Photos from Arizona and New Mexico

Click HERE for pictures from my trip to Arizona and New Mexico

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that 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

More Reasons Why I Travel (In No Particular Order)

At a World Food Program feeding site in Benin

Why I Travel #1: To Think, Process and Feel

The other thing about traveling alone is that I have a lot of time to think, process, write... In real life, I fill my time and my head so much that sometimes I don't let myself sit back and reflect and feel.  Reflecting is not always fun but it is necessary.  Every so often I need a check in.

When I travel my feelings are much more present. Sometimes I get really lonely, but then out of the darkness, I sit next to someone and have the most inspiring conversation and suddenly feel deeply connected.  Or I feel frustrated and lost, but just as I am about to crumble, I turn a corner and discover something magical and new. It teaches me about possibilities and reminds me how easy it is to survive the extremes.

Why I Travel #2: It Opens Me Up 

In my daily life in New York, I don't have that many chances to talk to random strangers.  We all know that it's a bit frowned upon to sit down next to someone on the subway and strike up a conversation.  It doesn't mean it never happens, it's just not encouraged and my behavior has adapted to it.

The opposite is true with the kind of travel I do.  When traveling I strike up conversations with everyone.  I have lots of short genuine interactions. I feel open and constantly connected.  I love it.  As an extrovert, I get my energy from others and fresh random conversations are like crack for me.

The funny part is when I get home and I find myself chatting in the subway with mixed results.  I try to find tourists to target, so that they think all New Yorkers are that open and friendly.

Meeting Iraqis in Iran.  Stereotypes be gone!

Why I Travel #3: To Meet People From All Over The World

I know that it might sound funny that living in New York doesn't put me in contact with people from all over the world, but it really doesn't.  I love travel because I not only get to meet people and learn about the culture of the country I am visiting, but I also get to meet people from many other countries.

Over the years I have learned that Aussies speak practically a totally different English.  That I feel deeply connected to Brits. That the French have a very inquisitive eye. I have heard about places I have never knew existed before. And I have made real friendships out of it.  I have visited friends I met traveling in London (2), China, Tunisia, Indonesia, and Greece.  Plus I have hosted people from Switzerland and Austria in NY. This past year, I loved getting birthday greetings from across the world and particularly from Australia so many hours before my birthday was even happening in my time zone.

And most importantly I have been able to share my reflections and examine my American bias. It helps me understand the world better and understand what I am seeing better.

Don't worry though, my volunteer activity with Big Apple Greeters taking tourists out on personalized tours of New York gives me a chance to meet at least a few folks in my home town too.

North Korea really blew my mind

Why I Travel #4: To See/Learn/Experience and Understand Other Worlds

The most obvious reason I travel is that I am an experiential learner.  I can read tons of books and watch lots of movies and tv, but I can't really understand a place till I've been there.  Suddenly when I set foot in a country everything I have read comes to life and I have a bottomless desire to read more and understand a country better.  History in books tends to go in and out of my brain too easily, but somehow if I am walking on the same ground as historical figures, I can absorb all the information. 

As a current events junkie, I love news, but often I feel the US news doesn't give enough context or cover the full story, so instead I fly off to Afghanistan to hear about life after the Taliban. Or to Israel/Palestine to see the wall and feel the distinct separate feeling on each side of it. Or to Iran, where I met Iranians and saw just how different they were from the way they are covered in our press.

It all started when I was in high school learning about the The Soviet Union and the Cold War and just having a hard time buying what I was hearing. My dad was Russian and had a PhD in Russian Studies so I asked him if I could go visit and meet real Russians.  He said yes and boy did I learn a lot. Yes communism was different and parts of the Soviet system were shocking to my American Capitalist self, but I also got to meet many young Russians who seemed to have dreams just like me.  I got to basically see that the world is very complex and nuanced.  I haven't stopped traveling since.

Photos from Peru

Ladies at the market in Puno, Peru

Click here to see my online photo album from Peru

In Peru, It All Seems to be About Hats

When traveling through the Andes in Peru, there is so much to see.  Radiant green landscapes with soaring mountains and sprawling valleys.  Snowy peaks in the distance.  Incan ruins clinging to the mountains above.  Fuzzy llamas and alpaca grazing on the high altitude slopes.  Enormous, ornately decorated cathedrals showing the Spaniards wealth and power...  But for me, a person who travels to see people and culture, my eyes were mostly focused on the hats.  Tops hats, bowler hats, straw hats, woven hats, leather hats, fabric hats, flowered hats...  Round tops, flat tops, soft tops, ruffled tops...  Brown, black, red, white, tan or brightly colored...  It never ended.  It was a feast for my eyes.

Wearing traditional dress is still the norm for large parts of this mountainous region where the Quechua people have been able to retain their cultural traditions.  This means most people are sporting bright colored textiles: men in ponchos intricately designed with customary patterns, women in woven or embroidered skirts that they wear sometimes up to 15 layers deep to create the full look with multi hued ruffles showing underneath. The vibrancy doesn't end there though.  Goods from the market are packed up in vivid cloths and tied to ones back along with babies and everything else.  Then add the piles of fruits and vegetables in all shapes and sizes.... Color, color, color! Viva Peru!

Taquile Island, Peru in Lake Titicaca

Visiting Machu Picchu. One of the 7 Wonders of the World

Perched way up in the sky on a mountain top, often hidden by clouds, lies Machu Picchu, an intricate and sprawling complex built in the 15th Century and abandoned in the 16th Century when the Spaniards conquered the Incan Empire.  I arrived in the early morning in the pouring rain.  The clouds were so thick I could only see 30 feet in front of me at a time and even then not too clearly.  I walked with no concept which direction to go. I spent hours sitting watching the clouds come and go and the scenery focus and then fade again.  At first I couldn't see all the mountain peaks surrounding the site or the valleys deep below it.  Finally the sun broke through and there below me was this amazing sight.

The incredible part of Inca building is that they didn't use draft animals or even use the wheel but somehow managed to transport all these huge stones up mountains and build walls that still lie intact today without any mortar between them.  Many of their stones were cut to interconnect much like Lego and throughout Peru, a highly volatile seismic region; their buildings survive earthquakes as modern architecture falls.

Incan structures are visible throughout the Sacred Valley of Peru clinging on the side of mountains and nestled in valleys.  In Cusco, the main city of the region and the capitol of the Incan Empire, the Spaniards built right on top of the Incan sacred sites, perhaps in an effort to quickly replace their religion and introduce Catholicism. Luckily the Spaniards never found Machu Picchu though, so it remains for all of us to enjoy.

The Difference Between 12 Days and 12 Months of Travel

Going to Peru means wandering the well worn backpacker trail.  In the US, we celebrate a one week vacation, which is a striking contrast to the travel that is going on in here in Latin America.  Conversations with fellow travelers here talk about 3, 6 or 12 months of travel.  I even met a French guy who has been traveling for 2 years and isn't sure when he is going to stop.  This type of travel has few set itineraries and is filled with 24 hour bus rides on local buses sometimes to places you just heard about at breakfast the day before, sleeping in bunk beds at hostels, eating in local markets and checking out the best of the world's sights one by one, but also believing that those sites are better if you take time to explore the wider land and community around them more.

In Latin America, the highlights seem to include Rio in Brazil, Buenos Aires in Argentina, Iguazu Falls in Uruguay, The Salt Flats in Bolivia, Cusco and hiking the Inka Trail to Machu Picchu in Peru, Lake Titikaka,  and the maybe going south through Argentina and Chile and ending up in Tierra Del Fuego on the tip, or maybe heading North to Colombia or even Central America to take advantage of the beautiful surfer beaches there.

There are tons of small sights along the way that most have never heard of unless one is able to travel at this pace. Also odd adventurous one offs like the "Most Dangerous Road" in Bolivia, where people bike straight down a winding road that hugs the side of a mountain where better bikers have driven to their deaths before you.  (Hey, I was stupid enough to do that! I'm not going to lie.  It made me feel cool to be able to tell people about it.)

I always find this world to be so amazing in the context of my New York life where people look at me and can't believe I'm taking two weeks off or that I'm going traveling again...  Then I compare that to the disapproving looks I get here when I say, no, I'm not going anywhere besides Peru.

For this trip I had 12 days to travel and that doesn't even give me time to get off the well worn tourist path.  I wish I had more time to see the other things. Peru has to offer including the Amazon and most of the sunny beautiful coast.  Or really I want to take a taxi to some town in the middle of nowhere and just sit in the town square, watching life pass as it has there for hundreds of years. Next time I say...  maybe then I'll be doing another long trip and have real time to really see...

Cusco - The Heart of the Peruvian Highlands

Why I Like/Need to Travel

I'm embarking on this journey to Peru partly to appreciate and get the most out of life at home. It might sound strange for a person who has traveled as much and as broadly as I have to admit that I have a really hard time leaving home. I sleep best in my own room and am very fond of my daily routine. While I like being in new places, the process of leaving my own place is really painful sometimes. People always ask "Are you excited to be going to xxx?" And I feel terrible when I have to admit that I'm not because there is a big pit in my stomach at the anticipation of leaving.

So why do I do it, you might ask? On one side, I absolutely love to see new places and cultures and see the daring, fearless person I become when I travel away from the normal constraints of home. But almost as importantly, going away always makes me realize what I have. I miss my home, my city, my friends... In my regular life routines, I end up taking those things for granted and getting lazy. I like my friends, but in the context of normal life, I sometimes don't make the effort to reach out and make plans with them. I love New York and all the exciting happenings and cultural opportunities it offers, but after being in my routine for a while, I get lazy and spend the day at home watching tv vs getting out there and discovering something new.

Travel away motivates me to appreciate and seek out what I have at home. It energizes me and I come home from a trip and take advantage of that energy and live more fully by reaching out to people, making plans and discovering new things. Travel revives me.

The 2013 Inauguration of President Barack Obama

I was lucky to be able to attend the Second Inauguration of President Barack Obama.  Washington, DC shined brightly as I toured its great monuments and enjoyed the political energy pulsing all over its streets.   Seeing the Martin Luther King, Jr. Monument for the first time on MLK holiday weekend moments before swearing in America's first black president for his second term, gave it even more meaning.  Seeing so many black faces in all the crowds who were so jubilant to live in a country that has come so far felt powerful.  What a weekend!

Click HERE to see more pictures from the weekend

2012: What a year its been!

NASCAR Hall of Fame - Charlotte, North Carolina

The famous saying goes, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do."

So... when in Charlotte, do as the Charlotteans do and that means car racing.  North Carolina is NASCAR Country and The thing to do in Charlotte is to go to the NASCAR Hall of Fame.  I was able to go explore it during one of the convention parties.  The whole experience was so fun.  They make it very interactive.  They taught us to drive and then sent us out into cars set up with simulators and we raced.  We got to play like we were in the pit and change tires and jack up cars.  There are also many cars on display.  All in all it gives a fun overview of NASCAR and a window into a world I don't know anything about.

Unfortunately September is not racing season so I couldn't actually go see a race.  I tried though as I do whenever I get into car racing country since its not something I can see in New York City.

2012 Democratic Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina

Watching Michelle Obama's speech at the MSNBC telecast stage in Charlotte

Click here to see my online phone album 

from the 2012 Democratic Convention in Charlotte, NC

I made it to the Olympics!

Attending the London 2012 Olympics was fantastic.  Better than I ever could have expected.  The symbolism of countries joining together in friendly competition opens up fans from nations all over the world to just the right amount of patriotism and lots of conversations about our different nations characteristics.  Its hard to explain why it felt so different, but somehow we were from our countries and eager to understand each other beyond rote politics.

People made me proud to be from the USA, because our athletes have a reputation as being so nice and always willing to stop for an autograph or photo. They showed off the best of American traits: friendliness and openness.  Also many athletes train in the US, because we have funding to subsidize facilities.  This meant I met athletes from other countries who were grateful for the opportunities my country offers.

For me a normal trip to Europe means that I try to suppress my Americanness as much as possible so I don't get the European anti-American wrath.  This time I proudly wore a USA hat and a flag sticker all over London because it was a conversation starter. London felt like a big party and we were all happy to be there representing our countries.

Photos from the London 2012 Olympics

I headed to the London Olympics to represent Team USA and meet others from all over the world

Click through to see photos from my recent trip

Meeting the Olympic Athletes

Gold Winning German Rowers

My favorite part of the Olympics so far has been meeting the athletes. One night I stumbled upon the door out of Athletes Village. Here most of the athletes come and go from public transit and the big mall that is an integral part of the Olympic Village. A swarming group of fans, autograph collectors, professional photographers, who try to get portraits of all the athletes, all whirl around trying to get pictures and a few friendly words.

Gold Winning British Long Jumper Greg Rutherford

For the athletes who enjoy it, this is their moment to be a star. No one cares what country or sport, they just worship equally. It's a complete international experience. It's also fun to see up close all the body types. Tall basketball players and rowers, tiny gymnasts, muscular shot put players, boxers with gnarly ears...

Gold winning USA Wrestler Jake Varner

As an American, a really nice part is many people have said the Team USA folks are the friendliest, taking time to talk to everyone. This isn't so for everyone. Somehow the Cubans, from the friendliest country I've ever been to, ignore everyone and run through the crowd. I wonder about the geopolitics of it all. Could it be that they are not allowed to talk to the outside world? I certainly haven't seen any North Koreans.

London Street Art

Click here to see more London street art

Photos from France

Click here to see my photos from France

Paris Street Art

Click here to see more Paris street art

Athens, Greece - Summer 2012

When I first arrived in Athens, a man asked me where I was from.  When I said New York, he said "Well, New York might be the center of the universe now, but Athens was the center of the universe many years ago."  That framed my visit.  Interspersed with modern day Greece are stories of so many waves of history: the Greek Empire, the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire...  Christianity vs Islam.  It was all very powerful.  There is something so inspiring about standing on such historical ground and listening to the stories that are told in a matter of fact sort of way but capture important historical moments.  Plus in Athens history continues to be excavated.  

But Athens is also very much a living city.  As an avid, street art explorer, I was thrilled to see a vibrant colorful canvas.  Click here to see my Athens Street Art online album.  I also just enjoyed being with the direct and hard working Greeks who are slogging through this hard economic time, doing the best they can.  Greece is the center of the EU crisis these days, and getting personal insights adds depth to all the headlines in the beautiful way only first hand travel can.

Photos from Greece

Click here to see my photos from Greece

Athens Street Art

 

Click here to see more Athens street art

Journeys in America: Utah

A mural of pioneers in the state capitol building

Utah?  You might be asking why?  Well, as much as I love going way off the beaten path as much as possible, I have also made a pledge to be sure to mix in trips to other parts of America along the way.  When I travel its hard to really understand the cultures I roam through.  There are language barriers and different histories and as a foreigner passing through I'm just never going to really see all the nuances. But all the travel really has refined the way I look at things and what I see.  With that wiser lens I find it interesting to travel around America, a place I should be able to understand a little better.  The world's differences make me more and more interested in what it means to be "American."  Where did that myth come from and who lives it in what way, what motivates them and what history defines them.

Visiting the Site of the 2002 Winter Olympics

Lately I have Olympic fever.  Walking through Beijing's Olympic Park last year filled me with the energy of the worldwide games and gave me the desire to learn more about what it takes to be an Olympic athlete, so a visit to Park City, Utah gave me the perfect chance.  Utah was the host of the 2002 Winter Olympics and Park City hosted the skiing, bobsled, luge and a few other events.  Now the site is a training facility where world class athletes train for future contests.  It also hosts international competitions every February. 

The most interesting thing I saw is that somehow even in the summer downhill skiers and ski jumpers can train at the facility.  Instead of snow covered slopes they speed down misted slopes and land in a big pool or just glide to a stop on the big slopes.  They wear their regular outfits and come out of the pool dripping in their big ski boots.

The young athletes also can go to high school there over the summer and meet their educational requirements so that they can travel the world and compete during the winter.

While I was there I got to watch the US Olympic Team practice. We were told it was one of only 14 facilities in the world and that athletes from far off places like Australia, South Korea, Jamaica and more also train here.

Photos from Utah

Click here for the full online photo album

Guatemala - April 2012

Outside Santo Tomas Church in Chichicastenengo, Guatemala

Revisiting Guatemala 21 Years Later

Posters on the Guatemala City walls are reminder of those who "disappeared" during the civil war

Going back to Guatemala 21 years after my first visit brought back a lot of memories.

In 1991, me, a college student specializing in Central American human rights, went off to study Spanish in language school in Quetzaltenango (Xela), Guatemala's 2nd largest city.  At that time the country was deep in an ongoing civil way that began in 1960 and tore the country apart with opposition guerrilla fighters trying to take down a brutal military regime. Death squads killed "more than 200,000 people died and nearly 50,000 went missing." (pri.org)  After having visited 6 months before Nicaragua and seeing their post-revolutionary society I had studied so much, I once again realized how much one can learn first hand in travel and headed to this other country that I was also learning so much about.

Ornate churches speckle the streets of Antigua, one of Guatemala's colonial capitols.

Semana Santa in Guatemala

Processions went from early mornings and to at night.

This year I decided to celebrate holy week in a totally different way.  I left Easter bunnies and baskets behind and headed to Guatemala where deep Catholic traditions reign and big festivities commemorate the significant events of the week.      

         

In Antigua, the well preserved colonial capitol, the week is filled with large religious processions.  Different churches and their congregations carry floats and effigies of Jesus, Mary and other saints through the streets.  1000s participate in each and walk for hours as they wind through all the streets.  Multiple processions happen each day.

The main floats weigh up to 7000 pounds

I had no idea what to expect and frankly am still overwhelmed by the grandeur of it all.  

In some processions, people act out the important scenes and on the first day, we arrived just in time to watch an elaborate reenactment of Jesus getting sentenced to death.  It was a pretty dramatic start and made me relive the other steps along Jesus' route to crucifixion and resurrection in a way I never have before in years of Easters in the US.

Christ has risen!

I woke up on Easter Sunday to the sound of church bells and anxiously waited for the Easter procession where a risen and glowing Christ would be paraded through the crowd as if he was really alive.  That procession did not disappoint.  Jesus was guided by brightly dressed kings and shepherds and a cheering crowd greeted them along the way.  Jesus was followed by a happy marching band that filled the air with joyous music which was a nice change from the somber marching music that accompanied processions on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.

Saw dust carpets like this covered the streets

Alfombras (carpets)

  

One component of the celebration that is different from anything I have ever seen before was the alfombras or carpets that local people make for the processions to walk on.  These carpets are made of colored saw dust or pine needles and covered with flowers, fruits and vegetables.  The patterns are elaborate and communities plan the designs throughout the year and get together to create the carpets in the 12 hours before a procession passes through. Some of them line full streets.  Many have religious designs.  All are colorful and a feast for the eyes and give tourists a locals a reason to wind through the streets all day every day and see what is being created.  It’s incredible to see the amount of work these temporary gifts to Jesus take to make and then to watch them get walked over in the processions and quickly swept up by the sanitation crew at the end of the procession.  I worked on one and felt proud to see it finished and pained to see it stomped on.

I kept thinking someone should start art festival in New York where people created sawdust carpets like these.  The art work was amazing in Guatemala so I can only imagine the creative ways my favorite New York street artists would design.

At the end of Semana Santa, I left Guatemala with the desire to learn more about these celebrations that exist all over Latin American and Spain.  Maybe my new Easter tradition will be following religious processions, wherever I can find them?

Photos from Guatemala

Click HERE for a Slideshow of my photos of Guatemala

One of the religious processions in Antigua during Semana Santa

The Singapore Zoo

I don't get to go to Madagascar this year but I did get to meet some lemurs

While I was in Singapore I got to visit the zoo.  Its a pretty incredible place all around.  They have managed to take down many of the usual fences that separate visitors from the animals so people can get really close to some of the animals.  This lemur was in the rainforest section.  He is used to being surrounded by humans and pretty much ignored me and let me look him right in the eyes from a few inches away.  Amazing!  Just amazing!

Photos from Singapore

Scenes of Singapore

On the way home from Indonesia, I decided to stop over for a few days and experience Singapore.  

Click here to see my online photo album

Link to my Indonesia online photos

Click here for the link to my Indonesia Photo Album. 

A Short Indonesia Tutorial

I figure you all know about as much about Indonesia as I did before I left so I'm starting this off with a few basic details.

Indonesia is:

- the world's 4th most populous nation with 238 million people.

- the largest Islamic nation where 86% of its population is Muslim, though Christianity still has a strong hold on some of the islands that were colonized by the Dutch and Portuguese in the height of the spice trade.  Also Bali, the most popular tourist destination in the country, practices Hinduism.

- made up of over 17,000 islands, about 6,000 of which are inhabited.  As one flies over Indonesia's waterways, you look down and see speckled below lovely little spots of land wrapped with white white sand and a ring of deep blue water and dream about tropical paradise.  I visited Java, the central island, where over half of Indonesians live.  It’s the world's most densely populated island.  I also went to Sulawesi, Bali, Lombok and the Gili Islands. (Before I went everyone would ask, which islands I was going to and the question would seem overwhelming, but after a trip there the main islands roll off your tongue easily. One of my favorite outcomes of travel is the way the unusual becomes usual and then I can read and understand places and things so much better when I return home.)

- located, in simple terms, below South East Asia and above Australia, along the Equator.

Memories of Indonesia

Now that I have traveled to so many places, its hard to wow me.  Instead I try to enjoy the simple pleasures and slower paces of places.  In Indonesia, that means:

-hearing Islamic call to prayer echoing from multiple mosques over ripe lush green rice fields in Lombok as the sun sets

-seeing how coffee, cashews and cocoa are harvested in different villages sprinkled among other crops, trees and houses at different climates and altitudes than I've seen before

In Bali there are many little Hindu temples where people leave daily offerings to a variety of deities

In every village in Bali, there are several temples and at least one small one in each home. Most of these temples are shrines and might not be regarded as actual temples, but the number of walled compounds are believed to reach to a total of 10,000.  As you walk around you can enter the temples and admire the carvings and characters.

The Beaches of Bali and Lombok

The beach at Gili Air

Sorry for the lack of updates or blog posts.  Honestly I'm not sure what to write.  It seems like bragging to say I spent this morning by a lovely pool after a breakfast of fresh juice and fruit and then had fresh seafood on the beach for lunch while watching fisherman bring in their catch.

Bali is lovely.  I'm not sure it is an untouched as I may have thought before.  There are plenty of tourists and hotels...  but the beach I just visited, Sanur, is smartly developed with a brick walkway all the way up the coast for perfect morning walks and enough, but not too many, bars along the way to get fresh juice or a Bintang depending the time of day.

Feeling like a Superstar in Indonesia

My white face sticks out in many of the places I travel to, but something special happens in Indonesia.  I was warned ahead of time but it happened even more than I suspected.  What, you ask? I was made feel like a glamorous beautiful superstar!  Yes, on a recent trip to Borobudur, a soaring ancient Buddhist temple I was constantly asked to be in photos.

I think the bombardment is more here because it seems like Indonesia has a swelling middle class and with that many many more people with cameras who want my moviestar like mug on them.

All I can say it is was loads of fun and now that I have reached touristy Bali where I am just another common looking face, I miss it.

The pharmacy ladies in Pangandaran.The people of Java have the biggest smiles I have ever seen in world.