You can always count on the Chinese!

3/30/13

When we got in the car, we decided we would stop overnight at the town of El Valle on the way back to Panama City.  It was a long, but scenic drive to El Valle.  We arrived around 9pm and spent the next 2 hours trying to find accommodation in the town hopping with Saturday night nightlife.  Everything was booked!!  It was Saturday night and the night before Easter at a popular and close get away for Panama City folk.  Of the 4 of us, I'm the only one that speaks Spanish, so I jumped out and back into the car at every place in town, fancy or not, asking if there was any room at the inn.  Everyone kept telling me the town was completely full, except for maybe the place run by Los Chinos (the chinese), but that this would be dirty.  Darren would come in with me for moral support as the girls sat inside.  Miranda was pregnant, so we thought using that line may help.  But there was just no rooms anywhere.  After we had exhausted every option in the town, we headed to the Peking Hotel.  I went in and asked and sure enough, they had beds available.  Darren and I did a little jig of excitement on the way back to the car, and the girls thought we were joking.  They had been wondering just what would we do if we couldn't find anything.  We had noticed a sort of racism towards the chinese (they tend to own the super and mini markets in towns), and it was no different in this town bc the hotel was inexpensive but immaculately clean and very nice.  We were so excited and quite stoked on the chinese after that.  It felt so good to find some beds for the night

3/31/13  Feliz Pascua!  Happy Easter!  El Valle is a town situated in the cloud forest at the bottom of an extinct crater.  We woke up to a beautiful Easter morning.  The first thing we did was go to a coffee shop so that Elisha could try some panamanian coffee as she had given it up for lent.  After having some Easter breakfast, we headed to the Sunday market and got some fresh fruit, including mangoes.  From there, we drove up to an area where we did a short hike through the jungle to a waterfall and then went swimming in a natural swimming pool.

It was then time for the short in distance, but long in time due to the high volume of traffic, trip back to Panama City.  The 4 of us checked into our hostel late in the afternoon and then Elisha and I set off to explore the city a bit and get some supplies for our upcoming boat trip.  We also attended an evening Easter mass at a nearby church.

Tomorrow, we leave for El Porvenir and then board a sailboat, the Delfin Solo for a 5ish day through the San Blas islands and then the Caribbean to get to Cartagena, Colombia.  So don't expect to hear from us before then.

What would Lucas Do?? A trip to a paradise tropical island

3/29/13

I had sort of put Elisha in charge of deciding what to do in Panama as I had no major things I wanted to see there.  She had decided that with the time we had, although she had several places she wanted to go to, that we only had time for a day in Panama City and a trip for a couple of days to the cloud forest of Boquette.  She had planned on hiking to waterfalls, visiting the hotsprings, and then climbing Volcan Bahru, which can be seen from Boquette.  It is the highest peak in Panama at 11,000 something feet.  And from the top of it you can see both the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean.  This seemed like a cool thing to me, and I was excited for it as I love climbing mountains, especially the highest in the country.

However, on the ride back from the hotsprings, Darren and Miranda invited us to join them to drive to the Islands of Bocas del Toro.  We were immediately intrigued as these islands are supposedly a highlight of Panama.  However, we were thinking we still wanted to climb the volcano and that there were other things we wanted to do in Boquette perhaps.  We also had another night paid for at the hostel.  That night at dinner we had a pow wow (as Elisha calls it) to discuss what we should do.  A part of me wanted to climb the volcano (a hike that starts at 12am to reach the summit for sunrise) but a larger part of me wanted to see a new place.  Plus going by car mean a Road Trip! where we would have the freedom to stop where we wanted.  As we sat having dinner, we thought, "What would Lucas Stringfield Do?"  as we warmly remembered his trip with us where when offered the opportunity to go farther from the place he needed to be, he happily decided for the adventure and had a fun time doing it.  So we went back to the hostel and told Darren and Miranda that we were came.  As it was late planning but mostly bc of the super busy Easter Weekend, there was only one hostel left for us to book in the island chain.  We didn't know it then, but lucky for us, it turned out to be one of the best things.

So we got up early and headed up over a fun and winding mountain pass over the cloud mountains to the other side of Panama.  We went by some beautiful waterfalls and cool villages as the road wound around the peaks and then back down towards the Caribbean.  Along the way, we were lucky to spot a  3 toed sloth slowly, slowly making its way across the road.  We got out and watched the sloth move at a snail pace across the last part of the road.  We don't know how the cute little guy made it across the road without being run over.

We arrived at the coast and we all took a water taxi to Colon Island where the town Bocas del Toro is.  This is where Miranda and Darren were staying.  From here Elisha and I took another water taxi to Isla Bastiamentos, an island without vehicles.  This island was a paradise!  Complete with fruit trees, jungles, beaches, and a nice hostel (with aircon) that was part of a fancy resort.  Also, the sky cleared and the sun broke free, just as we arrived.  We ate a quick lunch of local fish and then headed on a short hike through the jungle to arrive at red frog beach.  We checked it out for a bit and then headed overland to the next beach where we played some frisbee and then bodysurfed in the surprisingly (for the caribbean) large waves.     We continued walking from beautiful deserted beach to beautiful deserted beach. The beaches were picture perfect with golden sand and palm trees leaning out over the water, which by the way was bathtub warm.  And this has nothing to do with the fact that the last time Elisha and I were in the ocean, we were jumping of ice to get into it.  We stopped to smash coconuts so that we could drink the sweet nectar inside.  We chased    ghost crabs around and caught lots of hermit crabs.  And we found some shady spots to sit on the sand, rest, and watch the waves with not a soul around.  We continued until reaching North Beach and the Marine reserve.  We decided we should head back as it was getting late.  We took a trail (that we guessed (educatedly) headed back) through the rainforest.  Along the way we saw lots of little brown frogs, but more importantly we found 4 of the famous (and endangered) red frogs.  Beautiful little guys amongst the rainforest floor.  We also saw a couple of turtles in the creek.  That night we had more fish and hung out down by the hotel hangout area that had ping pong and billiards.

3/30/13

We got up early to head a different direction to Wizard beach.  There was hardly anyone out save for a girl from New York who was in our dorm who went along with us.  The path to Wizard beach was super muddy and we waded knee deep at times while in the jungle.  Eventually we arrived at beautiful and deserted Wizard beach where we swam for a bit.

We headed back via water taxi to the main island of Colon to meet back up with the Canadians.  The town of Bocas was cool.  It had a very Caribbean vibe with color and atmosphere.  We quickly got some fresh fruit smoothies and explored around the town before having lunch with Darren and Miranda and taking the water taxi back to the mainland and their car.  

Bienvenidos a Panama! Trip to the Cloud Forest

3/26/13

Conrad drove Elisha and I to the airport at 4 am for an early start to a long day.  We then flew from Spokane to snowy Denver where we used one of our free lounge passes to enjoy the first class lounge at DIA.  We then flew to Newark and on to Panama.  Our flight was delayed a couple of hours out of Newark, so we arrived into Panama City just before midnight.  We shared a taxi to the center with a nice german fellow that we met.  We stopped at our hostel first.  A supposed quiet and relaxing place.  Indeed.  It was completely closed up, so we continued on with the German guy.  His hostel was full, so after a few calls we found a hostel that had space and we headed there, making it to sleep around 3am.  Luckily there was only one other person in the dorm, so we didn't bother too many people as we settled in and unwound from the long journey.

3/27/13

We slept in and did some initial "chores"that we needed to do upon arriving (like paying our deposit for our boat at a different hostel).  We then got a panamanian lunch from a local place and headed to the bus station to buy an overnight bus ticket.  The line was incredibly long (nearly 2 hours) as people from the city were lining up to leave the city for the long Easter weekend.  I convinced Elisha we should buy the ticket then and wait in the line instead of doing it later.  It ended up being the right decision bc when we came back later, the line was 3 times as long and wrapped around to the outside of the huge terminal.

After spending forever in the line to buy our night bus ticket to David, we took a bus towards Gamboa (famous for the Smithsonian Tropical Research Centre on the Island of Barrio Colorado) and got off at the Miraflores locks.  It was exactly 5pm when we got there and the viewing dock for the locks, one of the locks on the Panama Canal, was just closing.  We were kind of bummed thinking we wouldn't get to see the canal after all that effort to get there.  We walked around a bit trying to find a place to see when we discovered a loophole.  The restaurant was still open and you could see from there.  We went up to buy a Pepsi or something, but it turns out the lady seemed to understand the plight of the backpackers who probably didn't want to buy a 5 dollar Pepsi, so she just let us up to hang out.  We watched a couple of boats go through the Miraflores locks as they made their way through the Panama Canal.  On the way back to the bus stop, we ran across a little family of Capybaras, the world's largest rodents munching on grass beside the water.

That night we got on an overnight bus heading to David in Northwest Panama.

3/28/13

When we arrived into David we caught an early morning bus up to tiny Boquette which sits at high elevation at the base of a volcano in the cloud forest among fruit and coffee plantations.  It was a perfectly cool temperature compared to steamy Panama city.  After walking around the town a bit, the owner of our hostel (a graduate of CU!) recommended a cool 3 waterfall hike into the cloud forest.  It was beautiful and the waterfalls very impressive.  It did rain on us at the end, but a very nice hike in the cloudforest.

On the way back down towards the town, a car stopped in front of us and asked if we wanted a ride since it was raining.  We of course accepted.  It was a canadian couple, Darren and Miranda from Saskatchewan.  They were staying in the same dorm room as us but had the luxury of a rental car.  They invited us that afternoon to head to some hot springs with them that would have been a pain to get to via bus.  We were excited to be invited and said yes.

The hot springs were pretty neat.  It was an undeveloped springs a short walk from the road adjacent to a crazy farm with peacocks, goats, ducks, and a monkey.  The hot springs was actually quite hot, and I preferred it down by the river where it mixed with the colder water.  Around dusk, we headed back to the car and drove back into town for some panamanian food.

Skiing and Josh Ritter...Thank you Idaho

We spent the last few days of our visit in Idaho hanging out with Conrad, Whitney, and my niece Tia.  We also spent a beautiful day skiing at Schweitzer and attended an awesome Josh Ritter concert in Spokane.  We did our last minute packing (I believe Elisha was up all night) and then conrad was so nice as to drive us to the airport at 4 in the morning.  Gracias Conrado!

Roadtrippin Through the USA

Back home to Colorado

Elisha and I flew into Denver and visited my parents in Estes Park.  We had some fun in the National Park going for a couple of cross country skis and taking a hike with my mom.  Mom treated us like royalty making me some of my favorite foods that I had missed while being in Antarctica.  We also received a couple of free comp tickets to Winter Park from that ski patrolling family I met in Peru, so I introduced Elisha to the moguls of Mary Jane on a fresh powder day.

We then travelled to Crested Butte to stay for about a week.  The first night we slept at Bro’s place. We did a xc ski to the summer only town of Gothic where the Rocky Mountain Biologic Laboratory is located.  That night we got to move in with my parents who had a condo near the ski hill.  It was the first time the family had all been together in a while, and mom made a tasty beef and cheese fondue dinner.  Bro and I went out dancing that night, the first time that the guy bros had been dancing together in quite a while.  The next day I toured Elisha around Crested Butte ski resort, showing her the steeps and chutes of CB.  That night we went out to a fancy family dinner as the snow continued to fall hard outside.  The next morning we woke up to the biggest powder day that Crested Butte Resort had had all year.  We got to the lift early so that we could be one of the first chairs up.  It was a great day of skiing powder.  That night we went out to one of my very favorite fancy pizza places: the secret stash.  The next day Elisha and I did some backcountry skiing in the Coney area.  The next day we took the scenic route home so that I could show Elisha some of the beautiful passes and mountains along the way, including the Collegiate Peaks and the highest 14ers near Leadville.

The last couple of days in Estes, we did some packing for our upcoming South America trip and went down to Boulder to watch CU demolish #19 Oregon.

Idaho Visit

After a bit over a week in EP, we made the drive up to Boise where we stayed with Sherman and Sherman’s mom , Sally.  We hung around and visited some of my old college and Boise buddies.  Yosh threw a party at his house with a bunch of friends, and then afterwards we went out dancing to Boise at some of my favorite places including humpin’ hannahs, JT Toads, and Dirty Lil Roddies.  We also visited the College of Idaho for the day to visit some of my old profs, to show Elisha the college, to eat at our tasty cafeteria, and to play some noon-ball (profs vs students)

From Boise, we headed to Pocatello to hang out with Lucas and Sari.  They treated us to tasty, tasty ribs and pulled pork.  Our first day, we skied at Pebble Creek ski area during a great spring day.  It’s actually a pretty sweet little ski area.  That night we also went out to some hot springs: lava hotsprings.  The next day, we hung out, went for a little bike ride, and then went to a bar for some wings, brews, and to watch the Arizona vs CU pac 12 bball tourney game

The last day of our visit to Pocatello, we drove up towards Salmon to go to Goldbug hotsprings.  It was a gorgeous drive, and we went past Idaho’s tallest peak, Mt Borah (the first time I have seen it).  Lucas rode up with us with the plan of hitch hiking back after soaking.  He brought a big pack with a sleeping bag and bivy in case he couldn’t get a ride.

The hot springs were absolutely AMAZING!  It was a bit over a mile hike up to them.  There were several pools with perfect water temps, with waterfalls cascading into them, and with great views.  We stayed and soaked for a long time, and it was starting to get dark when we got back.  We drove the remaining few miles to Salmon to get some food and brews at the brewery there.  At this point Lucas asked Sari if she wanted to drive up to hang out with him for the weekend in Salmon.  She didn’t feel up to it, and he didn’t feel like attempting to hitchhike back in the dark especially considering that we had hardly seen any cars in the day going that way.  So why not go further away from Pocatello he thought?  So he continued north with us as we headed into Montana and visited and stayed the night with Shuttle Jen and LDB Scott from Antarctica in Corvallis, MT

Meet the Parents

Jen made us a tasty breakfast, and then we began the final leg of the journey up to Heron, MT where Elisha’s parents live.  Lucas was of course still with us.  Elisha’s parent’s, Mark and Sue, live on a beautiful piece of property with a small stream and a pond in a valley surrounded by mountains.  The first night, Lucas and I slept in Elisha’s VW van, Oswald.  We spent a day hanging out at the Kayser ranch meeting her brother Jeff and his fiancé Kiersey (Carseat), and her brother Trever and his wife and 3 kids who lived next door.  That evening we drove to her cousin Cori’s house in Sandpoint, ID.  The next day we headed up to Schweitzer Ski Resort to hit up some of their fresh powder.  Elisha and I bought end of the season passes for $99 good for the rest of the year. The 3 of us had a lot of fun.  Schweitzer is actually a really good mountain.  Big with lots of diverse runs.  And that evening, I drove Lucas to the greyhound station in Coeur D’ Alene to catch a ride back to Pocatello.  Cori made a fancy dinner that night for us, and we stayed the evening in Sandpoint.  The next morning we headed back to Heron to hang out some more with the parents. 

The next day Elisha and I headed back up to Schweitzer for morning skiing on a pretty decent powder day.  In the early afternoon, we drove back down to Sandpoint to meet up with her parents where we loaded up in one car and headed for the border.  We crossed into Canada, took a ferry across Kootenay Lake and ended up at Ainsworth Hot Springs.  It was a nice developed hot springs with pretty views of the lake and mountains.  It also had a cool cave/tunnel that you could walk through

3-23-13

March madness has begun, so we are now in full march madness watching mode.  We’ve currently moved on to Coeur D’ Alene, and I am staying with Conrad and Whitney having tons of fun with them of course!

Stranded in Antarctica

2-21-13

My supposed last full day in Antarctica.  I spent it mainly cleaning up my office, packing, cleaning up my room, and bag dragging.  At night Mindy and Reinhart held a party and we made sure to finish up all our alcohol before leaving the rock.

2-22-13

I was originally scheduled to fly out today, but bad weather moved in overnight and we were weather delayed for 24hrs due to blizzard conditions.  One day delay wasn’t the end of the world because Mitch and I would still be able to road trip for a day to Kaikoura and it allowed us more time to hang out with friends.  At night we continued our Friday night movie and drinks (we scrounged some up) at the dive locker watching the prequel to the Thing (we had watched the original thing on Wednesday night when we had thought we would not have another Friday)

2-23-13

Woke up to more driving snow and another 24 hour weather delay.  This was a bummer because Mitch and I originally had 4 days planned to hang out looking at whales, swimming with dolphins, and hiking the coastal mountains near Kaikoura.  With this delay, combined with Travelocity making us fly one day earlier, we now would have no days roadtripping New Zealand.  On top of this, Elisha and I became a bit nervous about catching our flights.  We had flights back home booked for the 25^th.  I was originally supposed to redeploy on the 22^nd and her on the 24^th.  But now with my group of people delayed until the 24^th, even if my plane made it, hers might not come.

Luckily as I knew how things worked, I had packed some extra underwear and a pair of shoes into my day pack during bag drag.  During bag drag, which we did on the 21^st, they take all of your bags and load them up on pallets.  If you are delayed for any reason, you do not get your bags back.  During bag drag, you must wear your extreme cold weather gear (including bunny boots) to get weighed.  People not familiar with the process were then left with only one set of clothes and only their bunny boots and windpants for all the days we were delayed.

2-24-13

We woke up to beautiful skies and high hopes that both my flight and Elisha’s flight would make it.  We went to our last Antarctic Sunday brunch.  I was on the first flight, which was going to be a Royal Air New Zealand 757 (with windows!).  Elisha was going to be on the standard C-17 Air National Guard plane (no windows).  I was excited about the prospect of having a window seat, and I played my cards right to ensure I got one.  As a former shuttle driver and still member of the shuttle family, I got the VIP seats on the new Kress vehicle, which meant I had a nice ride out to the airport as well as I would be the first one of the 91 people flying to get out.  As the first one out and the first one to board the plane, I got to pick a seat in the very back that would have access to window out both the right and left of the plane.

The flight out was amazing!  Awesome views back towards Ross Island and Mt. Erebus.  We were high enough that you could even see a bit into the crater.  Then sweet views of the glacial tongues coming out into the Ross sea and of course the stunning mountains and glaciers as we flew of Victoria land.  It was the first time I’d been on a plane going to or from Antarctica with windows, and it was truly amazing!

Upon arrival, Mitch and I hurried to get some thai food before the restaurants closed (things close up around 9:30pm in Christchurch and we arrived to the restaurant at 9:32, but the lady recognized me from my frequent visits when I was stranded in Christchurch during Winfly (probably bc of my humorous attempts and speaking Thai to her), so she served us and gave us a chance to run to find an ATM.  Mitch and I then headed out to a bar where we eventually met up with Matt, Abe Phyle,  and Carried.  Around Midnight, we heard that Elisha’s flight had arrived and that they were at their hotels.  Poor Elisha arrived so late and still had to organize her things, that she told me the next day that she only slept for 30 minutes before she had to catch her 3:30am shuttle.  I stayed up until around 1:30am, but I got more sleep bc my hotel was closer to the airport and my shuttle wasn’t arriving until 4:30am

2-25-13

Our first early morning flight was from Christchurch to Sydney.  We had beautiful sunrise views over the glaciated Southern Alps, including New Zealand’s highest, Mount Cook.  We had a layover in Sydney for several hours before the long haul flight to LA on Qantas.  I’m currently waiting in LA waiting for our connecting flight to Denver where hopefully dad will be there to pick us up on drive us on home to Estes.  Mom said her flight yesterday into Denver was delayed because of snow, and when I looked at the weather, it’s much colder in Denver than in Antarctica.  Kinda funny if you ask me.  I’m very excited to be getting home!!

It’s crazy some of the things that you take for granted when you live in the real world, but kind of shock you when you come back to the real world after being in Antarctica.  Some examples:

Children

Pets

Smells

Color                                                                                                                                               

Plants and green grass

Stars and darkness

Humidity

Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

Milk

Traffic

Fashion

Fast Internet

Cell Phones

Food that costs money