#3, itchy dandruff scalp man

okay, so maybe i was being a wee bit overzealous when i said that i enjoy long, epic bus rides... the 25 hour bus ride turned into a 30 hour bus ride straight out of a wes craven horror movie... i'm not sure which is the worst, so take a gander and choose your own nightmare adventure...

1) being woken up in the middle of the night by a man in fatigues as he waves a very real, very guantanamo bay machine gun towards the door and says, "everyone off the bus. now."

2) sitting next to, and subsequently sleeping next to, a dude who spits behind the chair occasionally to clear his phlegm... and whose knees ended up in the middle of my back during the night as he struggled to curl his long legs up in child's pose. (he got a tricep full of my elbow)

3) sitting behind a man who had some weird itchy head ailment, so for the entire 30 HOURS of the trip, he sat there scratching it with this weird brush-like tool and spreading his dandruff everywhere, i'm sure. (i took a picture. i had to.)

4) having a bus attendant who, although was male and quite young, must have had hot flashes by the way he would turn the AC OFF constantly causing the bus to turn into a raging foot locker sauna

5) going double decker bus off-roading (i'm not kidding) due to a fire accident on the main highway, so our driver decided to drive right off the road and into the brush.

6) stepping on the left over weave of the girl sitting across the aisle as she discarded her head of fake braids onto the floor that got caught on her apple core that she also discarded on the bus floor and then having to watch her pluck her eyebrows for the last 2 hours of the ride.

7) 25 hours turning into 30 hours.

8) the leaking bathroom... i can't even get into it.... let's just say it wasn't leaking from the women's bathroom. i don't know. i can't even....

9) the tear-inducing stench... like a 10 year old used gym sock found at the bottom of a expired milk carton that's been mixed w old dog food

10) the non-descript 'pasta' dinner... at least i hope it was pasta.

but it wasn't all terrible, i suppose... i got to see casino royale dubbed in spanish, didn't have any major issues at the border, and finally, seeing the sand dunes of himalayan proportions as we bounced along the coast of peru was pretty stunning... so there's that. i also met up with my brother in lima (YAY!) and we are off to trek the inca trail to maccu picchu tomorrow for 4 days now. fingers crossed i don't trip and fall over the edge....

in the meantime... to keep you busy, here are the links to the pictures from quito and the galapagos... enjoy.

http://picasaweb.google.com/planetscarlett/VIVAQuito02#

http://picasaweb.google.com/planetscarlett/NewAlbum1212081022PM#

i miss everyone very much. please keep writing back when and if you have time, i love hearing from each and every one of you... it makes me smile and forget about itchy dandruff scalp man.

*besitos...

ahoy matey!

as it turns out, my galloping galapagos group was actually really great... and balanced. two people form the party, party, party group and an older couple from the let's join a tour group... and little me, right smack dab in the middle. we were a mere 5 people, plus our enthusiastic guide, made 6. our little robinson crusoe clan had an incredible time snorkeling, trekking, mountain biking, volcano climbing, chasing white tip sharks, avoiding scurrying iguanas, and kickin it with the GIANT TORTOISES!! (yes i'm in love w them) did i have to endure the third degree? of course, but it was worth it. the cast of characters goes as follows:

a couple of chic cops from germany, with the gun-toting swagger and all (yes i wandered the local streets at night feeling like i had my own personal body guards)... evelyn- who looked a bit like a butch raggedy ann but w brown mess of curls and a very funny sense of humor and her friend, monica, who we will call hicky-girl b/c the entire week we were together her neck looked as if she'd been attacked by a million leeches was quiet but somewhat lethal. they could both drink unlimited amounts of beers after dinner w a pack of cigarettes and be up in the early hours for our snorkel adventures.

chris and fieke made up the older dutch couple. chris was a very tall 6 foot 5 endlessly curious and super intelligent man. i ended up nicknaming him darwin b/c he was so knowledgeable of all things science and animals and asked as many questions as a 6-year-old in a natural museum. he is the single reason why any of the info retained in my head b/c after the guide's description, darwin would tack on another 15-minutes of natural selection knowledge coupled with questions about how and why as i reverted back to my 7th grade self-conscious self in science class feverishly taking notes in my head. and his wife, fieke, was the mum of the group. she stayed on the boat taking photos as we frolicked in the frigid waters with the sea lions and turtles, clapping and shouting "that's nice!" every 5.3 minutes or so. "oooh, very nice!" and when i was stone cold terrified of going back into the waters, she with her firm, pudgy, freckled hand ever so gently shoved me back in with a, "you will see very nice things. very nice." and with that, a more than encouraging push off the rocking boat. very nice.

and finally our guide. juan jr... or yunior (cause the j is pronounced like a 'y').. he was in his later 20's and looked as if he was closing in on 40. he'd lived on the islands for 15 years and loved it and loved being a guide even more. he had the quirky ability to make everything he said sound absolutely official and right. and when darwin would question him further, he would engage in the conversation, nodding occasionally, only to go back to his original statement, "es verdad. no doubt." which, by all that i gathered, meant that any behavioral qualities that the animals presented was for one reason and one reason only... it was mating season. i didn't ask too many questions, as darwin did enough of that for the entire group, but when i did peep in the occasional how come this? or why is that? yunior would get this very pensive but steady look on his face, like he'd been studying these creatures for centuries, and declare with a pause and a nod, 'it's how they attract... pause pause... their mate." or "they are about...pause pause.... to mate." or "they have to do in this order to....pause pause... mate." okay, mate, got it.

before i left for this trip i went out on a blind date. it was more out of curiosity than anything else. ok, that, and maybe boredom. anyhow, it was... nice. he was nice. the drink was nice. the conversation was... nice. but that evening, as my best friend and i debriefed the brief date, i couldn't help but feel that as much as it was, nice, it was still missing something.... the 'bite', i suppose. as we sailed around the islands and watched mother nature's male creatures whip out their ultimate sunday best in order to attract their female counterparts in the nightclub-esque islands, i found myself taking notes on all the tactics... here are some of my top favorites:

the blue-footed boobie: not unlike the dude in the nightclub with his fist pumping in the air to kanye west, the blue-footed boobie with it's delicately light blue feet will do a dance to attract their female counterparts. the better the dance, the more likely they'll get noticed as the female swooshes above in the clouds. something cool about a dude that can move with blue shoes and rock a name like boobie. charming and funny.

the fricket birds: "99 red balloons go by..." to set himself apart from the many other hum-drum fricket birds, the male frickets will perch on their branch and begin puffing up their chest and form this massive bright crimson balloon. the bigger the balloon, the bigger attraction they are. apparently, size does matter in bird colonies. and not only that, the frickets, with their red poofy armour will also serenade the circling females with a song, take them out for a 2 week date somewhere on a remote island, and then, if after 2 weeks, they are compatible, only then will they consummate the relationship. romantic and responsible.

the white tip sharks: they bite. they leave scars. they mate. it's that same story of 7-year-old boys pulling the hair of 7-year old girls to get their attention... but these guys do it with their machete sharp teeth. no bite missing here.

and finally, the marine iguana: will show you he can stick it out through thick and thin by climbing their way to the apex of a lava rock jetty, claw on for dear life and show the females that violent crashing wave after violent crashing wave, he can still hang on and still be on top. and if that isn't enough, he'll do it with a rainbow coat that can rival any joseph and the amazing technicolor dreamcoat out there. reliable and will stick it out.... and stylish on top of that too!

as a side note... the sea turtles mating game was a bit more... er... group friendly... and one that we witnessed first hand. the female turtle is basically surrounded by a circle of male sea turtles. then one by one, the males climb on. if a wave comes and knocks one off, not to worry, there are the back up dancers to help out. maybe that's less of an orgy and more gang-bang like, but i just couldn't think that of my little zen turtles. a healthy appetite for mating, let's just call it that.

so, with that... i say, grab your mate, pop in that barry white... and well, you know the rest....

first day jitters...

written a week ago at the quito airport heading to the galapagos...

5:30am. My hotel phone buzzes. the shuttle came at 6am sharp, which would have been fine had the “ VIVA QUITO! party band bus didn't keep me awake for a better part of the evening. In honor of Quito's birthday, there is a make-shift bus that tours the city streets, stopping at random while the band on the roof crashes their cymbals, bangs their snares, toots their horns doing a chant/shout combo that as the night went on, and more and more alcohol was surely consumed, became increasingly slurred and messy. so with heavy eyes, i bid adios to quito this morning.

today is my first day of interacting with other traveler human beings. gasp! huh? whaaat? You mean I have to form sentences? talk about where i'm from, what i do, who I am? blah, blah, blah... (insert rolling of the eyes here) it's not that i don't like meeting other people, I do. Sometimes. And other times it just depends. Meeting strangers spontaneously, I love (not the murdering kind in a dark alley, of course.) Meeting people under a planned circumstance (ie: an 8-day group traveling tour) gives me those first day of school jitters that peak your inner most layer of insecurity. Mostly because it’s the only time that I actually feel lonely when I travel alone. Because, more often than not, as in this case, I am lucky number odd man out. Without a buddy. No one to tell the teacher I had a potty emergency.

See, there are two distinct types of travelers. The budget kind and the not-so-budget kind. Depending on the day and the circumstances, I am murkily somewhere in the middle. The budget traveler stays in hostels, sharing a large room with anywhere between 2-30 people, sharing a bathroom fit for 5 people… at most. A shower is nice but not a necessity, and clean clothes do not exist until they go home. They sit around smoking from the time they wake up (usually way after 2pm) and hang out all night drinking and smoking some more until the sun comes out. It’s about meeting other partiers and sitting around partying and talking about how great the party was last night and how great the party will be later that night and hell, this is the party, so let’s just party! Party! Party! Though I am definitely not one to shy away from the occasional let’s dance until the sun comes out good times, I think it’s safe to say I have outgrown this type of travel-phase in my life. I can rough it if it comes down to it, but let’s not get crazy here.

The not-so-budget traveler is all about joining tour groups and letting them decide your fate. They set everything, and I mean EVERYTHING up for you, from shuttle transfers, to breakfast included, to where you are sleeping, when you are eating, and what you are seeing. The only thing you need to remember is how to take photos, chew, floss, and wake up on time. You join said group with your partner, your family, and/or your friend(s). it’s a group activity and everything you do is with that group.

At first glance, most immediately peg me as the former. I’m alone, I look like I’m still a student (not complaining or bragging), I have a huge backpack 3 times the size of me with dirt all over it. But here I am in this group, all alone, so what’s the story here?

Then comes the inevitable third degree interrogation. Which sends me into a frenzied tailspin because I don’t have just a simple answer to most of them. So it goes a little something like this:

Them: Where are you from?
Me: originally NY, grew up in NJ, but lived in LA recently but just moved my stuff back but don’t have a place to live yet and don’t really know where I want to live at the moment, so, well, I guess I’m from NY/NJ… for now… but this last year I spent in LA and I hope to someday be bi-coastal I guess, but who knows… (at which point they cut my trailing murmuring off, followed by the…)

Them: Korean? Japanese? (apparently the Chinese don’t travel much)
Me: Huh?

At this point I know what they want to know. I knew the 3 questions before they started asking but I can’t help but wonder how this information will add to the conversation. Will they break out in Chinese song and dance? Will they try their 1 word of Chinese that they picked up at panda express? Will they ask me if I know Jackie Chan?

Them: Your parents, where are they from?
Me: OH riiiight. You want to know WHAT I am. Chinese. My parents were born in China, immigrated to Honk Kong, then to Caracas, Venezuela, met, fell in love, got married and moved to the states. NYC to be exact. Hence, my previous babble about being from NY, growing up in NJ, etc etc…

Then with an either confused, fascinated or skeptical look in their eye…

Them: Chinese? You’re Chinese? Realllllly?

I still don’t get this reaction. I get it all the time. I would say 9 times out of ten people make this comment. What am I suppose to say? Nono, I was just kidding, I’m really from Papa New Guinea but thought that to be too weird for you. I mean, what is it that does not scream Chinese about me?

Korean? Japanese? Reeeeally. Are you married? Boyfriend? What do you? What’s your story? How do you support your travels?!?! ???????? it’s enough to make me want to stay under the covers…

So imagine meeting this group of people, knowing this is what is to come. It’s mostly harmless and I know I’ll end up having a good time because how can you not with turtles, sea lions, and sharks abound. And I suppose if anyone really gets on my nerves I can accidentally push them over when we are sailing over a shallow coral reef. but then again, they'll have their buddy to snitch on me.

24 plus 1 more...

back on the mainland! i have arrived in guayaquil, ecuador from the galapagos. the islands left me sunburnt and soaked behind the ears... i will be posting pictures when i arrive in lima tomorrow afternoon after my 25 hour bus ride. that´s right, 25HOURS! for most people this is probably a minor kidnapping torture of sorts, but i have to admit, i love rides of this stature. i like seeing the changes in landscape, people, and culture as we bump along the roads... you never know what you´re gonna see. the good thing is that it comes with lunch, dinner and a bathroom (i think... fingers crossed)... i suppose it also reminds me of the epic summer trips we would take when we were kids. my parents, aunt, uncle, sister, and cousins all piled into the family bronco or illegally riding (who knew it was illegal? unsafe, perhaps, but illegal?) in the tow-trailer behind all the way to wyoming to see old faithful.´ KOA! i remember shouting whenever we saw the campsite billboards on the highways. it´s probably shaped alot of who i am, those trips. i´ve always loved them and am chasing them still...

so off i go... i will upload all that i wrote while in the islands and internet deprived... but the pictures will be a bonus!

just wanted to say hi to everyone and, no, i didn´t get eaten by a shark... in fact, i decided to strap on that flipper and head back into the waters and face that shark. and face it i did....

more to come on that later... i gotta bus to catch!

besitos**

who me, hold a grudge?

i´ve never been a fan of zoos or aquariums... looking at animals behind a dirty glass that´s been molested by adolescent cotton candied fingers all day while the captive look drugged, at best, and bored, at worst, is just not my idea of fun. i can´t help but feel like i should unlock the cages and smash the tanks and yell, run! run! RUN! you´re freeeeeee! go home! (and then get trampled by the stampede or drown) so to fight that urge, i simply, don´t go. but today? ahhhh, today was no zoo or aquarium...

today, i was the visitor, and i was in their home. the amount of animals i have seen in the past 2 days has been staggering. and most of them are endemic to the galapago islands. which means that through evolution, most of these facinating, weird creatures have found a way to survive the unique environment in this part of the world by growing whatever extra special power they needed... super long extra pointy beaks, crimson colored feathered breasts, odd breeding habits... and an apparent nonchalance about humans observing them, taking their picture, and ooohing and ahhing over them. every single creature minds their own business, going about their daily hunt, nap and poo.

in the four months of bouncing around india i NEVER ONCE stepped in a giant heap of a cow pattie... 4 MONTHS! considering the amount of steaming land mines everywhere, that´s practically a miracle for me... it took no less than 8.7 steps before i welcomed myself to the galapagos by stepping in a fresh pile of sea lion poo. barefoot and all. awesome. here we go....

at first glance, the sea lions are so cute. they are known as the ´pups´ of the waterworld. so cute... until you see them wiggle their way down the beach and then all of sudden they just look like giant slugs (ew!) squirming their way into the surf. kinda gross. no, i´m not holding a grudge. they smell bad too. i´m just sayin´...

the sea turtles, though? they are the zen masters. just hangin´out, chillin´, floating...being. i´ve always loved turtles. maybe they are the yin to my very hasty yang hare... and today, i just snorkeled and floated with them... UNTIL... oh cool, a school of fish! let me just grab my very nifty underwater camera contraption and take a picture... hmmm, that´s a rather large school of fish and damn those little suckers are fast. where are they high-tailing it to? and then i saw them. through the curtain of cloudy water... a large family of hammerhead sharks... (go ahead and scream, i did.) yes, i said SHARKS!!! HOLY MOTHER#$%&$/$=·(%/(·$/)(·"&%& SHARKS!!!! not one, not two, but a family of them... i know i should have remained a calm zen turtle, but instead, i panicked. okay, i flat out freaked out. i popped my snorkel-masked face out of the water and started screaming inbetween gulps of salty water ¨sharks! sharks! sharks!¨ and kicking my one flipper (yeah the other one broke) as fast as i could. (insert jaws theme here) i´ve read that when your adrenaline starts pumping people are capable of doing the most amazing feats... lifting cars up to save a screaming infant trapped underneath, punching grizzly bears in the face, eating 100 hot dogs in under a minute... my adrenaline? my adrenaline single-flipper zipped me at olympic speed in the opposite direction of the boat, where everyone else from my group was already safely on board. so here i am, out of breath, at one end of the tunnel with one damn flipper... and the boat, way on the other side of the hammerhead shark infested waters. oh, and did i mention that it was flippin FREEZING?!? so, now, i´m a floating titanic victim and i basically have to swim BACK to the other side of the tunnel to get to the boat. alone. zen turtle. zen turtle. zen turtle.

i wish i could say that i zen turtled my way back to the boat alone, facing my fears, trusting that the universe would protect me. i wish that i could say that my guide didn´t have to jump back into the freezing water, swim to me, convince me in spanish that they are harmless sharks (ummm, harmless sharks? that´s an oxymoron if i´ve ever heard one. obviously he has never been glued to the discovery channel during shark week. besides, it´s named after a very aggressive tool that´s used to smash things into the wall or a million pieces. harmless sharks, my ass.) zen turtle. zen turtle.

needless to say, since i´m sitting here with all my limbs intact, after much convincing and maybe a bit if dragging my shivering, terrified, wimpy ass back across the tunnel, i climbed back to life on the other side of the proverbial cotton candied fingerprinted infested glass. ok, maybe zoos and aquariums are so bad afterall.

more snorkeling tomorrow. oh joy.

no, i´m not holding a grudge.

i´m tellin´ ya´man....

i met donald today. donald is from new yawk, new yawk... yes he still has the THICKEST accent after being here for 10 years... we chatted for some time and i quite enjoyed his company. so i´m going to let him write my blog today...

in donald´s very thick, very heavy accented words...

´i used to work for the nuclear plant on the hudson, man, for years. i´m tellin´ya man, they closed down and alls we got was some cash, no pension. so i married my wife, she´s a beauty, i´m tellin ya´ man´, i´m lucky. so´s i took my cash, learned how to roast coffe beans, moved down here and opened up this place. nows i gots two kids and it´s great, man. i got friends who says to me when i left, ´what are you doin, man? you´re throwin´your life away.´ but you know what they´re doing, man? they´re just sitting right in front of their tv, i´m tellin´ya´, just wasting away... and they got nothin´ man, i´m tellin´ya´, they got nothin´.´ i ain´t goin´down like that, i´m tellin´man. he looked down, shook his head, deep in his own thoughts. ´this was the best decision i ever made.´

he then proceeded to serve me a cup of his strongest ecuadorian coffee.

yes, donald, this was the best decision you ever made.

good night, quito... happy birthday.

quito under the cloudy sky...

i have arrived in quito, ecuador! i came in late last night. today was a day spent exploring the historical and new town of quito. the historical town is really charming and beautiful... with buildings of different colors and black iron balconies overlooking the cooblestone calles in an old spanish town. very picturesque.

the highlight of today was walking into the plaza grande and almost knocking over a joker on stilts. yes, a JOKER on STILTS... ummm, clowns are scary enough, put them on 10 foot poles and it´s a horror film on steroids... i thought it was a festival to celebrate quito day, but it turned out to be a protest to stop the mining in the surrounding hills. most of the indigenous people who live up there came down to protest in their colorful village garb. a protest with a bit of carnaval flare! the latin americans know how to keep things interesting.

i also climbed over 300 steps up to the bell tower of their famous basilica... and walked a crickety wooden plank (yes, plank!) across the roof of the basilica... um, what??. yes, nightmare NUMBER 2, climbing up skinny steps to get to the top was not so tough, but coming back down... my knees about gave out. i may have hyperventilated a couple of times in the middle of the climb back down. i could just picture myself falling off the ladder and knocking my head against the bell and throwing everyone in quito off their time.

then, luckily, i found myself in the middle of a food festival with tons of fried pigs hanging everywhere. very lucky. after wandering around and taking in all the savory smells, i decided on caldo de gallina and seco de chivo. no clue what part of the pig it was but oh sooooo gooooood. the street food here smells amazing. i almost got some ceviche that was only $1.25 where they were cracking the clams open on the spot, buuuut i chickened out. i need a couple more days of adjusting i think...

it´s pouring now. so i´m off to eat and study some spanish at the rooftop restaurant... mi espanol is muy terrible!!