My South American Itinerary!

            In exactly eleven days, I’ll be on a plane down to my third continent, my third summer away from home, and my next adventure abroad. I’ve gotten my yellow fever vaccine, I’ve gotten the backpack I’ll be taking (which I’m in love with!), and I feel just about ready to hit the road again. A year ago today I was exploring the beautiful city of Cape Town, South Africa with my fellow White Shark Projects volunteers. Two years ago today I was hiking in my temporary home of Grand Teton National Park, taking in all that wonderful place had to offer. As someone with a serious case of the travel bug, my feet are getting very itchy after being home for this long! Since I had some extra time today, and I have pretty much all of the details for the first part of my trip planned out, I thought I’d make a blog post outlining my itinerary for the next few days, weeks, and months.

            Monday, May 30th: I’ll be flying out of Houston at 4:30 pm, arriving in Lima, Peru at about 11 that night (there’s actually no time difference between Houston and Lima). I’ll then meet up with the airport transfer that I’ve set up, and be taken to Backpacker’s Family Club, the hostel where I’ll be spending my first night in South America. I have almost a full 24-hour layover in Lima, so I booked that hostel for the night.

            Tuesday, May 31st: I’ll have most of the day to explore Miraflores, the area of Lima that I’ll be staying in. There’s quite a bit to do around that area, and I won’t waste any time getting acclimated to life in South America! Later I’ll return to the airport, where I’ll board a flight at 10:30 pm, heading to La Paz, Bolivia. The flight arrives in La Paz at 1:30 am (there is a one hour time difference between Lima and La Paz).

            Wednesday, June 1st: I’ve heard that there’s a hotel inside the La Paz airport that you can pay for by the hour, so I might take advantage of that to get some sleep after arriving at 1:30 am. Later that morning (I was told about six or seven), employees from the Bolivia Wildlife Sanctuary will pick me up from the airport and take me back to the sanctuary, which I’ve heard is about a two to three hour drive from La Paz. I’ll have the rest of that day to unpack and settle in to the sanctuary, which will be my home for the next ten weeks.

            June 2nd-August 10th: This will be my time working at the Bolivia Wildlife Sanctuary! This sanctuary houses several species of South American monkeys, birds, turtles, South American cats, and spectacled bears (which I’m SUPER excited about!!!). Most of the animals have been rescued from illegal animal trafficking, which is a pretty big issue in South America. Most of the rescued animals cannot be released (due to a variety of reasons), so work at the sanctuary can be a very hands-on experience.

            August 10th: This will be my last day at the sanctuary. After saying my goodbyes and packing my bags, I’ll be driven back to La Paz, where I’ve booked a night at Loki La Paz, another hostel. I stayed in a couple of different hostels while in South Africa, and had great experiences in both of them. Hostels probably aren’t for everyone, but I absolutely love them!

            August 11th: I’ve booked a flight out of La Paz, leaving at 10:45 that morning, down to Santiago, Chile, where my backpacking phase of the adventure will begin! I’m due to arrive in Santiago at 1:45 pm (11:45 am San Antonio time).

            That’s everything I have officially reserved so far. I plan to spend a few days exploring the beautiful city of Santiago, before moving north through Chile, backpacking my way up into Peru and, eventually, Ecuador. I expect the backpacking to take somewhere between a month and a month and a half, so I should be back in San Antonio sometime in September.

            This post’s food for thought is a quote that I’ve used before, but it’s becoming one of my favorite quotes ever, so I just have to reuse it. On the topic of taking risks, living adventurously, and challenging yourself (three things that I absolutely love to do): “Go to the edge of the cliff and jump off. Build your wings on the way down.”- T.K. Thorne. 

An Unforgettable Year

Hanging at the harbor in Gansbaai

One of my favorite pictures I took with White Shark Projects

Serving as a play structure for Mr. Darcy and Yolo at CARE

My first wild rhino sighting, by the Olifant's River! 

            A year ago today, the day before I turned 22, I made a blog post reflecting on the past year, and thinking about what the next year would bring. Now, the day before I turn 23, I’m going to make a similar post. I wrote a year ago that 21 was the best year of my life up to that point, which it was. Spending the summer working up in Grand Teton National Park was definitely the highlight of that year- I still think about my time in that park every day. Now, though, looking back on this past year, I honestly think that 22 has topped 21. The highlight, as you can probably guess, was accomplishing the dream I’ve had for pretty much my entire life of going to Africa to work with wildlife. I went abroad for the first time in my life. I survived the 16-hour flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg. I swam with great white sharks in the Atlantic Ocean. I caught a brown shyshark with my bare hands while snorkeling off the coast of the South Africa Shark Conservancy. I climbed across the sharp, precariously placed rocks along the cliffs of Hermanus to find Devil’s Cave, and nearly got swept away at high tide. I visited Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of Africa, and the spot where the Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean meet. I stayed in hostels for the first time, and took a tour of the gorgeous city of Cape Town, which ended in a delicious braai (South African barbecue). I cuddled many baby baboons at CARE. I visited the Cradle of Humankind, a historic digsite near Pretoria where some of the first hominid fossils in the world were found. I saw my first wild elephants, hippos, lions, giraffes, rhinos and more. I also was reminded of how working with wildlife could be downright heartbreaking when I learned that poachers had found their way to one of CARE’s release sites and killed five of the baboons from the released troop. Long story short- it was an absolutely unforgettable summer.

            Now, about nine months after returning from Africa, I’ve got just about forty days until I fly out to Bolivia for another summer abroad working with wildlife. The trip is getting more and more real every day, and I can’t wait to set foot on continent number three! Twenty-two, you’ve been absolutely incredible, unforgettable, and life changing. Twenty-three, let’s see what crazy adventures you bring me! I’m sure it’ll be another amazing ride!

            This post’s food for thought: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”- Mark Twain

Fifty Days And Counting

            It’s been way too long since my last blog post, but with work and trip planning keeping me really busy, I’ve hardly had time to do anything else. With some free time today, though, here we go. The biggest news since my last post is that I’ve officially paid off my project costs for the ten weeks at the Bolivia Wildlife Sanctuary this summer.

            I returned home from last summer’s adventure in South Africa over eight months ago. As someone with a serious case of the travel bug, my feet are getting very itchy! Every time I see a calendar I find myself thinking about how many days until I fly out to Bolivia. The planning for this trip has been so different than the planning I was doing this time last year, and I think this adventure in South America will be very different than last summer in Africa. First off, I’ll be gone longer- last year I was off volunteering in South Africa for about nine weeks. This year I’ll be volunteering at the wildlife sanctuary in Bolivia from June first to August tenth, but that won’t be the entirety of the trip! When the volunteering fun ends, the backpacking fun will be just beginning! I’ll spend the rest of August and at least part of September backpacking my way along the western coast of South America, taking in all that beautiful area has to offer. After traveling solo in South Africa last summer without any problems, I decided that this summer I should try to see as much as I can of the South American coast while I’m down there. A few people have suggested that I sign up for a tour with a group, but honestly I really prefer to travel independently. A lot of people probably like those guided tours because they feel safer in groups and because some people want others to be in charge of the itinerary, but I’m pretty much the exact opposite. As I’ve mentioned before, traveling solo is one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself, and one of the reasons for that is because when I travel alone, I’m in charge of my schedule.

            I remember last year, the last month or so leading up to my Africa trip just flew by in a flash, and it kind of feels like that’s happening again. With a combination of work and planning keeping me really busy, this next adventure seems to be coming up so fast! I still can hardly believe that in less than two months I’ll be the first person in my family to set foot on three continents. Here’s to another summer off exploring foreign lands!

            This post’s food for thought: “Nostalgia in reverse, the longing for yet another strange land, grew especially strong in spring.”- Vladimir Nabokov

Why I Love Traveling Solo

Exploring the harbor of Kleinbaai with my fellow White Shark Projects volunteers 

Springbokkies in Phalaborwa!!! 

            It’s happening again. For the third year in a row, when I tell people about my next adventure, one common response I get is, “You’re going to meet the love of your life while you’re out there, and you won’t have to travel alone anymore!” There was once a time when this prediction was kind of cute, but now it’s honestly just annoying. So, without further ado, let me make something very clear: traveling solo isn’t a last resort for me. It’s not because my friends and family all have other things to do. Traveling solo is a choice that I first made about two years ago when I went to work up in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. That was one of the best decisions of my life, hands down. I absolutely love traveling solo, and it’s an experience that I’d recommend to anyone. So, to make that point loud and clear, here’s a list of a few things I love about solo travel.

1. Traveling solo forces you out of your comfort zone.

            As one of my favorite quotes says, life begins where your comfort zone ends. Whether it was when I was finding my way around the huge, unfamiliar Johannesburg airport, spending my first night in Africa sleeping in a room with seven strangers at my hostel, or one of the many other experiences I’ve had, solo travel shoves you far out of your comfort zone so quickly it’ll make you head spin- and that’s one of my favorite parts of it. As a side note of this, I’ve definitely met more people on my solo travel adventures than I would’ve if I’d been traveling with people I already knew. At my hostel in Cape Town during the free day I had in between my projects, I sat in one of the common rooms typing out a blog post and watched two guys with British accents begin to play a round of pool on one of the tables. When I was done writing, I closed my laptop, stood up, and said, “I call playing the winner.” They smiled at me and accepted that challenge. By the end of the day we’d become great friends.

2. Solo travel builds self-confidence.

            I remember the feeling, at the Johannesburg airport, after zipping my way between gates, checking my bag, and finally sitting down to wait for my flight to Cape Town, all after not having slept in about thirty hours. I sat there at the gate, let out a sigh of relief, and thought to myself, that really wasn’t so hard. Or on one of my first full days living in the dorm rooms up in the park in Wyoming, I remember walking around outside and seeing a group of guys playing basketball on one of the courts, with some other guys sitting beside it watching. My first thought was, ‘I don’t know any of them’. My second thought was, ‘let’s change that’. Then, with a level of confidence I didn’t know I had, I walked over, sat down beside those guys, and struck up a conversation. How’d they react? By making room for me, offering me a beer, and before long I’d learned all their names, departments they were working in, where they were from, and more. Nearly two years later, I’m still in touch with most of them, and we love keeping up to date on each other’s crazy adventures. When traveling solo, I don’t have friends or family to help guide me around- it’s all up to me. Because of that, I’ve learned that I’m capable of a lot more than I originally knew, and it’s taught me to be a more confident person.

3. Solo travel teaches you to be your own best friend.

            It seems like so many people I talk to shy away from solo travel because they’re afraid of being lonely, or aren’t comfortable with just their own company. First of all, just for the record, alone and lonely aren’t at all the same thing. The past two summers I’ve gotten better at just loving my own company. My adventures have taught me not to be afraid of being alone, and that life can be very fulfilling with or without a travel companion.

4. When traveling solo, I’m the boss.

            Between my time at White Shark Projects and CARE Baboon Sanctuary, I had a day off in my hostel in Cape Town. After a month of getting up well before sunrise to prepare the boat for another day at sea, I decided that if I wanted to let myself catch up on some sleep during that day off, I could do just that without having to ask anyone else what they wanted to do. During my days off in Wyoming, I was completely in charge of what to do with that time. If I wanted to go on a raft trip down the Snake River, I could. If I wanted to take a bus tour up to Yellowstone, I could. If I wanted to go kayaking on Jackson Lake, or take my camera up to Lunch Tree Hill and enjoy the view, or go into the beautiful town of Jackson and explore it, I could. It also gave me the opportunity to be more spontaneous- and some of the best times were those planned at the last minute. For example, I’ll never forget taking that bus tour of Cape Town that took off right from my hostel and ended in a delicious braai (South African word for barbecue) right there in the middle of that beautiful city. I signed up for the tour just a couple of hours before it left, and it was one of my favorite days of the summer.

5. Indulgences won’t be judged, and secrets will be kept.

            When I got up in the bar in Jackson two summers ago and sang karaoke in public for the first (and only) time in my life, I didn’t have a friend filming it to immortalize on the internet. If I wanted another serving of that delicious sausage at that braai in Cape Town, I didn’t have a family member raise an eyebrow; hey, it was 400 rand for the tour, plus unlimited food and beer at the end- of course I was going to take advantage of that! Traveling solo the past two summers, I haven’t needed to ask myself if my travel companion is trustworthy to keep my craziest moments secret, or not judge for the times I indulge a little more than I would at home. If I don’t want people at home to know about the time I had one too many springbokkies (damn I miss that drink) at the bar in Gansbaai and let that stranger pull me out onto the dance floor, and get to know me very well in those few minutes (didn’t get to third base, but he certainly rounded second- no pun intended), I could keep that memory tucked away.

            I could go on and on about why I love traveling solo, but I think this blog post is more than long enough. So, one more time, for those that predict I’ll meet the love of my life on my adventures and “no longer have to travel alone”, my goal for my travels isn’t to find a lifelong travel companion- it’s to continue reassuring myself that I don’t need one. Traveling solo is one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself, and it’s an experience I’d recommend to absolutely anyone. 

Goodbye 2015

            When a year nears its end I, like a lot of people, find myself thinking back over it- was it a good year? What did I accomplish? What were my favorite and least favorite moments? I remember at this time last year, I considered 2014 the best year of my life. While I still consider 2014 to be a great year in my life, I can honestly say that 2015 has stolen the title of the best year of my life so far. Some of the reasons for that include: I made my lifelong dream of working with wildlife in Africa a reality. I traveled internationally for the first time, and made friends from all over the world. I went cage diving for the first time, and came face to face with huge great white sharks. I explored many different areas of South Africa, from Gansbaai to Cape Agulhas (the southernmost tip of Africa) to the gorgeous Cape Town to Phalaborwa. I caught a brown shyshark with my bare hands while snorkeling off the cliffs in Hermanus. I worked in a sanctuary for orphaned baby baboons, and played a role in taking care of them daily. I saw my first wild elephant, lion, black rhino, giraffe, monkeys, hyena, and many more. These are just a few of the amazing experiences that have made 2015 such a special year for me, but there are plenty of others.

            Africa had been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember. The idea of going there was almost magic to me as a kid. I seemed to think, from very early on, that going there would change me, and I was right. Coming home when my African adventure was over had felt strange because I didn’t feel like the same person that I’d been when I left. Traveling, I’ve learned, changes you in a lot of brilliant ways, especially traveling solo like I did. By traveling around South Africa and working with people from England, Germany, Canada, Brazil, Belgium, Australia, and more, I gained new insight and perspective about life. I came home feeling much more experienced and cultured than ever before. Summer 2015 made me realize what a few people had already told me- once you get the travel bug, you’ll never want to stop.

            South Africa, you’ll forever own a piece of my heart. You played a big part in 2015 being the best year of my life, and I miss you dearly. I’m not sure when, but eventually I will return to your gorgeous coastline to experience everything you have to offer again. As for 2016, I can’t wait to see what crazy adventures you have to throw at me! 

Summer 2016 Plans!

            Let me start off this blog post by saying that about two years ago, I made a promise to myself that I would live the next decade for me. Meaning- I wouldn’t worry about finding the love of my life, really settling down, or starting a family on my own. Instead, I would focus on doing the things I love, especially the ones that I might not be able to do later in life. One thing I included in that promise to myself was a travel goal. I said that by the time I’m thirty, I want to have been to this many continents, countries, and states (I won’t say exactly what that goal is, but it’s rather ambitious).

            Now, all of that being said, when I left South Africa in July, I knew I would return. At first I said that I would return in summer of 2016, but in the time I’ve been back home I’ve been thinking about that promise I made myself two years ago. Would going back to South Africa further me towards that goal? The honest answer was no, it wouldn’t. Part of me really misses South Africa and wants to return, and I definitely will return to that beautiful country, eventually. But, after a lot of thinking and battling with myself, I’ve decided that next summer I want to try something different. So, without further ado, it’s time to officially announce that I’ll be spending summer of 2016 working and living in a wildlife sanctuary in Bolivia! I’ve already booked my stay with this sanctuary for June first through August sixth, and am already practically counting down the days! This sanctuary is home to a variety of South American wildlife, including several species of wild cats, monkeys, birds, spectacled bears and more, most of which have been rescued from illegal animal trafficking. I imagine my experience with the baboons at CARE this past summer will help out when it comes to working with the spider monkeys and capuchins at this sanctuary- there will probably be some similarities. However, I know each species of primate is unique, so working with these new species will be a great learning experience! I’m also really excited to work with the wild cats and spectacled bears that live at this sanctuary, as those are animals that I’ve always loved but don’t really have any direct experience with. I’ll definitely miss the sharks and baboons that I worked with this past summer, but I’m super excited to get more wildlife experience in the gorgeous country of Bolivia! Oh, and getting more travel experience in general under my belt is going to be an extra plus.

            This post’s food for thought: “The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.”- Eleanor Roosevelt 

Chuma the Okapi: In Memory

            One year ago today, I received a text from one of my good friends, a keeper at the zoo, revealing the bad news. As I read that text, I remembered the first time I met you. Walking up to you, at first feeling a bit intimidated by your large size, but quickly falling in love with that gentle beauty that you had. I remembered the feeling of awe as I ran my hand over your fine, oily hair, as your rough tongue began to lick me, as I looked into those big, gorgeous eyes for the first time. A year ago today, I remembered that wonderful moment, and I cried. I cried because I would never again walk past your exhibit and see you, never again get licked by your long, rough tongue, never again look into your amazing eyes.

            I’m not sure you really understood how important you were to me, but trust me, Chuma, you were. Getting to know you was one of the greatest privileges of my life, and certainly one I’ll never forget. You were so loved by so many people at the San Antonio Zoo, and I hope we gave you the best life possible (I think we did). At 29 years old, you were believed to be the oldest okapi in the world. When thinking about you (which I do every day), I always try to be happy that I was lucky enough to get to know you, instead of being sad that you’re now gone. You touched the lives of everyone that met you, were very beloved by the zoo guests that saw you, and you were truly a great ambassador for your species. I will never forget you, Chuma. I love you. Run free, you wonderful, beautiful animal…

            This post’s food for thought: “An animal's eyes have the power to speak a great language." ― Martin Buber