Upcoming Travels & Why They will be Better than Last Time

Boyfriend and I have actually managed to get things together and plan a vacation! We will be strategically using our Thanksgiving break and carefully horded vacation days to take a 10 day trip to Cuzco, Peru and hike up to Machu Picchu. We seem to be switching off our vacations between party/urban vacations, and major outdoor vacations. Last summer (2008) for our outdoor adventure we traveled the Southwest and hit several of the major attractions including The Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, and Zion. It was lovely but, I anticipate that Peru will be much more relaxing than the Southwest adventure for 2 major reasons.

Reason 1: Boyfriend and I have jobs now. When we took our trip last summer we were very aware that we were using the last bit of our savings to travel. We were freshly graduated form college with plans for the distant future (LSATs, MCATs, and more school) but no idea what we were going to do in the immediate future (jobs). It was inevitable that would be moving in with my parents until we were able to find jobs with our pathetic resumes upon our return to California.

Reason 2: We are prepared. Well I suppose that Boyfriend was prepared for our last outdoor adventure, but if mama ain’t happy…On our last backpacking adventure to the bottom of The Grand Canyon I

- was out of shape

- had not been backpacking since I was 10

- had a new backpack

- wore my water keens

- didn’t pack any gluten free camping food

Basically what I am saying is that I almost died. Thanks to our 5am departure from the top, we got to the bottom of the Grand Canyon fine, without heat stroke, and nothing to report but a couple of fairly major blisters courtesy of my sandals. After camping for the night at the bottom, near the infamous Phantom Ranch, the muscle soreness from the hike down had started to kick in. We left equally early the next morning, but I only made it about half of the way out of The Canyon before I was begging Boyfriend to rent me an emergency mule.

If my memory serves (it might not, the whole hike is kind of a blur) it is a 9.7 mile hike and there are 3 rest stops on the way up. There is one about 4 miles from Phantom Ranch called Indian Garden, then there is another one 3 miles from the top, and finally one 1.5 miles from the top. I seriously did not think I was going to make it the last 3 miles out of The Canyon. The whole hike is supposed to take 5 hours, it took me about 8 and, I kid you not, 3 of those hours were spent walking the mile and a half between the 3 mile and 1.5 mile rest points. I was being passed by elderly people who would stop and rest with me and tell me about their pending hip replacement surgeries, no joke.

The reason they have the rest stations is because families do day hikes to capture more spectacular views. We reached the 3 mile rest stop around 10am, so needless to say we began passing families on their way down to the various rest points. Fortunately I was able to provide educational opportunities for may of these young families who were teaching their kids how to hike. Parents would point me out to their small children and say “See how tired she is? That is why we have to pace ourselves.”

When we returned to our campsite at the top I made Boyfriend rub my entire body in Tigers Balm and curled up in a ball to die sleep, sans shower.

The next day I could not walk. I could only waddle. If you saw me from the back you would think I was 9 months pregnant with triplets. To add insult to injury, while I was waiting (in obvious pain) for the shower and old lady came up to me and started chatting about how she wasn’t sore at all because she does palaties at her gym at home.

I continued to be incredibly sore for about 2 weeks, and could still feel the remnants of the hike for about a month. Actually, I think if I stand on my toes my calves are still a little sore right now from that hike.

To sum things up I have a lot to prove on this Machu Picchu hike. The reason I think it will go better is because I bought hiking boots and have been wearing them around, I have been hitting they gym and trail running, and will be bringing lightweight, gluten free food. This should mean a much more pleasant trip for all people involved. Wish us luck!

*Please excuse me for calling my boyfriend, Boyfriend. I just couldn’t think of anything more creative and I didn’t think he would be thrilled if I used his real name… I just hope it is not as annoying as when my cousin calls her boyfriend her ‘man’ all the time.

Blog Action Day

As I contemplated my options for what I could write for Blog Action Day post that relates to climate change, I kept trying to think of the most powerful, and hopefully unique way to express my concern. I first racked my brain for sentimental stories about how climate change has affected my life. Perhaps an anecdote about my first middle school dance, canceled because of the weather. The more logical and studious side of me considered the more scientific approach of discussing the other prehistoric climate events that shaped our modern ecosystems. Then I though of compromising and telling the sad tale of an endangered species, like an orangutan whose mother was killed by poachers or polar bears swimming until they drown. All of these topics seemed boring and/or over done, especially since my education was not in the eloquent arts of English or Journalism, but rather in the science, and we all know that scientists are not known for their incredible communication (or social) skills. Rather than butchering a topic that most high school students do a better job covering in their college essays than I ever could, I’ll just stick to the basics (aka things I have written about before).


Availability of drinking water is affected by climate change anyway you look at it. With farm runoff, population growth and urbanization, crazy weather patterns, melting ice, whatever it is that climate change is doing, drinking water is in high demand and dwindling supply. According to a 2006 World Health Organization (WHO) report, “More than 1.1 billion people in both urban and rural areas currently lack access to drinking water from an improved source” furthermore “WHO estimates that in 2005, 1.6 million children under age 5 (an average of 4500 every day) died from the consequences of unsafe water and inadequate hygiene.” The magnitude of the drinking water access problem is overwhelming. Where on earth does one begin to put their drop in the proverbial bucket? I started with a Google search and found something that might be able to help until somebody much smarter, much more knowledgeable about water, disease, and basically science than I comes up with a permanent solution to the clean water access disparity.


I found a product called PUR. I admit that I have kind of a product crush on these water purification packets. They are just so cool, simple, and easy to get where they need to go. They are little packets of powder that can remove dirt, 99.9% of intestinal bacteria, intestinal viruses, and protozoa from 10 liters of water at a time (P&G 2009). The packets, cost $00.10 each. I recommend checking out the PUR website. http://www.csdw.org/csdw/index.html


To raise money to send these awesome little packets around the world, I made some t-shirts with a bean sprout print and put them for sale in my freshly created Etsy store. http://slowoveralls.etsy.com


In the Blog Action Day promo video it asks what difference one blog can make and then goes on to remind us that luckily we are not alone. What a fabulous reminder to have when facing overwhelming global issues! So here is my drop in the bucket.


In the words of the late Albus Dumbledore “We are only as strong as we are united”