Hello Peru!!

            I’ve been in Peru for less than 24 hours, and it’s already been quite an adventure! To recap the last day or so: after a very rainy drive to Houston yesterday morning, I made it to the Houston airport in plenty of time. Getting through security was a breeze, and at about four yesterday afternoon I boarded the six hour flight to Lima. The plane had seven seats per row (2-3-2), and I was originally supposed to be in the middle section. However, when I found my seat, the man next to me asked if I would switch with his son so they could sit together. Trade my middle seat for his son’s window seat? Sounded good to me! Even better, shortly after takeoff, the man sitting next to me asked to be moved to another seat since his screen wasn’t working, so I ended up getting two seats to myself. A combination of reading, watching The Martian, and taking pictures out the plane window made the six hours pass pretty painlessly. When we landed, the real fun began!

            Last summer, when I landed in Cape Town at night, it looked like a blanket with thousands of sparkling diamonds spread across it. There were LOTS of city lights! Lima wasn’t like that at all. Maybe it was partly due to the fact that it was cloudy, but my view out the window was pitch black until we were REALLY close to the ground.

            Finding my way through the Lima airport and getting through customs was pretty easy, despite the fact that all the signs were in Spanish. I waited at baggage claim longer than I’d ever had to wait at one before- it seemed like my bag was one of the last ones they took off the plane! It was close to midnight by the time I finally had all my bags and headed out of the airport to meet the taxi service I’d set up through the hostel. I was told that the driver would be waiting in the front of the airport with my name written on a sign. There were plenty of people holding signs with names on them, but I walked around for about twenty minutes and couldn’t find mine. By that point I was pretty exhausted and just wanted to get to a bed, so I found one of the many taxi drivers and, after making sure it was an “official” taxi, I showed him the address to my hostel, and we were off. Despite his limited English and my limited Spanish, we were able to work out where I was going, how much it would cost, and have some conversation for the half-hour taxi ride from the airport to my hostel. During that ride, I saw first-hand what I’d already been told plenty of times- drivers in Peru are CRAZY! Even at midnight, there were plenty of cars on the road, especially near the airport. Apparently staying within the lanes on the street was mostly just a suggestion, since there were at least three cars driving side by side on what looked like a two lane street. It seemed like drivers in Peru liked to use their horns a lot more than US drivers- it was almost like the drivers were trying to create a song with their horns! Finally, after a long day of travel, I made it to my hostel, paid my taxi, checked in, was shown my bed, and passed out.

            I woke up this morning feeling somewhat refreshed, though also in great need of free breakfast, a shower, and water that didn’t have dangerous amounts of mercury in it. Within an hour of waking up, I’d gotten all three of those things! I sat in the breakfast room of the hostel with three girls from Ireland that were traveling together, drinking coffee and talking about our previous and onward travels. When I mentioned where I was from, one of them asked me the inevitable question: “Why don’t you sound like you’re from Texas?” Not even 24 hours in this country, and I’m already getting that question!

            After breakfast I walked down a few blocks to a little convenience store that the Irish girls had told me about and bought a chocolate bar and bottle of water. It was only a few blocks, but walking around I noticed that, like I’d felt walking around in Africa last year, I felt remarkably safe. Sure, I stayed alert, but, being a 23-year-old American girl traveling alone in this unfamiliar place, I almost expected to feel unsafe, but I didn’t.

            After some much-needed rehydrating and an equally-much-needed shower, I was told that I needed to check out of my room by eleven, but was welcome to hang out in the main rooms of the hostel for the rest of the day. I’m currently sitting on a couch in the front room here at Backpacker’s Family Club hostel writing this. The man working at the front desk here also helped me set up another taxi to pick me up this evening and take me back to the airport to catch my flight to Bolivia.

            I’ll probably go out later and get lunch, but overall I’ve decided to take it easy today since yesterday was really busy, and I’m sure the next few days will be too. I also know that this won’t be my only time in Lima, so I don’t feel the need to see everything today.

            This has been one of the longest blog posts that I’ve written lately, so I’m going to end it here. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to update again as soon as I get to Bolivia, or if it will be a few days, so we’ll just have to wait and see. This post’s food for thought is one of my favorites, and really appropriate right now: “To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.”- Freya Stark.

Ground Control to Major Tom

            Today is my last full day in the US for almost four months. This is the first time in my life that I can say that. My backpack is completely packed up, I’ve said goodbye to my friends and most of my family, I’ve printed out the information about the hostel I’ve booked, and soon I’ll be printing out my boarding pass for the flight from Houston to Lima that I’ll be on in 24 hours. The excitement about this trip has been building for months, and now it’s right about at its peak. At the beginning of May, I wrote a countdown of the days until this trip would start on the calendar that hangs beside my bed. Looking over at that calendar now, it’s almost surreal to see the number 1 on today’s date. Knowing that I’ve gotten everything taken care of certainly helps keep the pre-departure nerves at bay. I’ve gotten my yellow fever vaccine, I’ve got my Bolivia visa application, I’ve exchanged US dollars for some Peruvian and Chilean money (since I’ll be spending time in those countries as well), I’ve let my debit/credit card companies know that I’ll be using the cards abroad… I think I’m getting pretty good at this whole travel preparation thing.

            Once I get to the Bolivia Wildlife Sanctuary on Wednesday, I won’t have a wifi connection. As I may have mentioned in a previous blog post, there’s a town about twenty minutes away from the sanctuary that volunteers can take taxis to and use the internet cafes. I won’t be doing that every day, of course, but my goal is to be able to post updates at least once a week. I’ll also try to post another update before I get to the sanctuary, but tomorrow will be a day full of travel, and the next day I want to have some time to go out and explore the area of Lima around my hostel, so no promises on that one.

            I guess this will be one of the shorter blog posts as of late, since there’s really not a lot of news to give. I just wanted to give one more update from home. This post’s food for thought:       “There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it.”- Charles Dudley Warner

Packing, Prejudices, and Pre-Departure Nerves

            Well, in four days I’ll be spending the night in a hostel in Lima, and in six I’ll be at the Bolivia Wildlife Sanctuary! Yesterday was my last day working at Target until September, and it was a day full of mixed emotions. I felt a lot of happiness and excitement, combined with just a little bit of sadness as I was hugging my coworkers at the end of my shift. Some of my coworkers at that job have come to also be among my best friends, and I know I’ll miss them this summer. But, after feeling like I’ve practically lived at that store over the past few weeks, I’m happy to now be able to focus all of my time on preparing for this next adventure.

            I’ve spent the last month or so getting all the supplies I’ll need for this trip, and, with the exception of a few last minute items, I think I’ve succeeded. Sitting on my bed right now writing this blog post, I’m surrounded by clothes, travel-size cosmetics, travel adaptors, my microtowel, compression packing bags, luggage tags, and other items that I will soon be packing into my Osprey Kyte 46, the backpack that I got a few weeks ago at Whole Earth and have absolutely fallen in love with. I just can’t get over how comfortable it fits and how well it packs up.

            One thing I’ve noticed more and more as my departure date draws closer is the same thing that I noticed last year as I was preparing for my trip to Africa. The main responses I’ve been getting from people when I tell them about my trip are things like: “you’re so brave, being a young woman traveling alone in these foreign countries”, “be careful, it’s very dangerous”, “I’ve heard this and that about the risks of traveling in those places”, “come back in one piece”, and so on. My experience last summer in the beautiful country of South Africa taught me many things, one of which was to take prejudices and horror stories with a grain of salt. I was told time and time again about how dangerous South Africa was, especially for young women traveling solo, and I never once remember feeling unsafe. I explored all over South Africa, from Johannesburg to the gorgeous city of Cape Town to Pretoria, and more. Sometimes I was with other volunteers, sometimes I was by myself, and I never remember feeling like I was in danger. There were times when I almost expected to feel uneasy, like when I was walking around Cape Town by myself, but I was surprised to feel completely comfortable even then. Travel, especially international travel, teaches lessons that I don’t think can really be learned any other way, and one of which is to tear down your prejudices.

            A lot of people have also asked me if I’m getting nervous as the trip gets nearer, but, like last year, all I feel is excitement. I’ve never really been a worrier- some people say it seems like my brain just lacks whatever part of it triggers nervousness. Whether I’m preparing for a job interview, getting ready to give a speech to a group of people, or about to embark on a long, international solo adventure, I’ve always felt excitement, but no nervousness. My theory: what’s going to happen is going to happen whether you’re nervous or not, so what’s the point of worrying?

            With that being said, I think this blog post is long enough, so I’ll end it here. I’ll definitely try to make at least one more before I fly out on Monday. This post’s food for thought: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”- Mark Twain 

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.