on the property that leads up to the top of the Tea Garden, it wouldn't be a hike with Keith without some unexpected detour off the path.

Along the way, remnants of an elaborate water garden were pointed out. The gardens were originally designed and built by Henry and Ellen Bothin nearly 100 years ago.

A historical account of the property can be found here:
Mar Y Cel

Keith is not only familiar with the history of the property, he was also able to provide a wealth of details to explain how the elaborate system of waterfalls were designed to fill numerous reservoirs on the property.

Here you can see Tony using a set of old pillars as a stair case to a hidden amphitheater.

There are several sets of these pillars on the property. At one time, they held large concrete clam shells which utilized a gravity system to direct cascading waterfalls down to various gardens below. Tony's friend Diane Soini manages the Sierra Club hike list on her Santa Barbara Hikes website.

First glimpse of the lower
amphitheater...

Upper amphitheater seating
with Keith about to lead us up
a steep stairwell.

Once we reached the top of the gardens roughly 30 minutes above the amphitheater, we were greeted by Shalimar Judy Luciano. She graciously provided tea and cookies for us - a real tea party at the Tea Garden!

Shalimar gave us all a thoughtful lesson about tea and told us the amazing story of the tea we almost missed due to the Tea Fire back in November. At that time, she had acquired a special lot of Mariage Frères tea from Paris and was expecting the shipment to arrive right as residents and shop owners were being evacuated. Imagine her surprise when she called her daughters to remind them to be there to accept the shipment only to find out that they were in the process of being evacuated.

Shalimar and her daughters have a health and body care store named Rituals on Coast Village Road where one can find a variety of unique gifts for tea aficionados. The address is 1277 Coast Village Road, Montecito, CA.

For those interested in a history of tea, Shalimar highly recommends Liquid Jade by Beatrice Hohenegger. Click the book image to jump to the author's website:

After tea time, Keith took us on the last leg of the hike up to the top of the property. After a total of 1,350 feet in elevation gain, the push to the top was not for the faint of heart.

Of course the view from the very top was well worth it:

On the way back down, we passed by the Tea Garden arch way, now empty with only the faintest hint of Parisian tea lingering in the air. What a fantastic hike! Special thanks to everyone that made this possible.

More gear? Yes... more.

2009-02-02T19:55:00.000-08:00

So yes, I know I promised a post about the route I'm taking to the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro, but first I have to say a few words about a stellar deal I found in the gear department. Not too long ago, I bought quite the pile of Patagonia gear down in Ventura at their flagship store. They were having a big sale, but since then I've been crawling the web for even deeper discounts on my favorite items because the grad student life isn't exactly a lucrative one. With giant search strings to find specific items, I came across gearsamples.com. Wow!! Most items are 50% off and they primarily carry Arc'Teryx, Icebreaker, Patagonia, prAna, Timbuck2, and Chaco.

So what's a gear sample? These are the pieces that the sales representatives take to the stores. The good folks at gearsamples.com acquire these pieces and then sell them on their website at prices that beat out every other gear vendor I've found.

Now before you go rushing over there, I might just break your heart with the following information: sizes are definitely limited. This is a function of the way things work in the retail clothing industry. Samples are typically made in only one size for women and only one size for men.

In the case of Patagonia, that size is 8 or medium for women, and medium for men. With Icebreaker, you can get size small for women and size large for men. There really is something for everyone.

If you've never heard of Chaco brand shoes, they are pretty amazing. They come with built in insoles that remind me of superfeet. Unfortunately the sample size is way too small for me. If you know any gals that wear a size 7, or guys that wear a size 10, gearsamples.com has you covered!

I placed an order on Thursday night and everything arrived today - only 4 days later. It helps that they're based on the west coast somewhere, but speed also comes with good ol' USPS Priority Mail. While everyone around here seems to love the big brown UPS truck, I've found them to be slow as molasses.

When I tore into my package, I found the pieces inside exactly as they were listed on the website. They're brand new without tags, and they're absolutely not irregulars. At the bottom of the receipt that came in the package I found a little hand written thank you note from the owners. Three cheers for gearsamples.com!

Got Gear?

2009-01-16T11:53:00.000-08:00

Well, I certainly have gear, and lots of it. This week, Patagonia is having a huge sale. I made a trip down to Ventura on Wednesday; showing up bright and smiley 10 minutes after the sale began. Two hours later, I walked out with nearly everything. With all my faith in synthetics, I'll be plenty warm with several items from the Capilene Baselayers line along with a surprising warm jacket that weighs less than two pounds.

The folks at Patagonia were outstanding. I felt like I had two personal shoppers that stayed with me the whole time. Lindy helped me with all the fitting, and Drew gave me lots of alpine climbing advice based on his own experience. I was pretty excited to get his seal of approval on the trekking polls, Camelbak, and hiking boots I had already purchased. I can't begin to tell you how many hours I spent researching each of these items. For trekking polls, I went with Black Diamond's Spire Elliptical (Compact) which yielded a high five from Drew. Follow the link to read about them. They reduce the impact on your knees and help with balance, but not everyone is a fan of trekking poles. For the pros and cons, follow the link to read Rick Bolger's article on the SlackPacker website. I purchased the trekking poles from basegear.com. They were having a big sale a few weeks ago.

Santa Barbara Outfitters was having an amazing sale earlier this month too, but unfortunately they didn't have my size in the Vasque hiking boots I had researched. I tried on several other boots from various companies, but I can't buy anything w/o Googling the daylights out of it first. In any case, my size was sold out in just about everything. One pair by the Keen company really stood out though, so I took down the information and searched for it online when I got home. They're waterproof and extremely comfortable with a much wider toe box than most everything else I found made for women. I ordered them from Rock Creek along with a pair of Superfeet insoles and a 3 liter camelbak. Everything was on sale and Rock Creek paid the tax and shipping. They even threw in a free pair of Keen wool socks and a cleaning kit for the camelbak. Awesome company.

There are still a few small odds and ends that need to be acquired like wind proof gloves, hiking gaiters, and a balaclava mask. The only big purchase left is a sleeping bag. I'm looking for a synthetic, warm (rated at least to -20), reasonably light sleeping bag. Any suggestions are welcome. The last night before the summit will be spent next to the Furtwrangler Glaciers at roughly 18,500 feet. More on my route and the amazing company I booked with in the next post!

Checking things off my list...one shot at a time.

2008-12-18T11:07:00.001-08:00

I had a lovely visit with the health center staff today to knock out two more immunizations from my never ending list. I'm now done with the MMR booster and the second round of Twinrix for Hep A & B. With those two off the list, I've got meningitis, polio, typhoid, and the third round of Twinrix left. Thankfully it's not much hassle to walk in to the clinic and get what I need for the shot based immunizations, but the typhoid requires a bit of planning.

I opted for the 4 capsules, but this particular prophylaxis needs to remain refrigerated. We have a refrigerator in our office, but since the medication needs to be taken every other day - I'll need to transport it home anyway. My prescription was already written and I can pick it up anytime, but sooner would be better. Apparently this one doesn't play nicely with the malaria prophylaxis I'll need to take. With months ahead, I can easily finish the typhoid course well before my trip commences.

If you haven't had the pleasure of Vivotif, which is the brand name of the typhoid prophylaxis I'm preparing for, you can always find piles of peer reviewed journal articles to sooth or skyrocket your fears. As of late, my favorite was published last year in the International Journal of Experimental and Clinical Chemotherapy. The title is Vivotif® - A 'Magic Shield' for Protection against Typhoid Fever and Delivery of Heterologous Antigens

It's not often you find the word "magic" in the title of a journal article... click HERE if you're up for the challenge of reading it. Vivotif is an attenuated live oral vaccine.

In other news, my passport did arrive on December 8th. I was quite excited about that. Hooray for the USPS. Additionally, my friend Theresa has settled her flights as well so we'll be on our trips simultaneously.

To prevent the possibility of chickening out on the Kilimanjaro trek, it's definitely time to begin ramping up the hiking schedule.

It's been quite cold lately, but I have managed to get in a few 6am hikes these last few days thanks to visiting researchers in our area. Nothing like sunrise above the riviera.

Crawling the Internet

2008-12-08T16:59:00.000-08:00

My dear friend Catherine provided me with a wealth of protective clothing information, and I've just been waiting to pounce on any holiday sales. Thank God for her, because I was relatively clueless. Most likely, the sales won't arrive until the spring when cold weather clothing goes out of demand.

So on my list you'll find Capilene and Biostretch Baselayers from Patagonia...
The trick is to layer bottoms, t's, and zip necks. Capilene is light weight, wicks moisture, and is made from at least 50% recycled materials! Hooray for the planet.

When I'm not searching aimlessly,

I use Zingsale.com to track prices for me.

Check it out if you haven't heard of this super cool website. You do a search for what you want to purchase, it finds websites that sell it, and you enter the price you want to pay. When the price drops to or below your specification - you get an email with details and a link to the vendor. Their logo chick is kinda hot don't you think?

I've also been doing a lot of agonizing over Kilimanjaro tour companies. Climb prices are all over the place and it's really hard to compare them because they all list the same information for the most part. Luckily I have my friends in Kenya to do some checking for me, although they've been incredibly busy as of late.

While taking a break from my usual academic rock-stardom - I did a Google search for "Kilimanjaro 2009" to see what trips had been added since my last check a few months ago. In the process, I fell upon another blogger planning a trip with her dad.
http://onebigmountain.blogspot.com/

And the last tidbit of information for this lively entry: My passport is totally on it's way. This morning at 1:55am, it was approximately 82 miles away - in a USPS distribution center. I can't wait - any day now. Maybe even today when I get home... but better not to put that much faith in the US postal service...

On the Vaccine Super Highway to Immunity....

2008-11-18T13:25:00.000-08:00

Well, today was the first round of vaccinations... my oh my what a list of things I needed. Apparently, an MMR booster is now recommended which I'll need to go back for but I did manage to walked out with about half of what I'll need for my trip:

Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis
Hep A & B
Influenza (yes I finally broke down and got one and will need another one in May)

I still need to finish the Hepatitis series, Typhoid, Meningococcal, Yellow Fever, maybe Polio, and as I mentioned earlier; an MMR booster. The four shots I got today took 2 hours. Here at UCSB it's almost like a counseling session. I walked out of there with about 50 pages of information and feel like Bob the travel vaccine guy should be a family member at this point.

I have to go back for another information session before getting the malaria prophylaxis prescription, altitude sickness medication, and Cipro to treat any potential bacterial infections. Most of this falls in the "better-safe-than-sorry" category but I have to admit that the process is a bit intimidating.

At least I didn't have to deal with the military style inoculation guns - something I thought I had blocked out of my childhood memories...

With the exception of a little soreness in both arms, I'm all good. The actual injections were low on the pain threshold for me at least. Since the hepatitis vaccine is a combination of both A & B, it did hurt a little bit more than the others solely because the volume of medication was twice that of the others. In any case, I survived!

Flight Booked!

2008-11-11T14:43:00.000-08:00

Holy cow- things move quickly.

After confirming dates with Peter, I am now the lucky owner of a seat on one of Virgin Atlantic's flights from LA to Heathrow and then on to Nairobi. I've been watching flights for a few weeks now and decided to try to land one of the long overnight layovers between LA and Nairobi so I'd have a chance to see an additional city. It was a tough choice between Dubai and London until Virgin Atlantic significantly dropped their fares. Perhaps the fares will continue to decline, but friends here and abroad have told me that I'm getting a great deal.

I'm acquainted with a few people in London which may add to the fun if they're around during my 23 hour layover. It also looks like my Marriott rewards points will finally come in handy with about a dozen choices in London.

In other news, I started the passport process today too. Mine has to be renewed ($75) and it looks like my old one will be replaced with a new one. I'll be sad to lose my one stamp, but maybe it's just an indication that I have to return to Trinidad and Tobago to get that stamp back in my collection.

It also seems that there are new passport products available here in the states. A new card helps expedite passage into the US from Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean and Bermuda when entry is via land or port.

More information:
Book vs Card

Starting the Immunization Process.

2008-11-10T14:58:00.000-08:00

Today I took the first official step towards my Kenya / Tanzania trip: Immunizations.

Turns out, I need to bring my immunization record but I have no idea where that is. I haven't had a single immunization since I was a kid. This will be an adventure for sure.

So in my immediate future, as in Tuesday Nov 18th at 8:30am:

MMR
DPT
Yellow Fever
Hep A
Hep B
Typhoid
Meningitis
Rabies
Maybe Polio

The best place to find out what you might need if you're heading abroad is the CDC's website:
http://wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/default.aspx