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Fabulous quilts in Mindo’s cloud forest

As we traveled by bus from Otavalo to Mindo, the mountaintops disappeared under a dreamy veil of clouds. Elise was mesmerized and watched the landscape speed by through an open window. But then her little nose started to get red and she started to shiver. I realized that her jacket was locked away in the luggage compartment, and I worried I wouldn’t be able to keep her warm. But then I remembered that our brand new Enlightened Equipment quilts were in the backpack at my feet. Joy! I took one out and wrapped her up in it. The fabric is silky to the touch and not just ultralight but featherlight (I’m a bit obsessed with the weight of my gear) so you might not expect it to provide warmth, but my Little One went from cold to super cozy within a few moments. #happymom #happytraveler ! The quilts are a cool concept – unlike sleeping bags which restrict movement, they are more like a blanket with straps that attach beneath your sleeping pad, so you have more freedom of movement when sleeping. #cloudforest #enlightenedequipment #campingdonelight #myeequilt

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Elise’s drawing of Quito

Elise captured many of her impressions of Quito in this drawing, including street merchants selling bags of oranges (“Un dollar!”), tiny nativity sets, and shucked peas. There’s also a dog eating scraps, the ghost of a dead chicken from the animal market, the lovely Panecillo Madonna/angel statue high on the hill, a thief slinking away with her Google phone, and the zany, cool seemingly vertical streets. Front and center is Elise’s alter ego, Sunny, on a lama. And peering down from the clouds is her Dad, keeping her safe.

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Otavalo’s Traditional Market – tears and discoveries

Today we visited Otavalo’s sprawling Saturday market – one of the largest in South America. I loved seeing the fresh produce piled high at the food market and the handmade ponchos and sweaters at the handicrafts market. Although some merchants wore casual tops and jeans or basic smocks, many wore incredibly elegant navy blue shawls with white blouses and long skirts. I felt too shy to capture what I was seeing, however, and a thousand beautiful photo ops passed me by. At one point, however, near the animal market, I so was taken by a women in traditional dress gently holding a live chicken against her chest that I offered her a coin to take her photo. She immediately turned away, and so I gave up.

Not much later, Elise saw a farmer hitting a squealing pig with a stick to get it to move along the street. She also saw chickens hanging upside down and being placed into plastic bags where she feared they would suffocate. Elise clung to me, crying, and begged to leave the market and Ecuador altogether. We passed a woman sitting on the side of the road with a little child and sign that said she had cancer. We gave her a donation and said a prayer for her. It was all heartbreaking, and the tears streamed down my face, too.

Later, when some of the shock had worn off, we talked about what we’d seen. Having lost her Dad to cancer, Elise worried about what would happen to the little girl. I reassured her that friends or family would care for her and that there was always some hope that the Mom might heal. We said another prayer for them and Elise asked her Dad to help from heaven. When she started crying again about the animals, I explained that they live their lives on basic (not factory) farms and so enjoy sunshine, fresh air, and some freedom of movement…and then have one Terrible Day. Indeed, she’d noticed that the pig had looked quite healthy. Still, she formally announced that she wanted to be vegetarian – exactly like my sister had when she was around Elise’s age. I told her that it was her choice, but that we’d need to rely on my sister’s extensive knowledge of nutrition (double Master’s, extensive postgrad studies) to be sure she’d get all the micronutrients her body needed. I shared with her that I myself had been a strict vegetarian for years for nutrition and animal rights reasons, but that I discovered at a cousin’s organic farm at Lake Constance, where the animals were treated very humanely and fed organic produce, that I had much less of a problem eating a tiny bit of meat if it came from such a farm.

But if all that weren’t enough, when we returned to the hotel, we discovered that Elise’s phone had been stolen out of her zipped coat pocket. I tracked it using Google’s find my phone service, but at some point, the signal disappeared. After the emotional start to the day (not-to-mention the pre-departure phone-related stress), I felt a surprising sense of calm. Seems that fearing a theft can be more stressful than the event itself. But the world doesn’t end, and, just as with any other problem, there are solutions (filed a police report and insurance claim, and will get Elise a hidden wallet in which to carry a less fancy replacement phone). At the end of the day, we unwound over a great dinner – delicious, generous salads with beans and corn at Chimichanga. Although it had not been an easy day, I realized that the two incidents had revealed some core values, and that the theft had taught us how to be safer going forward, which will serve us well for the rest of our journey.

PS Word to the wise: We learned later that Global Nomads insurance (aka Bupa Global Travel) does not cover any thefts of your property that you do not observe being committed. Is that not 99% of all thefts?! If you’re planning to buy travel insurance, it might be helpful to check this particular policy condition before you buy.

 

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Quito’s Historical District

Today we wandered Quito’s Historical District. I loved the architecture, palm trees, and ladies in their traditional hats, shawls and skirts, and Elise oohed and ahhed over the dogs, cats and even pigeons. We bought a bracelet from a young couple trying to raise money to take their kitten to the vet, and then looked at the indigenous art on display in the catacombs of Plaza de San Francisco. Elise was on a mission to find a tiny lama to add to her traveling toy collection, and tirelessly darted in and out of shops. She ended up deciding on a minature nativity set that included a leopard, guinea pig, Baby Jesus on a banana leaf, and an incongruently topless Mary, sold by a friendly Grandma who was having her hair dyed while she tended her shop.

Although Elise was upbeat and carefree, I was very nervous about theft and getting separated from Elise, burdened by my unfamiliar pack/camera case/money wallet, frustrated by my new phone, and jet lagged and out-of-breath given Quito’s high altitude. It was confusing because it was completely unlike my experience traveling through Greece with Elise last summer and I wondered if I had embarked upon something too challenging. I even had a moment or two of wanting to crawl back to my friend My-Linh’s place in Berlin and curl up in a ball. Alas, it would take a little while to find my travel mojo again.

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And off we go!!

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After 32 hours of travel (3 flights, an overnight in London, and 17 hours in the air), we arrived in South America! Thanks to a great frequent flier mile deal on business class tickets, the journey was not as grueling as it might have been. I felt so good seeing Elise delight in the extra perks. She was greeted at her seat with a box of chocolates. She then discovered her toiletries kit, cashmere blanket, and plump pillows. But the biggest treat was seeing her own big screen with an extensive movie selection. When I asked her how happy she was on a scale of 1 to 10, she said “a gazillion”! She also loved the free snacks in the lounges. But, alas, one apparently quickly grows used to extra comforts. By the time we boarded the third flight (technically first class, but a smaller plane), she was disappointed that the screens were so much smaller and, with a little harrumph, turned on her side and went to sleep. We’ll be making all sorts of adjustments on this trip, up and down, and I hope she’ll come to appreciate bumping along a dirt road in the back of a pickup or staying in a simple thatched roof bungalow on the beach as much as the occasional luxuries.

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Project Fi Phooey

After many hours of research, I thought I had landed upon the very best phone system to keep Elise safe during our travels – Google’s Project Fi, which provides unlimited talk in the US and unblocked texting in 135 countries with one world SIM card. It only works with Google phones, however, so I bought a Google Pixel for myself and a Pixel XL for Elise. Total investment: 1030€. I then signed up for Project Fi. Unfortunately, I quickly discovered that Project Fi DOES NOT WORK with European model Google phones! This meant that our shiny new Google phones were no more useful than any old cell phone requiring new SIMs in every country we visited. This was a serious concern for me, because it is not always possible to immediately buy and install SIM cards when arriving in a new country. How would Elise reach me if we got separated? Google’s response: we’ll refund the $14 shipping for the Project Fi SIMs. Oh, and we will update our FAQs so others don’t encounter this situation. Needless to say, the discovery had caused a sickening feeling in my stomach.

But! Our German phone provider, 1&1, came up with a solution in the final hours before we were to depart on our world travels. The rep suggested using my German 1&1 SIM in my phone and converting our house phone to a cell phone SIM for Elise’s phone. That way, in case of an emergency, she could call me from anywhere in the world. Even if it cost 10€ per minute, it would be worth it! So I ran to storage and dug out both SIM cards and attempted to put them into our Google phones. But they did not fit! The same 1&1 rep directed me to a phone shop to have the SIM cards trimmed. I could have done without the stress before our Big Departure, but thanks to 1&1, we had a workable solution to keep Elise safe during our travels.

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Book Review: The Big Prize by Meike Winnemuth

When my cousin Ulrich Schmidt learned of our plans to travel the world, he immediately ordered me a copy of Meike Winnemuth’s “The Big Prize”, which is an account of Frau Winnemuth’s year-long trip around the world written as letters to loved ones. The German title, “Das Grosse Los”, means both ‘the big prize’ (she won 500,000€) and ‘the big taking off’. Meike decided to spend a month in 12 of the cities on her bucket list, including Sydney, Buenos Aires, San Fran, and Addis Abeba (which she loved), Mumbai and Havana (which made her miserable), and Shanghai, Honolulu, London, Copenhagen, Barcelona, and Tel Aviv. I admire her complete openness to new experiences, people, and food, and her ability to make personal revelations and musings on lifestyle choices interesting over 328 pages.

Apart from choosing her destinations, the only preparations she made included getting a second passport, subletting her apartment, buying a small laptop and camera, clearing out her work inbox, and setting up a blog. Three months after winning the money, she was on a plane headed for Sydney. There must be something seriously wrong with me because I have been planning (and stressed) for at least nine months solid! Yes, I am a classic maximizer who spends a great deal of time and energy trying to make the best possible decisions. I couldn’t just buy a camera. No. I had to read all the reviews, test out the top models, agonize over the lens, and then find the best prices internationally, use my student discount, apply a gift certificate, arrange for free shipping, and even apply for a new frequent flier mile card with a 50K mile sign-up bonus to make the purchase. (Oh yes, I feel very good about all this.)

Unlike Frau Winnemuth, I am traveling with a child whom I need to protect, so I enrolled us in a self-defense course for travelers, checked State Dept travel warnings, scheduled all of the recommended vaccines, purchased clothing impregnated with mosquito-repellant for our travels through Zika and malaria territory, and am reaching out to friends around the world to advise us on what places to avoid.

I will also be homeschooling Elise, so I researched the options, which include enroll in a US school with online materials and scheduled tests, buy a professional online course with no deadlines, DIY as we go with lessons based on currencies, maps, archeological sites, new cultures and languages, etc, or follow Elise’s school’s curriculum. I ended up deciding on a combination of the the last two, and ordered and scanned her textbooks. And, since French is a part of her 5th year curriculum, I also purchased Rosetta Stone French since I myself know very Little French.

Whereas Frau Winnemuth went into a travel agency with her 12 destinations jotted down on a Post-It note, I am doing all of my own flight and hotel bookings. We are also planning to trek and camp, and so I needed to get camping gear that would be light and small enough to fit in our backpacks.

Oh, and I don’t have half a million Euros to spend like Meike did.

But could these past months really have felt completely different? Could I actually have been laid back like she apparently was rather than feeling mentally whiplashed? The mountain of tasks (gear research/shopping, client projects, subletting agreement, moving stuff into storage, etc etc) was enormous. But it was also a fantastic ‘get-my-ducks-in-a row’ year, in which I tackled bigger life projects to have a clear head while traveling, such as getting all caught up on US and German taxes, drafting a will, and finally conquering my fear and getting eye surgery. Thanks to a grant from FAWCO, a UN-accredited organization, I also enrolled in university courses on travel and photojournalism, as well as film making and book writing.

I learned from “How to Make Stress Work for You” from The Great Courses that we feel stress when we are dealing with something we care about. And I care very much about making this trip a rewarding experience for me and my daughter. If the higher-than-normal level of stress was the cost of accomplishing everything I needed to get done to make that happen, it was a fine trade-off.

But what interested me particularly about Frau Winnemuth’s book was how she adjusted to ‘normal’ life when she returned to Hamburg. Given my earlier travels and expat lifestyle, it would seem I have already gone through much of what she experienced. She looked at possessions in a completely different way (“How could I have ever wanted this?”) and gave away a lot of stuff. She also felt a strong desire to downsize from her spacious Hamburg apartment to a tiny one-bedroom. She also felt half-in/half-out of her life back home (often amazed at others’ trivial concerns), and already thinking about her next trip.

For me, it will be fascinating to see how Elise feels when we return to Berlin!

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Rabies Vaccine Shortage in Berlin!

Given that some of the countries we’ll be visiting are affected by tropical diseases, we’re making sure our basic vaccines are up-to-date and are getting the full range of travel vaccines, including Yellow Fever, Japanese Encephalitis, Typhoid, Hep A/B, and Meningococcal Meningitis. Unfortunately, our vaccine schedule got thrown off by a week, because the Tropics Institute had no rabies vaccine for us thanks to a shortage in Germany, so we were on our own to find six does (3 for each of us) at local pharmacies. Luckily, the knowledgeable and efficient staff of Apotheke Reichsstraße 100 came through for us.

Even without having to hunt down our own shots, getting the recommended travel vaccinations is a big undertaking, requiring a consultation with a doctor, weekly trips to the Tropics Institute, the shots themselves (most are OK, but Hep A/B really hurts!) followed by two days of no exercise so that the body can produce anti-bodies, not to mention the increased aluminum exposure. (Fortunately, the rabies vaccine, which has the highest number of doses, contains no aluminum at all, nor does Yellow Fever.) The expense is also not insignificant: 1150€ total, and after insurance, 800€ out-of-pocket. That said, it’s totally worth it if it helps us avoid infection with symptoms ranging from headache, fever, and chills to diarrhea, constipation and vomiting to intestinal bleeding, swelling of the brain and coma – and worse.

But there are other diseases for which we cannot get vaccinations. Ebola and Avian Flu are still out there, as is Dengue. Outbreaks of the plague have been reported in Madagascar. (Just great.) Zika is still present throughout South America, Africa and Southeast Asia. Then there are lesser known diseases with fun symptoms, such as Chagas disease, which can cause a purplish swelling of an eyelid (not both, just one) as the number of parasites swell in the blood.

Of the 40 diseases on the CDC’s Travelers’ Health site, 15 are caused by person-to-person contact (coughing/sneezing/blood/fluids), 11 by contaminated food or water, 10 by mosquitoes, 6 by insects (fleas/flies/ticks/bugs) and 3 by animals. We are vaccinated against only 15, so we’ll be very careful to prevent infection by practicing excellent sanitation, filtering all water including when we brush our teeth, avoiding raw or undercooked food, and avoiding contact with sick people and with animals (although we’ll have to make an exception when we volunteer at an elephant rescue in Thailand). To ward off mosquitoes and other insects, we’ll wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants, sleep under mosquito nets, and use effective insect repellant.

Some friends and family may believe that all of this is too much work, but, in my view, we face risks no matter where we are in the world, and with careful planning and good habits, the rewards of world travel far outweigh the risks!

 

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Four Around the World

Just finished reading “Four Around the World”, a story of a family who traveled for 5 months with a four-year-old and a baby. They visited Argentina, Chile, New Zealand, Australia and Singapore. A few things struck me as I was reading: I am deeply grateful to be beyond the stage of diapers, baby beds, baby food prep, midnight feedings, etc! as well as the extremely short attention span and swift mood changes of a very young child. The family managed exceptionally well with their little ones, proving that extended travel with young children is possible. But what is ideal? Nearly every traveling family I’ve spoken with has told me that ten-years-old is the ideal age for a child to experience long-term, round-the-world travel. Not only are they very open to new experiences (teen indifference is still a few years away), but they will retain their memories of the trip, which makes for more meaningful travel. (Elise turns 10 this summer, joy!) But in terms of the story, although I appreciated the author’s tenacity and the great efforts she made to get her kids to experience a variety of exotic animals (a priority for Elise), this book left me wanting. I would have gladly given up some childcare detail in exchange for deeper musings on travel as a transformative experience.

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2017 tips for saving on flights

save $ on flights keyboard

According to a new report from Expedia , you’ll save a lot of money on flights by following these tips:

  • purchase tickets on a Sunday vs Friday to save as much as 11% on domestic US travel and 16% on travel to Europe
  • book 21 days in advance to save as much as 30% over waiting until the last minute
  • include a Saturday night overnight for savings of up to 57% (particularly in Southern Europe)

The study also ranked the top destinations for 2017 based on growth in the previous year: #1 was Jose Marti International Airport in Havana, Cuba (53%); Da Nang, Vietnam was a close second, followed by: Zhuhai, China (41%); Cusco, Peru (39%); and Santiago, Chile (38%). Cities in Uruguay, Iceland, Panama,  Russia, and Mexico City were other mentions.

Read more: http://www.budgettravel.com/feature/air-travel-booking-secrets-for-2017,69356/#ixzz4WJ5L2vqW