Flashback Series: Journey From the Center of the Earth

In the time between leaving Rio and starting to volunteer in Costa Rica, I had three little mini trips to get from A to B. First, I flew back to Ecuador with Cecilia and we spent one last day together at the Equator, then I flew to Costa Rica and spent a few days on my own in Heredia, and last, I was spoiled with my family on vacation in Dominical. I went from friend travel to solo travel to family travel – quite the transitioning, but each experience just added to the variety of ways I was learning to enjoy exploring new places. 

QUITO

First, I had to say goodbye to my beloved travel companion Cecilia. After having one last airport sleepover (thank you cheap flights), we had a flight back to Quito, and got ourselves into the city center without a problem. We had booked an excellent hostel recommended to us by a girl in Rio, which was coincidentally right by the street where Kate’s iPhone had been stolen just a month earlier. But instead of revisiting our favorite places in Quito for our last day together, we had one final destination in mind: the center of the Earth.

High five for a trip well done, from both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. 

Well, at least we can say we've been there,
even if it's not real.

I guess it was technically only the center of the Earth’s surface, but it’s still kind of true. Ecuador, which means Equator in Spanish, is situated directly on top of the Equator, but because of the high altitude of the Andes Mountains the air isn't boiling hot like most equatorial climates. The trip was only 40 minutes north of Quito by bus (we paid about 45 cents total) to reach the monument. There is a large monument with direction markers each way at the “Mitad del Mundo” (Half the World) complex, which includes tons of tourist shops, cafes, and a little central square. But of course the most important reason to visit the monument was to get a picture with one foot in the Northern Hemisphere and one foot on the Southern Hemisphere.

Hopefully none of the tourists who have that picture on their mantle read this, because the irony is that the Mitad del Mundo monument was built before GPS and modern technology…and it’s not on the true Equator. It’s close, but not quite exact. Luckily we were clued into this fact long before we started our trip, so as soon as we arrived at the monument, we followed the directions and walked around the park. After about ten minutes, we found the sign we were looking for then turned up a small little dirt road to the exact GPS positioned Equator, with a small, pretty little outdoor museum surrounding it. 

The Equator Museum was really interesting, with an admission ticket that included a guide through the museum about the native Ecuadorians (before the Inca, then Spanish conquerors) and their way of life. After the tour the guides demonstrated a series of tricks (some dispute whether they’re real or not but I believed it) that can only be performed on the equator, due to the center of gravity. What sort of ‘tricks?’ I was able to balance a raw egg on the head of a nail, with one foot on either side of the Equator, when a tub of water is drained the water doesn’t swirl one way or the other, it just falls straight down on the Equator, and when you walk in a straight line on the Equator, heel to toe, with your arms straight out to the side, it’s extremely difficult to do when you close your eyes and throw off your center of balance. It was really neat to experience and a great way to end our last day together in South America. 

That evening Ceci and I had a nice dinner and talked about how much we would miss each other. It’s really lucky to find not only a good friend in life, but a good friend who you can travel with: a true test of friendship. We had met on a very random encounter in Vietnam last October, and then five months later there we were, traveling together for over a month. We had done everything we wanted to do and more, and had tons of fun doing it together.  Luckily, we knew we weren’t saying goodbye forever. She was returning to Denver the day after I left, and we're hoping to see each other there before I take off for Russia this fall. 

The next morning I woke up early, said goodbye to Ceci (I prefer to use the Band Aid technique when it comes to goodbyes – fast and painful for just a short time), and started my two hour journey to the airport via three different buses. I was on my own again, for the first time in weeks. I said goodbye to Quito, the “long, skinny city,” and hoped I would be back someday. But now I had a new country to look forward to, a place that I would be able to see a lot of and spend about six weeks in.

HEREDIA

Heredia in Costa Rica's Central Valley. 

I landed in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, later that afternoon, and waited for my hostel pickup. San Jose doesn’t have the best reputation as far as things to see or do, so based on advice from a few different people I chose to spend three days in Heredia, a very cute little town just north of San Jose. It was also close to the place my uncle was working, so I was hoping to meet up with him if he was free in the evening after work, until the rest of the family arrived to join us at the end of the week. 

My first impression of Costa Rica was that it had become completely Americanized. I had just spent time in some of South America’s major cities and in none of them did I see the amount of American fast food chains in one concentration that I did in Heredia. On one street I counted a McDonald’s, a Quiznos, Burger King, Papa Johns, Taco Bell – the list actually goes on, all within a block of each other. And there were even more within the town center. However, beyond fast food the rest of the town was pretty typical for Costa Rica, with small little shops for clothing, groceries, stationary, and local restaurants, all along the streets.

Central Heredia.

Heredia was a lovely little town and a great introduction to Costa Rica. It was a very gridlined, square patterned area, with low rolling volcanic hills surrounding the Central Valley (you can kind of see the hills beyond the town in the above picture.) The central park had a beautiful cathedral with benches and a children’s park. I was lucky enough to be in the plaza during a school band performance, which I watched as the sun was setting in the perfect, mild yet tropical temperature. It was fun to watch the parents with their children, the families, and the teachers with their students – I realized how much I missed teaching and being around kids. That night I was treated to a wonderful Japanese dinner by my uncle and some of his work friends. It was great to see him again and learn a little more about what his company does in Costa Rica, a place he travels to frequently for work.  

The next day I spoiled myself since I had permission to check into the DoubleTree hotel early - I gave myself the full treatment and ate my free chocolate chip cookie, laid out by the pool, had a swim, showered (hot shower - even bigger bonus), and had coffee in the lobby while waiting for my family to arrive. I even made friends with the coffee shop guy, who decided to educate me on the weather patterns of Costa Rica. I learned that the Central Valley (San Jose area) was one of the best places in the world for coffee cultivating, due to the rich soil and cool conditions. He also gave me a map and taught me about all of Costa Rica's volcanos. It was a very educational waiting time, which was good because I was so anxious to see my grandparents for the first time in almost three years. And then - there they were. My aunt, uncle, and cousins showed up shortly after, and we all settled ourselves in and did some catching up that afternoon and evening at a nice dinner close to the hotel. Us girls even had a chance to test out the hot tub that evening before getting ourselves ready for the next day. 

Cousins reunion - ready for a week of fun.

DOMINICAL

Our sunset view from the house

New home for the week!

The next morning we were up bright and early to pack up the SUV and head to the coast. We had a house rented in Dominical, a little beach town in the south, along the Pacific Coast. The house, though high up in the hills and at the end of a long, windy, and bumpy road (we decided we would only leave the house once a day to minimize the time spent driving on this crazy road), was stunning, with a beautiful view of the tropics and the Pacific Ocean below.  We all settled ourselves in and planned out our week a little bit, which worked out to about one activity a day. However, we made sure to include time to relax at the house, because how could you not enjoy your time with an infinity pool and a view like that?

We tested out three or four different beaches along the coast throughout the week, each about a 10-15 minute drive once we reached the main highway. All of them were great, but we found some favorites and had fun playing in the waves, taking pictures, and exploring the area at each one. To me, Costa Rica’s coast was a lot more rugged and untouched – not as pristine as some of the beaches I’d seen, but more natural and less built up. It was a nice change from the packed beaches in Rio, and nice that the beaches weren’t completely full of tourists. Some of our other activities included hiking in a nature reserve park, ziplining (special shout-out to both of my grandparents for zipling for the first time in their lives), swimming in a waterfall pool, and horseback riding (I didn’t partake, but the girls had fun.)

The ziplining champs!

With new friends Ricky and Mickey.

After starting our mornings with fresh tropical fruit and coffee, we were spoiled every day with fantastic lunches and dinners – I had really missed my grandmother’s cooking. We used the grill nearly every night and even had a nice dinner out at a restaurant on the sea. We were joined here and there by a couple who had vacationed with my aunt and uncle in Costa Rica a couple of times in the past. They were a wonderful addition to our little group, and joined us on a few of our activities. They even braved the drive up to the house to come visit us when their plans for the day fell through.  

Road to our house. 

When we weren't out adventuring, we took advantage of our time at the house by visiting the local horses who lived down the road, swimming in the pool, entertaining the neighbor's dogs who often came to visit us, encountering giant bugs and frogs, and just relaxing and admiring the view. On the day I stayed back with my grandparents I did nothing but suntan and read. In other words, it was the perfect vacation.

Lunch with the family.

But aside from all of the activities, the fantastic weather, and the wonderful food, my absolute favorite part of our time in Dominical was spending time with my family. My choice to spend so much time away from Minnesota meant that I had missed out on trips to the lake and family holidays, so the week we had together was so important to me. I was able to spend time with my grandparents, both still in excellent health (something I realized I had taken for granted until I learned that not everyone’s grandparents were like mine), I was able to catch up with my uncle and aunt, whose liveliness and enthusiasm kept us all energized, and I was able to have fun with my cousins and admire what lovely girls they were growing into. That was what I came to Dominical for, and everything else we did was a bonus - the most important part was that we were all together. 

Goodnight Pacific Ocean.

But of course, good things always have to come to an end, but at least we had made some great memories to hold onto. We all said goodbye at the end of our fabulous week together, and were already looking forward to the next time we'd see each other, hopefully this summer up at my grandparents' cabin. But before I could start thinking about the summer, I had a new adventure waiting for me about six hours from Dominical. Next up was my month of volunteering in Sarapiqui - it was finally time to put my Spanish to the test and embrace a new learning experience. 

South America: Along the Andes, North to South

Ecuador

I left Minnesota on Inaguration Day, just when the temperatures began to drop (-20 F) and arrived, after a couple of delays and airport sleepovers, in Quito, Ecuador, where I found myself surrounded on all sides by the beautiful peaks and slopes of the Andes. I made my way to my hostel and was greeted by Cecilia, my friend from traveling in Southeast Asia. We immediately got to work touching up our itinerary, working out dates, and concluding that we were crazy for trying to do so much in such little time. But, we both wanted the same things out of the trip and were willing to survive some overnight bus trips and fast turnovers.

My friend Trisha had studied in Ecuador for a semester, so among her expert advice on foods and fruits to try was a recommendation to spend some time in the mountains, the rainforest, and on the coast of Ecuador, since all were different in terms of culture. So, after spending the day exploring Quito (basilica pictured on the left) we zipped out the next day on a bus to Tena, sort of a gateway town to the Amazon rainforest, with plans to return to Quito to meet our friends in a few days. The four hour bus ride was beautifully scenic, with long windy mountain roads across valleys and over the slopes.

Tena was a cute little town, much warmer than Quito, and it appeared to be an excellent jumping off point to organize tours and treks into the Amazon. We weren’t planning to stay that long, unfortunately, so instead we took a nice little self guided walk through the ‘Parque Amazonico,’ which gave us a great introduction to the rainforest climate. The trees were beautiful, the birds were cool, and there were plenty of strange bugs. We were satisfied. A treehouse in the park yielded a fantastic view of the surrounding forest.

After Tena, we headed back to Quito and spent the next day visiting the famous Saturday market of Otavalo. Otavalo is a small town up in the Andes, and still retains much of its native culture. We wandered the fruit stalls, the handicrafts market, and of course, tried some local Ecuadorian food. The food was very simple and basic, with a lot of focus on rice, maize (corn), Andean cheese (white, soft, and a little bland), beef, and potatoes. The hills were stunning, and we marveled at how the people there spend their lives, farming and maintaining the land for profit and for sustainability. We were glued to the windows on the way home, passing herds of llamas, cows, and goats grazing in the pastures while trying to catch pictures of the mountains out the window. We did a lot of window picture taking on this trip – the scenery was just too amazing to not try to capture.

When we arrived back to the hostel in Quito, we met up with Jen, who had been traveling with Ceci in Southeast Asia, and Kate, her friend from back home. We were planning to travel through Peru with them, so the next day we set off to get bus tickets to the Peruvian border. Unfortunately, we were held back a day due to Kate’s iPhone getting stolen right out of her hand, in broad daylight, in downtown Quito. We had been warned up and down about pickpocketing and petty theft, but we were still shocked at how fast and abruptly it happened. This led to a visit to the police but unfortunately we weren’t able to get it back. A lesson to be learned.

Although our last day in Ecuador wasn’t ideal, I still loved and was fascinated by this simple little country. A girl we met on the end of our trip raved about Ecuador, saying that even though it’s such a small place, it has everything: the mountains, the Amazon, the coast, the Galapagos, a small city. She was right. The people were warm and friendly, they spoke a very clear, slow, the food was great, and things were very cheap. I learned that the indigenous language of Ecuador, Quechua, is still widely spoken in the mountain towns and villages. This was, and still is, the language of the Incas, as their vast empire stretched all the way north of Peru to Quito and beyond about six centuries ago.

Ecuador was a great start to the trip and an appropriate introduction to the Inca culture, as we crossed the border to Peru on a series of bus rides, getting closer to our ultimate destination of Cuzco, the former Inca capital. Though it was a long stretch of bus rides, we still enjoyed the scenery, did a lot of sleeping, reading, and chatting, and had a chance to improve our Spanish by watching lots of action movies that played nonstop on the bus.

Peru

We walked across the bridge spanning from one country to another to begin our descent through the country, from north to south. After the border we hopped on another bus for the day, and arrived that evening in Piura, a town that I don’t think any of us will ever go back to. We arrived in a not-so-nice area, had a hard time finding a place to stay, and were shocked at how loud and busy it seemed, compared to our expectations for this little town.

The next day turned out much better as we gave Piura a second chance – we had all day to kill until catching a night bus to Lima, so after showering and relaxing in our hotel room we spend the day eating at a very cute local café, walking around the plaza and shopping district, stocking up on snacks for our bus ride, and relaxing until it was time to go. A noneventful day, yet now we can say we’ve experienced Piura. Again, I doubt any of us will ever go there again in our lives. The bus terminal was filled with excitement as literally every single male in the terminal was glued to the TV, watching the soccer game between Peru and Ecuador(?) Peru won.

And after yet another night of sleeping in a bus and waking up in a new city, by the next morning we were in Lima, Perul. Lima was a beautiful city, especially in the old historical district, reminiscent of the once grand Spanish Empire who ruled from this capital city. There was street after street beautiful colonial style buildings, one of the largest cathedrals in South America, and plenty of museums and things to see. Since we only had one night and two days we kept busy with a tour of the old Catacombs basilica (slightly creepy!), eating at sidewalk cafes, and we even celebrated national Pisco Sour Day with, what else? Pisco Sours all around – a yummy, sweet drink featuring pisco, a local alcohol similar to brandy, lemon, and egg whites.

We stayed at a beautiful hostel in the city center, which used to be the home of a rich Spaniard, evidently a very avid art collecter.  The hostel, aside from having an impressively decorated interior, even featured some pets – turtles, parrots, and a magnificent peacock. The next day we spent chasing down a Starbucks, after receiving pretty much every possible direction from every person we asked. At the end we didn't even care about actually having coffee, we just needed to have the satisfaction of finding it. We mixed our hunt with some souvenir shopping, picture taking, and eating local foods, which made it a lovely day. We all wished we had more time in Lima, but since we were traveling at the speed of light, it was sadly time to move on by the next evening. 

Our next bus ride was probably my favorite of the whole trip. We went to sleep after watching the sun set over the Pacific coast of Peru, and woke up in the middle of the Peruvian Andes. The windy, curvy, hold-your-breath roads were totally worth it for the views. Vast farmlands, tiny valley villages, snowy mountain peaks, and forested slopes were everywhere you looked. Though bus rides can be brutal, there really is no better way to see the landscape of a country you are traveling in. And it beats having to drive those terrifying mountain roads yourself. 

About 22 hours later we arrived in Cuzco. The former Incan capital city, built on a series of hills, was our gateway to Machu Picchu. It has a beautiful city center with long standing churches and cathedrals, built on top of former Incan foundations. We arrived at our excellent hostel and quickly got to work figuring out how we were going to get there. We were in luck, as our hostel happened to offer some excellent value tours that ended up equaling or being cheaper than the price we would have had to pay to do it on our own. I’ll tell you about the tour and the experience in another post, but just know that Machu Picchu is everything it’s cracked up to be.

After Machu Picchu, we headed down to Puno, gateway to the famous Lake Titicaca, the largest lake in South America. We were lucky enough to arrive in Puno at the start of the annual Calendaria festival, which celebrates the Virgin Mary. However, Puno and Lake Titicaca are also sacred locations for the Inca people, who believe their gods were born from the lake. As a result, many of the original Inca festivals have been passed off as modern day Christian festivals. Either way, it was a party. We watched the enthusiastic dancing, listened to live music, and enjoyed the festive atmosphere throughout the weekend. Puno is centered around the main town square, with shops and restaurants bordering the edges. Though touristy, we enjoyed the cafes and delicious restaurants, as it was our last weekend together as a group of four.

After Ceci and I made arrangements for our night bus, we said goodbye to Jen and Kate – it was strange not traveling with them after spending nearly three weeks together. They were planning to stay in Peru and travel back up the coast to Ecuador, while Ceci and I were going to bus even farther south to the Chilean border, then cross over to catch a flight to Argentina – flights were cheaper from Chile than from Peru. And that’s where our adventure will continue, just as soon as I tell you about Machu Picchu.

And in closing, if anyone read the previous post where I alluded to waiting on hearing from jobs in two potential places this fall,  I’m happy to announce that I’ve received a job offer in Petrozavodsk, Russia, to begin in August. Yes, Russia sounds much colder compared to Spain, but honestly, as I am writing this from my home kitchen table in Minnesota, while staring at a backyard full of snow, I kinda think I’ll be okay. Yes, snow in the middle of April. What is this world coming to?