Brazil Update

So close, and yet, so far away.  

I'm going to write today about Brazil, as I need a short mental vacation from the -15 degree winter that is currently taking place outside my window.  Seriously, MN?  WTF?  This has to be the worst winter EVER.   Yes, EVER.  I'm declaring it.  Really wish we would have planned Brazil for February, I need to escape stat.  

My backyard

We finally settled some details about Brazil!  After much procrastination, we sat down and hashed out some ideas.  Here's what we decided:

We will fly to Rio, spend 3-4 nights there, see all of the beaches and tourist stuff.  Then, we will hop a short flight to Florianopolis, a beautiful beach city about an hour up the coast from Rio.  We will be there for 5-6 nights, bask in the sun and sand, then fly back to Rio for a night before flying home.  

Rio

We decided to forgo a trip to Manaus to visit the rainforest, as it would have easily added a few thousand dollars to our trip price tag for just a few days in the jungle.  I'm bummed we will miss it, but not too bummed since it means spending extra time on the coast.  I plan on living in my bathing suit in Florianopolis! 

Florianopolis

I have started my Portuguese lessons, and so far, so good.  Its been pretty basic stuff so far, so it has been mostly review for me, but im sure it will get harder soon.  I am now able to count to ten, tell you what color your bicycle or car is, and tell whether the boy/girl is running, walking or swimming.  Cant wait to use it!

Ashley and Chester sent in their passports to be renewed, and they should get them back soon.  Next step is applying for visas, which are stupid expensive  For an American to get a tourist visa for Brazil, its $160 a person.  Yikes.  I'm thinking they jacked up the prices for the World Cup and Carnaval?  Oh well, nothing we can do about it.

So that's where we are at, only 45 days to go before departure!  :)  In the meantime, I will just change my desktop wallpaper to this beautiful photo of Florianoplis:

Paradise

Steamboat Springs, CO

March sucks.  It's really a terrible, terrible month.  Cold, snowy, cloudy, gray, and there is ALWAYS one last brutal blizzard that hits just when you think winter can't possibly go on any longer.  March is inevitable, and almost unbearable.

You know where March is bearable?  In Steamboat Springs, Colorado.  Spring skiing!

If you aren't familiar with Steamboat, it's a fairly small mountain town in the Rockies a few hours northwest of Denver.  People come from all over the world to ski and snowboard down Mount Warner's long runs in the winter, and who can blame them?  It's excellent skiing with a less pretentious and snooty attitude than nearby Aspen and Vail, or so I am told.  Not only is skiing great, but the residents are all pretty great too.  I have yet to find a mean Steamboatian.

Anyways, every year for the past 10 years, my dad, sisters and I road trip out to Colorado for some spring skiing and to visit our relatives, Aunt Sandy and Uncle Jamie, and our cousins JJ and Nick.  Usually I can only go for a long weekend due to work, but this year I was able to go for the full 9 day trip.  So we hopped in the old van and made the 18 hour road trip to Steamboat for a week with the Langhans fam.  As an added bonus, our cousin Kelsey from California was able to meet us out there, as well as cousins Pat, Tim, and Nike from Denver. 

Our trip was filled with family, downhill skiing, cross country skiing, yoga, relaxation, hot springs,  a Langhans twist on charades on St. Patrick's day, nighttime misadventures, amazing food, wine, and as always:  dad's special cookies.

The details don't matter.  The photos speak for themselves.  Finally got to test out the new camera a bit :)  All you need to know is, it was an amazing week with family.  Enjoy!

PS - If you are ever in Steamboat Springs, you MUST eat here, I guarantee it will be some of the best food you have ever had!  
Harwigs L'apogee Restaurant

Rabbit Ears Pass, coming into Steamboat Springs

Trevor

Terra

Sisters and Cousin Kelsey

Long lift

Dad enjoying the view Cross Country Skiing

Brother and Sister!  Dad and Sandy

Nicky love skiing

Cross Country Skiing

Cross Country Skiing

Family Dinner

Exquisite Cuisine from Harwigs L'apogee, our family's amazing restaurant in Steamboat

Tori caught a nice view of Mt. Warner

Langhans sister sass

Brr.

Tim and Nick

This was an interesting night

Cousin fun

Bailey, our cousin Pat's daughter.  Coolest kid I know.

A Map of the World for the Kids of Jarabacoa

The summer of 2004, after graduating high school, I embarked on a community service trip to the Dominican Republic.  My fellow travelers included thirty or so juniors and recently graduated seniors I had attended high school with, along with my Dad and my cousin Kayla.  My Dad had volunteered to be an adult supervisor, and though I was a little nervous about having him on the trip at first, we had a great time together.  I hardly ever get to spend enough time with Kayla, so I was really excited that we got to take a trip together!

Kayla

Kayla, my Dad and I

We hopped two flights south to dark and sleeping Santo Domingo, the capital of the D.R, and arrived around 2 A.M.    Our cranky and smelly group hopped a clunky old school bus that shuttled us to Jarabacoa, a small town of about 4,000 people an hour and a half inland from Santo Domingo.  We arrived at a ranch style hostel and despite the early hour, were greeted by the owner, a short and graying man who spoke enough English to welcome us.  After a brief introduction and guidance to our bunks, we shuffled into our rooms of bunk beds, checked for giant fluorescent spiders, and went to sleep.

We awoke the next morning to our surroundings drenched in morning sun and dew.  We seemed to be sitting in the middle of a tropical paradise, minus the beach.  The air was humid, but cool and fresh.  Down a narrow dirt walking path, a rushing creek sparkled, bordered by tall fronds and flowers.  Butterflies scattered the grounds, and the air was filled with the calls of strange birds and insects.  The place didn't seem real!  After a few moments of awe, we made our way to the dining patio for breakfast.  Waiting for us were colorful mounds of fresh fruit, sliced meats, pastries, and yogurt.  After eating to our hearts content, we were given a couple hours to freshen up, relax, and explore the grounds.  I washed off the previous day's travel and headed towards the river.  I sat on the bridge alone, jotted down a few notes in my journal about my new location, and spent my remaining minutes admiring my surroundings.

The bridge over the river

Kayla admiring the flowers

Dad enjoying a moment of reflection

We reconvened at the dining area to learn about our community service projects.  We would be working with a local organization named Duolos, a group that ran a private school for kids who wanted a better education in Jarabacoa. The public school system in the Dominican Republic is poorly funded and is unable to provide kids with the resources and teachers needed to get an education that prepares them for a university education.  Duolos relied heavily on donations, from local organizations and from abroad, to operate, and though they had to charge tuition to its students, extended scholarships frequently to families in need.  

Duolos School

Our group would be split into two groups:  The majority of our group would stay at the Duolos compound, cleaning the grounds and repainting the buildings, and a smaller group of us would travel to a local public school in Jarabacoa to help where needed.  Kayla and I were chosen for the smaller group, and we were soon whisked away in the back of a pickup truck to the edge of town. 

Upon arrival at the school, it was hard to believe what I saw as we hopped off the truck.  The school was a single room building, about 600 square feet in size.  One unisex bathroom.  Kids were running around outside on dirt and pavement.  No grass, playground equipment, drinking fountains, nothing in the school yard but 1 broken soccer goal.  Inside the school sat about 30 desks.  Since the school had about 60 kids of all different ages, they could only house half of the students at one time.  The older kids would come to school in the morning, and the younger group of kids would come in the afternoon.  Our arrival had caught the attention of every the students playing outside, and soon, we were mobbed with a group of smiling, screaming kids.  It was pretty cute.  We pushed our way through the sea of smiling faces towards the teachers on site, who were laughing at our struggle against our new fan club.

The school

New friends

"Welcome!" said the first woman, who introduced herself as Raquel.  "Thank you for coming to our school, we are very excited you are here."  The two other teachers, unable to speak English, simply smiled and nodded.  We smiled in return and introduced ourselves.

 "While you are here, we would like you to paint us a large map of the world on the side of the school.  We do not have the money to buy maps, and we want the children to be able to see exactly where they live in the world."
She ushered us toward the side of the school with a large, blank yellow wall in the sun.  "Here is where you paint, and make sure you paint our country on the map so the children can see it."  

Our group studied the wall and chatted for a few minutes to decide who would do what and it was decided that myself, Kayla and another girl Katie would draw the outline of the map on the wall while the others went to buy the supplies.  Using a Spanish world map found in a book, we began to outline the countries with marker on the blank wall.  Resizing a world map to fit the wall was no easy task!  We scaled the continents as best we could, and we decided that we would make the Dominican Republic much bigger than it was so that it would stand out on the map. By the time our group returned, the map was outlined, and we sat down to decide how we would attack the painting.  We decided to paint in the land first, the oceans second, and fill in the details on the third day.

Day two arrived, and we began the painting process.  One thing we did not anticipate was the hot afternoon sun.  It beat down on our backs as we painted, and we had to wear towels and bandanas on our heads to help catch the sweat.  After a few hours painting, we stopped to play with the kids on their recess break.  The sweetest little girl named Gloriluz eyed me bashfully, and finally came over and asked me to read her a book.  I sat down with her, and in Spanish, we paged through a few books, and she named all of the animals and people for me.  It was pretty darn adorable.  She even got some of us to join in on a game of hopscotch with a few other girls who had brought chalk to school.  We laughed and had a great time bonding with the kids.

How cute is she?

Gloriluz and I

Early stages

Working hard on the ocean

Looking good!

By day three, we were done with the large areas of painting!  Now all that was left was filling in the country names in Spanish and adding some key landmarks to different areas of the continents.  This was the fun part.  We painted mountains, kangaroos in Australia, polar bears in Antarctica, the Eiffel Tower in Europe, drew the route of Christopher Columbus (since he was the first European to land in the Dominican) and other landmarks.  As our last task, we painted a dove above the quote, "Que la paz prevalezca en la tierra" (may peace prevail on earth) and we signed our names to the map under "Hecho con Amor" (Made with Love).  Sweaty, hot, and covered in paint, we stood back to admire our finished product.  The kids and teachers all came out of the school to see their new map.   It was rewarding to watch the kids get excited about different things on the map, and when they could find the Dominican Republic easily!

Finished product!

On our final day of work, we brought the rest of our group in to help mix and pass cement to help build the foundation for a new, two level school.  It was gruesome work in the hot sun, but after getting to know the kids and teachers, we all felt good knowing we were contributing to what would hopefully be a much nicer place for the kids to learn.  I never did get to see the finished product, but I hope those kids finally got the school they deserved.

Beginning stages of the new school

Climbing the Pichincha Volcano

In 2007, Quito, Ecuador became my home for four months while studying abroad.  As a Spanish Studies major, I really needed to live abroad for a decent chunk of time in order to get my language skills to near fluency, so I chose a program in Microfinance in Ecuador.  I lived with an amazing family, became good friends with my fellow students, and completed an internship with a microfinancial institution named Codesarrollo Ltda.  Ecuador is an incredible place to visit, and an even more incredible place to live.

Quito is the large, sprawling urban center of northern Ecuador.  It may not have much for skyscrapers, but the city is beautiful, sprawling across a rolling landscape with a stunning backdrop of Andes mountains.  The western skyline of Quito is dominated by a large, active volcano named Pichincha.  It last erupted in 1999, and before that hadn't erupted for centuries, so it is open to the public as a an attraction to tourists and hikers by way of the Teleférico.  The Teleférico is a gondola-type structure that runs from the base of the mountain up to the lower summit of Pichincha, commonly known as Guagua ("baby" in Quechua, the old Andean language) Pichincha.  Just riding up the Teleférico is an adventure in itself, with unbeatable views of the city and the Andes mountains that cradle the city.

Going up!

Now, conquering the Teleférico was one of the first to-do list items upon arrival in Quito.  During the first week, a group of us students made plans to take a day trip to the top of the Teleférico to have lunch.  The views are incredible!  Once we got to the top, we began to walk around and take photos, but like most tourists, we all began to experience altitude sickness.  Feeling dizzy and short of breath, Alica, Emily, Carol, Jules, Michael (Migs) and I sat down to lunch at a restaurant, which luckily served Coca tea, a natural remedy that combats the effects of altitude sickness.  A little freaky, considering coca leaves are used for making cocaine, but if its good enough for the locals, we figured it was good enough for us.  After a few cups, we had hoped to feel good enough to continue walking around, but we ended up just touring the Guagua on horseback instead.

Left to Right - Emily, Alicia, me, Carol, and Jules.  Don't you love Emily's attire?  Photo courtesy of Emily Stout.

Yee haw.  Photo courtesy of Emily Stout.

Singing "the hills are alive" Julie Andrews style!  Photo courtesy of Emily Stout.

Me enjoying the view at the top - Photo courtesy of Migs

Top Left to bottom right - Me, Emily, Alicia, and Carol - Photo courtesy of Emily Stout.

The Guagua was beautiful and made for a fun filled afternoon.  However, once I got a look at the second and tallest peak of Pichincha, Rucu ("old one" in Quechua), I knew I had to climb it. My friends Alicia and Michael (aka Migs) got the same itch, so we decided to plan our attack.  Since we hadn't fully acclimated to the altitude yet, we had to wait another week or so before our big climb.

Climbing Rucu Pichincha is no small feat.  On the day we returned to Pichincha, we came prepared:  we planned for at least 6 hours of hiking/climbing, packed extra food and water, maps, coca candy for the altitude, and brought layers of clothing to protect against the frigid and extreme climate changes we would surely encounter.  The weather wasn't very clear that day, but we set out energetically to conquer the peak anyway.  The trail winds up and down rocky hills and ridges, at times disappearing into thick grasses or mud puddles.  We passed a few other hiking groups on their return trip, but none of them had attempted the peak climb.  It made me a little nervous that we were the only ones going so far along the trail, but if either of my hiking companions felt the same way, they sure did a good job of hiding it.  We had a great time talking about Quito, our new families, our school, and how much we wanted McDonald's cheeseburgers.  

After about 3 tedious hours of slow incline, we finally hit the base of the peak and decided to stop for lunch.  Munching on our sandwiches, we nervously laughed and talked through the next portion of our climb.  Looking at what lay ahead of us, we considered turning back.  Despite my doubts, our close proximity to our destination renewed my determination.  I stood up and brushed the sandwich crumbs off my pants and turned to Alicia and Migs.

"We've gone this far, we might as well just keep right on going!" I said in my best Forrest Gump voice.

Our lunch spot...and the calm before the storm.

The hike up, photo courtesy of Migs

And that was that.  We picked up our bags and set out for the last leg of our climb, and looked up at way lay ahead of us. The next half hour, the terrain would incline sharply and and the ground would become more treacherous.  We could barely make out the summit through the thick clouds that were forming, but it didn't seem too far off.

Photo courtesy of Migs

 The climb was grueling.  The solid ground transformed into sand and loose rock beneath our feet.  Climbing the sand was tiring and difficult...we had to crawl on our hands and feet to get beyond it places where the sand became too deep to walk through.  Beyond the sand, we gingerly climbed piles of jagged, black rock.  We couldn't climb in front of each other because of the loose rocks, and continued on side by side.  To make matters worse, a storm was forming around us.  Snowflakes began to fall, and thunder rumbled all around.  We stopped on a large, stable slab of rock, tired and out of breath.  

"I dont think we can do this, this storm is getting worse.  I'm exhausted!" Migs yelled between heavy breaths.

It was true, we were all exhausted.  But we could see the peak, only 50 feet away!  No matter how tired we were, we couldn't come as far as we had only to turn back in our final moments.  We caught our breath and made one final push forward.  Finally, we reached the top of Rucu Pichincha!  We entusiastically celebrated our conquest with loud woops all around and took lots of photos.  We were exhilarated by our success, barely noticing the worsening conditions around us.  We never stopped to think that the thunder we were hearing meant there was a lot of electricity in the atmosphere...and we were pretty much standing in atmosphere.

Exito!  Photo courtesy of Migs

Photo courtesy of Migs

Photo courtesy of Migs

While taking a celebratory video to show everyone back at our school where we had been, we suddenly froze.  Our hairs felt like they were standing on end under our hoods.  Moments later, all three of us jumped at the same time as electricity shocked through our bodies.  A second later, a bright flash of lightning lit up the sky.  It didn't hurt, but that was our cue that it was time to get out of there.  You can see the video Migs took below!  At the last moment, Migs almost drops his camera in surprise from being 'mildly' electrocuted.  

We got off that peak as fast as we could, making the trek back to the Guagua in half the time it took us to trek in.  The snow turned to heavy rain as we descended on the trail.  By the time we reached the Teleférico, we were soaked to the bone and covered in mud.  Two cabs drivers denied us rides at the base because of how awful we looked!  We eventually found a cab willing to deal with our mess and went home to our families.  As I walked in the gate to my family's house, my host mama shrieked and told me to stay in the garage until she could gather my mud-soaked clothes.  Migs, Alicia and I met up the next day at school very sore, but we all agreed it was worth it!

Come on, how many people can say they have been electrocuted on top of a volcano?