wherearethediamonds

Cambodia…The Search for Happiness

Posted on December 22, 2013 by Diamond

By Greg and Linda all mushed together as usual

Happiness is a core necessity in Cambodia (and perhaps most of SE Asia), why? Perhaps because approximately 95% of the entire region is Buddhist, and as a Buddhist one of your goals is to rid the world of suffering. Hence, if you are not suffering you will be happy. For clarification this is NOT a religious comment, Buddhist people mainly believe this is a way of life and not just a religion. We can’t forget our Declaration of Independence. Our founders thought it was important enough to make happiness part of the cornerstone of the country being built. Does “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” sound familiar? Actually, it is the only part of the declaration I can recall.

So to bring this full circle…we spent a few days in Bangkok, Thailand but left for Cambodia because we found out that our dear friends, Stacey and Tim, are coming to meet us. This made us very, very happy:). So, we are saving the best of Thailand for them. And since we are flying by the seat of our pants, one night at 7:30PM we decided to go to Cambodia. The next morning at 11:30AM we were boarding a Bangkok Airways flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia. It’s crazy just writing that we are rolling from country to country on a whim…particularly because we are both such type A people (maybe because we are a cha cha changing). Everyone we have encountered has been soooo very happy or at least smiling. This makes us happy as well.

Cambodia, aka Kampuchea: meaning Golden Land…it was tweaked to Cambodia over the years due to the ease of pronunciation, but the word ‘Cambodia’ means nothing.

Let’s talk about bargains…$4 dollar entrees, $2 dollar tuk tuk rides (a three wheeled motorbike taxi pulling a cute little cart on the back)

Tuk Tuks

and people couldn’t be more polite and helpful. Yes, one of the poorest countries in the world but for us still unbelievable how inexpensive it is. Of course we Americans still paid a few hundred dollars a night for our hotel because we figured a $30 a night room would be disgusting. Wrong again, for $30 dollars a night you can get a room at a clean boutique hotel walking distance to town. Live and learn should be the theme of this trip.

Siem Reap, known for the impressive Angkor Wat (the largest religious monument in the world built in the 12th century) and other wats (temples) built between 800 to 1400 AD. Angkor means city in Sanskrit. We spent three days touring the sites by car, foot and bike. The wats were built for teaching and worship where monks and other religious leaders would spend their days. All stonework, primarily limestone, was built by thousands of workers with intricate detailed design work unmatched in today’s buildings. Temples tell stories; they are not just a structure. There are stories carved into the stone, many designs, different Buddha poses plus several facials expressions which all mean something. Even animal figures, such as snakes, have a story behind them. A 3, 5 or 7 headed snake (meaning water and protection, and is called naga) can be used by anyone as decor, but only the King can use a 9 headed snake as that number is reserved for only the King to infer class. You can find nagas in almost any wat. Colors all represent something as well. For instance the color gold in clothes represents wealth and prosperity whereas red represents luck. When burning incense, you burn 3 for Buddha. Why three for the Buddha? It represents the triple gem of Buddha (the enlightened), Dharma (the teachings) and Sangha (the community), which are the three things that Buddhists take refuge in and look to for guidance. So…everything means something! Back to the wats…it was thought these wats took up to 40 years to build. Many of the Inca buildings in South America took over 100 years to build. Conversely, our house addition took almost nine months and it was driving us crazy so imagine the patience and dedication the culture had to build something so massive and complex for its time.

It is all starting to make sense, the world that is. We feel like we are putting together a giant puzzle of history, culture and people! So cool, especially for us who like to over analyze anything we can.

After a long day of touring we head into town via tuk tuk and to our surprise the four or five square blocks where bustling right out of a movie scene. I really wanted to see the vision I created of a typical small Asian town, which I of coursed I developed by watching old Vietnam War movies, and I was not disappointed. The senses come alive when one experiences an event totally new and unrelated to anything in our past. Walking the streets seeing everything from local Khmer restaurants to TexMex to discos to Go-Go clubs to massage parlors to pizza joints to clothes markets to mini-marts all crammed into together with the streets packed with locals, expats and tourists alike.

Pub Street = Party Street

The energy and curiosity can be felt as everyone jumps in and out of shops with beers in hand or just waiting in line for a street front seat to get a $3 for 30-minute foot massage. Of course we got one every night and one place even served us beers for free. You really can’t ask for more; a cold local beer called Angkor, a serious intense foot massage, and people watching. This perfect storm of relaxation drove us to extend one of the massages to a full hour for an additional $2 dollars. The night would not have been complete without a fish pedicure where you stick your feet into a tank and little fish nibble on your dead skin. Our feet sure are getting pampered.

Fish Pedicure!

The only sad portion of our visit to town was the begging. It was everywhere! A child around 6 years old begged me for milk to give his baby sister. He entangled my hands in to his and dragged me in to a 7-11 and wanted me to buy him a $17 canister of formula. He kept saying over and over, “baby needs milk” and I offered him a large jug of water that I had and he said, “baby don’t drink water, baby needs milk” and on it went. A random white guy in the 7-11 whispered to Greg that it is a racquet and that the kid returns the formula and the storeowner gives the kid a kick back and some other old rich man that manages this process makes the most cash. Now…who am I more disgusted with in this situation? The store owner, the kids parents (if he has any) or the rich guy that I’m told runs off in a nice car after gathering his profits from the overall scam? After Greg clued me in I pulled the kid out of site from the store owner and gave him a few bucks and told him to hide the money for himself (he put it in his sleeve) and that I knew he was lying to me and there was no baby and I knew he was working with the store owner. I know I shouldn’t have given him anything and should direct all funds to a charity that does not reward this behavior, but it breaks my heart. The next day we went to a “Restaurant” NGO called Sala Bai (http://www.salabai.com/html/index.php?p_lang=en) for lunch that teaches poor kids useful trades…cooking, handling food, serving, running a restaurant, and more. All great trades here for tourism! The problems all around are so massive it is daunting, but I always smile when I see a solid NGO that is helping.

The next few days consisted of a day hike to view more Wats and a holy river where locals carved figures and designs into the riverbed to bless the water…a really creative idea and something we have never seen or heard of before. The last day we took a bike ride, we had enough of wats for a bit and wanted to see how the people of Cambodia really lived. This was one of our most amazing days, we saw one of the poorest war torn (more on this later) countries of the world in its most raw form. Our guide, Bros, has a small piece of land out in the country so we were lucky to have someone who could show us around. The first make shift stop was to take a picture of a few small children (ages 2 and up) hanging out in front of the rice fields. We ended up asking them questions via Bros. It turns out that they had never seen a foreigner or heard of America. They took care of themselves during the day while their parents worked in the fields. Some were shy, some curious but all were smiling. You could sense the innocence of them being kids and at the same time start feeling terrible for their living conditions and tough future ahead. Bros explained that they don’t really know their ages since they are born at home thus there is no documentation. They knew their name and were able to say “hi” in English by the time we left. We didn’t quite get them on the peace or thumbs up gesture bandwagon but they loved looking at themselves on the camera after we would take a picture of them.

Exhausted and running out of time before leaving for a new city we wanted to see the floating villages on the Tonle Sap River. Cambodia is at sea level so every year most of the country floods during the rainy season. Some people have decided to live on the water; floating houses, stores, schools create a unique village that until recently lived off of the sea. The local community can still make a living fishing but many have opted for the easier task of begging. Ladies load up small children and even babies and pull next to tourists on long boats, grab on to the side and basically beg. They will grab a baby under ONE armpit; raise them into the air showing the baby to you to increase their chance of getting a dollar. One lady even came up with a half alive snake with his mouth taped shut that was wrapped around her 1 or 2 year old baby as she surely thought the snake would get our attention. Sad, inconceivable and any other word you can come up with. Once again, such a unique experience and glad we rallied to see it before hitting the town for dinner and another foot massage.

On to Phnom Penh, which Greg can’t spell no matter how many times I tell him how to…it’s a total mental block, the capital city. The riverfront is the main area for restaurants and bars with a two-mile strip filled with tourist and every type of imaginable food. Just one block inland the real Cambodia glows like the full moon we saw last night, which is a big day for Buddhist, so many monks were out and about. Street markets for blocks with “locals only” food that looks delicious but we can’t eat it, as we westerners don’t have the enzymes in our stomachs that are needed. A real shame since we walked and watched the live fish being filleted and live chickens being plucked and butchered so you know its fresh. However, I (Linda) have been eating less and less meat, and this is yet another reason why. It’s a difference ballgame when you see it all live. Later that night as we walked home, we saw many locals pulling up on mopeds (like a drive thru) to cut a deal to take home a chicken straight off a coal burning rotisserie or some fish fried with a chopstick through it so you can eat it like a popsicle.

We wrapped up the day touring the Grand Palace, sipping on coffee street side and walking in a loop around much of the city. We strolled by independence square where lots a low intensity aerobic activity and ad hoc dance classes were taking place. The classes are a meshing of our aerobics and Thai Chi, really neat to watch and would probably be a big hit for the older crowd in the US.

A visit to Cambodia would not be complete without going to the “killing fields”. A site dedicated to the education of the genocide between 1975-1979 where a Hitler like leader killed 25%, approximately 1,700,000 of his own people.

those are skulls on each level inside

Imagine loosing 1 out of every 4 people you know starting with your family. The new regime that was battling for power (the Khmer Rouge) believed education, materialism, capitalism….all needed to be destroyed so society could be pure which means everyone would just be farmers. America was backing the previous government and once it pulled out of Vietnam a few years earlier this radical regime was able to topple the weakened government. America didn’t have the appetite to step back into the region to stop the genocide even though it was our former partner in the war being destroyed methodically and brutally. Fifty years after the holocaust it happened again, and it is still happening in parts of Africa. This reminds me of a statement a professor made while we were in Israel a few years ago…the statement was very powerful and I would like to think it is something we can live by. He said, “We should never be perpetrators, victims or bystanders.” This just speaks to how history can repeat itself if no one keeps up with history or wants to hear the lessons learned. The same horrors can happen all over again if we chose to be bystanders. If that’s not enough, we realized Cambodia was the most bombed country in the Vietnam war, yep Cambodia was bombed by the US more than Northern Vietnam because the famous Ho Chi Minh trail went through Cambodia and was a major supply line for the north. Additionally, about 10 million land mines were planted in the country. Forty years later people are still getting injured or killed every month from stepping on land mines. Cambodia has one of the highest amputee rates in the world (estimated around 40,000). There is a great movie that speaks to the Khmer Rouge regime time period called “The Killing Fields” and Linda is reading a book on the Cambodia Khmer Rouge genocide called “The Lost Executioner” by Nic Dunlop, if anyone is interested in learning more about the country.

We also need to mention the political protests that we witnessed while walking the streets in Phnom Penh. The Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) had promised to hold protests every day until Hun Sen, the Prime Minister who has been in power for over 28 years, steps down or calls for a new election. We were stared at quite a bit as there were maybe only two other white people in sight, but it was awesome how people caught our totally American faces and gave a little “yeah!” fist pump to us. As if to say, “We are fighting to be on your democratic program.” We also saw a protest tuk tuk go by with an American flag and a UN flag. Very touching to be a witness to democracy in the making. Many of the protesters had headbands on that said “Long Live Democracy”.

Last note is on the mopeds, just when we thought we saw “crazy shit” in Africa with mopeds Cambodia has taken it to a new level. Just a few sightings to give you a feel:
– 5 people one moped; father and mother with a kid standing in front at the fathers legs plus another kid in-between the parents with the mother holding a baby.
– A lady breast-feeding on the back while another lady drives.
– Three people on bicycles holding on to the back of a moped to get a ride, all while the driver is weaving in and out of cars in serious traffic.
– Mopeds so weighed down with cargo tied on to all corners it would give Fred Sanford’s junk truck a run for its money.

We are so glad we came to Cambodia and can definitely see returning, it is one of our most favorite raw countries along with Ecuador and Tanzania. The common theme with all of these countries is the fact that they are all still in their infancy, and the positive attitudes of the people is outstanding. Off to chill in the mountains of Thailand in need of reenergizing so we will be at our best for our dear friends Stacey and Tim when they arrive.

For Photos: – Siem Reap and Phnom Penh

Posted in Cambodia | 2 Comments

Dubai, you ask and you shall receive

Posted on December 14, 2013 by Diamond

A bucket of tears leaving the family in Cape Town and a 9-hour flight later, we were in Dubai. We chose to stop in Dubai for a few days because it was a connection spot between South Africa and Thailand, so why not. I must admit, as a woman, I had reservations. (This is Linda now, but I hope you figured that out on your own.) After reading about women being jailed because they kissed a man (maybe their husband) or displayed some type of affection to a man in public, I was apprehensive. I mean, I’m not the PDA type, but what if I give Greg a peck without thinking about it? Ugh. Then, on the other hand we’ve heard it is an architecturally impressive place, has fabulous food and is sunny vacation paradise…so who knows. As we boarded the plane we spoke about how we will need to check ourselves and be respectful of their culture…ok…I’ll shut my mouth and won’t paw on Greg. I mean, Greg is adorable, but it’s not like he is as cute and mushy as Wiley and Taz (our Pug and Himalayan that we’ve left with the best peeps EVER!!

Nothing beats a $2 wedding ring

Now back to the opulence. To start with, a lady checking in to our flight had on the largest diamond wedding ring we had ever seen. No joke, I’m talking a 100 ct golf ball on a platinum setting. As she glanced my way, I giggled when I realized that my current wedding ring was a white plastic rose flower glued to a metal band that my 4 & 6-year-old nieces gave me when we were at a market in South Africa. I like my ring better! Any-who, do you think my bright blue backpack is as highbrow as the $10,000 Channel bag that the golf ball ring lady was carrying? Hee hee. Maybe not, but certainly more useful. 🙂 The plane (Emirates airlines) was gorgeous with birds eye maple covering every nook and cranny and the flight attendants collectively spoke over 15 languages. Also, bright freshly cut flowers in the cabin and bathrooms…and that’s a first for us on a flight.

If you want to keep score than Dubai is your place.

I didn’t even know a hotel could have 7 stars

They have the highest building and largest mall in the world and two seven star hotels. The Dubai Mall boasts 1,200 stores; a waterfall, ice skating rink, a crazy huge aquarium and a pamphlet that addresses the dress code…keep your knees and shoulders covered. I was glad I opted for the short sleeve shirt vs my sleeveless. However, about 20% of the people were breaking the dress code guidelines. Tisk, tisk…when in Rome…

If the largest buildings don’t impress you this tiny country of 6 million people is building their own islands. Most of the country’s coastline is desert without any buildings on it, so the question begs…”Why build an island?” I guess because you can. Their palm shaped island is cool, and the newest island under way is really a bunch of little islands in the shape of a world map. Now that takes imagination

Yes, we did all the tourist stuff like; rode camels, did the sunset in the desert, dune bashing in a 4X4, went to the mall and went to the top of the worlds highest building. Everything is basically new and glimmering! There are more exotic cars than the 6 million residences can simultaneously drive and more watches on display than the billion Chinese could wear. However the culture still puzzles us; of the 1,200 stores at the Dubai Mall 1,195 are western brands but many of the locals wear the traditional Arabic clothing and burkas. Where do the locals shop? We guessed the local Souks, but we expected are larger representation of the local garb.

Only in Dubai will you see a wine rack on display with $15,000 bottles of 1966 Dom Perignon. And when I say rack I estimate there were over 50 of these bottles at a random restaurant, not a world famous restaurant like were went to dinner at the Jumeriah Burj Al Arab, a 7 star hotel, the least expensive bottle of wine we could find on the list was $350 dollars.

Linda is still working out hard

In summary Dubai is like Vegas, an adult playground, but without the gambling, with a lesser party scene plus they have camel racing. Camels can run 40 kmp and the longest race is 15k, yes a 10 mile camel race. And on top of this the camels train like a racehorse. No crazy stories from us, but not for lack of trying. We did go to the hottest nightclub around, but apparently Saturday nights aren’t the best night to go out in Dubai. The weather was perfect and zero humidity allows one to walk at night without sweating. With the ocean having no waves it was like swimming in a lake, of course the typical Dubai vacationer wouldn’t want to have rough seas. Lots of sugar daddies running around with young Russian woman on their arms. Did I say it was like Vegas or South Beach??? One last piece to add since we are in the airport leaving. You don’t need to leave the airport if shopping is your thing, I was confused for a minute and thought I was back at the worlds biggest mall, except of course for the indoor ski resort. 🙂

Off to Bangkok and we are really flying by the seat of our pants (origin–An early aviation expression meaning ‘to act based on instinct and perceptions rather than following a planned course of action; to make things up as one goes) since we only have a hotel booked for three nights and no scheduled tours. And we have booked nothing past the first three days; air, hotel or tours for the rest of the trip so this should get interesting.

Dubai Pictures

Posted in Dubai | 3 Comments

Out of Africa…not the movie but on the move!

Posted on December 7, 2013 by Diamond

Four countries, four messes…but with happy people!

Tough luck or tough love, either way we are shocked about this reality we live in. Kenya terrorist attack, South African corruption, Dubai where women basically have no rights and Thailand protests where people are dying. All issues we are dealing with in the last few months in places we are traveling to or have already visited. Two Americans traveling, choosing interesting countries to visit and attempting to stay out of harms way by being cautious, continue to run into the mess we call our world. And the cherry on the sundae is that we are staying out of the real hot spots but still find ourselves in compromising positions, some because of current events but others because of the government’s actions.

-A Norwegian woman visiting Dubai goes to jail for reporting a rape because she had “sex outside of her marriage”. Do we really live in a time where this can happen?

-Sixty-seven innocent civilians die in a shopping mall and many were tortured and the terrorists didn’t even know a single victim in Kenya. What is this supposed to achieve for the terrorist?

-Twenty years after apartheid ends, millions of people are living in unthinkable conditions with kids not having food for 5 day stretches. They elect a president with a fourth grade education and he goes out and builds a personal multimillion-dollar house. He also tells the people of South Africa to “shower twice to cure yourself of AIDS”. How do you go from the greatness of Mandela to this? (RIP Mandela)

-Bangkok, Thailand where protesters are dying fighting their own government and after reading no less than ten stories on this topic I still don’t understand what they want. Not sure who is to blame on this one, repressive royal government or bored activists.

I was born at night, just not last night. I do my fair share of reading and keeping up with world events but this shit is down right crazy. We wanted to travel the world to “live it” not just read it or watch it on TV so I guess we are in the process of getting a PHD (Pilled Higher and Deeper, sorry all you smart people) in life.

don’t fall now, we haven’t made it to Asia!

Meeting up with the family has been so incredibly special, not just because it’s a homecoming to the parents and the place I was born, but also because the opportunity to share life’s experiences with family is kind of what it’s all about. That is, of course, if you like your family…just saying.

“Do what makes you happy” is what many will say life is all about, and if you can help people along the way and make a few dollars you hit the jackpot. Two out of three in the last few weeks isn’t bad.

We started in East London, South Africa where ALL the Mercedes C class are made for the entire world. Strange, very strange. But yet you feel like you are on the tip of the earth because as far as you can see it’s untouched dunes and beaches with rolling hills of green lush jungle like landscape. We spent a few days catching up and chilling out, not that we had many options since it rained all day and night.

After relaxing we are off to a safari a few hours away, we are lucky enough to have seen a double header…the big five again. We are officially all animaled out (I’m not…this is Linda ;-)) but a few highlights need to remembered.

– We followed lions for over an hour as they hunted. WE stalked the lions, so interesting watching nature unfold. An animal was going to die tonight in order for another animal to live. Sounds brutal but this is survival of the fittest in its rawest form. Exciting and exhilarating was the quote from Dad.

– Languages ~ clicking is a language; imagine clicking your tongue on the top of your mouth to make the equivalent of words. Our ranger in Shamwari (the name of our Safari reserve) came from a tribe where this is how they communicated.

– Elephant pee is a waterfall in itself, and they poop 2.5 hours after they eat. They don’t digest their food all that well, which makes for yummy food for other animals as the elephant already took the effort to pick and eat all kinds of wonderful greens…so think of their poop as a big greenery cupcake blob for other animals to munch on. Nice.

– Hot towels to wash your face when it’s cold out are just as good as cold towels when you are hot. Sort of like the quote, don’t sweat the petty things and don’t pet the sweaty things. (A Lindy shout out for credit.)

– Getting up at 5:30AM gets old, even on safari.

– “I haven’t been in that much of a rural environment with close to zero human density, I just want to lay on the earth in the middle of the jungle. The vastness of space is incredible” – a Vanessa quote.

– I have a newfound dislike of zoos.

A week into the trip and our new travel partners are totally disconnected with home, not checking emails and this makes them feel less frantic since there is less information coming in and out. You quickly realize how much of the information/chatter doesn’t really matter.

Drove 5 hours down the garden route to Knysna, a small beach town that reminds me of Nantucket. Once again, not comparing to the US because I’m judging only because it gives some context to what the experience is like.

Then on to Hermanus, another beach town that reminded us of a combination of a European looking beach town with deeply cut bays and high cliffs with houses carved into the rocks. Combine all of that with a west coast beach town like Malibu with the high class modern architecture for houses and a quaint little town square overlooking the rocky shores. Made famous for whale watching, where you can see these massive mammals floating along the coastlines. We didn’t get enough with this view so we jumped on a boat and got a close up. It was neat to see their shear mass, but it was probably one of those trips you do only once. Wales can live to up to 150 years and in the summer these massive beasts travel 3,000 km in about 20 days to get back to the cold water they love to relax in.

The day wouldn’t be complete without cruising by the world-renowned shark alley where great whites hover around a small island where 30,000 seals hangout and take an occasional dip in the water. We all know how this story ends, slowest shark doesn’t eat and slowest seal gets eaten, that’s everyday – not just on our tour day.

Penguins for days at Betty Bay, last stop before making it to Cape Town where my parents grew up and I was born.

Three cutie penguins

Greg helping our niece, Camilla, get a better look at the cutie little guys.

As we get close Mom and Dad start calling out familiar and of course after 30 years many unfamiliar points. A bit emotional for everyone to be back together, reminiscing is always fun but also hits a deep cord of the past for better or worse. “A walk down memory lane” – we are very excited to see what it brings. It’s interesting to be so interested in a place you were born but have no recollection of since you left at age two. I am interested to see how I will feel versus my parents because everyone says Cape Town is so interesting. (Interested x 4 in one sentence, not bad.)

Wow, this going to be a busy 10 days, the first morning was spent mapping out everything we wanted to do and we realized we don’t have enough time. I guess we are back to waking up at the crack of dawn. At times I am feeling a bit like the Griswalds in the movie ‘Vacation’ but enough about that for now.

Day one in Cape Town was a township visit, unthinkable how some people have to live. Originally the apartheid government moved black people to these designated areas. In the one township we toured over 50,000 people are living in poverty that could never be understood in America. A tree house in America would be considered luxurious compared to how people are living here.

And this is not the worst area

As our guide, Richard, basically said, they know nothing else so they can’t compare. Very contrite and he is probably numb to the reality since he sees it every day. A very dangerous place as well, Richard doesn’t even walk around at night and he grew up there. To give perspective:

-Kids in diapers are roaming the streets alone, Richard said the community tries to take care of the kids as best they can.

-40m black people with 30-40 percent unemployment live in South Africa. As an example of how deep and widely the problem is 2.5m people live in one township with most having no electricity or water. Rows and rows of tiny one bedroom sheds line the streets for as far as you can see.

-A 10×10 room used to be a home for three families (often 5 people per family). This would equate to 90 people living in place w six rooms and one shared common area/kitchen. Now they try and keep it to one family per room, which is better but still stifling. Concrete floors, cardboard beds, every last item you see is old and dirty. For example a plastic water bottle (the kind we throw away everyday) used to fill for drinking water looked like it had been used over 1,000 times. It smelled so bad I almost got sick.

One of the 10×10 rooms in the township

-A meal a day is not a guarantee; kids sometimes don’t eat for five days. Sheeps head are considered a delicacy.

yep sheep head, and take note of the conditions people live in.

-Yet their wills are so strong that when the government built new homes people wouldn’t move in because the government kicked their friends off the lots so they could build. Brand new homes have been sitting vacant for 5 years! I might be pig headed (or sheep headed) but I’m not dumb.

We felts so terrible after an hour of the walk around the township that the next group of girls I saw I gave 100 Rand to, the two girls just smiled and went running. I then realized I should have asked Richard first. He said we are better off giving treats and buying school supplies. So we walked down the dirt road lined with 10×10 steel corrugated (or whatever else they can find) sheds bumping up against each other and found a shed selling candies. We bought as much candy as we could carry and had our nieces hand it out. Before we knew it kids were running from all corners of the block. It was great to see the smiles and watch a few of them dance away with the chips and toffee high above their heads laughing. I know we didn’t like the idea of giving candy but Richard assured us that a little sugar is the least of their problems and they never get candy so it was a real treat.

Nothing I write will explain the conditions and concern we quickly developed for the kids, it really is an experience worth arranging even if it’s in your hometown and not in a third world country. At worst you will appreciate your life and at best it will change your life.

We hooked Richard up with some extra cash to hopefully do some good with. We are sure he will put it to good use. However it doesn’t end here, we were all so moved by what we saw that we cancelled one of our city tours and decided to visit another township and meet with a director of a project where they are helping elementary school kids develop the necessary skills to become productive adults. The Lalela Project. Started by a New York based family. What amazing work this group is doing, the family is now in discussions of how we want to further support the cause and we have decided to make a donation for starters.

A few more comments to give you a feel for South Africa:

-Just say “brilliant” or “proper” in any sentence and you will appear sophisticated. For example, let’s go get a proper meal or that glass of wine was brilliant. Seriously, try it out.

-Also “how’s it” is the cool way to say “hello” in South Africa, once again try it out, it works.

-George, our wine tour driver, says it’s fucked up but he’s staying. It’s cheap to live, great sports, kayaking, hiking, beach, safari and big beers for $1.50 each. He’s got a point.

-Lesson of the week. We’ve said it before, but it’s worth saying again….Never ever throw anything away, it can all be used. Take a little extra time to find a charity that can take it or place it.

All in all, what a special time we spent with the family. We all are a little closer and have a better understanding of how fortunate we are and an insight to our background and roots.

Watching the sunset!

Mandela’s passing today will hopefully create enough awareness of the pressing problems and remind the country of how hard they fought for equality so that a few corrupt high ranking government officials don’t take advantage of their own people any longer.

MORE SOUTH AFRICA PICTURES: – East London, Shamwari Safari, Garden Route, Cape Town

Posted in Africa, South Africa | 5 Comments

The mighty Zambezi River-Zimbabwe

Posted on November 19, 2013 by Diamond

Let the fun begin

We went to Zimbabwe for Victoria Falls one of the Seven Wonders of the World but conquering the mighty Zambezi River was the highlight of our three day stay. After strapping into our life vest and buckling up the helmet we jumped into the eight-person zodiac and started heading for the white water. Colgate was our guide and he took his job of training us very seriously, once we learned we were going into stage 5 rapids (toughest you can do without being a professional) the groups’ ears perked up.

This is where the term white Water comes from, Linda second on left of boat, greg holding on third on right side

Our job was simple; paddle left, paddle right, stop and Get DOWN that is basically a crouch into the boat and hope the river doesn’t spit you out into the unforgiving rapids filled with rocks and other debris. Linda and I were tossed out three times and the entire boat flipped once. The first time we were just scared and bailed out a little early. However the second and third time we were hanging on like spider man clinging to the side of a 100-story skyscraper. That means it was serious rapids, turns out the Zambezi has some of the best rapids in the world. The adventure took us 20 miles down river and although we didn’t walk back we did have to walk out of the valley that the Zambezi has cut through the rocks over the last few thousand years. Think mini Grand Canyon. Hiking up gave us small flashbacks of Kilimanjaro, which whipped us back into shape, not to mention that lunch was being served at the top of the hill that gave us for the extra needed motivation.

Boat flipping, Greg going upside down while Linda already in the water

If find it Interesting how mental physical challenges become. I was exhausted after white water rafting and didn’t feel like making the hike, then I talked myself into this hike being no big deal since it was only an hour up where as kili was typically 8 hours up in altitude daily. Before I knew it I had all the energy necessary to make the climb without it feeling miserable.

We stayed at an old colonial style hotel within walking distance to the Falls, every morning on the way to breakfast we were greeted by a family of warthogs and small monkeys running around the grounds. After viewing the falls, which was beautiful but maybe not as nice as Iguazu Falls in Argentina it was time to compare natural wonders. There are three major waterfalls in the world that get compared and Victoria and Iguazu are voted as two of the seven natural wonders of the world. In short, Victoria is the tallest; Iguazu the widest and lonely Niagara has the most volume.

All are worth a view but plan other activities while you are there since you can only stare at water for so long:).

The late afternoon sun sent us to the pool where we met a few couples from Johannesburg. An innocent chance encounter led to dinner, drinks and a late nightcap from our friends private stash of Amarila and whiskey. Great conversations on the similarities and differences of our lives in the US v South Africa gave us a good understanding of the present struggles South Africa is still facing 20 years after Mandela and the ANC where voted into power. The economy hasn’t grown much, unemployment is at 30% but people are happier today then they have been in the past. Hmmmmmm….what does this tell us about what’s important in life?? Freedom from oppression? Don’t take it for granted.

The same realities apply to Zimbabwe, 60% of the population lives in rural villages! I’m talking dirt roads, no electricity, no running water and a few cattle to their name yet they are extremely happy. There is something to be said for leading a simple life; it leads to minimal responsibilities, which probably equals less stress. Of course there is no debt in these situations so maybe this frees up your time to do what you enjoy, instead of doing what pays your bills. I just read an article on happiness after experiencing these scenarios first hand in Zimbabwe. In summary, if money makes you happy does 2 billionaire dollars make someone twice as happy as someone else who ONLY has 1 billion? So then if money doesn’t make us happy then beyond having enough money for the necessities why do we all keep trying to make more money? (us included).

I really need to keep busy touring and climbing things, when I get free time I start to sound like a bi-polar maniac trying to make sense in a world that doesn’t make sense. Since I have thoroughly confused myself on this topic it’s time to wrap up as we move onto South Africa where we are meeting parents and lil sisters family back in the motherland.

BTW, we have been traveling almost four months and we have logged less than one hour of TV, I don’t miss it and all I can say is…weird very weird since I used to sit in front of the TV for hours.

Zimbabwe Pictures https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A65VaUrzZcuPA

Posted in Africa, Zimbabwe | 2 Comments

The King of the Jungle…or not!

Posted on November 11, 2013 by Diamond

By Greg and Linda

As the planes got smaller I knew we had to be getting closer. Twenty-one hours from Turkey and boarding a single prop puddle jumper meant it was time to see some big animals. As the plane hit the dirt runway we could tell we were in a special place; the Serengeti in Tanzania would be home for the next few days. Doug, Deena, Linda and I loaded into an open-air land cruiser, basically like an old jeep with no doors, windows or front windshield. From the dirt runway we could see a herd of elephants and since there was no rush to go directly to the lodge we drove over with our guide Adas. We sat and watched about 30 elephants walk by and basically pay no attention to us, they were too busy tearing down tree branches to eat and caring for the babies that stay close to the mom’s side at all times. More on elephants later since it was time to look for some lion prides. Bingo! About a ¼ mile down a dried river we found a lioness and two cubs sunbathing. As we sat in our open-air land cruiser about 10 feet from the lioness she abruptly stands up and walks towards the car and then meandered around to the back. As I leaned towards the inside of the car to get further away from the lion I quickly realized we basically had no protection in the event the lion (or any other animal) decided that they were hungry.

Safari fact #1 – You can end up in an open-air car or a closed car. Closed cars have full doors and windows where the roof pops up about a foot so you can view animals while you stand up. There really is no comparison if you want to feel integrated with the wild but note that it comes with a level of danger or at least a big adrenaline rush every time you get close to an animal.

Time to head to the lodge, but not before we run into a small group of buffalo catching some shade trying to cool off as the hot African sun is going to sleep for the night. So an hour or two into the safari we have seen 3 of the big 5, a promising start. The big 5 are the most deadly of animals…the elephant, lion, leopard, rhino, and buffalo.

We pulled into a camp sitting on a small hill; since most of the Serengeti is flat this gave us great viewing opportunities from the camp itself. We were welcomed with big smiles from everyone, a wet towel to clean up and an Arnold Palmer ice tea and lemonade concoction. Before we could sip it down we looked out at a watering hole that was about 100 yards from the camp and seemed to melt into the view from the infinity pool that we sat next too. In an attempt to not exaggerate, approximately 40 elephants were hanging out, drinking the water and taking a bath. Time to walk to our rooms, down a dirt path surrounded by bamboo and small trees on both sides. We were told we needed to get a security guard to walk us back and forth when it is dark since there are no fences between the animals and us. With a guide and a flashlight in front, and guide with a shotgun behind us, we walked about 5 minutes to our bungalows overlooking the Grumeti River. A huge wall made out of glass is what gives us a private view into the wildlife. As the day comes to an end a large family of baboons along with some zebras are just hanging out for us to watch. It was all so surreal we kept joking that they must have these animals in cages and once the guests shows up they let them go at different times so that there is always a constant stream of exotic creatures for the guests to gawk at. Feeling giddy and in awe of what we have seen, it was time to shower up for dinner. Of course the shower is outside, so while showering you could get some extra viewing in. Dinner was the cherry on the sundae with a gourmet meal fit for Simba, the current King of the Jungle. 🙂

A 5:30AM wake up call and we do it all over again. The highlight this day was seeing two prides of lion sitting by fresh kills protecting them until they finished eating. We watched the hierarchy of the animal kingdom and the survival of the fittest unfold. Lion kills weaker animal, eats what it wants as buzzards creep closer, hyenas patiently wait while the jackal run in a snatch smaller pieces of the kill. All are hanging around waiting for the lions to move on to the next kill. We head off across the flat plains looking for the illusive leopard, instead we find a group of about 30 giraffe elegantly gliding from tree to tree nibbling on whatever they could reach, so we make a quick right turn and get about 20 feet from the group. We feel like we are wearing 3-D glasses and watching the movie Jurassic Park.

Safari fact #2 – In National Parks you stay on the dirt roads, so some viewing is from a distance. In private reserves you can drive wherever you want and as close as your guide thinks is safe. There are pros and cons to both.

Back at camp while waiting for our afternoon game drive we swim, nap and get ready to meet at 4:00PM in the lodge area. As we walk out of our tented bungalow Doug and Deena are walking back towards the rooms and say there is an elephant blocking the path on the way to the lodge. So, of course, Doug and I being the curious stupid Americans proceed to check out the scene. Walking slowly and gingerly down the path with Linda and Deena behind us, we hear the elephants down to our left wrestling with the bamboo and eating away entire tree branches. As we are crouched down attempting to see through the heavy brush an elephant pushes down all the debris between the two of us and we quickly make an about face and tear down the path at full speed. Once a safe distance away we laugh and can’t talk because we are all hyperventilating. It is really difficult to describe in words how big these elephants are. Sitting behind a fence or in a safari truck gives one a false sense of security because once face to face with a two story tall wild animal all bets are off. You would think this was enough excitement for the afternoon but nooooooo, Doug and I have to go back to the scene because his sunglasses fell off his head during the sprinting retreat. As we walk past a slight turn in the path we see an enormous adult female coming towards us staring us down. We take off running again right after Linda snapped a picture from a distance. Now the girls are yelling at us to get inside as they had called the head lodge and they directed us to all immediately go inside and wait for a ranger. Exhilarating, dangerous, adrenaline filled, these are the emotions that can get a thrill seeker in trouble and it turns out we were close to serious danger without really knowing it. Multiple guides looked at the picture and were certain the elephant was going to charge us; ears out, trunk down in charge mode and a clear path forward. The mama elephant also shot us a warning trumpet, which certainly made her intentions clear. This is when we found out elephants run at 30 mph and everyone one of their steps is five of ours, so there really is no escaping on foot. Try to climb up a tree, and the elephant can just knock it down. Best bet…stay away!

OK…so why the title of this blog? Well, we all know that the mighty King of the Jungle is the lion, however, we beg to differ. Deena, Doug, Greg and I feel like the elephant should take on the title. They are much larger, extremely destructive (ripping down trees everywhere they go) and can kill a lion. Not sure who to lobby to in order to make the change, but the first step is documenting our opinion here! Roar.

After safely getting escorted to our truck we see more game and decide the day would not be complete without stopping in the middle of the flatlands watching the sunset with a gin and tonic, some bull tongue and nuts to hold us over until dinner.

G & T’s in the Bush!

A new day and we are on the hunt for a leopard again, but not before we are driven out to a new river bed location where they have set up a table and we eat a five star breakfast out in the bush. Before we know it a herd of elephants is coming closer and closer so we stand up and listen as they slowly make their way through the jungle. They are surprisingly light on foot, but you can hear them knocking over trees and eating anything in their path. Ten minutes into hearing the commotion, without seeing it, a huge head appears through the trees. Our guide tells us to stay close to the car and then I hear the guard pump the shotgun to get a bullet in the chamber. Thrilling on the edge of scared and maybe even stupid we don’t want to leave so we can see how close they massive beasts will come. A few loud fake coughs from our guide scares the herd away so we head home for the afternoon nap without seeing our leopard. Luckily, the afternoon game drive produced our leopard! At this point, we have 4 of the big 5 under our belt…we still need a rhino. The leopard was stunningly beautiful and surprisingly didn’t mind posing for pictures as he chilled in a tree with all four fat paws dripping over the branch, just waiting for the sun to set so it could track down its next meal.

The last night was a celebration of being alive and reminiscing about our highs and lows of the day. A little red wine helped us dig deep to describe how we felt about being in the middle of nowhere, scared but excited to view once in a lifetime wild animals. Our host Amos (as in Famous Amos cookies…which Doug is working on sending to him) even joined in on the conversation, in broken English he told us, “I am happy for you because you are strong like me but I will be sad when you go.” This is the typical caring and appreciation we felt from everyone we met in Tanzania and it really is great to gain a better understanding of how East Africa is still struggling to find itself and grow up to hopefully be like America one day, with maybe a little more modesty. 🙂

Back to our puddle jumper plane and we land on another dirt runway at the Ngorongoro Crater. Once a volcano thought to be taller than Kilimanjaro the entire mass of land has collapsed and now forms a crater that houses all the animals one can imagine. From the air it looks like a meteor landed on earth and carved out this round section now known to be the only place on earth above sea level like it. One of the seven natural wonders of the world left us eager to take the one-hour ride down to the crater floor.

We had one goal, to see a rhino so that we could complete our big five viewing goal. Before lunch the mission was accomplished and our guide, Peter, gave himself a pat on his back…of course we joined in. Peter, as it turns out, is a Masai Warrior. His parents were born on the crater floor but have since been removed by the government because the site is too important for tourism. There are multiple stages in a Masai’s life in order to become a warrior; the last phase is to kill a lion.

Masai Warriors performing their traditional songs and dances.

Peter looked like any guy in America wearing hiking boots, khakis and a pressed safari shirt ~ but the average American can’t say that they have killed a lion with a spear! Peter was the first of his group of Masai warriors to hit the lion with a spear, so he was awarded with the tail of the lion, which really made him a ladies man among the Masai women since this shows his strength and courage. It is also a sign of strength as well agility when the warrior could jump the highest during the Masai traditional dances, which we were fortunate to watch live! Their traditional songs were riveting. We could not help but to sing them daily once we caught on…to include having Simon (our host) and the entire kitchen staff join in one lovely evening, which we fondly refer to as the Rose Dinner. The Rose Dinner was an unforgettable evening where the staff flooded us with an absurd amount of rose peddles. We thought we could not top the Faru Faru lodge at Singita (the first Safari), but when we were literally drowned in roses (at the andBeyond Crater Lodge) in conjunction with enjoying a dinner fit for a king, we were dumfounded. The red wine and red roses lead us to feeling a bit giddy, hence the Masai impromptu dance routine that we all took part in.

We were so very sad to have our safari experience come to an end. The only thing that would have made the experience even better was to have Deena and my dream of having a baby lion cub to cuddle with each night come true, but wishful thinking. 🙂 Oh, or to perhaps delete one memory from my memory bank, which is as follows: It was late and the four of us had just finished up a fabulous dinner and were being escorted by our rangers back to our bungalows. Greg, obviously still experiencing an adrenaline energy surge, decided that he was an elephant and pounced at me and inadvertently pushed me in to a pricker bush. I survived, but could have used a real elephant as back up to ward him off. 🙂

Now, on to Zanzibar, which is an island in the Indian Ocean off the northeast coat of Tanzania and is part of the republic of Tanzania. It was time to relax for a few days and wind up the trip before sadly seeing Deena and Doug off.

Zanzibar was the perfect place to kick back and relax. The beaches are gorgeous, but the island is pretty poverty stricken outside of the resort areas, but that didn’t stop the people of Zanzibar from having warm attitudes and welcoming smiles. In the US “You are welcome” is a common reply if one thanks someone, but in Zanzibar it is also used as in you are being welcomed to wherever you are…versus just saying “welcome” (aka karibu in Swahili). The population is 99% Muslim so all the women were covered to varying degrees, but the tourists get a hall pass in terms of complying. The top industries are spices and tourism, so the food was fabulous. The lamb kofte’s were to die for…I had them for three out of my four dinners!

Overall we spent three weeks with Doug and Deena and we were so very sad to see them go. It is always so special to get a slice from home when on our travels and the D & D visit was just what the doctor ordered. Albeit, we were a little worried about our livers after spending a week with our dear friends (the lovely Lindys) in Buenos Aires, but we survived! J Thank you D & D for meeting us during our travels. To anyone reading the blog consider this an open invitation to join us somewhere or anywhere.

A few other tidbits we picked up from our East Africa Travels:

* Never throw out anything. Someone can always use it happily! We saw so much poverty and people wearing shoes, shirts, pants, etc. that we Americans would have tossed out a long time ago. We happily gave away two garbage bags filled with hiking gear and even our “bugaway” fancy safari shirts. We smile just imagining the new owners wearing some of our things. We are probably happier than they are about the exchange.

Yup…that is the back of a goat. Apparently goats are so used to being transported this way that they
just hang out calmly on the mopeds.

* You can fit two people and a goat on a moped. You have got to make do with what you have!

* Enjoy your free flowing water. It was amazing how many people we saw on the side of the road with large plastic buckets transporting water back to their homes. We will never be able to turn on the tap again without being thankful.

* Whether you like our government or not, you should be thankful for the conditions that we live in. The one and only road up and down the Ngorongoro Crater was a complete mess after it rained the morning we were leaving. It was not paved, so it turned in to a total mud pit, so much so that it stopped all incoming traffic and we barely made it to the airport. Trucks everywhere were sliding off the road or stuck for hours. Tourism is the main industry in the Crater, but that revenue flow can be totally stopped due to a little rain. That would not fly in the US.

* Cattle will go for walks without leashes or fences daily to graze and will willingly come back home when finished. In the Masai tradition, it is the boys that walk the cattle while the ladies gather firewood and water.

* Even with an ominous cloudy sky, the most breath taking sunsets are in the Serengeti.

That is all for now. We are on the way to South Africa to meet up with some of the family that is flying in from the US to go explore their South Africa roots with us. We can’t wait! We have missed everyone so much!

MORE PHOTOS:
– Africa – Tanzania Safari (Serengeti & Ngorongoro Crater) and Zanzibar

Posted in Africa, Tanzania - Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater and Zanzibar | 5 Comments

We love Turkey, mashed potatoes aren’t bad either.

Posted on November 3, 2013 by Diamond

After Kili it was time for some R&R but first we needed to travel 15 hours to include a night on the floor of the Nairobi airport as we waited for our 3:45 AM flight to Istanbul. We stayed at the Ciragan Palace, now a Kempinski hotel, on the Bosphorus channel which splits Turkey in two continents. Yep…to the west of the channel is Europe and to the east is Asia. Turkey is the only country in the world that is split between two continents. Our first three meals and 24 hours were spent in the hotel room recovering. Then off to the spa for a dip in the hot tub and heated pool prior to enjoying massages to top off the pampering. Excited to see Doug and Deena coming in from Miami Beach that evening, we woke up early and made our way via ferry to the Asia side. It doesn’t take long to feel the electric atmosphere with the streets lined with outdoor markets selling everything from fresh fish, meats, pastry deserts and of course olives.

Olives anyone?

There is a love affair with honey as well; in pastries, caked over the olives with dried figs soaking up what is left. The people are as friendly as we have experienced and the services in the hotel and restaurants were fit for a Sultan, even though the last Sultan was driven out of Turkey in the 1500’s. A simple but fitting example is the room service breakfast that was brought up – they delivered a toaster along with the bread so as to avoid serving up stale or soggy toast, genius! Thankfully the little things in life still make us happy and keep us amused.

After some hugs and kisses to celebrate everyone’s safe arrival we set out via ferry for dinner; this is where we were introduced by our fabulous guide, Deniz, to the local drink called Raki. Between the electric atmosphere, feeling recharged by our rest after Kili and the arrival of our westerner side kicks, the first night in Istanbul is one for the record books. The next day Deniz gave us our first history lesson complete with a hand drawn map over a Turkish coffee. Whatever you do, don’t call the yogurt we all eat “Greek yogurt” because not only was yogurt discovered in Turkey (or should I say the Ottoman Empire) but there seems to be a little friction between the Turkish and Greek people. Like the Redskins and Cowboys rivalry, deeply rooted in the fan base but basically irrelevant to the big picture now a days.

The main palace was our first stop; an elaborate maze of stone pathways, green grass park like areas and residences where 5,000 people lived during the Ottoman rule. Surrounded by a stonewall overlooking the Bosphorus the royal family and concubines lived under siege for over 100 years before the final collapse of the empire. Based on our lesson and trip to the palace we have decided that Turkey needs a much deserved public relations boost. Why?

– If you believe in evolution then it would be easy to understand how the first up right humans headed north up the Nile river, bared right at the Egyptian temples and took a sharp left at Jerusalem before landing in turkey which is full of all the necessary natural resources and water supplies.

– There is over 2,000 years of history and a newly found structure similar to Stonehenge in England is dating back 13,000 years. The archeological sites rival those of the Incas, Egypt, Rome, Greece and Jerusalem.

Ancient City Kitty

– The main palace in Istanbul houses, under tight security, the staff of Moses and a footprint of the prophet Muhammad. Can’t get much closer to the beginning of humankind than that.

– The country has beautiful landscapes and is coastal on three sides to include the Mediterranean.

– They have, for the most part, stayed out of the Middle East conflicts and Arab spring despite being 98% Muslim.

– The food here is healthy and outstanding…as long as you don’t load up on the sweet Turkish Delights sold everywhere. We already love Mediterranean cuisine and have a better appreciation for the mouth watering locally grown tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and olives from the region.

Deena and I bought over $200 worth of delicious spices, to later learn that you can’t ship spices in to the US. We will find a way! 🙂

– They do whatever America tells them to do. 🙂

Moving to the residential sections of town with mosque filled streets and the call to prayer blasted over loud speakers five times a day, makes sure you never forget it is a Muslim state. Men line the sidewalks near the mosques facing Mecca kneeling on a prayer rug as we walk by on our way to having some Turkish tea and to smoke a watermelon or apple flavored pipe. Last stop was an amazing underground structure built to capture rain water that would fill the aqueducts back over a thousand years ago.

For our last night in Istanbul we went to Sunset Grille, overlooking the Bosphorus. It was a hip trendy restaurant turned club late night. We ate dinner late and with a departure at 4:30AM Doug suggested we stay up and power through until leaving for the airport. So we did, and by now I am sure we all know how this story ends. Bad decisions make great stories! We were hurting on the plane but it was only an hour to the south of Turkey where we hopped on a gullet, a Turkish style sailboat. By the time we boarded the boat we realized that a backpack was left in the hotel room, so what would John Wayne do? Perhaps, ride off into the sunset on his horse to collect his goods? Fortunately for us we don’t ride horses and from time to time don’t mind throwing money at a problem. By the time we woke up, due to Deniz’s handy work, someone had flown back to Istanbul to retrieve the backpack. Then, one of our shipmates had taken the dinghy to a local port to meet the bag. Mission accomplished! Phew!

I have always dreamed of sailing on the Mediterranean. Island hoping on a traditional sailboat is also on our bucket list, so we made the most of the experience. We first meandered slowly up a river flanked by tall reeds and mountain ranges that house ancient ruins. The sites were spectacular and the weather was the cherry on the sundae. We made a quick stop at a beach before lunch, where we pulled up next to a fishing boat and grabbed a plate of freshly steamed blue crabs. The crabs looked the same as Maryland crabs, but had a tad bit more of a fishy taste. Later that afternoon we dropped anchor in our first cove where we enjoyed some white wine, more olives, tomatoes and cucumbers before taking our first dip in the Med. The water was chilly, but we couldn’t pass up this opportunity. The water was so clear that we could see the bottom of the sea about 40 feet down. Many fun stories being told on the stern couch made the day pass too quickly; before we knew it we had our fourth sit down meal of the day. As the rest of Turkey goes, so did the boat…excellent service and food. As the sun set, we decided that it was only fitting to switch to red wine. An early night and a great sleep had the four of us primed for our pre-planned day hike the following morning.

Over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house we go, actually to the other side of the island, where the boat will pick us up. A few hours later, with not a single cloud in the sky, we land at our second bay. I can save my fingers and your eyes and just hit the repeat button. We were very focused on soaking up the views and we all spoke about how fortunate we are to have this experience. We then enjoyed another day of over analyzing life while sipping on some white wine. Another cove, with one more beautiful than the next, followed by a tour of the ghost town of Kayakoy wrapped up our third day on the gullet. After WWI the Greeks and Turks fought a war resulting in the government attempting to organize a citizen exchange (in 1923) of 200,000 people living on the wrong side of the new borders. This is one of the towns that was deserted by citizens when the government forced them to live here. A real testament to the will of humans and the terrible mistakes that happen when governments step too far in to citizens’ lives.

Fit for a sultan or king or, someone who wants to be a sultan or king, the meal ended with a surprise belly dancing show. After dancing lessons for the four of us we took turns DJ’ing and then headed off to bed around 9pm.

Cha Cha??

Well rested, but sad about leaving the boat, we jumped in the car and headed to Ephesus which is an ancient city with magnificent ruins dating back thousands of years to the Ottoman Empire and Greek rule. It is one of the largest restoration projects in the world. It was even Home to Alexander the Great for a few years. Walking on the same stones on the same streets as some of the greatest people in our history from thousands of years ago reminds us how large our world is and how much there is to learn about life. On a very tiny stage in comparison, it’s like walking on the field of your favorite sports team, you get to dream a little bit.

Turkey is very high on our list of favorite places and is also a great travel hub for Europe, Asia and Africa. What a great detour when last minute travel changes were needed after canceling our volunteering in Nairobi. On our last day in Turkey we received confirmation that the indestructible soccer balls we sent to the Nairobi school had arrived. We are looking forward to re-booking our volunteering in Nairobi and want to also let our Nairobi friends know that we are so very sorry about the horrible tragedy they had to endure. Living outside of DC, we are no stranger to terrorist attacks, so we can certainly commiserate. Our thoughts are with our Nairobi friends.

Thanks for the idea Kim! And thank you Deena for organizing the shipping!

Twenty-one hours of travel and another nap on the floor of the Nairobi airport makes us realize how fortunate we are to have travel options in the US. No big deal because it’s time to see some big cats. With any luck we will get a glimpse of the great Serengeti migration.

“When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable.” – Clifton Fadiman

PHOTOS: TURKEY

– Istanbul and Coast

This photo has nothing to do with anything, but had to include it. It gives new meaning to bad hair day. Why is only MY hair standing on end! Say what?!?!? Scary

What is wrong with this picture????????

Enjoy!

Posted in Europe/Asia, Turkey | Tagged aligncenter, Ciragan Palace, Istanbul, Nairobi airport, Turkey | 5 Comments

The Kilimanjaro Klimb

Posted on October 25, 2013 by Diamond

Goodbye South America! We had a great time. Hello Africa…jambo! We are excited to switch continents even though it took us 4 flights and 30 hours of travel time!!! Now, on to our Kilimanjaro climb…

Definition: Kili, aka Mount Kilimanjaro, is the highest mountain in Tanzania, the highest mountain in Africa, and the highest free-standing mountain in the world at 19,341 feet above sea level (the Uhuru Peak/Kibo Peak)

Just when we thought we were expert trekkers after the Inca trail, reality set in when we met our guide Dismass. He laid down the law on how the trek was going to happen. This is because there are serious health risks, due to the altitude, if you don’t follow his rules.

1. No sleeping during the day after hikes because you can’t risk slowing your heart beat down after strenuous activity. Not an easy task for Greg! Also, a 15 minute nap during the day could cost you an entire night of sleep since it is hard to sleep at a high altitude already.

2. We must drink no less than 3 liters of water everyday, the goal being 4 liters.

3. Eat what is served. It doesn’t matter what else you have eaten during the day on your own. If Dismass didn’t see you eat it, it doesn’t count. And I quote, “It’s not optional, eat what I give you.”

4. We test oxygen levels at least twice a day, and then practice the correct breathing technique in order to get your oxygen levels up. If you can’t get your levels up above the mid 90’s he may not let you attempt to summit.

5. Wear what he tells you…which was just about everything we brought come summit time.

6. Commit that you will tell him everything you are feeling, he needs to see the issue progressing to determine the best course of action. Don’t wait until it is unbearable.

Dismass had summited 271 times, stayed on top of the mountain for three days straight and made it up and down in 18 hours. So he is a basically a bad ass, like a Navy Seal or Delta Force Special Ops on Kilimanjaro. To give some perspective, the average mortal has a successful summit rate of 64% for a seven day trek (successful summits as reported by Kilimanjaro National Park for all climbers and all routes is only 45%) and people die every year attempting the trek. So given these stats the entire group quickly fell in line and listened to EVERYTHING Dismass said. He made it very clear that he has one goal – to get everyone to summit safely. We later learned that he takes a hard stance since most people he guides are both type A and successful so they are used to being in control and giving other people direction, not taking direction. It even got to the point where we were telling him about our pees and poops and asking really basic questions like we were small children.

hot during the day but freezing at night!

Now for our group. When first meeting new people, it is easy to judge the book by it’s cover. Luckily for us, we are meeting so many new people during our travels that we don’t even try to judge in advance because we all know the prejudgments are typically wrong. Side note, judging is typically negative so we have taken it out of our vocabulary. Starting lineup is as follow:

Tom – A salt of the earth farm boy from Ohio. Former military and was always on time (really he was early) for every briefing and meal. He has a few marathons under his belt.
Felix – It turns out he lives in Bethesda and is a travel expert. The marathon and triathlon he recently completed kept him going with only 10 hours of sleep all week. Insomnia is a common issue when in high altitudes.
Cat – Originally from South Africa now living in CA. A competitive cyclist who races for a sponsored team. Nothing was getting in the way of her finishing this trek.
Betsy – Married mother of two in-between leaving CA and moving to Vail to continue her competitive cycling on a sponsored team and throw in some extreme skiing to keep her busy. As fit as they come and Linda’s new hiking BFF.
Chris – Fellow Florida resident who trained extensively and lost 30 lbs coming into the trek. First time doing anything like this and fully committed to summiting.
Roz and Anita – Long time best friends from New York with the accent to prove it. Like an egg, hard on the outside but soft on the inside. Many adventure trips under their belt. Both fought through hard times on the trail and always stuck together. Lots of giggling coming from their tent.
Linda and Greg – Totally clueless with what they got themselves into but will give it the old college try.
Last but not least, our fearless guide Dismass. A six foot something Tanzanian born, husband and father of two. Our summit was his 272nd! Now, if that doesn’t impress you close your browser and stop reading! ;-). A true professional in his field. He started off his career as a porter for two years and quickly realized that there was a need for someone that could not just lead the way up the mountain, but could handle every aspect of the clients needs…and trust me, there are plenty. So, after furthering his education he became the all knowing Guide that can handle any emergency that is thrown his way! He was our leader up the mountain, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. He was also our medical specialist, dietary needs analyst, fluid intake detector, doctor, psychiatrist, gear consultant and director of a crew of 60+ hard-working men that helped us at every turn.

We started the trek at 6,000 feet in the rainforest. One of the neatest things about this adventure is that we go through five climate zones. Temperatures could range from 80 degrees to negative 10 degrees. The group is already bonding, I guess we are all here for different reasons but still have a common thread of wanting to accomplish a major challenge. For some it’s therapeutic and for others it’s adrenaline, either way we are all respecting each other because without saying it, we will need each other in order to get to the top. It’s really interesting how deep a conversation can quickly get when you are walking next to someone for hours on end, or how such inappropriate conversations about peeing and pooping become normal like saying hello or asking how your day was. I think it’s like being in war, the bond instantly becomes strong when dealing with fear. Outside of the nerves and anxiety we get up to 10,000 feet with no problem.

Wake up time day 2, like everyday, was about 5:00 AM. We wake up freezing cold and in no mood to put cold baby wipes on our body, but you must clean up since the trail is very dusty. Our clothes were already trashed to the point that we couldn’t even tell what color our boots used to be due to the crud buildup. The day started out going up a narrow switch back (when it’s very steep you make S turns 5-10 feet in either direction instead of trying to go straight up) trail and climbing over large and small boulders for basically six hours straight. Our walking sticks came to the rescue since our thighs burnt out around lunch time. The step up to the next boulder could be high enough that without walking sticks or grabbing the upper rocks with your hands, you couldn’t get up the mountain. None of the group expected this level of difficulty already. The next day was even harder as we headed up to 15,000 feet. Most of the terrain at this level is dirt and lava rocks as far as you can see. We get our first look at the summit and man was it far away and high in the sky. At this point we just want to get one more day complete so we can start telling ourselves we are 50% done! The entire trek was 6 nights camping and 7 days hiking. The mental games have begun. Without breathing properly altitude sickness will easily end your trek at this altitude. We headed back down to 13,000 feet to sleep. Trek high and sleep low, is a way to better acclimate to altitude. Dinner is served like every night at about 7:30pm. We all stuff ourselves with as much as we can eat. Why? Because Dismiss said to and you need to start storing more calories or something like that, anyway we did it because Dismass said so and I’m sticking to that reason. Apparently during the hike one can burn 4,000 calories per day and between 7,000 to 11,000 when it is summit time. So, eat now and use it later!

The Wall, Lean in or else

The next morning after breakfast I am standing with Tom trying to figure out what direction we are going since we are in a valley surrounded by mountain ridges. He is pointing in a direction where the peaks break apart so you could almost walk in-between two peaks. I tell him that last night Dismass pointed to another area on an opposite ridge. Tom says we can’t go that way because it is straight up along a wall on the mountain. Of course, this is where we ended up, the Barranco Wall. Basically you climb up the side of the mountain where a 5 foot ledge is sticking out for us to walk on, there were two places on the wall that could have sent me down (as in falling down a few hundred feet). With our guides spotting us, we are told to cup a small nub with our left hand while your right foot reaches out and stretches to the other side. As you stretch to reach the foot hold a guide on the other side of the break in the trail yanks you across by grabbing forearm to forearm. In another area there was a small one foot ledge and nothing to grab with your hands since you are smashing your face against the mountain side to keep balance. As much as I tried to bear hug a flat wall it wasn’t working. Thankfully Dismass to the rescue again, he is on the other side and basically pulls you firmly across once you get in arms reach. One more hour up and we take a break and all of our faces show disbelief that we even attempted this technical climb. At one of the more difficult points a girl that was not in our group was sitting down hysterically crying and wouldn’t move until a certain guide came to talk to her. I guess a small mental breakdown was occurring. Over the ridge was a beautiful landscape, on one side Kili’s peak and on the other we could see clouds below our feet and the ridge we just climbed. Risks versus rewards are starting to balance out. Three more hours of trekking today through a dry riverbed equally as difficult as the wall. Clinging on to tree trunks as you pass to keep your balance is necessary as your thighs are shaking and your hands are cramping from using the walking sticks too much. Not many options other than just suck it up. We are in the fog so we can’t see much, which is just fine because at this level of exhaustion you really don’t want to know how much further you have to go. And if you can’t see the camp area you aren’t going to get an answer from Dismass, his canned response was “we will get there when we get there.” A politician in the making…an answer, but not really an answer. 🙂

The next day was the same thing, ground hogs day comes to mind. However, a few cracks in the groups armour become visible. Some serious headaches, bad stomachs and insomnia are kicking in. It’s all altitude related and all we can do is breathe correctly and drink more water. Either your body adjusts or it doesn’t, not much can be done if you don’t adjust. I joked with the group that we are paying to go up the mountain, but the ride down is free. Going to bed cold and waking up in the cold is really getting old. We have mastered getting dressed and washing up in the morning without leaving our sleeping bags so we can stay warm as long as possible. Every morning the group discovers and new technique to keep warm and we all agree we will finally figure out on our last morning when it won’t matter any longer. Dirty, tired and still feeling like we have a long way to go, we get our first compliment from Dismiss. The group is really bonding and we are all talking about how we are sticking together and everyone is lending a hand to each other when needed. Sharing snacks, peeing outside together, talking about techniques to keep warm, and motivational talks solidify the bond. Finishing today in itself was a major accomplishment. Dinner tonight is full of stories that Dismass tells us about previous trekkers that are simply hilarious. I’ll spare you the details because writing them won’t do the stories justice. Just think what a story could sound like with either drunk people, a 360 pound guy, a celebrity that wouldn’t talk directly to Dismass and used an assistant to communicate with him and a few 80-year-old ladies. In bed by 8:00PM since tomorrow is the big day. Five days of hiking averaging about 9 hours a day makes everyone nervous about having enough gas left in the tank.

Summit Day:

Wake up at 6AM, hike four hours up the mountain to 15,000 feet to our new camp that we leave from to attempt the summit. We are not doubting ourselves due to our determination to finish and us feeling pretty good after five days of trekking. We have made it this far across all kinds of crazy terrain to include a rock wall (the Barranco Wall) that we shimmied across holding on for dear life, dried river beds from ancient glaciers and of course hardened lava walls. The game plan was to eat lunch, sleep then eat dinner at five and then sleep so we can leave at 11pm to start our 14 hour trek to the summit. Seven hours up to Uhuru peak which sits at 19,341 feet. At this level you can’t get enough oxygen to live without killing major brain cells, so you only stay for 15 minutes and use your reserve oxygen in your body. Head lamps turned on, a prayer from a fellow trekker and one of Linda’s famous poems and we are off into the darkness. Dismass is leading the group with each trekker (total of 9 in our group) being assigned a guide. We are in a single file line and the guides flank us like they are guarding the president. At this altitude, anyone at any point in time can get into serious trouble quickly. The biggest problem is breathing since we are only getting about 50 percent of our normal oxygen. Imagine running a few 100 yard sprints and afterwards you would naturally be gasping for air, that was our feeling for 6 hours straight. If you miss a single breath it takes 10 deep breaths to catch up.

A few minutes into the hike a girl is sitting on the ground in the middle of the trail crying. We are thinking…great, not what we want to see right away. We quickly realize that many people get in trouble along the way, some deal with the headaches and throwing up while others are in serious medical risk so the guide sends them down to a safer altitude as a lower altitude is the best medicine. About this time I went to take my first sip of water and it was already frozen, so plan B was implemented by the guides, drink their water that they somehow keep from freezing. Also, Linda shared her water with me as she had already blown the water from the tube so that it would not freeze. Mine was frozen before I had a change to. We walked at a snail’s pace up a steep mountain ridge consisting of dirt, gravel and of course large boulders that you either climb over or squeeze between.

At 2:30am we had our first break. We drank water, ate some chocolate wafers that Dismass handed us as he stood on top of us to ensure we finished it. Since we will burn up to 11,000 calories on this night you must eat even if you are not hungry as you need your energy. At 4:40am the porters started singing Swahili songs to keep us motivated, and it was needed! On the trail for five hours at this point we were not having any conversation because you can barely breathe and you don’t want to waste your precious oxygen talking. It would not be possible to walk any slower than we walked, the term used is pole pole (pronounced pole-y pole-y) which means slow slow. We were lucky enough to summit on a full moon so the landscape was glowing.

Top of the mountain

At 5:15am we reached the top of the mountain, but not the highest peak yet. A little loopy, feeling nauseous and completely exhausted we had our first celebration. Lots of hugs and kisses with group members and guides, we made it to the top and only one more hour to the peak. Sunrise is at 6:15am so Dismass timed it perfectly. The volcanic crater is to our right and looks like the moon’s surface and huge glaciers are on our left, the risk and effort are starting to payoff. Only 45% of trekkers reach the summit so we are feeling great about getting this far. Recent failed attempts include; Martina Navratilova one of the best female tennis players of all time, Ray Lewis one of the best NFL linebackers of all time, and John Corzine who probably wanted one last thrill before heading to jail. So am I saying I’m tougher than Ray Lewis? Not really but….Linda is jamming out on her iPod and of course adds a few very small hip shakes, nothing major since the priority is the summit and not another all night jam session.

We have been judging our process by how close the moon looked and at this point it feels like we can touch it. It is breathtaking. We reach the summit just as the full moon is setting and the sun is rising. The feeling of accomplishment is setting in and Linda and I take a moment to tell each other how proud we are of each other. We are exhausted and excited with excitement giving us a boost of energy for just enough time for a picture before heading back down. This is where all the trouble started. Nothing major but exhaustion combined with altitude sickness made it difficult for some group members to get down on their own. This is very common and the guide team was ready. As mentioned above, everyone is assigned a guide. For those that need to fly down, their guide locks arms at the elbow like country square dancing and they whisk you down the mountain as quickly as possible. The only solution at this point is lower ground unless you take oxygen from a bottle which is more of a last resort. It worked, this method beat Linda and I down and everyone was feeling great at the camp site. A one hour nap, some lunch and off we go for a grueling five-hour trek down to 10,000 feet and our last camp of the trip. Half way down, I couldn’t deal with the pain in my knee so I pulled off to the side to get it wrapped (in addition to my high tech knee brace). Again, Dismass to the rescue. Between the wrap, knee brace and some pain meds I was able to get down, probably too pole pole.

We made it!

The group agreed it was the hardest thing they had ever done, so everyone was feeling accomplished to say the least. I have been very accustomed to business challenges in my adult life and this was every bit as satisfying and then some. Achieving whatever you choose to focus on is what is important; business success, raising a family, helping others or adventure challenges – it doesn’t matter, just pick something (or all) and do it with passion. We completed the Machame route nicknamed the whiskey route because it is not for everyone due to it’s difficulty. If you want to attempt the trek there are easier and harder routes, so be prepared to pick your poison.

Time for some Turkey, a little early for thanksgiving but not for Istanbul. Doug and Deena, our good friends from South Beach, are meeting us for a couple of weeks so we are really looking forward to seeing them and feeling a little slice of life from home.

“Climb the mountain to see the world, not to be seen.” A quote I love that my sister, Nicky, pulled out of a commencement speech.

MORE PHOTOS ~ TANZANIA

– Tanzania (Kilimanjaro Region)

Poem for Kilimanjaro written by Linda for our group:

-We are getting fired up because the big day is here!
-We all have strength (and safety in numbers) so have no fear!

-The experience, challenge, and views are what brought us here to Kili
-We have all met great people to share this with; that are intelligent, fun, and often silly

-When hanging at the hotel, Dismass came on the scene
-That’s when we knew we were one hell of a team

-The goal to have us summit, is the only one he has
-And let me tell you, he does it with pizzazz

-He knows all and tells it like it is
-He’s been up there 272 times…this is his biz

-So, please don’t try to fool him and be sly
-Without even looking at you he can tell if it’s a lie

-He’ll do whatever it takes to help you out
-“Dismass honey, I’m ready” is all you must shout

-Whether one is old, fat, senile, drunk or just wants to stop
-My man Dismas will still get you to the top

– We’ve already endured 50 hours of hiking and 200 pees
– Some even had to deal with their shotty knees

– But we’ve done it with a laugh and smile
– So we can certainly pull through not being able to breathe for a while

– When on the way to reach your goal
-Reach hard down in to your soul

-And know your family, Dismass and your team all have your back
-Just give it your all, and do not slack

-Once we’ve summited you can be proud of what you have just done.
-And in your own heart and in ours you’ll always be number one.

……
Climb the mountain so you can see the world, not so the world can see you.

Swahili:
Marisha Marifu – long life
Una Goo Voo – you are strong
Ja sirrrie – brave
Trendi ju – let’s go up
Moja, beelie, tatoo – 1,2,3
Trendi chini – let’s go down
Wa tu – people

Climber Assistants:
Good luck
Freddie
Jacob

Nayroo – Dismass’ assistant

Now, off to Turkey! Gobble gobble.

Posted in Africa, Tanzania - Kilimanjaro | 13 Comments

T.I.A. ~ This Is Argentina (Guest bloggers ~ Dave and Krissy Lindy)

Posted on October 9, 2013 by Diamond

T.I.A. – Buenos Aires guest blog by Dave & Krissy Lindy (Saturday, 9/21 – Saturday 9/28, 2013)

Tango baby!

The title of this blog is T.I.A., which means: “This Is Argentina”, a saying we picked up that describes the un-describable or is the universal answer for questions about Argentina that have no answers. For example, why all the napkins in the city are made of wax paper? Why there is so much graffiti in the city, which seems to be accepted by the government. And why black jack dealers deal their second card after all the hands are played.

Day 1 started off with a bang when after an overnight flight (we slept the entire night, luckily) we cabbed to the Diamonds penthouse apt on the 18^th floor of the Recoletta (upscale, shocker) neighborhood and celebrated our arrival with a home cooked Pud breakfast w/ mimosas. We cant decide who was more excited to see us…Linda – to have someone to speak English to other than Greg. Or Greg – to have someone for Linda to speak to other than himself. They had a two day start on us in BA, so we were quickly bought up to speed and learned that English is not a second language in Argentina. Thus, I had to dust off the four years of high school Spanish. After I mistakenly locked all of our valuables and passports in our safe without setting a code to open it back up, we set off to the “Alamo”, a local American owned bar (Thanks to Little Buddy’s friend Ed for hooking us up) to change our US cash for Argentinian Pesos on the black market. They were expecting us at the old Alamo, so of course we had to be social and order drinks. 2 hours later after becoming BFF’s with Sabrina, the manager/bartender/owner’s girl friend from the Dominican Republic, we were set with recommendations for restaurants, tours, day trips and night clubs. She became our personal BA travel consultant. We then changed our money at the rate of 9.25 AR Pesos to $1 US as compared to the bank rate of 5.5 to 1 (nearly twice the amount!) We then set off to hit the city and start checking things off our newly planned “things to do in BA” list…

Although the first 3 days were filled with a ton of fun, great food and great company, we had yet to take a tour of the city or see any sights. (This is what happens when the Lindys and Diamonds are reunited, stay out until 5am and sleep all day) I should mention, however, that we did take a bus trip to a true Argentinian soccer game to see the Boca Jrs, who are BA’s home team. The game was away at the cross town rival the Argentinos and after almost missing the bus, offering to buy everyone on the bus beers if the driver would stop (he wouldn’t), we learned that the entire neighborhood and inside the stadium, no alcohol was being served because the fans are so passionate/violent. They don’t even let visiting team’s fans buy tickets or attend the games. Needless to say, to the surprise and dismay of our guide, we left at halftime for wetter pastures.

Hanging at the Boca Jrs v Argentinos fútbol game!

Here are some of the highlights of our time in BA in no particular order…

• “Linda is Krissy’s Barbie” – Since Linda only packed lesbianic clothes, Krissy (who packed more for 10 days than Linda did for 8 months) gladly loaned her shoes, pantalones, and all accessories to match

Barbie wearing all of Krissy’s clothes…and even sporting Krissy’s hairdo!!

• “Red Red Wine” – At our very first dinner, which was one of the nicer steak houses in BA (Argentina is known for their beef), Krissy accidentally knocked over her glass of red wine (Argentina is known for their Malbec grape), which landed all over Greg’s white shirt, which was very funny until I realized that Greg was wearing my shirt (He was my Ken doll)

• “Excuse me, Pardon me, Pardon me, Excuse me” – After a very loud and obnoxious dinner at the steak house, we jumped in a cab looking for the Crobar (nightclub) – the cab driver dropped us off at the address we gave him, but we couldn’t find the club. Just as we were about to give up and Pud was flagging a cab, I said “wait, I feel something inside me” Sure enough, I followed the beat to a tunnel which was the entrance and had no less than 1000 people in line. In typical American style, we bum-rushed to the front with Krissy leading the way. She found a bouncer and started declaring “Estados Unidos, Unidos Estados” which got us right to the front and into a club of 5,000 dancing Argentines (funny note, 95% of the music is from US)

Club Crobar!

• “And the beat goes on” – We learned that every Monday there is a tradition called “La Bomba de Tiempo” which is basically a band of no less than 20 percussion players who improvise on a stage at a cultural center. Think Grateful Dead meet Harry Krishnas. We rolled up and bought beers on the street, but we couldn’t take them inside. We went inside and bought beers, but we couldn’t take them into the room with the stage…why? T.I.A.

• “Day 4, still no tour!!” After 3 days and nights of soaking up the Argentine nightlife and talking about what we should do during our stay, we finally agreed to take a bus tour of the city. When we got to the ticket booth, we were told it was sold out! There is an upside…Our fearless leader (and now world traveler), Greg suggested we stop in a hotel to see if we had any other options. We ended up on a semi private 3 hour bus tour of the entire city.

• “I see dead people” – One of BA’s most popular attractions is a cemetery in the middle of the city. Here, the Argentine’s upper class are buried in very elaborate mauselium type buildings which can house as many as 20 family members. These mini townhomes of death are passed on from generation to generation and are sellable…so, if a family is in need of money, they can sell the real estate and have their dead family members moved to a less desirable cemetery and pocket the cash. Evita Perone is buried here in her families plot, but it took her many years (and countries) to get there (google it) Quote from Greg, “I cant believe they would build these things to spend the rest of their lives in” to which I replied, “Dude, they’re dead.”

Cemetaria de la Recoleta, Buenos Aires

• “Day Tripper” – Finally, after many discussions about where to go outside BA, we agreed to visit “Tigre”, which is BA’s version of Annapolis. An hour and a half train ride out of the city took us to an interesting working port-side city with shopping, restaurants, a casino and an amusement park. This is where the Argentines weekend. We took a boat tour around the “Delta” (thousands of square miles) which are waterways containing all homes that are only reachable by boat. We learned that they use sanitized river water to bathe and do laundry, but they have to ship in bottled water to drink and cook with. Some of these were nice, but most of them were run down and falling apart – why don’t they take care of these homes? T.I.A. – Upon using the boat’s bathroom, we learned that all deposits made are returned to the river, thus probably contributing to the reason why they can’t drink or cook with it.

House on the Tigre

• “No Sleep till Brooklyn” – Argentines have their version of the siesta which is a nap between lunch and dinner….Greg and I have our version of the siesta which was a nap during or after dinner and at most bars and restaurants we went to.

Siesta tiempo!

Although we had our “American moments”, we feel like we represented the USA in a positive light, spreading humor, friendliness and lots of money throughout the city. We made friends, we laughed, we cried, we learned and lived and most important – we loved! Thank you Greg and Linda for hosting us during an epic adventura!

“No fiesta grande in este taxi, no tengo zapatos y no tengo pantalones!” – Dave Lindy

MORE PHOTOS: – Buenos Aires

Posted in Argentina, South America | 7 Comments

Argentina…Rat-tails are back!

Posted on October 6, 2013 by Diamond

Wine Country Baby!

Nothing can be wrong with a small town on the foothills of the Andes serving up the worlds best Malbec wine. Mendoza the city isn’t anything special but the wine tours and inexpensive prices make up for what the city lacks in charm. Originally started by Italian immigrants that brought their wine growing skills to the region Mendoza Malbec is the new hit of Argentina. Over 1,000 vineyards with most of the wine being consumed in Argentina since you basically can’t import wine from outside of the country, more on this backwards ass government later. After a few great days of wine tasting and eating Argentinian BBQ meat (know here as Parilla) in the vineyard’s kitchen, it was time to settle down in Buenos Aires for a few weeks.

Ahhhh…our own apartment where I (I…meaning Linda, but Greg did cook too J) can cook our own food, unpack and chill for a while plus get back to working out regularly.

The Boca area of Buenos Aires

So, what’s up with the rat-tails? I mean a tiny sliver of hair down the back is the cool style in Buenos Aires, really??? Somehow I think it never left here from the 80’s and the town decided to keep more than just rat-tails from this wonderful era. Also, roller blades aren’t just a popular sport here; they are also used to deliver food. The differences in this world are what make it so great, so I’m not hating – just educating. Built from waves of immigrants from Italy, France and Spain, the food tells the tale (pun intended) and so does the attitude. It appears the people here are stingy with their smiles and come across as a bit smug…but they probably think we Americans look like blissful dorks wearing big wide toothed grins all of the time. Obviously my stereotypical remarks don’t deserve the weight of the paper (or blog) they are written on, but it’s still true :-). A bustling city built for the nightlife…and be sure when you do get up in the morning to not miss your four hour lunchtime coffee at one of the hundred sidewalk cafés. It reminds us of a little baby NYC with rows and rows of buildings with an occasional park breaking up the concrete jungle, but these rows of buildings are 30 stories not 130. Distinct neighborhoods are here…from rich aristocrats, to poor immigrants that hopped off ships at the docks back in the day make up the diversity. Compact black and yellow taxis litter the street without regard to lanes or anyone walking across the street. In this town the cars honk and don’t slow down, it is expected that the pedestrian will get out of the way – or BETTER get out of the way if that don’t want to get flattened. Like in NYC, it’s best to not look where your cab is going if you want to make it out without a panic attack.

Tango anyone?

Berries anyone? I love blue, black and raspberries but you won’t find them here. You have no idea what a city of 15m doesn’t have. I can only imagine it’s due to the political stance of protectionism which has made everyday products very difficult for vendors to import. In Mendoza, aka wine country, the vineyards told us they have trouble getting the glass bottles to make their wine. The US government shut down for a few days is nothing compared to Argentina basically being crippled long-term due to the government’s philosophy. Anything that can be imported is too expensive for 99% of the population. For instance, Levi’s are not just the popular jeans but they don’t even have brands like Guess, Seven, etc. On that note, I (Greg) bought myself a fine pair of 501’s for $116 US dollars, when in Rome…

Forget about finding higher end beers or liquor. An occasional store will carry Grey Goose but Absolute is about as good as it gets here. What’s this world coming to when a man can’t even make a top tier martini on a lazy Sunday afternoon to watch football or fútbol, yep either version of the game will do. Prescription medications are bought over the counter without a prescription. I occasionally take an anti-inflammatory for my 70 year old knee. In the US the medication costs $300, yet I walked into a Pharmacity here is BA without a prescription and no insurance it cost me only $10 USD. Time to stock up! Yep we Americans are getting robbed by big pharma, but don’t worry Obamacare will fix it. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)

TIA is a term we heard from a restaurant manager we were put in touch with via a friend back in the states (shout out to Lil Buddy). When things go wrong or just don’t make sense they say T-I-A, which stands for “This Is Argentina”! Meaning, don’t surprised by anything.

Can’t figure this one out…it’s difficult to eat healthy and we are really trying. For instance not a single salad bar or organic market can be found, but everyone is skinny. Hmmmm…maybe it is due to not having processed foods or minimal fast food joints. So, maybe every grocery store IS organic and that is the norm, not the exception. Whatever it is, we need to takes a page out of this chapter of their book!

Language barriers exist even in the biggest of cities. Don’t underestimate the frustrate n of not being able to successfully communicate. We are really surprised that basically no one speaks English. If an Argentinian came to the US would they be surprised we don’t speak Spanish since half the world now does? Probably, since American’s are notorious for being mono-linguistic. Either way, try this on for size – imagine being in a store where you need to buy something but there is nobody to communicate with and you can’t read the labels in the store. A recent trip to the grocery store yielded poor results. Our milk purchase turned out to be cream, our crackers were cookies and we couldn’t find any peanut butter. Never mind almond, cashew or any other nut you can grind yourself in the grocery stores in the US. When we order in a restaurant we think we got it right, but for the first week we didn’t get what we expected a single time. Do we get points for getting close? Perhaps? We ordered fajitas for two and got back little tiny crepe things that barely were enough for one. Of course our expectation could just be us expecting enormous US sized portions…again, another reason why you don’t see so much obesity in Argentina.

Linda’s two cents on the grocery store…

Everyone knows I need my Mexican food…refried beans with cheese and salsa is a staple in my house. I was surprised how hard it was to find anything resembling Mexican food. Salsa is nowhere to be found (or when it is, it’s only bc the word ‘salsa’ means ‘sauce’…it’s not really salsa like we think…another food purchase mistake). When Greg found some refried beans he took all two cans off the shelf as soon as he could. No chili powder, no cumin, no ground turkey for tacos, no taco shells, etc. I went looking for tortillas so we could make sandwich wraps and I found some…or so I thought. They turned out to be some thin crepe thing. They were really good, but not tortillas. It then really hit me how much our Mexican friends have influenced our every day US cuisine. Thanks Mexico! I do need to give a big shout out to the Parillas here…the BBQ…no propane gas ever used! Hot coals, wood chips, etc. make up the REAL BBQ. Another page we need to take out of this BA book and I will give them our Mexican page. Oh…and the beer! The most hilarious booze thing is that beers only come in bumpers…you know, the old school 64oz beer bottles that homeless dudes drink out of brown paper bags. Yup, that’s the norm. Ha!

Back to Greg…

“Almost” only matters in horseshoes and hand grenades. Getting lost, forget about it. We quickly learned to write down where we were going and where we lived, like a child being sent to the bus stop with instructions from Mommy. Frustrating without question but that’s part of life and this trip. We can only fault ourselves, but why do that. We just keep reminding ourselves to turn it into an experience, like when we went to 6 stores to try and recharge a prepaid cell phone. I won’t bore you with the details; in summary it took half a day. Not complaining, just sharing. I will however complain about the three cackling hens in the coffee shop today, openly giggling and staring at us. Shit…all we did was walk in and a counter chick ran up and gestured with the universal “to go” signal. Yes, of course we planned on getting a coffee ‘”to go” like any good westerner – always on the fast train to nowhere. At least Ozzie Osbourne was on the crazy train, and don’t forget he had a rat tail as well, so once again the 80’s live on. But how did she know that WE were the only ones not prepared to sit and sip a cup of coffee for the next two hours before we even spoke? The gringo “to go” cup was 8 oz, which was much larger than the in-house cups but 10% of the size of your typical Starbucks triple grande mocha-chino light flapagringo no whip yada yada yada. I guess we need to start slowing down…really…where is it that we need to rush to?

As mentioned previously, this town is made for the nightlife with dinner being served when most everyone in the US is in bed on a school night. It leads to a change in schedule and formality. Start late (or whenever you feel like it) and end late. Our guide book says being late 30 or 45 minutes is no big deal, I’m laughing as I write because in my high strung days I used to have a self imposed 15 minute late alarm for dinners. At 16 Minutes I would start ordering food with or without my dinner mate. So some balance is probably needed on both ends of this spectrum. Like most big cities (except a few)…a town with great nightlife can be good for a weary traveler because it’s not all about sightseeing it’s more about the vibe and culture. This was perfect timing since all we have done up to this point is sightsee and some adventure stuff, so it’s nice to fall back into a more “normal” lifestyle of; cooking at home, working out, catching up on paying bills, reading, talking with friends. Yeah that does sound normal doesn’t it? It’s better than using the word “reality” which in previous blogs you heard us rant about the concept of going back to reality after vacation. Not sure where this blog is going, interesting that when we are running around climbing “stuff” and seeing “things” what to write about comes easy. On that note, chao! – and for those of you who have already given me a hard time about my email signature saying chao, it’s the correct spelling. Don’t confuse it with the Italian version spelled differently (ciao). That’s my language lesson for the night; finally I can give someone else a lesson.

Spain and Latin America • Chao – a Spanish language parting phrase for “bye” or “goodbye”

Wait on the end of your seat for the next blog. We have a surprise guest blogger that will be enlightening your day!

Chao!

PHOTOS: Mendoza

Photos main page to see all photos: All Photos

Posted in Argentina | 4 Comments

Camping…The Inca Trail!

Posted on September 24, 2013 by Diamond

We are excited to add camping to our newfound interest of hiking. What a special place to do this…not to mention that our awesome guide (Harry) and team made it an absolute pleasure. In order to hike the Inca trail you must go with a local guide and the national park service only allows 200 new hikers on the trail each day…not that we’d consider doing any type of mountain hiking in a foreign terrain without a guide, but the porters were an extra. When we booked the trip we thought we booked a small group trip, so when Harry mentioned the six porters we didn’t think much of it. Come to find out that they were all for us and we were the only ones…no group. With all of the things we have been booking, we can’t recall if we booked it as private or if it just so happened that nobody else booked this. Nonetheless, we hiked and camped with the two of us, and seven others (a cook, five porters plus our guide, Harry) to help us.

So…this begs the question…if you go camping with 7 others that cook fabulous hot meals, clean up, carry (our things, not us!), guide and assist, is it really camping? Well, I peed outside and slept in a tent in 30 degree weather, so I say YES! I will admit that it is a bit like cheating on a test, but still getting an A.

Our first day was amazing. We followed a stream cutting through valley with steep mountains on either side. We were on the trail for five hours, but a relatively easy day since it wasn’t too much uphill. We city slickers were obviously impressed by the Inca ruins everywhere, but also entertained by the chickens, roosters, bulls, cows, horses, dog and donkeys scattered about. We’d stumble upon little make shift houses where people live and the animals wandering about were theirs. What a simple life. The people living up in the hills don’t even pay taxes or other bills, unless they have electricity, which some had as of two or three years ago. Some homes even had satellite TV! We asked Harry a ton of questions about what these people did all day and the answer was–farm. This is where some of the mastery of the Inca Empire comes to light. The area of the Andes is so steep with jagged cliffs one after another and no flat land to grow crops. So like any good old-fashioned dictatorship the emperor took rural people and essentially made them work to the bone during the dry season to build the now famous terraces. Impressive for many reasons, the amount of land and rock that was moved on these hillsides is massive, while being in very remote areas it made the task even more difficult to comprehend how this was competed. Remember we are talking about late 12th century, which means the only tools were sharper and harder rocks then the one, your cutting and some bronze pieces found in the nearby area, that would wear out and be replaced.

A quick note on our amazing porters. These guys are totally super human. As the tourists slither around using walking sticks, sucking water out of our camel backs barely making it up the mountain, these porters buzz by us with 44 lbs. on their back, running at three times our speed…or maybe even 4 or 5 times! They are given sturdy boots to wear, but most opt for little leather sandals regardless of the weather…rain, hail, 30 degrees out, etc. It doesn’t matter.

Porters

We wrapped up the first night by strapping on our headlamps and making one last visit to the outside bathroom. I noticed a pair of eyes deflecting off of my headlamp. I assumed it was one of the cute llamas that were in the area, or maybe one of the rotund cows. I did not think much of it, until I heard a minor stampede and a yelp from Greg. Apparently there were a few bulls that decided to run at lightening speed right past Greg, nearly stomping on top of him. They disappeared as quickly as they arrived. Phew! Close call! No harm done, just a white faced Greg that lost a few years off of his life. 🙂

Some fun and interesting Inca Facts:

– Who needs FedEx? The Inca’s utilized errand messengers to communicate. The messengers were in lookout stations that were placed every 5 miles. It was the ‘pass the baton’ concept. They could send a message 1,500 miles in under 7 days in the most rugged terrain of the Andes. Impressive especially if you do the math to figure out the average speed in MPH. We did this calculation before the hike and thought it was too fast but could justify the calculation since Harry reminded us that each messenger’s leg (no pun intended) was only 5 miles. Now that the hike is over and we traveled the same terrain ourselves the figures are basically unimaginable due to the speed, like much of the Inca accomplishments. Imagine asking your entire network of friends to strategically wait around for a message, and then sprint full speed for 5 miles to pass the message on to your next friend and so on. We can’t even meet up with our friends for evening plans without cells phones to constantly text to check where or what time, or is the party cool or should we go elsewhere, etc.

– Inca ruins were everywhere we turned mostly high atop mountain ranges for strategic reasons, the empire spanned throughout what’s now called Peru, Ecuador, and Chile. There were approx. 100,000 nobles controlling 12m people that were mostly conquered one small village at a time. There is even a little town we visited that is considered the last working Inca city…streets exists as they did 500 years go with buildings intact now converted into Hostels, a market, and restaurants selling the fabulous Pisco Sours (a local drink made from sugar cane liquor – think Margarita with a bit more of a kick) and souvenir shops.

– What do strong men do in our culture? Throw tires in the strong man contest? Or dead-lift 600lbs? Well…not very productive. It is estimated that it would take over 500 men to move a single large rock. The sacred temples were the most impressive since those rocks were smoothed and perfectly chiseled to fit together like Legos. The precision and work ethic were unbelievable, beyond astonishing and unexplainable. Really unexplainable by modern researchers today, the theories behind how a community moved these rocks miles and then lifted them on top of each other with perfect alignment can still not be replicated TODAY! The walls still stand, many in perfect condition without any mortar or hinged devices withstanding earthquakes, natural geographical shifts and general weather. Like many wonders of the world, words won’t do the site justice. It must be impressive if we were willing to hike 4 days to see it, on that note there are only two ways to Machu Picchu – walk or train.

– The Incas took the multiple wife methodology One noble even had 300 children from all of his concubines. Now, I don’t know about you, but I think a dog and cat are a lot to handle, much less 300 kids!

– The Incas performed surgery! The Incas conquered local tribes and often had to go to war to do so. Not surprisingly, they would often suffer from head injuries. So, what happens when you get clubbed over the head with a big boulder? You either drop dead or your brain swells from the injury. We were shocked to learn that there is proof that the Incas would perform trepanation, which is when you would bore a hole in the cranium to relieve the pressure. Pretty darn progressive. They would even close up the hole with a metal of some sort. Crazy cool.

– When viewing the impressive Machu Picchu we learned that 60% of the work is under the mountain for the foundation. We only see 40% of the real work that they performed. Impressive!

– There is a little town in Peru called Ollantaytambo where some more Inca ruins were. Most of the massively huge boulders…as in 2 or 3 tons…were brought to the area from a quarry almost SIX MILES away. Now, I don’t know about you, but I can’t even imagine orchestrating such a feat. It may take a thousand men to help with the move of a single rock.

Day 2 of the hike got serious and so did the appreciation of the beautiful landscape and level of loyalty that was needed for these structures to be completed. Most cities are considered incomplete despite being built for hundreds of years. Imagine the vision, and to some degree ego, of the emperors and architects to set out and build things that would take hundreds of years by utilizing millions of workers. In contrast, and there are many examples, we use a microwave to cook food. So impatient we let radiation developed during WWII soak into our food so we can eat quicker.

Still winding along the main river in the valley that cut the mountain peaks almost in half with the relentless glacier caps melting creating the massive flow of water year round. Then the uphill battle began, as did a dose of reality and altitude. We didn’t train for this hike due to our travels so we were a little nervous but this extra energy probably came in handy. And when we didn’t have the nervous energy we luckily had the coca tea that was served every morning and afternoon. The porters didn’t bother with drinking the tea; they chewed on the leaves to get a more potent return on their investment. Eight hours on the trail and we are feeling it. The walking sticks came out along with the early sunrise at 6:00 AM. We immediately fell in love with the sticks; they stabilize, propel and create a rhythm that is necessary if you are hiking for this long at a slow pace due to the altitude. We finished the day at 11,000 feet so oxygen is at a premium, especially going uphill for two hours straight. It was not too steep but the turtle and the hare theory are really coming into play. Even though the baby wipes are keeping us clean, a warm shower is crossing our minds regularly. I joked with Linda that if baby wipes are good enough for a babies butt, they must be good enough for us while we hike. This was particularly important since today I had my first standup poop (FYI-this is Greg saying this), yep no toilet seat just a hole in the bathroom floor. I’ll spare you the rest of the details. The night was freezing cold with temperatures down to 30 degrees, if it wasn’t for the hot bottle of water in an aluminum canister to snuggle with I don’t think Linda would have made it. You would have thought we were hiking Everest with it below zero the way we carried on, thankfully in the morning the sun was shinning and we saw the campers next to us still alive:). I always believe these situations need to be measure with something relative in mind. We were cold relative to the person on the beach in the Bahamas but warm relative to the hiker summating Kilimanjaro (more on this soon to be adventure later). Linda is being tougher than I thought she would be but we still have a long way to go before we can handle Kilimanjaro in a month.

Day 3. This is our big day, the day we will be tested, when we have to prove what we are made of. Feel free to put yourself in the zone of thought that reminds you of the biggest day of your life where your performance needed to be at 110% percent. That’s what we felt like after being pumped up by our guide for the 12 hour trek. Then we looked over at the campers next to us again and realized they were 10-20 years our senior all bandaged up with knee braces, funny hiking hats covering their necks and head along with hiking poles and 1980 spandex outfits. I am not sure if this created more or less pressure. It eased the anxiety of being able to finish but simultaneously crushed the ego. It turns out this hike and camping is not considered very rigorous, for the newbies it was more than we thought we could handle especially when the rain started just after lunch. The next three hours was a combination of rain and hail. About an hour in to the raining we learned that waterproof hiking shoes are really not waterproof. Luckily Harry knew a trick to get the shoes dry later…cook them over the stove burner! We were a little giddy so it wasn’t so bad; we are now at 12,500 feet in the cloud forest. Everything has moss on it; trees as high as you can see and rocks up and down the path are covered. It was like walking in the Alice in Wonderland movie with all the different color moss everywhere; we have all seen the blue and black moss but this furry sponge was red, blue, purple and orange. Really neat colors, nature is so cool. It was around this time we decided we could breed a super tourist, a person that would grow up to love traveling, never complain, doesn’t get tired, likes to socialize on the road, speaks every language and tips well. We weren’t sure if it was altitude sickness or just good old boredom, either way we could be on to something with this breeding thing.

One last freezing cold night and another 5:30AM wake up call, baby wipes to the rescue for day 4. Useless fact – we saw a huge wasp, Harry told us it was a Pepsis wasp. Now one of the strangest things I’ve ever heard. The wasp stings tarantulas just enough to put them in a comma, then puts eggs in them and before Charlotte the spider can wake up, then the spider is forced to give birth to the wasps it was injected with. Just like the scene from the movie Aliens. Test me on this one because I didn’t believe it either, just Google Pepsis wasp. The last day was easy since we knew it was the last day. The gate of the sun structure gives you the first view of the lost city, a rewarding sight to say the least. We walked through the city then off to the hotel for a shower. Since we had a half day tour the next day there was no need to postpone relieving each other of the smell that was barely human…or maybe all too human. Speaking of smell, we have decided anything lemongrass is good. We have had it in lotion, soap, shampoo, tea and herbs in food, which have pushed us to start our very own lemongrass lovers club.

A morning tour of Machu Picchu allows us to soak in the total experience, the four days was about the history of the Incas, beautiful landscapes, a much needed challenge and new adventure. A train ride back to Cusco then a flight to Lima where we stayed a few nights in our first branded hotel, every other hotel/posada/hacienda was a boutique up until now. The Marriott was nice with all the amenities and a little US feel after the hike and over six weeks on the move. The next day we walked the city and just relaxed and quickly realized it was the third day since we left the US where we didn’t have travel or an organized day. What a relief! Not much else to say about Lima, I am sure being drained has a little bit to do with that statement. Next up Argentina and Buenos Aires where we have rented an apartment for a few weeks.

Thanks to Harry, who loves photography, we have a ton of great pictures! We joked that we felt like we were in a wedding with all the pictures we were posing for. Harry is a perfectionist! 🙂

PERU PHOTOS

– Cusco

– Machu Picchu

Posted in Peru | 2 Comments

wherearethediamonds

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Dubai, you ask and you shall receive

Out of Africa…not the movie but on the move!

The mighty Zambezi River-Zimbabwe

The King of the Jungle…or not!

We love Turkey, mashed potatoes aren’t bad either.

The Kilimanjaro Klimb

Goodbye South America! We had a great time. Hello Africa…jambo! We are excited to switch continents even though it took us 4 flights and 30 hours of travel time!!! Now, on to our Kilimanjaro climb…

Definition: Kili, aka Mount Kilimanjaro, is the highest mountain in Tanzania, the highest mountain in Africa, and the highest free-standing mountain in the world at 19,341 feet above sea level (the Uhuru Peak/Kibo Peak)

Just when we thought we were expert trekkers after the Inca trail, reality set in when we met our guide Dismass. He laid down the law on how the trek was going to happen. This is because there are serious health risks, due to the altitude, if you don’t follow his rules.

1. No sleeping during the day after hikes because you can’t risk slowing your heart beat down after strenuous activity. Not an easy task for Greg! Also, a 15 minute nap during the day could cost you an entire night of sleep since it is hard to sleep at a high altitude already.

2. We must drink no less than 3 liters of water everyday, the goal being 4 liters.

3. Eat what is served. It doesn’t matter what else you have eaten during the day on your own. If Dismass didn’t see you eat it, it doesn’t count. And I quote, “It’s not optional, eat what I give you.”

4. We test oxygen levels at least twice a day, and then practice the correct breathing technique in order to get your oxygen levels up. If you can’t get your levels up above the mid 90’s he may not let you attempt to summit.

5. Wear what he tells you…which was just about everything we brought come summit time.

6. Commit that you will tell him everything you are feeling, he needs to see the issue progressing to determine the best course of action. Don’t wait until it is unbearable.

Summit Day:

T.I.A. ~ This Is Argentina (Guest bloggers ~ Dave and Krissy Lindy)

Argentina…Rat-tails are back!

Camping…The Inca Trail!

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Countdown until we take off to South America…the first leg of our trip!

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Goodbye South America! We had a great time. Hello Africa…jambo! We are excited to switch continents even though it took us 4 flights and 30 hours of travel time!!! Now, on to our Kilimanjaro climb…

Definition: Kili, aka Mount Kilimanjaro, is the highest mountain in Tanzania, the highest mountain in Africa, and the highest free-standing mountain in the world at 19,341 feet above sea level (the Uhuru Peak/Kibo Peak)

Just when we thought we were expert trekkers after the Inca trail, reality set in when we met our guide Dismass. He laid down the law on how the trek was going to happen. This is because there are serious health risks, due to the altitude, if you don’t follow his rules.

1. No sleeping during the day after hikes because you can’t risk slowing your heart beat down after strenuous activity. Not an easy task for Greg! Also, a 15 minute nap during the day could cost you an entire night of sleep since it is hard to sleep at a high altitude already.

2. We must drink no less than 3 liters of water everyday, the goal being 4 liters.

3. Eat what is served. It doesn’t matter what else you have eaten during the day on your own. If Dismass didn’t see you eat it, it doesn’t count. And I quote, “It’s not optional, eat what I give you.”

4. We test oxygen levels at least twice a day, and then practice the correct breathing technique in order to get your oxygen levels up. If you can’t get your levels up above the mid 90’s he may not let you attempt to summit.

5. Wear what he tells you…which was just about everything we brought come summit time.

6. Commit that you will tell him everything you are feeling, he needs to see the issue progressing to determine the best course of action. Don’t wait until it is unbearable.

Summit Day:

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